Posted by Chuck Tribolet on March 25, 2005 at 17:06:50:
In Reply to: Laguna "buddy" lawsuit - I think I know how he died posted by Fforbes on March 25, 2005 at 15:54:16:
I had something similar happen. It was a club dive
at Pt. Lobos. We had two boats in the water to give
rides out to the mouth of the cove. I was running
one boat in street clothes (my drysuit was out for
new seals). The first two divers (A and B) walked
down the ramp, and stopped in armpit deep water to
put their fins (or maybe A walked off the end of the
ramp, or slipped -- I wasn't watching when it
started.) All of a sudden I see A struggling to keep
his head above water with no fins on and negative
buoyancy. B has this stunned mullet look. I ran
my boat the 30' to where they were, laid down on
the bow, and grabbed A by the BC straps with one
hand to hold his head up and tried to add air to
his BC with the other hand. Nothing happened.
Visually checked that the power inflator hose was
hooked up, and it was. Checked that the tank was
on, and it was. Looked at the power inflator
again, looked good, yanked it, and the hose came
off. It had been on about 2/3s of the way.
About this time the guy from the other boat swam
over (in a half zipped wetsuit, BRRR) and hooked
up the power inflator. Through the whole thing
I'm telling A to put the reg in his mouth, and he's
just gasping for air on the surface.
This could easily have had a different outcome.
In 10' of water max, 3' from shore.
The moral is: put your reg in the mouth when
walking in (and out). Leave it there until
everything is squared away.
Chuck