Ken

Here's one incident that shaped my perspective. I have many others non-diving related. The diving instructor was Darren Douglas.

Aquacorp 95'

A non-techincal diving trained father and his 14-year old son ran out of gas and drowned while trying to free the anchor on a wreck dive on air to the Moody at 130-140 f/40-43 m. A third diver ran out of gas, survived unconscious, and was revived. Two other divers on the trip were bent after they shortened their decompression.

The anchor line snagged following the first dive on the wreck, and the five individuals on the boat decided to dive the Moody a second time instead of cutting the line and going to dive a another, shallower wreck. The father, who organized and led the trip, partnered up with a second diver and decided to include his 14-year old son, who had not dived that day. The father wore a dry suit and twin steel 72s with a single outlet manifold (no first stage redundancy) that were not overpressurized. The second dry suit diver wore doubles and carried a pony. The son wore a wetsuit and carried and aluminum 80 cf tank. Reportedly, the team carried no decompression gas. Visibility was said to be about 50-60 f/15-18 m., water temperature on the bottom was about 50 –55 F, and there was a strong surface current that necessitated running a leader line from the stern to the anchor line to assist the divers’ descent. A second team of two divers followed the three down.

After descending and working to free the anchor line, the father’s partner surfaced 8-9 minutes into the dive and told the captain they needed more slack to free the line. He then went back down to the bottom. Upon his return, the father indicated he was low on air and headed up the anchor line. The second team of divers also ascended. The son and the partner remained.

About 12-15 minutes into the dive, the son indicated he was out of air. The partner gave him a second stage and the two started up. During their ascent, the partner ran out of air, switched to his pony, and tried to drag the son, now presumably drowned, up the line. The partner then ran out of air in his pony. In the process, he apparently dropped his weight belt before ascending unconscious to the surface. The son’s body, being negatively buoyant drifted back down. It is believed that the father either witnessed this event from the anchor line or saw the partner ascend alone, and went back down to save his son. The father and son were found together on the bottom.