Diver Ping! If anyone wants on or off the Diver Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Posted on 07/24/2007 7:59:10 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
"guampdn.com material cannot be posted due to copyright complaint."
So...
To my diver ping list, sorry for all the sad pings today, but you know how it is...fun dives never make the wire services.
Diver Ping! If anyone wants on or off the Diver Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
That, in and of itself, is suspicious. Maybe they just ate?......
I’d be checking the air in those tanks very carefully. That said, the missing fins on the novice diver points to a panic situation. Probably overwelmed the 22yo “divemaster”.
Great Googlymoogly! I’ve snorkeled those holes!
Lots of thing can go wrong there though, Guam is a divers wetdream (pun intended) and worst nightmare all rolled into one.
One of the most beautiful coral islands so full of dangerous stuff out to get you, that it just a thrill.
Add me to your list. I have been diving since 1994. I hold a Padi advanced dive card. Rescued trained.
What kind of dangerous stuff are you talking about?
My husband spent 22 years on Guam and dived here many times. He said it sounds like a very strange situation.
Inside or outside the reef are two different worlds with completely different hazards.
Inside the reef, you have no end to the variety of critters that want to bite you, sting you, eat you, stab you or just tear you to smithereens because you are there.
Its a known stomping ground for schools of barracudas and turkey and stone fish.
The coral is sharp as razor blades and stepping on a sea urchin is quite an experience.
The sea will kill you too. There are holes, channels, tunnels and caverns that generate all kinds of crazy currents that will suck you in, blow you out, or flash freeze you. Typical day on Guam starts at 80 degrees f. Surface water is that warm. Swim over a fresh water hole and suddenly the water is up from far underground and COLD! Put you in shock!
Things like that.
But a big hazard is getting too close to the channels in the reef at out tide. If you are not paying attention to the time and where you are, the out tide will suck you out from inside the reef and blow you clean out to sea.
And out to sea is where the really big fishies live. The kind that look at you like hot lunch, and gobble you up fast. Once you go to sea, there is usually no return. No one can swim back. If you can tread water till in tide, you might make it.
I’m not a diver. Just a hacker snorkeled guy. But, the for real navy divers who I knew were good folks that pointed out all the things that could get you. So smart people would only hang in the safe places (that’s relative where stone fish are concerned) and didn’t go play Rambo.
Guam is beautiful. But like many females, the good looking ones are the most dangerous.
Answer your question?
“My husband spent 22 years on Guam and dived here many times. He said it sounds like a very strange situation.”
Bet they find contaminated air in the tanks.
Did you read the comments by the locals at the bottom of that article? Interesting.
Actually, my husband did almost die by being swept out to sea. His friends saw it happen and were able to get help. He was dashed by the waves against large concrete breakwaters, over and over again. After he hit those, the current sucked him under, time after time. One of the rescuers were able to throw an empty plastic milk jug to him, and that kept him afloat. Thank God he was young and a strong swimmer, although he had some pretty serious cuts and bruises. I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen the pictures. :O)
He was one that God was watching. Its a place full of bad stuff that’ll getcha if you don’t watch out!
You’re added!
Not funny.
I disagree. Some things require experience. To me, being a divemaster is like being the captain of an airliner...having only slightly more experience than the guy in the right seat is not enough.
Good catch on the air quality...hadn't thought of that. A little CO in the tanks and they're gone. Probably was panic, though.
The guy who got me into diving learned on Guam during the Gulf War and his assessment was the same.
I agree completely, especially when you are dealing with a new diver or someone trying it for the first time. I have been diving since 1994 with over 100 dives in the Carribean plus the Gulf of Mexico. During that time I have taught 100s of people how to dive helping a friend who owns a dive shop here.
Nine times out of ten you can tell when a person is about to panic is by looking in to their eyes. There is NO WAY I would take someone that new out there in that situation unless I could spend a couple hours with him/her in a pool. If they are the type to panic I'll find out there where it's easier to handle.
If this accident happened because the new guy panicked I'm betting he got water in his mask didn't know how to clear it inhaled water and "lost" it. That or he was 30ft or a little deeper and "realized" where he was and just panicked.
That is why I don't like "Resort" courses. Those teach you just enough to that you can kill yourself.
I know exactly what you mean. I had a dive emergency at only 35 feet once, and I've felt the panic that probably got this guy. If I had givven in to it I would be dead now, no doubt in my mind, and I might have taken my buddy with me. God was with me that day, but I also have to give credit to my dive instructor, who trained me well.
We pair up students as dive buddies and teach them buddy breathing along with about 20 other skills. When they get comfortable with that then it's a buddy breathe swim with the person out of air also has no mask with the instructor swimming along side to handle any panic attacks. Then sometime during the class we make all the students sit on the bottom of the shallow end beathing without thier masks while they are doing that one of us takes thier masks and drop them in the deep end. Then we we tell them they have to swim to the deep end find thier mask and come to the surface with it on and cleared.
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