Shoot Down This Myth

I have chosen to dedicate a column to this story, not because it is particularly dramatic, but because it is so mundane. A diver died, not through illness or because they did something wrong, and not as the result of a freak weather event, but simply due to a sequence of instances of casual negligence and the perpetuation of a myth about what new divers are qualified to do that needs to be debunked.

A California nightmare

Jessie was 25. She learned to dive in California, and her confined water sessions and four open ocean training dives were all conducted from the beach. 

Two months after she was certified, the dive shop that ran the course contacted her and told her about a day-boat charter they were running the following weekend. Jessie liked the idea, but she had a few questions, so she phoned the dive shop.

She told staff that, since completing her course, she had not done any diving, that these would be her first dives since certification, she had never dived from a boat before and she would be coming along on her own.

The dive shop told her that the dives would be well within her ability as a newly certified diver, she would be paired up with a diving buddy on the boat and there would be an instructor on board to help her.

Jessie decided to sign up for the trip. She was excited at the prospect of getting back into the water. 

On the boat, once they were on their way to the dive site, Jessie was introduced to her buddy, Andrew, who was just about to embark on lifetime dive number 19. He had not been diving for over a year, and all his previous diving had been in the Caribbean. Today would be his first experience of cooler, murkier Californian waters.

As the boat approached the dive site, Jessie and Andrew learned that the dive instructor on board was running a course and would be diving with a student. He would not be accompanying them underwater but would be happy to answer any questions they might have before the dive. 

Andrew and Jessie both told the instructor and boat crew that they were not comfortable diving without someone to look after them. Andrew was rusty and had not dived in California before, he explained, and Jessie was on her first dive following certification and had never dived from a boat before. 

They were told not to worry. 

“You’ll be fine,” said the crew. 

Andrew had some difficulty setting up his equipment. The main problem was that his rental BCD was too tight, but there was no alternative BCD on board, and, in the end, they managed to get it secured around him.

The dive

Eventually, all four divers entered the water together. The instructor and his student exchanged signals and descended. Jessie tried to descend but could not, so she returned to the boat, where the crew gave her a couple of dive weights, telling her to put them in the pockets of her BCD. Meanwhile, Andrew waited for her on the surface.

He and Jessie then descended together. As is often the case in California in the summertime, there was a plankton bloom and underwater visibility close to the surface was poor. They exchanged OK signals frequently on the way down, and at a depth of about 9m (30ft), the visibility improved, but it was still dark. Neither diver was carrying a light.

They started swimming, with Jessie following close behind Andrew, and Andrew looking back every so often to check on her. Then, about ten minutes into the dive, he turned and glanced behind him once again, but this time, he could not see her. He looked around anxiously and saw what looked like a diver close to the seabed in the dim distance. 

As Andrew came closer, he saw it was Jessie. She was breathing, but seemed unconscious. He grabbed hold of her BCD and tried to ascend, kicking hard, but he could not lift her. As he continued to struggle, he started puffing and panting. It became harder and harder for him to breathe. Try as he might, he could not fill his lungs. Panic set in, and all he could think about was getting out of the water as fast as possible. He released his grip on Jessie and headed for the surface, spitting out his regulator as he went up. The crew saw him as soon as he appeared and brought the boat over quickly.

They asked him what had happened, but he was gasping and spluttering and couldn’t get the words out. All he could do was point down frantically. The crew immediately guessed that Jessie must have a problem, so they sent a distress call out to the US Coast Guard and started tapping the boat ladder with a hammer to recall the other divers. 

The instructor and his student heard the signal and ascended, making a safety stop en route, and once the student was safely back on board, the instructor began an underwater search, eventually finding Jessie on the bottom at a depth of about 18m (60ft). She was brought back to the boat, and CPR was initiated, but without success.

Afterwards, Jessie’s rental regulator was tested and found to be performing below the manufacturer’s specifications.

Not routine

Jessie’s family suffered greatly following her death. To their enormous credit, they made sure that the story was widely publicised in the diving media as a warning to other new divers, and that is how I found out about it. 

They did not feel that their daughter’s death should be accepted as a routine accident, which they feared would be the case if they did not do their utmost to spread the word as a warning to others.

There is much about this story that we do not know because Jessie died and died alone, but there are several obvious practical factors involved: overweighting, a malfunctioning regulator, inexperience, anxiety, poor visibility and cool water, but none of these issues, even combined, should ever lead to a diver losing their life.

Room for improvement

No doubt everyone concerned was saddened by Jessie’s death, and I am sure that subsequently they would have searched through their actions and responses that day to see if there was anything they could have done differently that would have led to a different outcome.

If you look closely enough, you can find room for improvement in every aspect of the incident.

For example, the training agency that Jessie learned to dive with could stress more emphatically in their training materials that, if a diver ever has reservations about the dive they are about to do, they should sit the dive out.  

They could include in their beginners’ course more information on the dangers of overweighting and discuss situations where a diver may need to drop their weights. 

This incident also reinforces the argument that new divers should learn how to recover an unconscious diver earlier in their training than is currently the case.

Seeing that they had two inexperienced divers on board, one of whom was very new, had never dived unsupervised and never from a boat, the dive shop staff could have made sure that they put a divemaster or instructor on board, tasked specifically to dive with Jessie and Andrew. Also, before the two customers boarded the boat, the dive shop staff should have ensured that their rental gear was a good fit and fully functional.

Once they noticed that both Jessie and Andrew were exhibiting signs of nervousness and inexperience, and saw that Andrew’s BCD was too small, the boat crew could have decided that it was not safe for them to dive and sent them off to snorkel instead. Perhaps they might have suggested to the dive instructor that he do an extra dive with Andrew and Jessie in between his training dives.

The instructor could have stepped in himself when he observed how uncomfortable the new divers were at the news that he would not be diving with them and changed his plans, inviting them instead to join him and his student, at least on the first dive of the day.

But, in omitting to do these things, were any of them responsible for Jessie’s death? 

A systemic problem

As I see it, it would not be fair to place the blame here on any person or company. The problem is systemic. None of those involved with Jessie’s training or running this trip did anything different from what they had done on numerous occasions in the past, with zero adverse consequences.

There is no indication at all that Jessie’s instructor did anything wrong in her beginner’s course. The fact that she wanted to go diving again suggests that she enjoyed her course and felt capable of doing more diving.

The dive shop staff would have had Jessie’s name on their list of recently certified students to call when they were running a day boat out to a site suitable for new divers. This would have been a normal procedure, and pairing a new diver up with a slightly more experienced diver would also have been something they did all the time. 

After all, this is how the system works. A new diver’s certification card states that, when someone passes their beginner’s course and qualifies as a diver, they can dive to a maximum of 18m (60ft) in the company of another diver who is equally or more qualified. This has been the case since organised sport diving began.

A different era

However, the diving world has changed. This is no longer the 1960s. We now live in a different era. Training courses for new divers are not the same today as they were when the idea evolved of what a diver certification qualified someone to do.

In the past, a diver’s first course included as many as ten ocean dives, run in different circumstances and water conditions, and students would practice rescuing a diver in trouble underwater.

Now, a new diver receives their certification card often after having spent less than three hours on scuba over a period of three (or even two) days. Conditions are usually benign, each dive is identical to the others and there is no underwater rescue element. This skill is currently not taught to new divers until they have done at least 20 dives and sign up for a specific Rescue Diver course.

Sure, some people have the required watermanship, athletic ability, intuition and mindset to be self-sufficient divers—even capable of assisting a fellow diver—on their first dive after certification. Every professional has stories of students who could probably have taught themselves to dive perfectly well without an instructor at all.

But, for most people, the brevity of initial diver training courses these days means that they are not capable of looking after themselves properly, or diving unsupervised, immediately after they have received their card. They just do not have the skills, experience or awareness.

Despite massive evidence to the contrary, dive businesses still pretend that it is the case that all newly certified divers can safely dive to a maximum of 18m (60ft) in the company of another diver who is equally or more qualified. This is a myth that needs to be shot down. 

Jessie was certified but had never dived without an instructor in the water with her. Nor had she ever made a deep-water entry from a boat. 

As for Andrew, he was certified and more experienced, but he was not capable of conducting a dive with a nervous, newly qualified diver as his buddy. He decided to lead from the front, but his positioning meant that he was unable to keep Jessie in sight, so he did not notice when she got into trouble.

Not his fault

I close with a final key point. No criticism at all attaches to Andrew here. He was placed in a situation for which he was completely unqualified. He tried his best. Nothing more could be expected of him.

His attempt to rescue Jessie was courageous but ultimately futile and shows what anxiety and stress do to a diver’s mind underwater when they have no prior knowledge or experience to draw from. Even after 18 dives, it never occurred to Andrew that he could help himself by inflating Jessie’s BCD or removing her weights. But that is hardly his fault. Why should it even have crossed his mind? He was on the verge of full-blown panic and facing a situation for which he was totally unprepared.

In fact, such was the strength of his commitment to the pursuit of his impossible task that, in attempting to bring Jessie to the surface, he exhausted himself to the point where he almost drowned. The dive shop and dive boat came very close to having two new divers die that day. ■