Diver Missing At Cove 2 (11am Today 2/19)

[Scubie Doo]

Very sad. My prayers go out to friends and family of the lost diver. Also, best wishes to those involved in the recovery, thanks for your courage and compassion! Makes me proud to be associated with such a good group of individuals. Take care!!!!

[DeepBloo]

great job and condolences to those involved. Its never fun to be part of a real life rescue or recovery and you always hope you will never have to do it again. Especially if its somebody you know personally.

my thoughts and prayers for the families.

[dewmercer]

GUE etc.. training does not have anything specifically for rescues/recovery/searches to my knowledge at this juncture. They are working on something along these lines for the "Rec 2" program I believe.

Rescue is demonstrated in GUE Fundamentals (or was last August) but that was about it. Going through the standards, there seems to be a requirement to "effectively demonstrate" these skills but this may have been a change made after I took the class.

Rescue seems to be a big part of the Rec 2 (Triox) course. From the standards:

Further to this GUE’s Recreational Diver level 2 class focuses extensively on schooling student in
diver rescue - both on land, at the surface and underwater

Unfortunately, many, if not most, GUE divers enter the program at the Fundamentals level and are never exposed to Rec path training. I'll inquire as to why this is.

[dewmercer]

Really, the GUE training doing unconscious diver rescues just made me appreciate how much I did not want to do anything more than shoot a bag and get the hell out of there, its not easy work.

Couldn't agree more on this. I did a few attempts at this as part of my NAUI Tech course with Scott C. It is VERY difficult and, as you are effectively managing 4 gas bags (Wing+Dry Suit x 2)is easy to get into an out of control ascent. Recovering from depth only worsens these risks.

I'm glad that you guys made the wise decision to only mark the body and leave the hard stuff to the pros.

Well done guys!!

[renoun]

I've seen an email from Johanna that she is home following her chamber ride and is OK. She is seeking the recovery of two integrated weight pouches that she ditched once she surfaced. Other than posting this request I'll let her choose what she wants to discuss in a public forum.

So one of my request is to recover those weights, should someone come across them. Being black with but a small white clip on them, I am not sure this is possible. The two pouches are most likely within 20 feet of one another and within as close of a straight line perpendicular from the shores closest entry point to the Cove 2 stairs as possible. The weight pouches and weights are east of the fishing pier and northeast of the last floating buoy and located within the boundary line. I'm guessing somewhere between 60 to 80 FSW.

[mjachetta]

Someone told me today, "no diver left behind". We are lucky to have the dive community that we have. So sorry to the loved ones. Thank you all who helped,

[lamont]

Rescue is demonstrated in GUE Fundamentals (or was last August) but that was about it. Going through the standards, there seems to be a requirement to "effectively demonstrate" these skills but this may have been a change made after I took the class.

My NAUI Rescue covered contacting EMS, crowd reactions and management, diving readiness and dive contraindications, dealing with a variety of gear types (we had BCDs and air integrated octos through doubles), managing stress, gear rejection, signs of distress and "bubble mania", OOA emergencies, unconscious diver rescues, DCS/AGE and treatment, dealing with panic at the surface and how to keep yourself safe, tired diver towing, first aid, CPR issues in dive accidents, search and recovery, etc. It was something like 5 days of nothing but Rescue. No buoyancy, no trim, not a lot of s-drills, etc. It was filled with a lot more than just tired/toxing diver.

The GUE focus on Rescue skills has always been on managing OOG emergencies and unconscious/toxing divers and some prevention. It has always worked better as an augmentation to standard RSTC Rescue courses setting SOPs for procedures for GUE divers and training on underwater emergencies with some overlap and reinforcement in the stress management. There are large gaps in that training by design because you simply can't teach a 5 day Rescue course on top of a 5 day technical diving course, temporal physics just doesn't allow that.

Rescue seems to be a big part of the Rec 2 (Triox) course. From the standards:

Like I said, I ate dinner with the guy who has the first Rec 2 card. That's cool, but its still a v1.0 release. And its unlikely to be useful for everyone.

I have some temporal physics issues with that course as well since its also a helium card, which means that not only is the course a Rescue course, but you necessarily have all the gas theory and critical skills in order to dive deeper with mix, which is going to greatly compress the course.

Unfortunately, many, if not most, GUE divers enter the program at the Fundamentals level and are never exposed to Rec path training. I'll inquire as to why this is.

GUE didn't used to have a Recreational program. Fundamentals was initially started as a gateway class to technical training. It was assumed that divers would have been exposed to the typical recreational training agencies (and in many cases other technical dive programs) before ever entering a GUE course. When I started GUE diving we all took AOW, Night, Nav, Nitrox, Deep and Rescue from typical recreational agencies (PADI/NAUI/SSI).

[defied]

Found all the tea in China. anybody want some?

D

[ljjames]

We may try to get out tomorrow afternoon looking for more batteries, likely in the general vicinity. We can take a swing by that areas, and pick them up if we can find them. Battery containment bins will work great for weights Thanks for posting Ross so we could be made aware of the need.

I've seen an email from Johanna that she is home following her chamber ride and is OK. She is seeking the recovery of two integrated weight pouches that she ditched once she surfaced. Other than posting this request I'll let her choose what she wants to discuss in a public forum.

So one of my request is to recover those weights, should someone come across them. Being black with but a small white clip on them, I am not sure this is possible. The two pouches are most likely within 20 feet of one another and within as close of a straight line perpendicular from the shores closest entry point to the Cove 2 stairs as possible. The weight pouches and weights are east of the fishing pier and northeast of the last floating buoy and located within the boundary line. I'm guessing somewhere between 60 to 80 FSW.

[lamont]

Heh, battery recon and weight pouch recovery dive...

Too bad tomorrow I gotta work....

We may try to get out tomorrow afternoon looking for more batteries, likely in the general vicinity. We can take a swing by that areas, and pick them up if we can find them. Battery containment bins will work great for weights Thanks for posting Ross so we could be made aware of the need.

I've seen an email from Johanna that she is home following her chamber ride and is OK. She is seeking the recovery of two integrated weight pouches that she ditched once she surfaced. Other than posting this request I'll let her choose what she wants to discuss in a public forum.

So one of my request is to recover those weights, should someone come across them. Being black with but a small white clip on them, I am not sure this is possible. The two pouches are most likely within 20 feet of one another and within as close of a straight line perpendicular from the shores closest entry point to the Cove 2 stairs as possible. The weight pouches and weights are east of the fishing pier and northeast of the last floating buoy and located within the boundary line. I'm guessing somewhere between 60 to 80 FSW.

[Tangfish]

RIP to the diver and condolences to his family. Thank you to Laura and Lamont and all the others in the dive community that have helped out in this tragic dive accident.

[ljjames]

Flowers from some of his friends...

[John Rawlings]

Both teams that were involved did a fine job and contributed a lot to the recovery.

The first team, at least one of whom is also a member of NWDC, however, seems to be getting overshadowed a bit here in this thread. It was them that actually searched for and found the body. Once they located it, it was due to their directions that the second team was able to scooter to it and mark it. I think that Laura said that the second team only needed to spend a few minutes in the water, and this was due to the vital information provided to her team by the first team.

I'm not wanting to take ANYTHING away from what Laura, Lamont and Casey did, (which was a superbly handled, well thought out series of acts), but it seems to me that it was that first team of two divers that actually searched, found the body, and gave clear directions to the second team on how to locate it.

This was a shared triumph, and I'm sure that Laura, Lamont and Casey would be the first ones to acknowledge that.

Kudos to all of you for your actions and desire to help a fellow diver and his loved ones. Well done!

- John

[Norris]

Agreed John...

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[ljjames]

Thank you John I tried to make that very clear in my write up. In fact, if the fire dept and police department divers also deserve a lot of credit here. They ruled out a large search area, I believe increasing the odds that he would be found deep.

I agree that Johanna and he team mate has been a bit overshadowed here and am personally a bit embarrassed by that. All we did was put an SMB on him so as to expedite recovery. We had the tools.

Triumph is not what I would call it (I understand the sentiment being offered), nor are any congratulations in order.

It is a tragedy and for his loved ones, one that is still ongoing, I'm just glad Johanna is doing well.

We can armchair QB all day long, hindsight is 20/20, but there are folks here who most likely knew Tareq at least in passing. (I did not, but he sounds like a really nice guy) I know family, friends and the media are reading this thread so please continue to be gentle.

Both teams that were involved did a fine job and contributed a lot to the recovery.

The first team, at least one of whom is also a member of NWDC, however, seems to be getting overshadowed a bit here in this thread. It was them that actually searched for and found the body. Once they located it, it was due to their directions that the second team was able to scooter to it and mark it. I think that Laura said that the second team only needed to spend a few minutes in the water, and this was due to the vital information provided to her team by the first team.

I'm not wanting to take ANYTHING away from what Laura, Lamont and Casey did, (which was a superbly handled, well thought out series of acts), but it seems to me that it was that first team of two divers that actually searched, found the body, and gave clear directions to the second team on how to locate it.

This was a shared triumph, and I'm sure that Laura, Lamont and Casey would be the first ones to acknowledge that.

Kudos to all of you for your actions and desire to help a fellow diver and his loved ones. Well done!

- John

[John Rawlings]

Thank you John I tried to make that very clear in my write up.

Yes, you did make it clear....to your great credit. That point seemed to be left behind, however, as the discussion grew. No one's fault, really....things like that just happen.

I think that everyone involved can be enormously proud of their actions, despite the tragic situation.

- John

[cofford]

+1 to John's comments. The first team gave us location information that was spot-on. Once we got to the described spot, we found him in less than 30 seconds.

[oldsalt]

It seems to me that the rather quick recovery occured because everyone, police, fire department, and different teams of volunteers all had the same goal - recover the lost diver. Amazing things can be accomplished when the participants don't worry about who gets credit for it. I hope those who participated receive many expressions of gratitude. You have mine.
-Curt

[Blow-N-Bubbles]

Any updates on the diver that went to the chamber? I understood it was more a precautionary step. but none the least, My thoughts are with her as well.

[John Rawlings]

+1 to John's comments. The first team gave us location information that was spot-on. Once we got to the described spot, we found him in less than 30 seconds.

Yeah....everything sounds like it lined up just at the precise time as it was needed! If only such good fortune had been present and active when the diver was originally in trouble. We'd all be telling a different tale....

John

[oldsalt]

Any updates on the diver that went to the chamber? I understood it was more a precautionary step. but none the least, My thoughts are with her as well.

Johanna was in the dive shop this morning getting the regulator that free-flowed on her examined/repaired. She's o.k. and expresses gratitude for those who are concerned about her.
-Curt

[brownc9]

Vibes to all who knew the diver, and best wishes to those who helped out. It's amazing what we are capable of as a group, divers, skiers, climbers, etc. to help a fellow human being out.

[scubnewb]

I have been thinking the same thing myself... At this point we dont know what caused the diver to ascend so rapidly or what all happened in general, we do know that one of the divers with him said he looked like he was painicing, for what reason we dont know but it just has me thinking about panic and how it is our biggest enemy down there. Also how important it is to never let your buddy out of your site, when you lose sight of them that is when you lose the possiblility of being any kind of help to the paniced diver. Im sure other much more experienced divers have other things they can point out for good saftey practices but for me as a newer diver these are a couple things that have popped out in my mind.

In all respect, Is there anything a new diver, like myself, can learn from this situation? I can start a different thread and remove this post if it is inappropriate.

[Norris]

...

[airsix]

In all respect, Is there anything a new diver, like myself, can learn from this situation? I can start a different thread and remove this post if it is inappropriate.

I'm sure there are many who would be willing to contribute to such a discussion, however, I believe it would be appropriate for that to be done in another thread as you suggest.

Ben