One Drowning Too Many! Full-Face Snorkelling Masks And One Man’s Quest For Answers

In February 2016 we wrote post about the spread of full-face masks. In that post and its forerunner we highlighted the fact that the full-face design is inherently flawed. We weren’t the only ones who had our doubts about these masks either. Even the manufacturers own literature pointed out a number of innate problems, one of which was, that if you attempted to swim whilst wearing the mask you soon found out that you couldn’t get enough air to breathe. In short if you got in to difficulty in the water and needed to swim for safety, you were going to have to remove the mask or risk suffocating. The full-face design also risks CO2 build up and if it leaks, vision and breathing are compromised simultaneously. As we said in posts, these are rather serious flaws in a mask that is marketed at people who don’t like getting their faces wet! Swimming, breathing and being able to see simultaneously are, you’d think, rather important for snorkellers and any mask that compromises all three so readily was, in our opinion, a pretty poor product all round.

Judging by the comments we received, a great number of people had suffered serious problems whilst using full-face masks. One comment, however, stood out. That comment came from Guy Cooper. Guy’s wife tragically died whilst snorkelling in Pohoiki Bay, Hawaii. Now, we could write a dozen posts about what happened that day and a dozen more about Guy’s tenacious search for answers but we’d rather he told you himself.  Below is the address that Guy gave to The State Drowning and Aquatic Injury Prevention Advisory Committee, Honolulu, Hawaii on March 15^th this year and has kindly permitted us to use. We have not edited the address or amended it in anyway. This is Guy’s story and these are his words.

I’m here to talk about snorkeling.  I have to preface that by saying I’m by no means an expert.  In fact, I’ve never been snorkeling.  So, I’ll explain what brought me here.  Many of you already know my story.

I lost my wife to a snorkeling accident this past September.  Soon as I got word, I caught the first flight over here.  This is my third trip since then, trying to understand what happened— visiting the site, speaking and corresponding with police, 1st responders, ocean safety officials, doctors, divers and the woman who managed to get Nancy to shore.

Pohoiki Bay was calm that day.  Nancy went in the water with a buddy.  As was her habit, she floated passively on the surface so as not to “scare the little fishes”.  After about 30 minutes her buddy left her side to dive off the rocks.  (He should never have done that.)  Returning to the rocks after one dive, he realized he couldn’t spot Nancy.  After some minutes of scanning the water, he heard and saw a woman surfer across the Bay waving her arms and yelling for help.  A few young guys jumped in and helped her and Nancy to shore.  CPR was performed, but she was gone.  She had been in the water less than an hour, in Hawaii less than 24 hours.

A little background.  Nancy was 70 years old.  She was not a novice snorkeler. nor a stranger to snorkeling Hawaiian waters.  She swam laps nearly everyday.  We had just hiked all over the hills of southern Italy.  We enjoyed biking, hiking, snow shoeing, kayaking.  As a young girl she was recruited by a professional water skiing team.  Later, she organized river-rafting trips.  She was always physically active and at home in the water. The coroner surmised she must have suffered some acute coronary event that precipitated her drowning.  He referred to a known history of ischemic heart disease.  Don’t know where that info came from.  I was never asked about her medical history nor anything else for that matter.  She had no such history, and even the physical findings of the autopsy contradict that conclusion.  There seems to be a prevalent attitude amongst some over here (Hawaii) that dead tourists were old and in the way.  To my mind, the heart attack assumption just makes the coroner’s job that much easier.

So what did go wrong? I started thinking about that new full-face snorkel mask of hers.  She was so eager to use it in Hawaii.  She tried it out a few times in the local pool before the trip. She bought it on Amazon, so I started perusing those reviews.  I was shocked to read of these masks having inherent, potentially lethal design and manufacturing flaws.  And alarmed that they were being marketed as great for beginners, and kids.  I expanded my search to various snorkeling and dive web sites and learned a lot. These masks have to be strapped tightly around the head to achieve a good seal, yet they still leak, sometimes copiously.  Valves and other structures have been reported failing.  Once they fill with water, there’s no easy, quick way to empty them.  Your mouth and nose are captive together, so there’s no escape.  You can drown in them. There are other reports of snorkelers experiencing air hunger, CO2 build-up and rapid fatigue.  So you can fall victim to dizziness, disorientation, hyperventilation, panic and loss of consciousness.  Then you drown.

My wife was found floating face up with her mask partially pulled up over her nose so that both her nose and mouth were exposed.  That tells me she was in trouble and tried to get the damn thing off, too late. I wondered if there were other reports of fatalities involving these masks.  I looked up reports of snorkeling fatalities and near drowning incidents from around the world.  That’s when I realized, my god, no one is paying any attention!  Not one mention of the gear.  My wife’s mask was just tossed in the trash.  These things could be killing others, and no one knows!  Not only are the risks unrecognized, but I could find no evidence of any independent testing or certification of these things. Wouldn’t you want to know if these masks represent a significant danger?

I started to educate myself about snorkeling in general.  I found it is not exactly the benign, lightweight activity it’s promoted as being.  Many significant physiologic stressors can come into play.  The Australians have coined the phrase Fatal Silent Snorkeling Syndrome.  The Japanese use the term Takotsubo, referred to as the “Broken Heart Syndrome”.  A study out of the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia identifies a number of inherent stressors.  Dr. Douglas Smith, from Hawaii, promotes Slow, Safe, Snorkel Breathing techniques to counter some of the ventilation issues arising from the sport.  The whole subject of snorkeling physiology begs further study.

So on one hand you have an activity rife with significant physical demands, then you exacerbate the situation by adding a new piece of inadequately vetted equipment with inherent design flaws.  A perfect storm. Look, I’m aware of the demographic considerations.  Hawaiian tourists, like the population in general, aren’t getting any younger.  Many are probably over-extending themselves in this age of “active lifestyles”, and Viagra….

That’s all the more reason to fashion a robust, realistic tourist education effort that both alerts the public to the challenges of snorkeling and teaches them the skills they need to ameliorate the risks.  That will help ensure that the tourists return from their vacation healthy and happy and pass on their positive experiences to others. All I ask is that you give serious consideration to the role of these new masks.  Devote the resources to collect the data.  Incorporate the data in incident reports and data bases.  Look for trends.  Make the coroner aware of their use.  Secure the gear as evidence.  Only then will you truly be able to assess the risk.

Some have said there just aren’t many of these new masks out there yet.  No action needed.  I suspect there will be more. It could be that my wife’s death represents the very first fatality involving a full-face mask.  Well, one’s enough for me.

Nancy Peacock’s death was a tragedy but there have been tragedies before. Hawaii has a notorious reputation for snorkelling related drownings and one more fatality in those sparkling waters could easily have been passed over were it not for one man who kept asking questions. Since Guy gave that address, Lifeguards in Maui have begun tracking equipment worn by snorkellers who drown in their jurisdiction and other counties of Hawaii appear poised to do the same. Health officials and safety experts in Hawaii are looking at collecting the data necessary to better evaluate full-face masks and possibly even conduct controlled scientific studies on it and we’re sure that it won’t be long before other officials from other nations start doing the same. Guy Cooper may, single-handedly, brought about the biggest change in snorkelling safety ever!

The full story and further material can be found on the Civil Beat website - follow the links. Again we liked to thank Guy for letting us publish his address in full. We wish you all the best Guy and as snorkellers, we thank you.

Guy Coopers story

Counties to track equipment in snorkelling deaths

Fatal Silent Snorkeling Syndrome Facebook page

Arrggh! The Intova’s Gone Pffttt. So We’re Gonna Need Another Action Camera And That’s Giving Us A Headache

Intova Edge X

The Intova Edge X was made for the water. It was the first completely sealed action camera, it was waterproof to 60 metres and was protected by a tough rubber armoured shell. It also had everything that any water fanatic or adrenalin junkie would want including GPS, WiFi and an array of other technical things to excite the amateur underwater photographer. It was great and we liked it so much we bought one. Now though, our beloved little armoured friend has developed the rather irritating problem of freezing up. Yep, just when that huge barracuda came into the view or that massive shoal of fish headed straight for the lens, the Intova decided to throw a wobbly and froze. Now, due to the fact that the camera’s warranty had expired, the only way to solve this problem was to open it up and carry out a reset procedure or hurl it hard against a wall. Neither though, are very practical solutions when in the water. So as we begin planning our trips for 2017 we’ve come to the conclusion that we are going to have to relegate the Edge X to a minor supporting role and give the lead to another camera but which one?

A few years ago buying an action camera was easy; you walked into a shop, asked for an action camera and were promptly sold a small box called a GoPro. Nowadays though, there is so much choice out there, it is hard to know which camera is best. Fortunately however, there is a font of knowledge within easy reach. Just a few clicks on the old trusty computer and hey presto the interwebby gods will present you with a cornucopia of reviews. In fact, there are so many reviews out there you might start to think that you are the only person on the planet who hasn’t looked at, compared, tested and studiously examined every inch of every camera that has ever been made. Which presents another problem. Which review do you believe? Is the reviewer really independent or are they being paid to review the camera, in which case was it an advertisement masquerading as a review? And, perhaps more importantly, does the review actually help the decision making process?

Well let’s put it the to the test. We’re going to look for a new action camera and buy the one the reviews say are the best. As we liked the Intova Edge X so much, we should probably start with the Edge X’s direct replacement the X2. The X2 is a striking looking camera and if looks alone were what we were going for then we would already have hit the add-to-cart button on this one. But looks aren’t everything are they? So what do the reviews say. All the reviews highlighted the X2’s inbuilt flash/video light and the fact that it can take 16mp photos as opposed to the 12mp that is common for this class of camera. The X2 also has a 2 inch LCD screen so you can see what you’re shooting, is waterproof to 60m and like the Edge X is surrounded by an almost indestructible rubberised shell. Priced at £300, give or take a few pounds, the X2 isn’t the most expensive camera out there and every review seems to be in agreement: The X2 is a small, rugged camera designed to go anywhere and capture that “adventure”. In short, everyone seemed to like it. Which doesn’t really help does it? Then there is the niggling thought that although Intova have added a light and made the camera better looking, the software issue that affects the Edge X may also affect the X2. And, it will probably affect it exactly one day after the warranty expires too. That said though, we like Intova and as all the reviews confirm, the X2 is a well-designed camera that seems to suit our needs. But, before we calm our niggling doubts over the software with some cold beer and part with £300, is there anything else out there that’s better?

 

Intova X2

Well Intova isn’t the only manufacturer we like. Last year we bought an Olympus TG-4 and we liked it a lot. Now Olympus has launched its own action camera onto the market. It’s called the Tracker and unlike most manufacturers in the sector, Olympus have not decided to follow the GoPro box design but have gone for a smaller version of a traditional camcorder design. Being part of the Tough range of cameras the Tracker is freezeproof, crushproof, shockproof and waterproof to 30m. The Tracker has an inbuilt light for shooting in low light and has an auto detect feature that automatically senses it’s underwater and switches to optimal mode for shooting beneath the waves. It also has a wide angle lens and one of the fastest shutter speeds of any camera in its class, which means it’s great for action shots. The Tracker looks good too. So what do the reviews make of this camera? Well, everyone liked it. They really did, it got a 5/5 in some ratings and depending on the retailer, you can pick up a Tracker for less than £270, which makes it cheaper than the X2. The Tracker also has 4k video resolution unlike the X2. However, the X2 has 16mp resolution whilst the Tracker has only 8mp. Now some reviews pointed out that the Tracker’s LCD screen only flips out rather than flipping out and rotating. Now if we had a problem with flipping screens not rotating then this could be deal breaker but we don’t. So there you have it. We are going to push the X2 aside and buy a Tracker. After all, the reviews all say it’s great. But then they said the X2 was great as well didn’t they? Err… This is getting confusing. Maybe we should look around a bit more. See what else is available.

Olympus TG-Tracker with pistol grip

After all, we haven’t even considered the elephant in the room yet have we? We are of course talking about the GoPro Hero 5 Black. The Hero 5 sits like a smug cat atop the ever-growing pile of GoPro imitators that exist in the action camera sector, according to some reviews at least. Now we have never really liked GoPro’s. We never liked the boxiness, the lack of a view screen, the unbelievably expensive range of accessories and the sense that if we ever bought one we’d have to grow our hair long, dye it blonde, take up snowboarding, start using the word “radical” in everyday conversation, change our name to Tristan Hansard-Faffyman and become friends with Gareth “I own a fairtrade coffee shop” Beardybloke. You know what we mean here. GoPros' were for Lycra-clad nutcases on overpriced bicycles or baggy trousered snowboarders that hurtle down the slopes knocking everyone else over. They were not for snorkellers, freedivers or bubble blowers. But GoPro seemed to have picked up on this and made the GoPro Hero 5 more appealing to people who don’t shout all the time. Firstly it has an inbuilt 2 inch LCD screen so you can frame the shot. It has 4k video resolution, shoots 12mp photos, has an easy to use touch screen menu and comes complete with all the usual accoutrements of WiFi, GPS, video stabilisation and the rest. What makes this model really appealing is the fact that it is waterproof to 10m without a separate housing, making it perfect for snorkelling. Anyway what did the reviews say? Well, rather disappointingly, they all loved the Hero 5. Praise was universally gushing and it even got 5/5 on some reviews. People even praised the box it came in. It’s like wanting a sports car isn’t it? If you can afford a Ferrari why buy a Porsche. Likewise, if you can afford an expensive camera, why buy anything other than a GoPro Hero 5. Unless of course you realise that the GoPro 6 is due out later this year and in the world of shouty Tristan’s and lycra-clad cyclists, owning a 5 when a 6 is available is like getting your coffee from McDonalds rather than Beardyblokes Shangri-La Native Coffee Emporium. It’s just not fashionable and not being fashionable means that Tristan’s sister Jemima, nor any of her friends, will want to sleep with you. Yet the Hero 5 is still very popular and there is no doubting the quality of the video or photographs that are produced, so maybe it’s time to swallow our pride and join the shouty set. After all, all the reviews recommend it don’t they? So it is the one for us.

Buy one of these and Jemima might sleep with you

But wait. Maybe our prejudices run too deep and maybe we’re happy to be the only people in the pub who haven’t slept with Jemima and her friends so surely there must be another camera out there that stands up to the GoPro? What about the SeaLife Micro 2 HD or the new DC1400 or the DC1200 elite? What about the Nikon KeyMission 170 and then there are the cheaper versions like the Veho Muvi series, the Garmin Virbin or even the iSaw Edge? What do the reviews say about them? Well, that’s the problem really. All the reviews like all of them. So we’re back to square one really. We want to buy a camera but are not sure which is the best so maybe we should ignore the reviews altogether and just set some parameters.

The camera should be waterproof without a housing. It should be easy to operate underwater. It should be able to take 12mp images or above. It should be compatible with Intova and GoPro clips and accessories and it should be less than £500. Right, that’s the Intova X2 then. Oh, but wait, that doesn’t have 4K! Well it’ll be the Hero 5 then… But wait, do we all want to change our name to Tristan? It’s the Olympus Tracker then. But wait that doesn’t do 12mp and the screen doesn’t rotate and maybe that will be a problem. Ohh…. This is becoming ridiculous… We’re going to need to read some more reviews. Visit some more photography sites and do an in-depth comparison. Barman, we’re going to need more beer… Or maybe… We can get the Edge X fixed.

Right… Camera repair shops; which is the best one?

Is this any good? How should we know?

Goodbyeeeeee. Sport Diver UK Chucks The Wetsuit Into The Corner And Heads Off Into The Sunset.

If you have not already heard… Then Brace yourself, for we bring you shocking news. Sport Diver UK magazine; the official PADI journal for Europe and the Middle East, a stalwart of the diving media for decades, is to cease publication. The final edition is already on the shelves. No doubt, like us, you are stunned at this news and are currently starring wide-eyed at the computer screen, mouth agape, perhaps with a stream of dribble running down your chin and dripping messily onto your keyboard. We know, we know. A world without Sport Diver UK! A world without the musings of Mark Evans, Will Harrison, Paul Rose or Martin Edge, how will you survive? Who will explain to you that the Red Sea has the best diving in the world or that Thailand has the best diving in the world or that the Bahamas has the best diving in the world or that Mauritius has the best diving in the world? Where will you get all your medical advice from, now that the Dive Doctor has packed up his stethoscope and gone into private practice? How will you know what to wear without Scubalab telling you which wetsuit is pre-eminent and which baseball cap is de rigueur this season? And, how will we all find out what new and inexpensive diving course the PADI organisation has developed to expand all the world’s diving knowledge and, more importantly, its dive badge collection without this glossy-paged magazine.

Okay. None of you are thinking this are you? You’ve probably never even heard of Mark Evans or his cohorts. And, even if you did, you didn’t really care. You get your medical advice from your own doctor rather than a column in a monthly magazine after all. You don’t care that the best diving in the world could be found in the exact same place that Sport Diver happened to be visiting that month and no doubt think that Scubalab is Aquaman’s secret hideout rather than an equipment-testing column. News of the sudden demise of the magazine that Mark Evans spent eighteen years of his life editing will probably elicit nothing more amongst the bubble-blowing masses than a gentle raised eyebrow or the shrug of an uncaring shoulder. Which may explain why the magazine has hit the rocks in the first place. 

Now, as far as we are aware the owners of Sport Diver UK, Bonnier International Media (who only bought the title back in 2013), have not been forthcoming in their reasons for ending the magazines existence. Even in his final editors letter, Mark Evans, doesn’t really explain the underlying rational behind the decision to cease publication of what he himself calls a “major player in the marketplace”. And yet, in that final letter, the reasons become all to clear.

For starters, as we’ve rather heavily hinted at, the vast majority of you water junkies and bubble-blowers out there didn’t give a rats hairy bottom about Sport Diver and we suspect you had good reason for this. A quick trek through the online diving forums and you get a feeling for why the magazine ran out of air.

Here are a few snippets from those forums:

You see gear reviews on gear that is either mediocre or overpriced. You also see things like "top 10 wetsuits" where the really good wetsuits aren't even listed. I think it's mostly just advertising. 

Even with reviews, you'll notice, you won't find anything negative about anything. Print editorial is too afraid to piss off a manufacturer who may pull advertisement funds. Though, it is also relevant for online publishing. Scuba is such a small niche that there are only a handful of manufacturers with deep pockets. You don't want to tell potential customers to stay away from some of their products; it is not what companies pay for. Thus, you get all kinds of review articles that are so bland, feel like whatever you buy, you won't go wrong. There is simply no critique anymore other than on forums by private entities.

I'm just surprised people haven't got how much they are being conned into paying for a catalogue every month. Some of the articles are so obviously just filler.

I stopped reading it regularly when the percentage of content about overseas diving went over 90%. I know there's not a massive amount to be written about UK diving, but not everyone can afford to travel overseas for dive trips all the time.

I was a subscriber but constantly wondered why. It was just an excuse for free jollys for the editor and assistant. Content was poor, and was miles behind Diver Magazine in every department. A new editor who actually gave a monkeys about turning out a decent read may have worked wonders.

Well, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the general consensus was that Sport Diver UK was getting things badly wrong. They focused on pleasing advertisers rather than readers. Features became irrelevant fillers, equipment tests became bland and uncritical whilst more and more pages were turned over to advertisements. The result was the readership turned off and without readers; advertisers had no one to sell to. Rather ironic isn’t it that the desire to make money from advertisers rather than from sales of the magazine would deliver the deathblow.  We could of course be wrong; Sport Diver might just have a great respect for its readers, but before you decide that let’s go back to that final letter from the Editor, Mark Evans, entitled “So long and thanks for all the fish”.

Now we don’t know about anyone else but what we took away from that letter was that Mark’s and Sport Diver UK’s greatest achievement as a whole was holding a party for all the “movers and shakers” in the diving industry. A party that was so good it became an annual occurrence and in the last two years became a “lavish event” for a select few hundred with musical entertainment and the “showmanship of Monty Halls and Andy Torbet”. Err… Wow. Looks like Mark and friends really have a lot of fish to miss.

Anyone who’s a fan of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy books (as Mark Evans clearly is) will no doubt know that the Hitchhikers Guide was an electronic travel guide originally published by Megadodo publications. Megadodo was an organisation that regularly relocated its editorial offices for reasons of climate, local hostility or tax concerns, had little time for it’s readership and finally lost all credibility with said readership when it relocated to a resort planet. Maybe that’s what Mark and the other members of the Sport Diving team thought they were: Megadodo employees. Maybe it really was just one long party of diving, cocktail sipping and going to industry parties with the occasional chore of writing something down and publishing it now and again. If so, then the gravy train has finally hit the buffers and Mark and his cohorts will have to sober up and seek alternative employment but who can blame them for having a party for as long as they did? Apart, maybe, from all those Sport Diver subscribers, who are probably not going to be all that impressed with the “it’s been a blast for us” message. If, on the other hand, Mark and his team (and there have been a lot over the years) truly were interested in delivering a quality media product to the diving fraternity then sadly they have failed and that failure should be a lesson to all others who are thinking on embarking on such a business model. Yes you can make money from advertising but for god sake, make sure you have a readership to advertise to!

So Sport Diver UK wasn’t very good and has paid the price for its mediocrity but why, you may be asking, are we so bothered about its demise? Well for one thing, it’s a PADI publication. Which means it has had us in fits of laughter over the years (although probably not intended) and we will miss the giggles. For another it has given us endless material to poke fun at, from editorials that contradict themselves and the “you’ll love this new piece of equipment” reviews to the endless recycled features about Egypt, Thailand and Mauritius et al. But there is another reason. Sport Diver has been around for years in one guise or another and like a lot of things that have been around for so long it becomes familiar, it becomes comfortable. Sport Diver was like the old regular in the local bar. The one who sits in the same spot and always seems to be there mumbling to himself. Yes, he bores you to death with his endless anecdotes, often talks nonsense and never ever turns down a drink but without him the bar seems oddly different, less recognisable. Despite its many, many flaws, we’ll miss Sport Diver UK, we really will.

On the upside though there is still Diver Magazine. In March’s edition, a guy called Steve Warren argues that when PADI entered the UK it was more professional than BSAC, particularly when it came to charging fees for training. Steve goes on to say that the drive for cheaper training and the subsequent failure to charge high fees is endangering the quality of training and destroying the livelihoods of trainers; although he then argues that PADI are the biggest culprit for doing this. It’s an interesting piece and has provoked some long guffaws over the beer. So goodbye Sport Diver UK and thanks for all the laughs. Hello Diver Magazine, we look forward to all the laughs to come.

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Update 6th March 2017

Just as we were lamenting the demise of Sport Diver UK along with Mark Evans and his crew, it appears that our laments are premature. Sport Diver UK has morphed into Scuba Diver Magazine. Now we don't know how much the magazine will cost but the website promises unbiased reviews, which will be a change. Another break with the past is that the magazine will not be affiliated to any single training organisation but will cover them all - which sounds good. The website states: 

scubadivermag.com is the ultimate online destination whether you are a scuba diver, technical diver or freediver. Whatever agency you trained with, and whatever your level of experience, you will find plenty to enrich and expand your diving horizons.

Which does beg a question. If the website is free to access, why would you buy the magazine?  Still, it's nice to know that Mark's partying days aren't over just yet.... Cheers Mark