Two divers die at Wazee Lake, WI

[flots am]

What's wrong with doing the dive with three people? We routinely run teams of three -- that means you've got 2x rock bottom, three brains working, and three eyes spotting interesting stuff.

I'll bet you don't routinely leave one of your team alone 50' above everybody else.

flots.

 

[David_57]

Sounds like there was a team of two who'm made a rapid accent for whatever reason and a solo diver who had an equipment problem who also made a rapid accent quite the scenario all taking place within 10 minutes. So are we dealing with an AGE and DCS? I wonder as it is apparently rare for DCS to be fatal.

 

[cerich]

I'm very new to deco diving, so I don't want to get out of my depth here (sorry, bad pun) but I compute my deco stops using air tables and actually use 80% for my shallow stops. So I would GUESS I have the ability to blow off at least some of my schedule.

But I also realize many more people plan their dive based on their gas, and don't have that extra safety margin.

I believe that Milt,at least, had the same instructor I did, and if so may have been following the same rules. But that is pure speculation, obviously he could have been planning his dives using his exact mixes.

I am sorry but your entire post scares the heck out of me. I sense a pattern starting to emerge that leads back to your mutual instructor.

 

[Rick Murchison]

No. At least I'm not.

Really? Why do you stay in the water longer? Aren't you setting your schedule at *your* minimum, given all the conservatism factors you deem appropriate for *you*?
Granted I will often stay longer if I'm comfortable because I want to stay and enjoy the show, but my deco *schedule* is always planned as the shortest that I intend to use. Anything less is cutting into my personal safety margin.
In other words, I think we agree, but we have a difference in semantics.

Rick

 

[razn1]

Do you have links to this information?

I'm posting off my phone so I'm not sure if I can do links, but I just googled (jackson county wi sheriffs report on lake wazee diving accident) and bunch of articles came up.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Just out of curiosity, why?

I typically dive with a buddy who just did the deco course and not the adv. nitrox course. I've just kept the same mix in the stage bottle I had from the course, and I know the air profiles we typically dive by heart (though I double check them every time I write them on my slate).

 

[riftvalley84]

I'm posting off my phone so I'm not sure if I can do links, but I just googled (jackson county wi sheriffs report on lake wazee diving accident) and bunch of articles came up.

Miles Squires' interview: Only survivor in Wis. Scuba tragedy talks for first time | WFRV Green Bay: Northeast Wisconsin News, Weather and Sports | Local

Another article: For 2 Killed in Scuba Accident, Diving Was Their Passion | KSTP TV - Minneapolis and St. Paul

Here is a quote about the above article:


Lindsay · 10 hours ago
Thank you to everyone for their kind words and support. Milt Floyd was my father. A special thank you to both medical teams who did the best they could at trying to save both Jim and my father. I also want a special thank you to the news team for reporting the more accurate information. Other stations had published inaccurate information when the story first came to light and I appreciate you for your respect and attentiveness to the details regarding how these men were trained and that they were not careless or wreckless in their actions.
My love and support goes out to other families that may have experienced similar losses in their lives and especially to the Jordan family. Although I did not know them personally, I know how important Jim was to my dad and how much they enjoyed their time spent together; both diving and simply being friends.

 

[DandyDon]

So was the survivor planning on descending with the other two, then aborted from 140 alone? Or did he plan to be a solo diving backup to the two going deeper? Either way sucks tho.

And I like to do my buddy bubble checks at 15 ft.

 

[bsee65]

I don't know it for fact, but I believe that deco obligations and safety stops are recommended based upon the time necessary so that 99.9% of otherwise healthy divers will surface symptom free after complying. As the time is reduced, the chances of symptoms go up, probably very slowly for the first few percent you cut the stop and then much more rapidly as you further reduce stop time. While no one has run a scientific test, I suspect a careful read of reports of incidents where DCS symptoms were present might provide some anecdotal evidence based upon reported profiles and severity of symptoms. Again, let me stress that this is my non-expert interpretation that no one should blindly act on...

We occasionally hear of someone who believes they made their full stop and still has symptoms. There are no guarantees of safety under water. We follow the rules and do the best we can. I also believe that the more unusual scenarios you consider and prepare for, the better your chances of making an educated decision under pressure. That includes the circumstances under which you would shorten your stops and by how much.

 

[ianr33]

There's a little more info on the web now. The survivor said he discovered an air leak and surfaced blowing his safety stop. If that was the case the dive should have been called right there and his buddies should have helped him surface safely. Also read the other two made it through most of the dive and at some point during a stop something went wrong and that's when they surfaced. Still not all the specifics, but its getting a little less murky

An air leak on a technical dive is not a reason to surface missing stops. Stuff is going to break/leak if you do enough dives. Thats what the training and planning is for.

Would be interesting to know what really happened. Good chance it was related to frozen regs and freeflows.