Catalina Tragedy

[J-Cub]

Last November, I went on a live-aboard dive trip to Catalina Island off the coast of California. It was lobster season and we were really having a great time. Then night fell and a group of us decided to do a night dive. We completed our dive and returned to the boat. I boarded the boat and got all my gear off. Another diver from a different group boarded after me and asked the DM if his dive buddy had returned to the boat. The DM said he hadn't seen him. As the minutes passed by there was still no sign of the missing dive buddy. The DM stopped all diving and we all started scanning the surface with binoculars searching for his beacon light. The minutes turned to hours and paranoia set in. We all started worrying that something tragic had happened. The boat captain notified the Coast Guard and they came in with boats and helicopters. Hours went by and still no sign. What was once an awesome day of diving with fun and laughter quickly turned into reality of how dangerous the sport can be.

When asked what had happened, the diver that returned had said that they had surfaced and were both low on air (approx 200 lbs). The missing diver told his buddy that he had dropped his weight belt right below them and he wanted to take just a second to descend to look for it. If he didn't find it quickly, he would come back up. His buddy said he would go with him to look for it. As they descended, the buddy lost sight of the diver immediately. When he reached the bottom, the buddy looked around for the diver and could not spot him, and knowing that he was low on air returned to the surface. He waited on the surface for a few minutes, then returned to the boat.

The Coast Guard searched through the night for the missing diver and it became 2 am before I returned to my bunk to try to get some sleep, still not knowing if the missing diver was ok. I woke up in the morning to the news that the Coast Guard had located the diver at the bottom of the ocean. He was found just about 12 feet from his missing weight belt.

Now I wanted to tell this story not to scare anyone from the greatest sport in the world. But just to bring to attention how serious the sport can be if we are not paying attention. Mistakes are going to happen but hopefully we can all keep them minimal. The tragedy here is that this diver traded his life for a weight belt. We need to remember that equipment can be replaced no matter how much it costs.

[liuk3]

Wow, that is indeed tragic. Thanks for sharing. How deep were they, and do you know what had happened to the diver, e.g. entanglement, etc.?

[J-Cub]

He was found in about 60 feet of water with no air in his tank. Not much else is known. We suspect that he descended, searched for his belt, finally found it but didn't have enough air to inflate his BC to return to the surface.

[thesmoothdome]

That is indeed tragic. One question though. How did the diver who lost his weight belt descend without a belt? Wouldn't he need to go back to the boat to get another one?

[No Misses]

I don't want to sound jaded. But, there are several lessons to be learned.
1. No piece of equipment is worth your life.
2. Boyancy checks should be conducted every time that you change gear configuration and/or environment (freshwater/saltwater). At the end of the dive this diver should have been ~5lbs more buoyant than when he started (empty tank). This is without considering the lost weight belt. Even if we go conservative and say that he only had 6 lbs. in the belt. He should have had considerable difficulty descending against the loss of ~10 lbs of ballast. It appears to the outside observer that this diver may have been carrying too much "non-dumpable" ballast.
3. Always plan for contingencies. What could/would you do if you found yourself in an OOA (Out of Air) situation, alone @ 60'? If you are properly ballasted, you should be able to perform a free swimming ascent (beathing out as the air in your lungs expands). If you find yourself overballasted, and you can not dump the ballast, you could dump your whole rig and perform a free swimming ascent.

Please do not take this the wrong way. My simpathy goes out to the family and freinds of this diver. I have a "troubleshooting" personality. I want to know what happened, how can it be avoided, what steps could be taken to limit the damage and/or improve the outcome?

[Black-Gorrilla]

Originally Posted by thesmoothdome

That is indeed tragic. One question though. How did the diver who lost his weight belt descend without a belt? Wouldn't he need to go back to the boat to get another one?

that hits me too..
i once left my weight pockets on the boat by mistake, and had tons of trouble getting down... when i tried to go down, it was a pain in the ass... made me breath hard and fast! i dont see why he would try to go down for a bunch of lead, on 200psi... and at night, and im also sure you where all aware of the depth there.
A LIFE for some LEAD. that is just horrible! what a shame.

[thesmoothdome]

Catalina in November, you're looking at a min. of 7mil suit. Regardless of if the diver splits his weights between the belt and integrated BC pockets, he's not going to back down without the belt. Given the fact that he only had 200psi left in his tank, he's at least another 5-6 pounds bouyant. No way he can get back down, even if he swims hard for it, which would use up the last 200psi well before he reached the belt.

Maybe the OP can elaborate to explain a bit to help us understand what took place.

[Black-Gorrilla]

i know you can take in some water, and that will help keep you down.... but you cant fit that much water in your lungs... this just seems too out of place?

[J-Cub]

Originally Posted by thesmoothdome

That is indeed tragic. One question though. How did the diver who lost his weight belt descend without a belt? Wouldn't he need to go back to the boat to get another one?

That was the first question we had too. He must have had too much integrated weight in his BC is the only thing we could think of. Or he could have kicked real hard to get down, thus breathing more air then necessary and running out. I never did get the whole story as too what equipment he had when they found him. The boat ride back to Long Beach was pretty quiet.

The other question that I had was when the buddy descended with him, he lost sight of him immediately. Visiblity was at least 30-40 feet which makes me wonder if he was having trouble with his flash light as well. When I made my dive, I could spot my buddys dive light from a distance pretty easily.

[Osprey]

is it possible that, without a light, he just kept kicking down and assumed he was getting somewhere? and ran out of air faster than anticipated?