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Matthias, About ten years ago (1992) I was lost at sea with a group of divers (8 in total). I was going through some slides yesterday and found a few shots from the trip. As you suggest the cause of this "accident" was poor planning and poor preparation. We were drift diving in strong current with deteriorating sea conditions, the charter boat we were on did not have a functional radio (found this out later), the surface marker was not correctly setup and none of us had any sort of signalling devices (safety sausage, flares, strobe, EPIRB etc). We got away with it because we stayed together and were diving in an area with good rescue services (may have eventually made it to shore but whether we'd have been in any state to handle the shore break is another matter). After that I bought and carried just about every peice of surface signaling equipment known to man (back to just a safety sausage and strobe now, though an EPIRB is still a temptation for those big offshore trips (as is Halcyons diver life raft)). I'd like to think I know a bit better now and wouldn't be diving under such conditions in the first place. I think I've certainly got more confidence now to say "this is the way things SHOULD be done", even if this pisses people off. Ultimately though, as with everything it comes down to where you draw the line on what is acceptable risk (or weighing up risks and benefits, things will rarely be just the way you'd like them to be). This often changes as you get more information or hear new perspectives. I no longer think carry a heap of signalling gear is of benefit on most dives for example (at least locally I plan dives to come up away from currents and tailor the dive to the experience level of the divers with me). Cheers, At 10:52 8/01/2002 +0100, you wrote: >Simon, >though you have some point in noting the importance of airway >protection, note that the term "most accidents happen at the surface is >a very vague one. It neglects the fact that the cause most accidents >lies either beneath the surface, or even above, before the dive, in >preparation, choice of divesite, "buddy", gas management, complacency. > >As for surface-born causes, I knew 2 divers who were fond of proper >flotational design of their stuff, they were drifting at seastate 4 and >became seasick , but managed it to swim back to the boat. >Another girl in the baltic drowned when she vomited, another diver was >lost at the surface, never reappeared again , when they were surprised >buy a sudden gale which caused a seaward current. > >Mostly things are well when a diver is still able to swim by his own >means. > >For a long swim, you must decide which part of your gear has to go. Nice >to have something which offers flotation. > > >Matthias Simon Simon L Hartley EnvSM Website Coordinator\First Year Course Coordinator Associate Lecturer School of Environmental Science and Management Southern Cross University P.O. Box 157 Lismore NSW, Australia 2480 Ph: (02) 66203251 or (61 66) 203 251 Fax:(02) 66212669 E-mail: shartley@sc*.ed*.au* http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/shartley/ http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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