Blackout at SWS April 30th, 2016 [Triton Open]

Thank you for sharing this Jim. Definitely many lessons to take away and I'm so glad that Thomas is ok and that Steve was able to save him. Makes me want to participate in another Fii class just for a refresher on the safety stuff!


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Very Intense tale of one mans near death experience and anothers heroic actions. Thank god everyone is ok!

Wow, what an experience for all involved.
Glad for the happy ending to that ordeal.
Now, go buy some lottery tix

Wow that is wild. Thanks for taking the time to share their story. And Steve if you're reading...that's hero stuff buddy. I'm gonna get you a vhf radio!

This story gives me chills! Thank you for sharing it with all of us.

Thank you everyone for positive thoughts and encouragement.  It was definitely an experience that I'll never forget.  It has been a harsh learning lesion for all of us that were involved, but what's more important was that we all walked away safely. 
   I still can't tell the whole story without breaking down, but the amount of support from friends and family gets me through it all.  So thank you everyone!  And if anyone has a diver buddy, please pass the story along.  There are so many new divers getting into the sport these days who just think they're going for a simple swim to shoot a few fish.  But all of us who live on the water know the inherent risks we take every time we slip into the water or paddle out.  There's a lot in this story that relates to rod and reel kayak guys also.  The most important thing for me with all of this is that people hear the story and walk away with more awareness, and lessons of safety preparedness.

There were a few questions in the responses ill answer.  We had started our paddle from the beach at 730 and were diving in depths from 50' to 30' up until the event where the water depths were about 30'-35'.  All of these depths were completely within our range of normal diving.  The only abnormal thing about the water was that I was reading about 48* F temps which was quite cold.
Earlier in the day, we had all discussed our bottom times.  I think it was the combination of an early start time and the cold water temps that was keeping us with short dive times.  I was averaging about 50 seconds.  That seemed to be the same for all three of us.  On a normal comfortable day, I personally would be doing about 1:15 avg. 

Wow that is wild. Thanks for taking the time to share their story. And Steve if you're reading...that's hero stuff buddy. I'm gonna get you a vhf radio!

That's incredibly generous Pat!!!  This is probably the one thing that hurt me the most about the whole situation; my lack of survival gear on the boat.  I had a VHF about a year ago but the battery exploded.  I've been waiting for Icom to come out with a GPS VHF since I think Icom has the best quality.  But in the meantime, I normally bring out my cell phone and use it to make calls on the water and mostly use it as my GPS.  This day I had the phone and looked at it ten times before I left the car but didn't bring it because I forgot it's dry bag and didn't want to get it wet.
     So on Monday, I went out and bought a three pack of orange smoke flares, a jetscream whistle, reflective mirror, and a Standard Horizon HX870 with GPS VHF DSC strobe floating( just everything I should have had).  Still looking for some type of emergency float that I could have wrapped around him.  Thinking a CO2 carter Float or something. Not sure yet?

Thank you again everyone for the support, and stay safe on the water!

Steve

Hang in there Steve and I'm only a text/call away for whatever you need....hell, I'll even be DD next time if you want!

 

Stoked you got more safety gear on board now for sure, I preach about the VHF to divers all the time and I should up my gear with whistle and flares as well.

Hope to see you again soon...either down here, or for a weekend getaway to Shelter Cove.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

What a story. Very glad everything fell to the right way for a happy ending!

Amen to the Flares !!!!

X1000

Alex

Good point about gear.  I also have the horizon 870, a whistle attached to my dive watch and a life jacket in the hull.  What I like about the 870 is that you can register the radio, so you can hit the emergency button that sends out your GPS location to coast guards. 

Good point about gear.  I also have the horizon 870, a whistle attached to my dive watch and a life jacket in the hull.  What I like about the 870 is that you can register the radio, so you can hit the emergency button that sends out your GPS location to coast guards.

Good to know about that radio.  I also carry a spot GPS tracker that's has an emergency beacon.  Haven't had to use it so not sure how fast they contact authorities but they will call my emergency contacts who know my dive or fishing plan.  I also keep a PFD with whistle and mirror hanging off my seat with a giant clip.   At one time I had everything stowed but thought if something happened it would be to difficult to get to the stuff so it all gets clipped to my seat some how.

Just read this post for the second time. Wanted to say thank you for sharing this, it is the best way for others to learn; a real life story of people we know. My daughter is getting into diving, I will get her in a free dive class.