Scuba diver dies after being found floating at Kurnell, NSW, Australia

[nimoh]

Some people are using the term "balanced rig". I know what that means when I am using it in reference to wetsuit / tropical diving but I suspect it means something different here with a drysuit. I could guess but I would appreciate hearing your definition. Thanks.

It basically refers to finding that "balance" point between too much weight and too little weight.

A lot of divers consider a rig to be balanced when the diver can be neutral at 10' with no gas in their BC and a near empty tank.

 

[scubadada]

I was lucky with mine as I did ignore it as a pulled muscle for several days, then went diving in another state as well as hosting my out of town GF for the weekend - quite strenuous. But then that clot could have broken lose and caused a stroke before I even got my dive gear packed.

Actually, a deep venous thrombosis is on the venous side and, if it dislodges, generally goes to the lungs and causes a pulmonary embolism. Of course, this can also be very serious and cause injury, including death. Occasionally, with a significant right to left shunt, generally an atrial septal defect but rarely a ventricular septal defect, one can have a paradoxical embolus to the arterial system. This could result in stroke or other manifestations of arterial embolization.

 

[diverrex]

....
A lot of divers really want to know the details about this accident, and there has been an awful lot of speculation based on rumor, 1/2 truth, poor reporting, and as Jim Lapenta said just plain wild ass-ed guessing. That type of feeding frenzy benefits no one, and makes the truth less evident in the end because it muddies the waters too much with raw emotion and errors.

Every diver hopes to learn from any dive accident, to hopefully improve their own chances for survival, and that of their loved ones, but in the days right after a horrible accident such as Marcia's, I ask everyone to remain patient. It has only been a couple of days, and everyone involved is still in horrible shock.

....

While I can appreciate the idea that discussion should wait until more known facts are revealed I actually am in the camp that disagrees with that. This forum serves multiple objectives. One is to examine the facts of individual caes to fully understand what happened and hopefully learn from the case. But foremost I think the value of this forum is to learn and be more safety conscious. While some of the wildly far out speculations have little value much of the reasoned what if scenarios discussed above can provide value to others. I can say that as a new drysuit diver after 400 or so wetsuit dives the discussion above has forced me to consider more thoroughly several issues such as am I diving the proper weight, can I make it to the surface with a failure in either my wing or drysuit, the importance of dropping weight when problems develop, buddy separation even in benign surface conditions, etc. I find the brief discussion of gas reserves to be useful. Usually we think of gas reserves in terms of making the dive. But the old "be back on the boat with 500 psi" has relevance as to the value in a gas reserve even on the surface after the dive has ended. Even the simple speculation about a possible free flow made me think. At least for me I've never had free flow issues during a dive at depth. But on the surface before or after a dive with a dangling reg in the water I have. Being more aware of even a simple thing like that and how that might affect a chain of events is important.

I have learned from the discussions above and feel that has value. I dive once or twice a month locally and one or two trips a year. But in between dives I don't hang out with divers discussing diving and dive safety except for maybe a few minutes at the LDS when getting tanks filled. But I do read this forum almost every day and it continually reinforces certain safe practices in my mind and it makes me consider lots of safety issues, whether those were based on known facts or were what if scenarios. I would like to think those that have perished would appreciate that for those of us that remain.

 

[down4fun]

I cannot buy into the OOA / panic. An instructor who, for years, demonstrates to and trains students to get in and out of their gear in and out of water, could certainly do so while holding her breath after OOA.

Something happened.

Perhaps the excitement of the weedy sea dragon caused her heart to accelerate and something broke loose.

She's been diving the same gear for three days. She's way more practiced in drills than a regular diver, so the "forgetting" does not jive.

She got to the end of dive, reported her gas, so I cannot perceive of complacency.

Unless it's a jellyfish, I surmise medical.

Sent from my PC31600 using awfulcorrect.

Your response while heartfelt exhibits the denial of someone close to the victim. We see it in almost every accident analysis thread family and friends declaring that the victim was too experienced for that (whatever that was) to happen. None of us are above making mistakes especially when TSHTF.

I do what some people would consider some very aggressive dives on my rebreather and someday it may kill me. That day will probably be a result of some mistake that I made or pushing the edge to far. I understand this as does my partner.

 

[tracydr]

I have now spoken to one person by phone. He was the one who brought her up from the bottom. I have his approval to post what he has told me about the dive and I will, but first I will let him read it and correct any errors. I will say a couple of things now. Her gauge showed 10 bar but the tank was empty. Also, she had about 26 lbs weight using a 10 litre (80 cf) steel tank and trilaminate drysuit. If this is the case, then I believe she was grossly overweighted for someone her size.

Also, I believe that she may have been using an air integrated computer so the air usage will be available to police. However, from personal experience, I doubt they will know what to look for or understand what it is.

What was the size of her wing? How did she have her weights divided? Were they on a weight belt, weighted sta,dumpable pockets?

 

[Diver0001]

I surmise medical.

Jax, believe me when I say that from the bottom of my heart I want to believe this.... but I'm afraid, despite my sincerest efforts, I can't.

The facts seem to point to a diver who got in severe trouble due to buddy separation and equipment unfamiliarity in combination with being over weighted. There seems to be some complication like OOA or a free flow but the facts are what they are.....

I think it's good to face this because there is a stark lesson to be learned from it.... no matter how experienced you are with the gear and context you're used to... as soon as you change that, you need to learn again.

I have no doubt at *all* in my mind that if Quero were wearing a wetsuit that we would not be having this discussion. The fact that she chose to dive in a drysuit and had made certain gear choices (choices she admitted online that she was struggling with) is key to understanding this accident.

Believe me. I wanted it to be a "simple" heart attack or whatever too .... but the evidence just doesn't support that.

R..

 

[PfcAJ]

Some people are using the term "balanced rig". I know what that means when I am using it in reference to wetsuit / tropical diving but I suspect it means something different here with a drysuit. I could guess but I would appreciate hearing your definition. Thanks.

A rig is balanced when it meets the following conditions:

You can swim up your rig from depth with a full tank and no gas in the BC.
You can hold a stop at 15ft with 500psi with little to no gas in your BC
Rig can float without the diver in it.

 

[phoenix31tt]

I cannot buy into the OOA / panic. An instructor who, for years, demonstrates to and trains students to get in and out of their gear in and out of water, could certainly do so while holding her breath after OOA.

She was diving new gear... because a person has been doing it for years and training others to do it in one gear configuration does not mean they can do it at will in ALL gear configurations.. as pointed out before vast experience in one config/practice/condition etc does mean you will handle it when conditions change

Something happened.

Perhaps the excitement of the weedy sea dragon caused her heart to accelerate and something broke loose.

She's been diving the same gear for three days. She's way more practiced in drills than a regular diver, so the "forgetting" does not jive.

Diving the same gear for three days WITHOUT major complications means nothing really... remember that when diving if you keep adding complications your mind and body starts relying on muscle memory etc.. thats why we practice practice practice to ensure when compounding situations face us we can react accordingly...

also diving the same gear for three days says nothing about the weight, she could've been increasing weight with each dive if she felt it wasn't enough

She got to the end of dive, reported her gas, so I cannot perceive of complacency.

Unless it's a jellyfish, I surmise medical.

and of course that is also a possibility... but it's also possible it was a combination of all the possible issue with medical being the trigger, i.e. medical emergency but unfamiliarity with equipment, overweighting and unsafe buddy/team diving could've made it fatal.

 

[Jax]

Nope, not too close to the diver. I admired her thru her posts but don't know her.

Those that are familiar with my postings know I'm cold-logic based, and have been chastised for the same in this forum.

I just don't buy the OOA-panic. In a 400-dive regular diver in a new drysuit, yes. In well-practiced diver, who trains in these drill at least weekly, for years, it doesn't add up.

When the excrement hits the rotating thingy, you do not rise to the occasion, you fall back on your lowest level of practice.

Quero was very well practiced.

Wed Skiles died in the same circumstances. He left his team. He didn't survive. Does anyone think he panicked?

Sent from my PC31600 using awfulcorrect.

 

[Cave Diver]

*IF* the facts that have been reported are true (and I'm not questioning the integrity of the sources, just the fact that in high stress situations, memory tends to get a bit clouded) I would lean towards the following scenario:

*** Hypothesis ***

She was overweighted for the dive and using the suit for buoyancy.
After surfacing, she vented the suit too much, whether intentionally or accidentally, to submerge.
She was negative during the rest of the swim in, and struggling to stay positive
This struggle may have caused her to keep swimming towards shore (or the direction she thought was shore), thus taking her away from the group who was moving slower.
Being new to dry suits, she didn't think about adding air to offset the negative weighting.
If she did remember to add air to the suit, she may have forgot to close the dump valve after submerging, resulting in air being added, then just escaping.
Instinct may have had her keep trying to add air to the BCD, activating the OPV and dumping excessive amounts of air.
Combination of swimming hard to remain positive and dumping air may have caused her to burn through her air rapidly, resulting in an OOA situation.

OOA, swimming out of sight of buddies, and excessively negative in unfamiliar rig results in unbreakable chain of events.

*** /Hypothesis ***