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Diving Safety, Accidents and Incidents Post here to discuss accidents, incidents, ideas, gear, or anything else to improve spearfishing safety. Memorials and condolences threads should be placed in that separate forum.

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Old 01-08-2014, 04:29 PM   #61
Pankrationist
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Re: Three more blackouts!

This is just frightening, blackout caught on 2 GoPros.

http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/87...-from-disaster
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Old 01-08-2014, 05:15 PM   #62
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Re: Three more blackouts!

We have lost 6 people to the water in the last 30 days here. We lost a 19yr old Navy diver to SWB 1-6-14 that I was a direct caregiver to when he was delivered to our ER. So sad to loose another brother to something so preventable. If I hit the lotto I'm gonna buy a FRV for every freediver.
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Old 01-08-2014, 08:49 PM   #63
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Here is a TRUE story written by SWB surviver Steve Bennett in 2008. This is a very detailed read if you haven't already read it. This true story really hits home if you know Steve or Cameron.

"Escaping death from shallow water black out
I want to start this email off by giving God all the glory right now, the fact that I'm even around right now is nothing short of a miracle. Without Cameron Kirkconnell's quick thinking and actions, I'm sure I'd be laying in 180ft of water off the west coast of Florida. This is my account of the incident, and much of it will overlap with Cam's which I will include at the end of this email for those who have not read it. This all occurred while freediving, there were no tanks involved whatsoever. I was wearing board shorts and a rashguard, no wetsuit and no weightbelt, water temp was around 85*F.
We had planned this to be the last dive of the day, 70 miles offshore of Englewood, FL, in 180 ft. of water and it was approaching 6:00pm. On a previous dive, we had spotted a cubera snapper in the 100lb class, between 75 and 100 ft, and discussed our tactics on the surface prior to the drop. We'd always joked around about rigging a fishing rod directly to the shooting line on the gun to reel the fish in, and for one time out of the thousands of combined shots that we had taken, Cameron decided to give it a try. After a thorough 5-7 minute surface breathe up, I dropped down to somewhere between 75 and 100 ft (I was not wearing a freediving computer) to look for the fish. After about a minute of searching, I decided to head for the surface as I could not find the fish. Cameron observed much of my ascent and dropped down to look around for the cubera with his "fishing reel Hawaiian-breakaway setup." I remember swimming upwards and seeing ripples on the surface appx. 25 ft away in the crystal clear water, and instantaneously, bam, I was out cold, shallow water black out. As Cameron lined up the shot on the cubera, the white handle of my speargun sinking past him caught the corner of his eye, moments before he pulled the trigger. At this time, he looked up to see me sinking head first, unconscious and convulsing, about 60 ft away from him laterally in the water.
He immediately dropped his weight belt and swam full speed at me with hopes to get a shot off at the meat of my thigh for a good holding shot, but could not be confident that such a shot would hold at a distance. His second thought was to shoot my calf, but the bones of my lower leg blocked the shot as I was facing him. For a split second, my fiberglass longblade fins turned broadside towards him and he squeezed the trigger, wham, a perfect penetrating shot to the center of my fin. Cam has said that, at this point, it was the closest he had ever been to blacking out himself. However, he made it to the surface and proceeded to instruct everyone on the boat to cut the achor line and reel in his shaft, because I was on the other end and had drowned.
When I reached the boat, I had been under water for appx. 3 and a half to 4 minutes at depth; my body was limp and completely blue, I was also bleeding out of my eyes, ears, nose and mouth. I had a faint pulse but was unconscious and not breathing, and my airway was not opened. This is what is known as a "dry drowning" because the glottis in the back of my throat had closed, not allowing air or water to enter or exit. Cam tilted my chin back and head to the side, blowing air across my cheeks and under my eyes to stimulate breathing as you would an infant.
At this point, still unconscious, some foamy, blood-like fluid (called "sputum," the result of a pulmonary edema) leaked from the side of my mouth. After a short time I sputtered a small cough and took what Cam described as a 1% lung capacity breath. Another 30 seconds later, I did this again with more sputum foaming from my mouth, and after 10 minutes or so of this repetitive action, I had about 15% lung capacity. This entire time, Cameron and the others on the boat were on the radio with the Coast Guard to get oxygen out to us ASAP. I can't say that I was aware for much of the time prior to this, but I remember hearing Cam's voice assuring me that everything would be okay as I drifted in and out of awareness in my own mind. Another 5 minutes later, after a total of 15-20 minutes of unresponsiveness, I finally slurred out some words and could lightly squeeze his hand. From this point on, as the boat was speeding towards shore, I slowly regained motor functions and lung capacity (up to about 30%), until the Coast Guard helicopter arrived, 45 minutes after the original accident, still 55 miles offshore. They lifted me in a basket into the copter, and I was at Tampa General Hospital within 30 minutes.
I still had very little lung capacity as they were filled with the sputum from the pulmonary edema, I was throwing up blood that was in my stomach, and my entire body ached. Luckily I dodged two other bullets which were of concern: the blood from my ears and eyes. The blood from my ears was caused by the fact that I had not equalized as I sunk from appx. 25ft to 80ft, but somehow I did not burst my ear drums and my hearing was not affected. The blood from my eyes was a result of the massive mask squeeze on my face caused by the fact that I had also not blown air into my mask to compensate for compression as I was sinking, but once again I escaped without injury. I spent a total of one day in the Trauma Center, two days in the Intensive Care Unit, and one day on the hospital floor, with the majority of the time spent concentrating on reducing the amount of fluid in my lungs. There was absolutely no long term damage to my body or brain, and my lung capacity is back to nearly 100% after only days.

I can not stress enough how amazingly fortunate I was. I am not aware of anyone else surviving a shallow water blackout after being retrieved from such depth without major physical and mental damage. Every little thing worked out perfectly, and if anything was different, I can say with 100% confidence that I would not be here. If I had watched the whole thing from a third person standpoint, I would also say that there is no way I should have survived. Why we decided to rig the gun to the fishing reel on the boat for this one shot out of the thousands we had taken in our lives, I don't know. How my gun sank right next to Cam, I don't know. How he saw the gun before pulling the trigger on the fish and thus not having a shot left for me, I don't know. Why the shaft penetrated my fin perfectly without cracking it or breaking, I don't know. Why my fin didn't slip off while I was being reeled in resulting in me sinking, I don't know. Why my ear drums didn't burst and my eyes sucked out of my head, I don't know. All I do know is that I'm here, and God is great. Cameron's multiple freedive spearfishing world records speak for themselves as far as his diving ability is concerned, but I'm sure he would agree that this was the best shot of his life. There is nobody else on the planet that I would trust more to take a long range shot directly at me to save my life in 200ft of water.

The scariest part is that this could happen to anybody at anytime, and those with more experience are even more susceptible to shallow water blackout. If this email and my story saves one person then everything that has happened was more than worth it. To everyone, dive safe, always dive with a buddy, and don't push your limits because NO FISH IS WORTH YOUR LIFE!

Steve Bennett
sbennett1127@gmail.com
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Last edited by hau; 01-08-2014 at 10:11 PM.
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Old 01-10-2014, 12:01 AM   #64
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Water related deaths

I am so sorry to update our water related death count.
We lost another man to an ocean related death yesterday.
Our water related death count now is 7 men in the last 33 days as of 1-9-14.
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Old 01-10-2014, 11:41 AM   #65
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Re: Three more blackouts!

What is the hold up on the latest FRV??? An affordable safe option to keep freedivers safer is long overdue.

If I counted how many divers could have been saved or given a chance by something like this, my family would likely throw away all my gear and issue an ultimatum.

Anyone actually receive them?
That thing has been in the pipeline for SOO long.
With a big military contract you'd figure the things should be making progress toward recovering some$$.

@1500 they still prohibitive, at half that, they would likely become very popular.
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Old 04-15-2014, 07:07 PM   #66
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Re: Three more blackouts!

My current "tactic" for preventing SWB is to dive well within my breath hold time range, and to spend 2x the amount of time on the surface as I spent down on my previous dive.

For ex:
My static is ~2:30
1) I dive down with normal physical exertion (ascent/descent kicking) and spent a total of 1 minute under water.
2) I then spend a minimum of 2 minutes on the surface recovering prior to my next dive (which will also be 1 minute).
3) In summary, I never spend more than 1.5 minutes underwater, and always spend 2x the amount of time as my previous dive on the surface recovering.

Also...I'm from CA and am diving in kelp almost 100% of the time, so having a buddy right above me is not always easy.

Is there anything else I should be adding to this regiment?

Last edited by CDMdeepbreather; 04-15-2014 at 07:08 PM. Reason: spelling
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Old 04-16-2014, 07:17 AM   #67
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Re: Three more blackouts!

You look under 30 if that's you in the picture - I think you should get your static up a bit - with training you should be around 3.5

That is the greatest thing about taking a free dive course - they help you find your limits and enhance your breath hold - not so much to extend your underwater time but to make that one minute you are doing more peaceful
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Old 04-16-2014, 03:30 PM   #68
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Correct, am 26, and that static estimate was from when I was 16yrs old...haha...I should probably have tested myself before posting 10yr old information. However, I dont imagine its at 3.5min.

After some more research, am looking to enroll in a local FI or FII course.
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Old 04-17-2014, 07:37 AM   #69
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Re: Three more blackouts!

26 and lean - they will get you to 3.5 or better you will see

Let us all know how you do. and don't static alone
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Old 04-17-2014, 09:52 AM   #70
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Quote:
Originally Posted by CDMdeepbreather View Post
My current "tactic" for preventing SWB is to dive well within my breath hold time range, and to spend 2x the amount of time on the surface as I spent down on my previous dive.

For ex:
My static is ~2:30
1) I dive down with normal physical exertion (ascent/descent kicking) and spent a total of 1 minute under water.
2) I then spend a minimum of 2 minutes on the surface recovering prior to my next dive (which will also be 1 minute).
3) In summary, I never spend more than 1.5 minutes underwater, and always spend 2x the amount of time as my previous dive on the surface recovering.

Also...I'm from CA and am diving in kelp almost 100% of the time, so having a buddy right above me is not always easy.

Is there anything else I should be adding to this regiment?
Get your affairs in order, making a habit of pushing your limits this way is the short route to diving the river Styx.

A talk I went to by a national record setting apnea diver, had this topic as a subject, and he doesnt go over a minute under when spearfishing. This is from a guy who can swim further underwater on a breath hold than anyone else on the continent he lives on.

Performance freediving methodology applied to the murky waters and kelp beds where you cant be spotted is a proven method for getting fit and lowering your life expectancy simultaneously.

All those static training methods do is acclimate you to higher co2 levels in your blood and lower the volume of the alarm that tells you to ascend. it does nothing to increase the amount of oxygen you take under with you.

Surface recovery times in proportion to dive times are variable depending on conditions, dehydration, lactic acid build up from swimming and other exercise, and how much you co2 tolerance has increased over the course of the dive.

The same dive that is safe and normal 20 minutes into your dive could be very dangerous at the end of your 3 hour dive.

If you are asking for and following the info you get online you are rolling the dice with the Reaper... If you really want to push your limits you should take a proper class, not solicit hearsay from this forum. Or better yet become a better hunter and dive moderately.

Jeremy
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Old 04-17-2014, 01:20 PM   #71
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Namor - any suggestions on classes? I live in OC and would like to stay local if possible.
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Old 04-17-2014, 01:49 PM   #72
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Re: Three more blackouts!

Quote:
Originally Posted by CDMdeepbreather View Post
Namor - any suggestions on classes? I live in OC and would like to stay local if possible.
Email Jeremy Caulkins <jeremypcaulkins@gmail.com> he is a FII instructor in your area and very good.

http://extranet.freedivinginstructor...dinstructor=75
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Old 04-18-2015, 10:25 PM   #73
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Re: Three more blackouts!

good stuff
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