Death in the Galapagos

[Carl]

Friends, I read with much upset the May issue of UnderCurrent in which there is a description of conduct of a dive in which a young female diver died. I suggest everyone pull up UnderCurrent and read the discussion and the following letter by another diver the week before on the Aggressor II, commenting on the boats "lapses" in diver safety. I have several comments to make to this group of underwater photo and video folks. Bare with me:
Diving Galapagos has NEVER been a recommended dive site for novice divers. I do believe that the Aggressor "adds" make that clear. It is WELL known in the dive community. Furthermore, I believe I never had the concept that the Aggressor staff were "dive masters", but merely underwater "guides" and our crew NEVER said they had training as dive masters. Next: buddy system. Galapagos? Buddy? The currents take everyone different ways at different rates and unless you are holding hands, it is hard to stay in a buddy format. Groups may have people site each other, especially at safety stops, but absolute buddy diving is very difficult. I will not bother with the argument that the buddy system creates two injuries/fatalities instead of one, but that is the concept that my family and I dive with. Next: No mention of Nitrox, but only that the profile was recommended to stay above 90 feet. The diver was found at 168 feet, but obviously no knowledge of where she got into trouble and whether she drifted to that depth. MOD ? Narcosis ? Oxygen toxicity? All in all the bottom line is to know what you are diving and where you belong in the water. Some of us dive OK being "narked" some of us really suck. Oxygen toxicity is much less forgiving! Our trips on Aggressor Galapagos SPECIFIED Nitrox for ALL divers. That innately limits MOD to "reasonable" (110 foot) and obviates some of the narcosis issue. I recommend Nitrox diving ANYTIME it is available unless the goal is deeper depths. Then, you better know what you are doing down there !
ALL IN ALL, please, friends, realize that diving does present dangers and especially some sites are more challenging than others. So what constitutes "experience"?. Well I tell you that after over a thousand dives in challenging conditions, I went to British Columbia in "gale force" get the hell off the water conditions, and low and behold, all with me will tell you: I was a beginner all over again. And I almost died, only once! Reflex, training and experience did kick in, but I did get to say "holy **** Batman, that sucked !".
And my older son got to say: Dad, you sure screwed that descent ! Next dive, he screwed up, despite being young, fit and technically an excellent diver. We both were humbled and learned more about diving than hundreds of warm water pretty fish diving could do for us.
I do not make light at all of this young lady's tragedy. Just try your best to make sure YOU are not similarly found sometime in your diving future.
Comments welcome !

[sorvju-f]

Friends, I read with much upset the May issue of UnderCurrent in which there is a description of conduct of a dive in which a young female diver died. I suggest everyone pull up UnderCurrent and read the discussion and the following letter by another diver the week before on the Aggressor II, commenting on the boats "lapses" in diver safety. I have several comments to make to this group of underwater photo and video folks. Bare with me:
Diving Galapagos has NEVER been a recommended dive site for novice divers. I do believe that the Aggressor "adds" make that clear. It is WELL known in the dive community. Furthermore, I believe I never had the concept that the Aggressor staff were "dive masters", but merely underwater "guides" and our crew NEVER said they had training as dive masters. Next: buddy system. Galapagos? Buddy? The currents take everyone different ways at different rates and unless you are holding hands, it is hard to stay in a buddy format. Groups may have people site each other, especially at safety stops, but absolute buddy diving is very difficult. I will not bother with the argument that the buddy system creates two injuries/fatalities instead of one, but that is the concept that my family and I dive with. Next: No mention of Nitrox, but only that the profile was recommended to stay above 90 feet. The diver was found at 168 feet, but obviously no knowledge of where she got into trouble and whether she drifted to that depth. MOD ? Narcosis ? Oxygen toxicity? All in all the bottom line is to know what you are diving and where you belong in the water. Some of us dive OK being "narked" some of us really suck. Oxygen toxicity is much less forgiving! Our trips on Aggressor Galapagos SPECIFIED Nitrox for ALL divers. That innately limits MOD to "reasonable" (110 foot) and obviates some of the narcosis issue. I recommend Nitrox diving ANYTIME it is available unless the goal is deeper depths. Then, you better know what you are doing down there !
ALL IN ALL, please, friends, realize that diving does present dangers and especially some sites are more challenging than others. So what constitutes "experience"?. Well I tell you that after over a thousand dives in challenging conditions, I went to British Columbia in "gale force" get the hell off the water conditions, and low and behold, all with me will tell you: I was a beginner all over again. And I almost died, only once! Reflex, training and experience did kick in, but I did get to say "holy **** Batman, that sucked !".
And my older son got to say: Dad, you sure screwed that descent ! Next dive, he screwed up, despite being young, fit and technically an excellent diver. We both were humbled and learned more about diving than hundreds of warm water pretty fish diving could do for us.
I do not make light at all of this young lady's tragedy. Just try your best to make sure YOU are not similarly found sometime in your diving future.
Comments welcome !

Carl, I absolutely agree.

Maybe it is terrible to agree as young person died, but that has already happened and that we can not change. Only thing we can actually do is to influence to the future that it would not happen again.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

It's a sad story. Who knows what really happened? One thing for sure, newbies DO NOT belong there.

Jonathan

[tarczy]

Read the Undercurrent Story here (http://undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/DeathintheGalapagos201005.shtml).

Carl - Jonathan . . . please tell me the name of our divemaster on the Mistral was not "Patricio" . . . the villain in the most recent Death In The Galapagos. :mad:

[sorvju-f]

Read the Undercurrent Story here (http://undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/DeathintheGalapagos201005.shtml).

Carl - Jonathan . . . please tell me the name of our divemaster on the Mistral was not "Patricio" . . . the villain in the most recent Death In The Galapagos. :mad:

Mark, thanks for sharing.

Jukka

[Jonathan Bird]

Don't remember a Patricio.

[Ken Hawk]

I have never ever relied on a dive guide in all my few years of diving.
As for checking if my air is on, is that not what buddy checks are for.

My heart goes out for the poor girl and her family.

[tarczy]

I don't think air being on or off was the issue in the case of Eloise Gale, a 23-year-old kindergarten teacher from Galveston, Texas and New York.

Eloise was found in a fetal position, with her mask off and her regulator out of her mouth in 168 feet of water. The air pressure in her cylinder was roughly 2,000psi, which means she was breathing fine up until 6 to 9 minutes into the dive. She also didn't seem to have water in her lungs.

I dunno.

Sometimes people enter the water and something happens to cause an inexplicable death . . . heart attack, seizure, whatever. Maybe this was the case for Eloise. I guess we'll find out after the autopsy.

Nevertheless, Denise is the one I feel most sorry for in this accident. Denise was alone on a dive vacation/adventure to the Galapagos. Because Eloise was also alone, Denise was paired with Eloise as her dive buddy. After her first dive, poor Denise had her whole life drastically changed in an instant, not to mention that her vacation was completely ruined. Now, Denise must live with guilt and self-recrimination for the rest of her life. Ugh!

[Jonathan Bird]

I have never ever relied on a dive guide in all my few years of diving.
As for checking if my air is on, is that not what buddy checks are for.
.

I rely on dive guides to find me photo subjects--not keep me alive. As for buddy checks, they are helpful but ultimately, every diver is responsible for him/her self. I check my own air and if I am stupid enough to leave it off, I'll figure it out real fast when I hit the water!!

[Jonathan Bird]

It's a tragic story. Who knows what went wrong. She was young and inexperienced, the current was particularly strong, the water in that part of the Galapagos is usually pretty chilly....who knows. Very sad but ultimately, placing blame on a divemaster or crew I think is unfair. Even her buddy, who is the one most culpable IMO can't be expected to keep an eye on her every minute. This is one reason I refuse to be buddied with someone I do not know. I do not want responsibility for someone I have no experience with.

Jonathan