Fatal Accident- Windy Point Park, Tx.

[ianr33]

Originally Posted by clayton

just a thought for divers in low vis waters.
My wife and i are aow divers with 50+ dives each but when we dive the local river we use a buddy line,the vis can be 20ft on a good day or 3ft on a bad but the buddy line ensures we stay together always.

That may work in your conditions but one of the issues with Travis at depth is that it has a lot of large trees. A buddy line would be more of an entanglement hazard than anything else.

One thing that is helpful is a GOOD light. Most everyone I dive with has a 10W HID,but that is not exactly standard issue on an AOW course. On the rare occasions I dive with someone that has a regular light the difference is very,very,obvious.

If the viz gets really bad we go to touch contact.

[Texas_Aggie06]

very sad.

[danielh03]

So was he a new diver or an experienced diver?

[BuzzF117]

Seems to me that most of the accidents that have happened lately involve divers who either didn't have a buddy or got seperated from their buddy. This just stresses the point of the procedures you follow when you loose your buddy. The procedure I was taught was you look for one minute then make a controled accent to the surface and wait for your buddy their. Is that correct?

Buzz

[Divingguy]

Buzz: that is the standard protocol. If after a very short period there is still no sign of your buddy at the surface, then a decision needs to be made on whether to activate rescue resources, which does NOT always mean calling 911 immediately!!!! There are frequently other resources which can be brought to bear to help determine whether there is a real emergency of some sort, or just an oblivious lost buddy who will finish his dive, and then surface.

[Defman]

Anybody seen/heard any update on this?

[divermike49]

The diver's name has been released. No news so far on the autopsy.
Drowned scuba driver's ID released by TCSO - CBS 42 Austin's source for breaking news, weather and sports

[betheny]

I did my AOW at Lake Travis in October 99, the lake had just flooded. It was pitch black, vis less than a foot at 20 ft. depth. I had my brightest light but couldn't see my guages at one point, my husband was holding on the other end of a 3" rope that we remembered to bring. Other classmates were essentially buddy-less due to low vis. My instructor was distracted by a hot girl in the class, it was actually terrifying. The tree roots are a major issue, we were going from the shore. I'm sorry to hear about this guy.

[loudgonzo]

Originally Posted by betheny

My instructor was distracted by a hot girl in the class, it was actually terrifying.

Did you bring this up with the LDS owner/manager?

[divingmedic]

Originally Posted by peteg

More details from the "other board"
ScubaBoard - View Single Post - Drowning at Windy Point 10-13-2007

"I was with him diving at the park. We went over and over again what went wrong and it was concluded that we all followed the rules precisely and that an autopsy (due Tuesday) will be the only way to find out what happened. He had fully functioning gear, 1000 psi. He was still grasping his light and he still had his mask and fins on which means whatever happened to him happened quick...no signs of panic or struggle. My personal OPINION is that he succombed to a heart attack or stroke. What really impressed me was the way the divers on the shore quickly and efficiently took charge of the situation IMMEDIATELY. There were probably over 200 divers there that weekend, including a HUGE class of rescue divers and also a group of firefighters. My personal thanks to all of them. They all got together and performed AED, CPR, Resuscitation in an almost machine like way."

An AED and CPR will not alone save someone. Many times it takes certain drugs to get the heart started again. This is what sometimes irks me about DAN training.