Why 19? Their confidence can greatly exceed their limits. They believe they can get that 10 incher at the back of a dark crack right up to when they pass out. One of my buddies lost his stepson at Salt Point: same conditions different ages.
I met you at Masters water polo some years ago. You do stay in shape! Gualala remains my favorite Ab area. I agree with some parts of the article. I been ab diving for a long time and some people go out diving when the surf is big or the tides are to wild. People also like to go out after a storm or after a large swell thinking the water would be clear. Going beyond the kelp line is a risk.
So I agree that the lack of experience and peer pressure from your buddies is another reason people die. I enjoyed some parts of the article. I used to be a pretty good free diver but stopped doing that maybe years ago. Just started feeling old and not able to hold my breath as well as I once could.
I still swim miles or more a year but no longer dive. It was kinda neat to see the picture of the largest California white sea bass taken with a speargun, while free diving, and not recognise the diver as Bill Ernst. We do age…. Great article with extensive view on diving for us old people. Many of us think we can overcome all at all times and not have the strength or endurance to do things. Great article, Mark.
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This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. And though the red abalone of California was once a staple of dirt-cheap seafood shacks, this big slippery sea snail is today one of the most prized seafoods in the world.
Abalone is also the goal of one of the most dangerous recreational games in America. Sometimes they die. This spectacular seaweed, so gentle in appearance and symbolic of the California coast, occurs in nasty thickets in many locations.
Kelp may grow more than a foot per day, and in the summer sun during calm periods, kelp forests can burgeon seemingly out of control until the fronds layer the surface like a carpet. Underwater, the long, cord-like stipes hang ceiling to seafloor. Among the rocks at their base is where the abalone dwell.
Many carry knives strapped to their lower leg to cut through the kelp should they become entangled. Ironically, divers have drowned when their knives become snagged on the kelp.
When he was younger he did it himself. Had he lacked the strength to tear the fabric of the bag apart and free himself, he would not be offering advice today.
Going out alone is chancy and most divers "know better. Says Borgeson, "When you are down there on a breath hold, you are basically on your own. If something happens, the odds are that your buddy isn't going to be able to do a damn thing for you, because he's not going to be able to find you.
Another problem is poorly estimating ocean and weather conditions. Add hot coffee and the sun warming your back. What more could you want? But the result is a perceptual error that can be fatal. He's an Emergency Medical Technician and a hyperbaric chamber technician. He's snatched a few divers back from death's doors.
The most common pattern for an accident, says Tellyer, is a diver going out and getting exhausted in a rough ocean, typically with too much lead on the weight belt. Divers panic, do not release their weight belts--the first thing taught in a certification class--and drown. Says Tellyer: "Most of the victims we recover still have their weight belts on. Belts are used to counterbalance the buoyancy of wet suits--not to help a diver go down. By releasing the weight belt a diver in distress can gain extra buoyancy, the wet suit acting like a life preserver.
Another problem, though less common, is "shallow water blackout" which can occur on the trip back to the surface.
As the lungs expand, due to reduced pressure, and oxygen is depleted, a diver may lose consciousness. When that happens, breathing becomes automatic--fine in the atmosphere, disaster under water.
There is another problem that is based in human nature and psychology. It has come to be called the "Sacramento Syndrome. Common sense goes out the window between there and here. But April is the worst month to be stubborn and aggressive, as ocean conditions can be treacherous in April. The month has already claimed one diver this year. Also, ocean conditions can change rapidly, as they did this year.
On March 31st the ocean appeared like a placid, high-altitude lake; the next day it was like angry soup. Says Borgeson, "If people had listened carefully to the Noah weather reports the day before, they would have known they were predicting the strong winds and swells.
Lawrence says there is a "macho element" in the sport that encourages divers to go out and always get their limit per day. Both Lawrence and Borgeson say they only take one each time they go out. Borgeson says he'd like to see the limit lowered to 2 per day--in part to protect the resource, and in part to "protect divers from their own stupidity.
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