Posted by Fforbes on March 25, 2005 at 15:54:16:
I watched the exact thing happen to a diver in the Florida cave systems. She was all geared up for cave diving... heavy stuff. She carried her fins and was talking to us as she climbed down the rocks to the water, and sank like a stone. She made 2 mistakes: she had forgotten to connect her bc hose, and she had let her second stage flop behind her back and she couldn't find it. She was only in 10' of water, but she would have drowned sure as anything if the water hadn't been crystal clear and we could see what was happening. If it had been deeper and the water murky, she would have died. She was no fool, a long-time caver and the instructor's wife... just sometimes you get distracted when you gear up.