Rob Stewart’s Rebreather Ninja In The Dock

On a cold February night, in an unremarkable London pub an argument broke out. The argument was long, heated and at times rather abusive. One bloke, called Bob, even walked out saying he just couldn’t reason with the others. He hasn’t been seen since. So what was the argument about? Well it was about the sad death of Rob Stewart, he of Sharkwater fame. There were seemingly so many questions surrounding the events leading up to his death.

Why did Rob undertake a third deep dive of the day using a rebreather when he was relatively inexperienced with rebreathers and had never made such deep dives before? Why was the instructor the first out of the water rather than Rob (the student)? How did no one notice when Rob sunk below the surface again and “disappeared”? Why did it take so long to find his body considering it was eventually found 300 metres from his last known location? The questions just kept on coming and because no one had any answers everyone was forced to speculate and speculation leads to people called Bob making rude gestures and walking out.

Now it seems that those questions and many more might just get answered. The family of Rob Stewart have filed a lawsuit against Horizon Diving Adventures of Key Largo, Florida, Add Helium of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and a certain Peter Sotis who ran Add Helium. You may be familiar with the story of Rob Stewart’s final dive but in case you are not here’s a quick recap. Just before Christmas 2016 Rob Stewart posted on Facebook that he was “looking for a rebreather ninja mid-January in Florida for some 300ft dives to film for Sharkwater 2… Let me know if you’re interested and super-capable”

There is something troubling about the word “ninja” to us. Perhaps nowadays “ninja” means some technical wizard or superhuman that work wonders but to us a ninja is a shadowy Japanese assassin who didn’t like attacking people head on but instead preferred to attack when they were most vulnerable – when they were eating, asleep or on the toilet. 

Whatever Rob Stewart meant by the term, the ninja he got was Peter Sotis, owner and training director of Add Helium. Rob must already have known Peter, as he trained on Rebreathers at Add Helium back in August that year. Add Helium claims to have educated “more rebreather divers, instructors and instructor trainers than anyone else… Period” Peter Sotis allegedly regards himself as a leader in rebreather diving if not the leader and says his team “consistently pushes the limits as they explore deep walls in excess of 600ft” It could be argued that Peter was definitely pushing the limits on the day in question. Peter and Rob had already made two (hopefully planned) dives on the Queen Nassau, that lies in over 200ft of water off the Florida Keys. where Rob hoped to film the endangered Sawfish. The third dive however, seems to have been unplanned as it is alleged that the only reason that dive was undertaken was to re-cover a $15 grappling hook which had been placed on the wreck and was attached to a surface buoy that marked the location of the dive site. It was on this dive that Peter and Rob encountered difficulties. Accounts say that on surfacing Peter Sotis (the instructor remember) was first to board the boat, promptly collapsed and required urgent oxygen therapy. It was whilst everyone was attending to the instructor that the student, Rob Stewart, slipped back beneath the waves and sank to his untimely death. Three days later, following a search that encompassed miles upon miles of ocean, Rob’s body was finally located a mere 300 metres from where he had originally surfaced.

At the time, very few people knew much about Peter Sotis and it is possible that if Rob had known a little more about his “rebreather ninja” he wouldn’t have been that eager to push the limits with him. For Peter Sotis seems to have a rather murky past. He is, for one thing, a convicted armed robber and is under investigation by the U.S. Dept of Commerce for selling Chinese made Scuba Cylinders with faked CE certificates. Perhaps worse still, Peter Sotis is under investigation by the FBI and U.S. Dept for Homeland Security for allegedly selling military spec rebreathers to Libyan Militants despite being advised not to by U.S. Authorities. There is conflicting information regarding whether the equipment in question really was military grade or whether the Libyans were terrorists but Peter’s own business partner, Shawn Robotka, also filed a lawsuit against him alleging that the sale was illegal, contravened U.S. arms embargoes and that Peter Sotis went ahead with the sale despite knowing that it was in fact, unlawful and that the buyer was a known militant in the region. Reports also say that a disgruntled shareholder has pulled his money from the Add Helium bank account forcing the company's closure. Peter Sotis and several other directors of Add Helium have now filed for bankruptcy. Which suggests that there will be little left to pay the Stewart Family should the court find in their favour. But then that is beside the point. As the Stewart family have made clear, this is not about compensation, it’s about safety.

Rob Stewart's death was clearly preventable and by being so it is all the more tragic. But perhaps there is a silver lining in the cloud. Rob Stewart wasn’t just another tourist that nobody had ever heard of. He was an accomplished SCUBA diver, photographer and world famous documentary maker. And it is that fame that will bring the ensuing court case to attention of the world.

There are going to be a lot of people squirming uncomfortably in chairs soon and not all of those will be facing the lawyers in court. As the case unfolds a great many questions are going to be asked about the diving industry itself; about rebreathers, their use by sport divers and the whole training, licensing and regulation of those who claim to be diving instructors or even diving ninjas.  For years we have been saying that there are far too many idiots in the diving industry, far too many charlatans and far too many self-appointed experts who want to push the limits. And for years people like Peter Sotis keep proving our point and yet the idiots still prosper and the deaths continue to rack up. Rob Stewart, one of the worlds greatest advocates for sharks, has become one more name on the diving worlds long list of needless deaths. How much longer will it be before the diving industry realises it has a bloody big problem?

Links: 

Lawsuit story; watch the videos to see the Stewart family Lawyer outline the case

Stewart Lawsuit

Shawn Robotka Lawsuit

So What Happened With That Then?

Have you ever been sat down the pub with your mates and started wondering what happened to Bob or Ben or Dave? You know, that bloke who used to be part of the group but no one sees much of him now. Did he ever make it in the world of IT or did he go back to being a Landscape Gardener in Hull? Did he ever get to trek across the Andes or Andorra or wherever it was he was going to trek across? God he went on and on about that didn't he? And of course did the antibiotics ever clear up that embarrassing little itch he had? You know, the thing that made Debbie leave him.... Or was she called Diane?

Anyway today we are going to do a blog version of wondering about whatever happened to Bob and have a look back on some or our posts from the last year or so and ask, did anything ever come of that?

Bethany Farrell

We start on a very serious and very disturbing note. Back in 2015 we wrote a piece about diving safety called Who's Really Looking After You. You can read the original piece here. In that post we discussed three separate incidents where people had died whilst diving. All of the incidents were depressingly sad and should never have happened but one of them stands out for one very good reason. Bethany Farrell had never dived before, ever! She was travelling in Australia and was undertaking an “Introductory Dive” with Wings Diving Adventures. This was supposed to be a chance for her and others like her to experience what SCUBA diving was all about in a safe and controlled way. Bethany didn't get to experience the wonders of SCUBA diving though. Somehow she became separated from the instructor and despite the fact that there were many other divers in the area and observers on boats, Bethany vanished. She was later found on the sea bed and died from drowning. At the time a number of people took to the TripAdvisor website to criticise the way Wings Diving Adventures staff acted during and after the incident. Now, over a year later a UK coroners inquest into that tragedy has recorded a narrative verdict that highlights significant failings in the way the company conducted itself and legal proceedings by the Australian authorities are ongoing. 

Interestingly the instructor at the centre of the incident, Fiona McTavish, has been expelled by PADI however the company itself hasn't. Which begs the question was Fiona McTavish thrown to the wolves as PADI has done before (check this link out if you doubt us) or can we expect that PADI will soon be expelling the company as well? The last few years have not been good for the reputation of the recreational diving industry with deaths, accidents, divers being left in the ocean, sea life being harassed etc and things don't look like they are going to get better anytime soon. PADI for example, has launched its own freediving courses, where people who know nothing about freediving are taught to hold their breath for many, many minutes by people who didn't know anything about freediving themselves a few months ago. Then there is PADI's “Zero to Hero” program, which, apparently, is an accelerated training program which turns complete novices into diving instructors in a matter of months. Oh dear, you really can hear the papers being shuffled in coroners courts everywhere can't you? Is it just us, but does no one in the diving certification business learn lessons at all? 

Now as we said there are still legal proceedings against Wings Diving Adventures (who are still claiming to keep you safe and smiling on their website) underway in Australia so this sad saga still hasn't been concluded and it is worth noting that a coroners court cannot attribute blame to any individual and cannot imply a criminal or civil liability. The Coroner must use the evidence heard to decide who the deceased person was, where they died, when they died, and what the cause of their death was. By expelling Fiona Mctavish from their organisation however, PADI does seem to have made it clear where they think blame lies, but in the end when the legal channels have finally been exhausted, we don't think PADI or the company itself will come out of this looking very good either. In general, Bethany Farrell's death should be more than a wake up call. It should be a bloody great Klaxon sounding in the offices of every diving certification company headquarters everywhere. Every PADI member, every diving centre and company staff member should remember her name. Bethany Farrell was on an “introductory dive” for gods sake. Her death should never have happened and we hope and pray that for once the “lessons learned” will be heeded because this must never happen again.

Riz Smith and those short things

On a lighter note, does anyone remember Riz Smith? Oh come on, Riz Smith (cool name, cool dude), he's the guy who was going to save the oceans by making boardshorts out of plastic. Well, we are pleased to announce that despite our serious doubts (read them here and here) Riz really does seem to have cracked it. At least we think he has, it's difficult to tell. We know Riz is making baordshorts out of plastic but we can't tell if it's the nice clean sort of plastic you get from the bottled water trade or that nasty, dirty plastic you get from the bottled water trade when those bottles have been plucked from the ocean. Confused? Yeah, so are we. Anyway here's what Ali Murrell, who is one of the co-founders of Riz Smith's boardshorty enterprise says:

Our current fabric has been carefully sourced to give us exactly what we need; great feel; quick drying and, importantly, made from 100% recycled polyester, rPET as it is known. rPET is essentially a re-composition of the same plastic (PET) that you find in most clear drinking bottles. Every day, tonnes of bottles are recycled and shipped to Taiwan where our factory then creates the rPET yarn and finally our fabric specification. Whilst it is great that you can recycle bottles into fabric there are still very high percentages of bottles that never make it into recycling programmes, either finding their way to landfill or entering the litter stream, into waterways and ultimately the seas, oceans and beaches. Our aim is to divert and collect these bottles to create our fabric in a fully traceable and circular process and ideally do this closer to home.

Err... Okay Ali, but are you making shorts out of plastic plucked from the sea?

We have always supported the Marine Conservation Society and known for a while that plastic bottles are finding their way to the sea and landing on our beaches in ever increasing numbers, but it dawned on me when I realised that the actual cause of the problem was literally sitting on our doorsteps. Seeing all the plastic litter in and around my neighbourhood in London, knowing where this is likely to end up, made me think that there must be something positive that can be done to reduce and ultimately prevent this situation from getting any worse.

Yes that's great Ali, but are you making shorts out of plastic plucked from the sea?

Initially I thought that it would be the condition of the bottles. It turns out though that this is the least of our issues!  Unfortunately the sea and the tides are fickle things and it is very hard to predict where or when a given beach will be heavily littered or not. We know that the bottles are out there based on the great work of organisations such as the Marine Conservation Society and their litter surveys, but being in the right place at the right time is a real challenge. We have relied on the amazing scores of volunteer groups around the country to help get the project off the ground and they have been so supportive; this does leave us with the challenge of co-ordinating all their efforts into one seamless process. Ultimately we want to design a system that can work on a commercial scale!

Oh for gods sake Ali, please just tell us if you're actually making boardshorts out of plastic plucked from the ocean or is this just a gimmick?

To be fair we have jumbled up Ali's answers and taken them out of context for a bit of fun. However, if anyone can read Ali's Q and A on his websites journal and figure out if Ali, Riz and the other cool surfer dudes are actually making boardshorts out of ocean plastic, can you let us know because we haven't a clue if he is or not....

Sharkwater the sequel

Finally, did anyone read our piece on Sharkwater Extinction?

Sharkwater Extinction is a new project by filmmaker Rob Stewart and is described as “a quest to find 80 million missing sharks, revealing a multi billion-dollar scandal that implicates us all in the greatest wildlife massacre ever known.”

Rob Stewart was funding the project through Kickstarter and we are pleased to say he not only reached his target of $150,000 but surpassed it. You can still support the film by donating via Rob's Kickstarter page. We went for the $175 “thank you” in the credits and we look forward to seeing our clubs name in the film credits next year.

Now then, does anyone remember Bob? Bald bloke, buck teeth! Oh come on, you must remember Bob? He had that embarrassing thing on his wossiname......

Spencer's Snorkelling Safari Tours. They Kill Tourists, Don't They?

Hanauma Bay

For some reason, Hawaii is fast becoming a watery graveyard for snorkellers. Although snorkellers drown with all too depressing frequency in Belize, Florida and on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, more people drown whilst snorkelling in Hawaii than anywhere else in the world. And a lot of people have become very concerned. In fact, not so long ago, spurred on by the sheer number of people dying in the ocean, one Hawaiian politician even proposed making it illegal for snorkels to be sold or hired without safety valves. The reason for this proposed law was the fact that some snorkellers who had drowned on the paradise island had aspirated water through their snorkels. A safety valve, common on most snorkels, would therefore prevent this and by consequence the snorkeller wouldn't drown. 

 

Cobblers! You might think, and you'd be right. The addition of a safety valve would certainly do no harm, but the idea that so many people were drowning because they were aspirating water through their snorkel was fanciful at best.

In fact we pointed this out at the time in our post“Purging The Danger Out Of Snorkelling”.

What? You didn't read it! Shame on you.

Anyway, recriminations aside, the point we made in that post was that making it illegal to sell or hire a snorkel without a safety valve was missing the point by a very, very long way. 

 

In order to explain why we think this we first have to introduce you to a few characters who sadly infect the world of snorkelling and diving. The first is a type of diving instructor/divemaster that we call Brad. Now regular readers, and at the moment that clearly doesn't include you, will know that we have a particularly strong hatred for Brad.

Brad is a moron that equates being a sport diver with being a member of an elite special forces unit. Brad likes to wear lots of badges, works out at the gym every day, shouts abuse at newbies and harangues his students for regularly not making the grade and if you have the misfortune to go diving with him, he will get you killed. In the world of snorkelling however, there are no Brads. Instead there are what we call Spencers'.

Spencer doesn't wear badges or shout a lot, he can't be bothered with all that. He likes to wear bright surfer style t-shirts and shorts, never bothers to wash his hair and is so laid back it's often difficult to ascertain if he's conscious. Just like Brad though, Spencer will get you killed. He won't mean too, it's just that he's an idiot and unfortunately for tourists everywhere, he's an idiot that runs a snorkelling tour company. So let's go and meet him.

Tourist: “Hello, I'd like to book a snorkelling tour, but I'm a little bit worried as I am not a very good swimmer.”

Spencer: “No problem Mate, it's only snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel.'

Tourist: “Right. So being a poor swimmer is not a problem then.”

Spencer: “Of course not, In fact you don't even have to be able to swim. It's snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel.”

Tourist: “That's great, the kids will be pleased. They're quite young you see and still can't swim.”

Spencer: “Bring 'em along mate. The more the merrier. I think I've got some kiddies masks out the back somewhere.”

Tourist: “What about my wife? She's paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. Will she be able to snorkel?”

Spencer: “Absolutely. Anyone can snorkel. Will just stick her in a life jacket. We've got some special snorkelling jackets somewhere, they'll keep her face down in the water rather than head up. That'll stop her head bobbing up see. She'll get to see more then.”

Tourist: “Oh great. I've got my parents with me as well. They're quite old and my father has a heart condition. Would they be okay to snorkel?”

Spencer: “Of course they would. It's only snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel, I mean it's not like diving. Now that's dangerous – do you want to try diving by the way.”

Tourist: “Errr... Didn't you just say that was dangerous?”

Spencer: “Well it's more dangerous that snorkelling I suppose. But I got a mate over at Ocean Commando Diving Tours. His name's Brad and he reckons he can teach anyone to dive in ten minutes – you don't even have to know how to snorkel.”

Tourist: “Err.. Maybe another time. I think I'll just stick to the snorkelling for now.”

Spencer: “Well fair enough. Your loss. Right here's some fins, a few masks and a couple of snorkels. That'll be three hundred bucks – for an extra twenty I'll throw in a six pack of beer and for an extra fifty I'll even come with you.”

And there you have it, in a short imaginary conversation with Spencer, you can see the real reason why so many people drown while snorkelling. It's easy. Anyone can do it. You don't even need to be able to swim. Pre-existing medical conditions don't matter either, after all it's just snorkelling. All you have to do is float on the surface and look down – how hard can that be?

What? You don't believe that snorkelling tour operators would take non-swimmers snorkelling? I'm afraid you'd be wrong about that. In fact most of that imaginary conservation was not that imaginary at all! We just perused the web pages of snorkelling tour companies based in Hawaii, Belize and Australia, looked at there FAQ's page and cobbled together some of their answers to some very basic questions. Have a look at the Q&A's below. All are taken from genuine snorkelling tour operator's websites. Note most of the sites are based in countries that use American spelling; so snorkelling becomes snorkeling.

Do you have to be able to swim to snorkel?

Actually you DO NOT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SWIM in order to snorkel with us. Seriously! We offer floatation devices like snorkel belts that will keep you afloat without you even having to do anything. No swimming skills required!

I am a weak swimmer and have never snorkeled before... Can I still do a snorkeling tour?

Yes you can do a snorkeling tour with us. We’ve had non-swimmers and non-snorkellers become happy first time swimmers and first time snorkellers. We have life vest that a weak swimmer/non snorkeller can put on, around them and that will give them sufficient buoyancy to stay afloat and have an awesome snorkel experience. Be sure to inform us of this so we can speak to you and keep an extra eye on you when you are in the water.. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance… we are at your service.

I am not a strong swimmer and my wife doesn't swim at all. Is this something we can do?

Definitely! All you do to snorkel is float on the surface and look down at the beauty below. You might be surprised at how buoyant you are in salt water. It’s quite different than a lake or a pool. We also have plenty of flotation devices such as snorkel vests and foam pool noodles for extra floatation to put you at ease so that you can enjoy the view. Standing on the ladder is a great place to start. Once you feel comfortable, you can paddle off.

I have never snorkeled before. Can you teach me?

Our speciality! We are frequently recommended for beginners and non-swimmers as we specialize in small groups. Everyone on board gets lots of individual attention and help.

What if I can't swim?

Our tours are designed for non-swimmers up to experienced divers. For those who need a little extra help, no worries. Relax. We have taught thousands of people to snorkel including non swimmers, people who are afraid of the water, even paraplegics.

So there you have it. According to a lot of tour operators being a poor swimmer or not being able to swim at all are no barriers to snorkelling. Age, infirmity, heart problems? Yep they're no problem either. Anyone can snorkel. Surprisingly though, that advice flies in the face of the advice given by lifeguards, doctors and the emergency services. All of whom agree that being a strong swimmer and being comfortable in the water is a necessity if you are going to snorkel. Inexperience, an inability to swim, poor fitness or underlying medical conditions are common traits in drowning victims. Yet some snorkel tour operators still seem to ignore this. At the height of summer, with so many inexperienced snorkellers/non-swimmers in the water - fins thrashing, masks being knocked, selfie sticks prodding and poking everywhere – the risk of someone getting into difficulty and panicking are blatantly obvious. Is it any wonder then that so many people drown whilst snorkelling? 

 

Snorkelling is not as easy as you might think. It is a skill that needs to be learnt and practiced, you'll use muscles you've probably never used before, your breathing will be compromised by having to inhale and exhale via a tube. Waves and currents can drag you back and forth. Cold, fatigue and cardiac stress due to immersion in water can all have catastrophic effects. So if you are going to snorkel this summer do yourself and your family a favour, make sure you are fit enough, make sure you know how to clear your mask and can handle breathing through a snorkel and above everything else make sure you can swim. Oh and don't ever believe Spencer when he says anyone can snorkel because they can't but alas anyone can drown! 

Further reading

stand up or die Civil Beat / Hawaii's snorkelling deaths

How to not suck at snorkelling

A small selection of operators who offer snorkelling for non-swimmers, there are many more.

Caveman Snorkelling Tours

Sea Fun

Sea Quest

Four Winds

 

Charter Boats, Diving Deaths And The Shaming Of The Diving Industry

In 1998 Tom and Eileen Lonergan went for a dive on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. They never returned. The crew of the dive boat they were on simply forgot about them, leaving them alone and lost in the vast ocean. It took two days before anyone even reported them missing and by the time the search was conducted nothing was found apart from a torn piece of Eileen's rash vest. It is believed they either drowned or were eaten by sharks. You may have read about the incident or if you didn't, you may have seen the film Open Water that was based on the whole tragic affair. Following this incident new rules were introduced to ensure that dive charters carried out accurate head counts, if 10 divers go in the water then 10 divers better come out of the water. Not exactly rocket science is it. Alas it seems, the art of counting is a skill that still evades Instructors and Dive Masters (and we use that term really loosely) around the world.

Sundiver Express

For instance in 2004, a year after the release of the film, the dive charter boat Sundiver Express left a diver behind following a dive off Newport Beach, California. The Sundiver was carrying a group of 20 divers and was staged near the oil rig Eureka. The diver in question Dan Carlock, experienced difficulty equalising, and was suffering from ear pain when he surfaced about 120 metres from the dive boat. Though he attempted to swim back to the boat, his legs cramped, so he waved a yellow safety buoy and blew his whistle. No one on the vessel noticed. A Dive Master working for Venice-based Ocean Adventures marked Dan Carlock present on the dive roster, even though he was absent when the remainder of the divers returned. As strong currents were picking up, the crew decided to move to a second dive site about seven miles away. When the divers left the boat for their second dive, Carlock was once again marked on the roster, even though he was on his own, several miles away from the boat. Three hours after leaving Carlock behind, the crew finally realised he was missing. The Sundiver’s Captain called the Coast Guard to the second dive site – miles from Carlock’s actual position.

 

The Coast Guard never found Daniel. Instead, he was spotted by a fifteen-year-old boy scout on board a tallship called the Argus. The ship was taking the scouts on an excursion and had veered off course to avoid a freighter. If not for the ship’s change in direction, it's possible that Carlock would never have been found alive. We suspect that Dan has been an ardent supporter of the boy scout movement ever since.

 

6 Years after the incident, Dan Carlock was awarded $1.68 Million in compensation for post traumatic stress and the fact that he developed skin cancer as a result of the sunburn he sustained while adrift. The court originally awarded $2 Million, but this was reduced as the judge considered that Carlock was partially to blame for surfacing so far from the ship. A decision that we and I suspect a great many will consider to be a harsh judgement at best and at worst, sheer bloody lunacy. Carlock was already in distress, and was surfacing due to that distress. It would be understandable then, that his orientation might have been affected. Somewhat different we might add, from failing to hear a whistle, failing to notice a diver waving a big yellow sausage around and marking a missing man as present, not once, but twice – some Judges eh!

Still you'd imagine that the Sundiver Express team would have learnt their lesson – never again would that happen! Err... Wrong. On 29^th December 2015 the Charter left another diver behind. That morning, Laurel Silver-Valker, went diving for lobsters off the coast of Catalina Island with Sundiver Express. The boat left the dive site without realising Silver-Valker wasn’t on board. The boat returned to search for Silver-Valker, but was unable to find her and notified the Coast Guard. She has never been found. Press coverage of the incident has suggested that although a competent and experienced diver, Silver-Valker was not diving with a buddy at the time and that as she had previously worked dive-boats to fund her diving, it is unclear in what capacity she was aboard and may not have been on the diver roster. Whatever answers, to how and why Silver-Valker was left behind, might come to light during the investigation, the fact that this is not the first time that the Sundiver has been involved in such a tragedy means the whole experience is likely to be a very painful and costly one for all involved. Not least because Sundiver Express should not have been trading in the first place. According to the Orange County Register the tour company Sundiver International Inc. of Long Beach has unfiled tax returns and $3,991 in unpaid taxes, according to the Franchise Tax Board. Records show the tax board suspended Sundiver International on Feb. 1, 2012.

“When a company is suspended, they are not supposed to be engaged in any business,” Melissa Marsh, a Los Angeles attorney who helps revive suspended companies told the Orange County Register. “They are not allowed to collect any money. The banks have a right to close their accounts.” Sundiver International previously operated as Sundiver Inc., under owner Ray Arntz. Sundiver Inc. was also suspended by the Franchise Tax Board on May 1, 2008, for unfiled tax returns, state records show. So was Sundiver Charters LLC on March 3, 2014. Arntz, who’s still registered with the state as Sundiver’s president and CEO, did not respond to Orange County Register's requests for comment on the story.

There are of course some who will point out that these could be isolated incidents, exceptions that prove the rule that dive charters are very safe and that getting left behind, although a divers worst nightmare, is as likely as being struck by lightening. Well, as the Sundiver story shows lightening does strike twice, in fact it strikes an awful lot. Take a cursory glance through the diving press and online and you'll find that the diving world is surrounded by a smoky fog of lightening strikes.

In Antigua in 2007, that's nine years since the disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, two British divers were abandoned for five hours when the dive boat weighed anchor and left. The two Dive Masters and one Instructor aboard seem to have miscounted and were only made aware that 2 of the 13 divers who were supposed to be aboard were missing when the divers wives inquired about their husbands whereabouts when the boat returned to dock. Fortunately, both were rescued, although they did suffer sunburn, cuts and stings during their ordeal. The outcome however could have been very different with rescuers of the two men slamming the dive crew as “breathtakingly irresponsible”.

In 2008, and for the Dive Masters out there, that's ten years since the Lonergan incident, a British man and his American girlfriend were left stranded overnight off the Great Barrier Reef. The two divers surfaced some 200 yards from the charter boat and despite waving frantically the crew did not notice and sailed away – another apparent head count gone wrong. The pair, adrift in the darkness, clung to each other overnight. Hypothermia began to set in as did the thought of what lurked in the darkness beneath. They were rescued the following morning by helicopter, the pilot who winched them to safety commenting that “they were in surprisingly good humour”.

 

In 2011, and once again on the Great Barrier Reef an American Snorkeller was stranded 30 miles offshore when his charter boat also sailed away. Again the victim of a mistaken head count. Fortunately for Ian Cole, he managed to swim for 15 minutes to reach a another boat that was anchored nearby. 

 

Later in 2011, Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta had to cling to a buoy for two hours after surfacing from their late-afternoon dive in the Atlantic Ocean three miles from Miami and finding no trace of their boat.'We were in shock. We could easily have died,' Kline, 44, told the Miami Herald.'If night had fallen, the situation would have turned into panic.'He said they kept talking to each other throughout their ordeal 'to try to keep up our high spirits'. Mr Kline said that he initially thought there had been a medical emergency aboard the boat, which is why it was not there when he and Mr Garcia surfaced 55 minutes into the first dive after studying coral reef. He said he assumed another boat would be sent back for them. Instead, the other divers on the trip had already boarded and the boat was en route to the second dive site with the captain unaware he had left the two behind. The captain of the dive boat, Mike Beach, refused to discuss the incident with reporters, saying only: 'Everybody is OK, no one is hurt, everybody is happy.' In 2005, British divers Louise Woodger and Gordon Pratley were rescued in the same area after being missing for four hours. They were found suffering from exposure and hypothermia after currents forced them away from their boat.

Even the most vociferous defender of “diving charters” would have to admit that the examples above do not paint a very good picture but such defenders would also no doubt reiterate that these incidents, horrific and distressing as they are, are the exceptions. They would probably also say that using diving charters is perfectly safe and that more people die from road accidents, DIY accidents and falling down stairs than on diving charters. This is absolutely true, but as a defence it is pathetic. The examples above aren't a description of some unusual unforeseen accident, they were the result of staggering incompetence. In fact, and this is just our opinion, they are the result of criminal negligence. All of them have one thing in common. The people responsible, simply failed to count. They had no idea who was in the water and who wasn't. In the case of Dan Carlock, he was marked on the roster twice when he was clearly – unless you're a mathematically challenged dive leader – not on board. Then there is the fact that in 2015, when the Sundiver Express left yet another diver behind, the company shouldn't even have been trading. 

 

Time after time, incident after incident the failure to carry out an effective head count or roll call has left divers in danger or led directly to deaths. How in all that is holy, can such incidents still be happening? How are the so called Dive Masters, Dive Leaders and Instructors throughout the world not utterly embarrassed that such incidents have not only happened but continue to happen? And don't think the blame lies just with the Instructors, Masters, et al. There were a great many other divers aboard these ships, did they not notice their numbers were a little short? Did none of these divers think to themselves that it was odd that the blonde girl, the bald bloke or the nice looking couple had suddenly vanished? Did none of them have the wherewithal to speak up? What sort of training are these divers receiving if responsibility for the safety of their fellow divers can be abdicated so easily? The whole diving industry should be ashamed of itself, it should get its head out of the sand and start to accept that being left behind by your charter boat is a very real and very present danger. 

 

ID Tag System, simple and effective

So what can be done? Well, Dive Masters and Instructors the world over seem to have a very rudimentary grasp of maths, so making sure that they can count would be a start. But roll calls and head counts are clearly not enough and should be backed up by a diver identification system like the Divers Alert Network DIDs boards. Recreational divers are given a tag they attach to their equipment, a tag missing from the board means a diver is still in the water. The boat doesn't leave until a roll call is carried out and all tags are back on the board. It's not brain surgery is it? Still as we have said before, there are a great many Instructors, Leaders and Jedi Masters (well they think they are) out there with all the badges and all the certificates in the world but not a brain cell between them. So relying on them alone is not good enough. What is needed to back up the roll calls and DIDs is ruthless prosecutions of those whose incompetence or negligence leads to such events. People need to go to prison and business need to be sued to destruction. But we would go further, every diving association that issues the certificates that allows people to run diving businesses need to be held to account as well. If one of their members is found to be incompetent or negligent, then that association should face heavy fines. Only when PADI, SSI, BSAC and the plethora of other badge selling organisations out there are made to face the consequences of their members actions will the industry have a chance of getting rid of all the incompetents that quite clearly infest it. The Associations would of course fight tooth and nail to stop such a thing a happening, they're are in the business of selling badges and certificates not safety so we won't hold our breath (no pun intended).

So if you thinking about going on a dive charter in 2016, we wish you luck and hope that the boat is still there when you surface, because as the examples above demonstrate, there's absolutely no guarantee it will be. And that really is shaming. 

Links

The Sundiver Express 2004 Incident

The Sundiver Express 2015 Incident

2007 Incident

2008 Incident

2011 First Incident

2011 Second Incident

Think It couldn't happen to you! Think again...

 

The Sport Diver Team Meet Brad And His Pressured Novices.

Mark Evans, if you didn’t know, is the editor of Sport Diver Magazine, the official PADI publication in the U.K and in December's issue he uses his Editor’s letter column to relate some disturbing incidents that he and his team witnessed whilst on a trip to Malta and Gozo. Here are the relevant (verbatim) bits from Mark’s missive.

Our trip was sadly marred by bad weather, namely strong winds which rendered many sites off limits, yet I was shocked that some independent groups of divers were still attempting to get in, or had got in, at sites that experienced centres had deemed unfit. At one location, I saw three well-known centres rock up in their vans; the instructors surveyed the conditions, and then called the dive, heading off to find more-suitable surroundings for their divers. Yet there were a group of obviously fairly inexperienced divers who were being badgered and cajoled by their group leader that “it was fine” and “this is what we are trained for”, Christ, these were pleasure divers, it wasn’t a Special Forces drill!

At another site, I saw a couple who were clearly novices, and they had a bit of a battle getting out of the water due to the swell washing up and down the ironshore. Their instructor was stood up above them on the shoreline helpfully telling them to hurry up but not offering them any assistance!

So please, whether you are diving in Malta and Gozo, right here in the U.K., or anywhere else for that matter, make your own mind up about the conditions and whether you want to dive. Do not feel pressured to get into the water – any instructor or dive leader worth their salt would not make you do anything you didn’t want to do. And remember if you do go in despite your reservations and it all goes horribly pear-shaped, the odds are that the person who ends up in serious trouble will be you, not your instructor. 

 

Hello, we're your dive leaders for today's pleasure trip - lock and load wimps!

Oh Mark, you’ve made us so happy we want to have your children! Finally someone associated with PADI has spotted what we, and many likes us, have been banging on about for what seems an eternity. Namely, that the world of diving is stuffed to the rafters with Brads; those moronic, badge wearing, hyper-egos who equate being a dive team leader/instructor with being a member of an elite commando unit and consequently tend to get people injured or killed due to their habit of being controlled by their testicles and not their brains.  And Mark, we are also delighted that you have brought to a wider audience our own little piece of advice that we have regularly exhorted on these pages, which is: your safety is, at the end of the day, your own responsibility. There are just a couple of things we like to raise however. We are not sure what you mean by “independent groups” but by the way you highlighted this we assume that they were not PADI registered which, again we assume, means that you are trying to distance the PADI organisation from such events. This would be unwise Mark and a little naive. Just take a peek around the web for diving deaths/incidents and you’ll find that, from Australia to Belize, an awful lot of divers who’ve lost their lives were in fact under the care of PADI registered centres/operations. Brad is everywhere Mark, everywhere!

Then there is something that we found rather disappointing, both your advice and our own requires the “novices” to do something that is often quite difficult, which is to challenge the diver leader/instructor. A lot of people Mark, don’t like confrontation and those who are very inexperienced have no reference point, they are being told to do something by someone who is covered in badges and is “supposed” to be experienced and subsequently “knows what they are doing”. Now we, and you Mark, know that isn’t always true but here’s a thing. You Mark are the editor of Sport Diver, you were with the Sport Diver team and yet you didn’t seem able to challenge those independent instructors either! Could you not have intervened Mark? Could you not have wandered over with your cohorts, flashed your own badges and told those novices that they didn’t have to do anything they didn’t want to? Because Mark, it is a very bad thing for those who are supposed to be the experts to lead those without experience into dangerous situations but it is just as bad, if not worse, for those who are experienced, those who realise that it is just a pleasure dive and not a Special Forces Drill as you say, to just stand there on the sidelines like a bunch of gormless rubberneckers at the scene of a car crash. We would have challenged Mark, we would have said something; in fact we would have ridiculed the instructor mercilessly and deflated their ego very quickly. We hope the next time you see something similar that you and all the other experienced divers out there will do the same. Because in truth Mark, the safety of novice divers is not just the instructors’ responsibility it’s everyone’s responsibility. So next time, don’t just stand there thinking this will make a good few column inches Mark - do something!

Badges! We don’t Need No Stinking Badges. PADI Launches Freediving Courses

Do you want to be a freediver? Perhaps the thought of descending to depths of 100 metres or more on a single breath gets you all excited. Perhaps you’re a mainstream diver who’s tired of strapping on all that equipment every time you go in the water, tired of scaring away all that marine life with your bubbles and Darth Vader breathing noises. Or perhaps, the thought of having to spend another small fortune to buy another piece of unnecessary “technical” kit just to keep up with the diving Jones’ has finally got to you. Maybe you’re a new age, mystical sort of person who adopts the lotus position whenever you can and believes freediving could help you get closer to nature, to balance your life, to free your mind whilst you free your body of oxygen. Altogether now.. Ohmmm. Perhaps you’re the sort who’s looking for a new challenge and the thought of pushing your body to very edge of it’s physiological capabilities in search of competitive glory is the very thing, or perhaps you just fancy Tanya Streeter and want to see her in that bikini close up. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re the sort of person who just thinks that being able to descend to twenty-metres for a few minutes at a time unencumbered by tanks, regulators, and people called Brad would be a bit of fun when you go on holiday. Now, whichever category you fall into, you’re probably thinking to yourself that you should get some training before you take the plunge so to speak. Freediving, after all, is rather dangerous and at its competitive zenith it can be positively fatal but where do you get that training?

What a reason to Freedive!

Luckily there are a multitude of training organisations out there ready to teach you to stop breathing in exchange for cash and in this very month, PADI is launching its own freediving courses. The course tiers will be PADI freediver, PADI advanced freediver and PADI master freediver. There will also be several grades of instructor, freediver instructor, advanced freediver instructor, master freediver instructor and finally freediver instructor trainer. A basic freediver course will also be included which, according to PADI, will prepare swimmers for freediving in “confined water”.

When we first heard that PADI was going to launch it’s own freediving courses our little group immediately thought of the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles and one scene in particular where the Mexican bandits refuse to be deputised by the films villain. Offered the deputy sheriffs badge, the moustachioed brigands reply with heavy accents: “Badgeez! We don’t neeeed no steenkin' badgeez! PADI likes badges and judging by the bewildering array of tiers they’ve developed they’re going to have a lot of badges to sell wannabe freedivers. This is probably being a bit unfair on PADI, as we say there are a whole host of companies, associations and operators out there offering freediving training and all of them have structured tiers of training with equally ludicrous titles and there is currently nothing to suggest that PADI’s courses will be any better or any worse than those already available.

With so many training organisations out there then, which one should you chose? Well before you hand over your hard earned cash in exchange for a few days training and a badge that can be eventually sewn onto your bodybag we’d like to offer you some humble advice.  Before you do anything you need to speak to an independent expert – your doctor. Tell him or her that you want to learn to freedive and this means holding your breath for long periods. If your doctor suggests you should probably stop smoking first or that your morbid obesity, diabetes, incompetent heart valve, that pacemaker you’ve just had fitted or the fact you cannot swim makes you singularly unsuitable for freediving we think you should probably stick to a little light gardening. If however your doctor can find no medical reason why you shouldn’t go freediving we suggest you go and have a look at the freediving clubs in your area. Clubs are a great way to meet like-minded people and get a feel of the experience and quality of the available training. The club may well have their own instructors or be able to direct you to instructors they’ve used before. Speak to the instructor face-to-face, find out how they trained, what their experience is. This will give you a sense for the depth and quality of the training they offer. There are many experienced divers out there, but just because they are experienced doesn’t mean they can teach. We’ve met a lot of divers with instructor badges sewn onto their baseball caps and some of them are, to be blunt, damn idiots. So finding an instructor that can teach and that you trust is imperative. You are, after all, putting your life in their hands.

Make sure that the company/club that is training you is freediving based. What we mean by this is that the company or club was established and run by freedivers. A good example of this is Freediving Instructors International or Performance Freediving, which were established by Martin Stepanek and Kirk Krack respectively. Check that the courses on offer have an AIDA equivalent. AIDA is the international freediving umbrella organisation for competitive freediving. We also suggest that you speak to or join your countries national freediving association who will be able to offer advice and guidance on training, clubs, competitions etc. Finally remember that a couple of days training does not mean you are an expert. Freediving is a competitive sport, SCUBA diving is a recreational sport and there is a big difference in the type of training and type of people you will come across. That doesn’t mean that you cannot be a recreational freediver but it does mean that you have to really understand your own limits. Don’t be pressed or bullied into pushing those limits by others who are overly competitive or talk nonsense about “mystical experiences” and in freediving you will meet these people. Freediving is, by its nature, inherently dangerous so start by enjoying yourself and build slowly, very slowly, or you will kill yourself. Finally, remember that the training you undertake should be about knowledge gathering. It should equip the mind and body to deal with the demands of the sport, it’s not and never should be about collecting badges. As those Mexicans in the film said: Badges! We don’t need no stinking badges – even if they’ve got the word “master” on them. 

Diving Safety

Diving Safety – Who's Really Looking After You?

Imagine you are new to the world of diving. You’ve recently completed your week-long diving course and are looking forward to your first real diving holiday. You may be green behind the ears but what’s to worry about? After all, every diving magazine and website is full of advertisements for dive charters and centres who claim that safety, your safety, is their paramount concern. All you have to do is book up, pay up and in a few months time you could be in a tropical paradise, preparing for an underwater adventure, safe in the knowledge that the dive company you’re using has taken care of all those niggling little safety issues. Of course if that’s the case, the spate of recent diving accidents hitting the headlines might just be setting off a few alarm bells in your head. In fact it would be fair to say that the last few months news coverage has been woefully bad for the sports credibility when it comes to safety. To illustrate this let us take you through a few incidents that, in our opinion, paint a worrying picture for any of you interested in taking up the sport. 

A recent coroner’s inquest into the death of Melanie Stoddart, who died whilst on a diving holiday in the Maldives in 2012, has highlighted some disturbing issues with the emergency procedures in place on the Islands.

The inquest in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, heard how Miss Stoddart, an experienced diver from Greater Manchester, had arrived in the Maldives on April 2012 with her boyfriend. She had been on the same holiday the previous year. On the third day of her organised trip, she was in a party of 12 holidaymakers and two instructors who went to Vaavu Atoll for the last scuba dive of the day just after 3pm. This was her third dive of the day. The inquest was told she returned to the surface after about 30 minutes and asked for medical assistance, as she was feeling unwell. Doctors were called and she was taken to the Alimatha Aquatic Resort nearby. When it became clear her condition was deteriorating the resort's doctor said she needed to be taken to a decompression chamber, but there was no transport available. A speedboat only arrived from neighbouring Bandos Island, more than 40 miles away, when insurance checks had been carried out. A doctor sedated Ms Stoddart, but decided she was not stable enough to be put in a decompression chamber. She was then transferred for a second time by boat six miles to the capital where CT scans of her head and chest were taken at the ADK Hospital.  But at 2.15am the next morning she went into cardiac arrest and died thirty minutes later. 

Peter Stoddart told the court his daughter was a qualified diving instructor and member of a club who had dived all over the world. He said the family had tried for many months to establish exactly what had happened in the hours before Miss Stoddart passed away. They spotted "discrepancies" in the reports from police and the tour company Scuba Tours Worldwide that raised serious questions about the safety procedures in place on that fateful afternoon.

 

Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Paul McCandless said: 'Melanie was a practiced and experienced sea diver who took unwell on a dive. Due to a lack of appropriate transport at that time of day there was a delay in taking her to an appropriate facility.

'Once there, there was a partial misdiagnosis that she was not suffering from decompression sickness. It is possible that if her condition had been diagnosed sooner that she would not have died when she did.' The Coroner added: 'Holidaymakers need to be aware of what emergency procedures are in place should any particular difficulties arise.' 

After the hearing, Melanie's mother Irene, said: 'My daughter's death was down to sheer incompetence. She received no treatment for nine hours, how can that be right?'

A full report is here

Then there is the case of American citizen Roger Pieper, who died whilst diving the Blue Hole in Belize this year. The Blue Hole is a notorious dive spot and has regularly claimed the lives of divers. Once again however there are troubling contradictions and discrepancies in the witness statements.

The official police report by the Belize City Police Department, states that Pieper, a retired pilot from Texas, along with his family, employed Amigos Del Mar Dive Center  for a dive trip to the Blue Hole. The group arrived at the Blue Hole and proceeded to dive. At about 50 feet below the surface, Pieper started to experience complications and alerted the dive crew. By the time Pieper was brought to the surface he had already fallen unconscious. The Belize Coast Guard was contacted to transport Pieper to the Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital in Belize City. Pieper was pronounced dead on arrival. A post mortem examination certified the cause of death as asphyxia due to drowning. 

The initial incident reports taken by the San Pedro police were comprised of statements issued by Amigos Del Mar employees. According to the report the crew had learned that Pieper had undergone triple bypass surgery last year as he suffered from heart problems. They also indicated that his condition was not reported to the dive company prior to the dive since persons suffering from heart conditions are not allowed to dive. Reports from the family however dispute this, saying that: as a First Class Pilot, Pieper suffered from no medical conditions and was in optimal health. The dive centre in question, Amigo’s Del Mar was expelled from the PADI diving organisation in 2014. Although the reasons for the expulsion are not clear, the dive centre had been embroiled in a case of sexual assault prior to the PADI expulsion. A police investigation into the death of Roger Pieper is ongoing and serious questions remain about what exactly happened and why there are contrary statements as to Mr Pieper’s medical condition prior to diving. Although expelled from PADI the dive centre is still affiliated to a number of other diving organisations.

The full report is here
PADI Expulsion
Amigo's Del Mar’s response to the sexual assault allegations

Finally there is the truly distressing case of Bethany Farrell. In February of this year Bethany was taking part in a try-dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Bethany had been snorkelling before but had never dived before. It is reported that Bethany and two other students were to be guided by an instructor on the dive. However one of the other students refused to dive, though the exact reason as to why they refused is not known. This left the instructor with Bethany and one other novice. At some point during the dive, the instructor lost sight of Bethany and could not locate her. Bethany was later found at a depth of 11 metres. A post mortem determined the cause of death as drowning. Following the tragedy, two people who were on board the dive boat at the time took to Trip Advisor to question the dive operator’s actions during and after the incident. Including making the claim that photos were deleted. Bethany’s father, Patrick Farrell, said the loss of photographs was incomprehensible.
“There is no excuse,’’ Mr Farrell told the Courier Mail. “Grave mistakes have been made. Ultimately her life was in their hands. Now she’s dead.

“NEVER TRAVEL WITH WINGS DIVING ADVENTURES!!!”

I had a very negative experience with Wings Diving Adventures in mid February. One of the girls on the boat had a horrible, horrible scuba dive accident after being separated from her instructor. While they were looking for her, the other divers on the boat were locked into the kitchen area for 3 and a half hours, and not once did one of the crew members come to speak to us about what was wrong. Not a single sentence. We were all scared and confused and I was feeling very crammed and getting a bit claustrophobic by the end. I understand that this was a major accident, and the crew was panicking, but it was COMPLETELY unprofessional to leave us down there.

The girl who had the accident was found dead, and what's worst is that I now know that they deleted all of the pictures that had been taken on the boat before they could give it to the girl's family or police.

“We lost our friend on this boat”

What was supposed to be a dream trip turned into the worst possible nightmare. We will not go into detail about what happened but we would like to address the way the crew dealt with the situation.

All passengers were locked in downstairs without being told what had happened, including myself and my friend, when we were directly involved.
The full reviews can be found here
  
So what should we make of these reports from three separate locations around the world? In truth we’re not sure. We know full well that there are a multitude of reputable, experienced and highly professional operators out there. But that doesn’t really help does it? After all how do you tell the good from the bad? Melanie Stoddart was a trained diving instructor herself and the Coroner noted that she had signed on with a reputable company, yet can anyone honestly say that the procedures in place for dealing with a suspected case of decompression sickness were adequate? And what of Roger Pieper? Again he was an experienced diver and yet again questions remain over events and the dive operators response. And finally there is Bethany Farrell, who was simply taking part in a try-out dive. How does a complete diving novice get separated from the person who was supposed to be taking care of her? Why did the other student refuse to dive? Why did the crew lock other passengers in the Galley? And why did staff apparently delete all the photographs they had taken?

Those who have read our other posts will know that we are not exactly big on Health and Safety. We’ve always maintained that your personal safety is your own responsibility. We say this because we tend to find that Health and Safety procedures really are nothing more than a tick-box exercise. Stick up a few procedures on the back of the toilet door, have a quick ten minute brief, stick a diver down flag in the water and away you go, all boxes ticked and everyone’s safe right?

When we go in the water to do some of the silly stuff we do, it’s on our own responsibility. We don’t expect anyone to come to our aid and we plan for that accordingly. But importantly we do not ask people to pay us money to take them snorkelling; we don’t run a diving business either.

Finally there is something that we’ve been banging on about for ages, which is our belief that a certain type of diving instructor is infesting the world of sport diving, a type that we call Brad. Brad equates being a diving instructor to being an SAS soldier, which of course it isn’t. Brad doesn’t understand that being an instructor is about educating others, it’s about imparting knowledge and more importantly imparting experience but then Brad is barely out of his twenties, wears camouflage clothing with lots of “Dive Master” badges or other such silly emblems sewn on and of course has very little experience.

So lets go back to our newly trained diver planning that trip of a lifetime what should they do? Who should they give their money to? How do they spot the good operators from the cowboys? How they differentiate between Brad, who wears all the same badges and has all the same affiliations to diving organisations as the good instructors? We really don’t know the answer to this but we think the world of sport diving, particularly the diving organisations, need to seriously start looking for one. Diving charters and companies around the world are asking divers of all abilities to put their trust in them, to put their very lives in their hands. But as these incidents show, we’re not sure that’s something anyone should do.