Northwest Dive Club

Scuba diver rescued by West Seattle Water Taxi crew

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/t ... st_se.html

Hope everybody's OK.

Jake

Yikes...

Wow. Well, it does say "diver rescued", so that sounds hopeful.

yeah, sounds like "rescued" means its good news.. really really hope so.

komo has a news post as well..

http://westseattle.komonews.com/news/91 ... ver/640360

Hate to say it, but we always seem to see a jump in dive accidents at this time of year. Lots of brand new divers in the water, and lots of folks dusting off their gear for the first time this year, I guess. Be careful, everyone.

A little more info from the West Seattle Blog:

http://westseattleblog.com/2011/05/west ... f-seacrest

I know some of those deckhands, possibly the one who reportedly jumped into the water to aid the 50yo man in distress. Its been open season on unionized government employees this spring and those folks are both. Hats off to their efforts on his behalf, hope he makes it.

From reports coming in from the fire rescue team that was on the scene, it was an elder 50 year old solo diver that had a rapid ascent from 200ft (according to computer profile) due to low/out of air emergency..

Diver was intubated on the scene and is at Harbor View in critical condition at the moment and a chamber ride at Virginia Mason is scheduled within the hour..

Solo diver experienced an out of air(good old 21%) emergency at 213fsw and performed an emergency accent from depth. The Seattle Water Taxi came accross him quite a ways from the shoreline at Cove 2. He was taken aboard the vessel and met up with a Coast Guard who then ran him to the dock where care was taken over by Seattle FF and Medics. The patient was electively intubated in the field and transported to Harborview where he remains in critical condition. As soon as he is relatively stable he will be taken to the chamber at Virginia Mason. He had shown signs and symptoms of DCS as well as a possible lung over-inflation injury. I will post updated information as soon as it becomes available

Oh, dear . . . How does anyone who plans a dive to 200+ feet run out of air?

I guess we need more gas management seminars.

What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Hats off (or hoods off, for PNW divers) to the rescuers!

dwashbur wrote:What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Well, me, for example. I realize that solo diving can be controversial, but it ain't illegal. I think it can be safer than, say, riding a motorcycle, for instance.

dwashbur wrote:What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Sorry dave, but I think that's a truly insulting comment. I've only been to 176 feet solo ... so I guess that makes me a mini-dipwad.

Seriously dude ... that question really rather misses the point!

Going solo to ANY depth and allowing yourself to run out of air is a serious issue.

Going deep and skipping your deco is a serious issue.

If you can't plan dives better than that on EITHER count, you probably have no business going deep ... or solo.

But I'll leave it at probably, because we really don't know what happened ... now do we?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Grateful Diver wrote:

dwashbur wrote:What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Sorry dave, but I think that's a truly insulting comment. I've only been to 176 feet solo ... so I guess that makes me a mini-dipwad.

Seriously dude ... that question really rather misses the point!

Going solo to ANY depth and allowing yourself to run out of air is a serious issue.

Going deep and skipping your deco is a serious issue.

If you can't plan dives better than that on EITHER count, you probably have no business going deep ... or solo.

But I'll leave it at probably, because we really don't know what happened ... now do we?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

+ 1.. solo diving is not for everyone.

It happens out there though



Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

That is an AWESOME addition to your sig line, Rick.

Yes, my question was very poorly expressed. I apologize.

Grateful Diver wrote:

dwashbur wrote:What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Sorry dave, but I think that's a truly insulting comment. I've only been to 176 feet solo ... so I guess that makes me a mini-dipwad.

Seriously dude ... that question really rather misses the point!

Going solo to ANY depth and allowing yourself to run out of air is a serious issue.

Going deep and skipping your deco is a serious issue.

If you can't plan dives better than that on EITHER count, you probably have no business going deep ... or solo.

But I'll leave it at probably, because we really don't know what happened ... now do we?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Joshua Smith wrote:

dwashbur wrote:What kind of dipwad does a solo dive to 213 feet in the first place?????

Well, me, for example. I realize that solo diving can be controversial, but it ain't illegal. I think it can be safer than, say, riding a motorcycle, for instance.

Technical divers often do deep solo dives. Let's put a lid on the mud slinging comments, stick to info as we know it, and try and keep this potentially volatile thread from becoming a poopstorm.

Gas management saves lives and applies to all dives. Be weary of anyone who preaches differently. Thanks you Bob, Brian, Scott, and Peter who selflessly offer this free seminar. There is no excuse for running it of gas.

Hoping for some good news...

Solo diving is solo diving. Some of it ends up in the technical realm.

Technical divers, typically plan team dives with the ability to finish them solo if things go wrong.

The amount of gas that I think you would need to execute that dive safely, alone, is pretty large; it's a long swim to 213 at Cove 2. Did he do it on a scooter?

Blitz wrote:Solo diving is solo diving. Some of it ends up in the technical realm.

Technical divers, typically plan team dives with the ability to finish them solo if things go wrong.

The amount of gas that I think you would need to execute that dive safely, alone, is pretty large; it's a long swim to 213 at Cove 2. Did he do it on a scooter?

I don't think he owns a scooter ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Do we know who the diver is, and does anybody here know him personally?

Highliner wrote:Solo diver experienced an out of air(good old 21%) emergency at 213fsw and performed an emergency accent from depth. The Seattle Water Taxi came accross him quite a ways from the shoreline at Cove 2. He was taken aboard the vessel and met up with a Coast Guard who then ran him to the dock where care was taken over by Seattle FF and Medics. The patient was electively intubated in the field and transported to Harborview where he remains in critical condition. As soon as he is relatively stable he will be taken to the chamber at Virginia Mason. He had shown signs and symptoms of DCS as well as a possible lung over-inflation injury. I will post updated information as soon as it becomes available

He ain't gonna make it if he's too unstable for the chamber.

Hes one of my original buddies when I first started diving, I met him right here on the board. From what I hear from close friends is that hes in the chamber after having 46 min of deco showing that he did not do. It was a 147 foot rise in 2 min to 24 foot and started doing deco. I was not told of depths beyond 172.

I hope he comes out of this OK. Good to hear that he is in the chamber.

I would imagine he didn't plan to run out of air. Perhaps he attended a gas management seminar at some point, had adequate gas and simply had a gear malfunction that was totally unrecoverable from.

We don't know what happened, and we don't really know what is going on right now... We may not agree with a persons style of diving, or their choices and risk assessment but honestly, when someone is trying to not die, and they probably have loved ones and friends reading this forum, its time to remember that they are a person and not just some random news article to throw stones at or make conjecture about survivability.

Winter, sorry to hear about your friend.

LCF wrote:Oh, dear . . . How does anyone who plans a dive to 200+ feet run out of air?

I guess we need more gas management seminars.