Barrettscv 

Martha Hunt and Rachel Hosmer saved two scuba divers from drowning off Malibu coast. The two were cycling along the coast when the responded to cries for help and went for the rescue;

"Rachel Hosmer and I heard guttural screams from the water while heading south of PCH. Two scuba divers in trouble. We literally had to rescue them, they were drowning".

https://bikinginla.wordpress.com/2010...-malibu-coast/

dnuzzomueller

Good for the Cyclists.

The SCUBA divers though sound like they were acting idiotically. Coming from a SCUBA driver himself (Open Water cert. to be exact) you are supposed to always make a note of the entry and exit points but on top of that how the hell where they getting weighed down by extra equipment? First off if they were really sinking they should have dropped their weights. Second they should have removed their BCDs the equipment is not worth dying over. And Finally why the hell were they not with more divers? If they were not yet certified they are supposed to have a certified Dive Master watching the dive.

Sounds more like two idiots who got their asses saved by cyclists/triathletes.

thesmoothdome

1. "Their wetsuits had filled with water, and they were drowning as they were dragged down by the undertow and excess weight."

By design, wetsuits have water in them. It is impossible for them to fill with water. If they were wearing drysuits, then trapped water could be an issue, but even then they would have to have been flooding their suits for a whole long time for it to be a substantial issue. Dropping weights would easily offset any extra trapped water though.

2. "They reportedly told Hunt that they were training for their scuba certification, and this was only their second time using the equipment."

Training for certification does not mean you're ready to dive without an instructor. Hell, I know plenty of people with 100s of dives who shouldn't be diving without one and I know plenty of instructors who shouldn't have been given their open water certification.

3. SCUBA diving is a lot like cycling in that everyone always overestimates their abilities and their knowledge. SCUBA diving is much safer though when done correctly .

dnuzzomueller

It is also much more dangerous if done incorrectly.

In biking, incorrectly, tends to lead to road rash

In SCUBA diving, incorrectly, tends to lead to either the bends or lung over-expansion injury, or suffocation.

thesmoothdome

Very true. Having more hours underwater than I do on my bike at this point though, I do stand by my statement. With proper planning, there are a lot less variables underwater than on the road. I've seen
wrecks underwater, but never have been involved in one .

Eclectus

Steep beach, shore-break with undertow, not to be confused with rip current, this can be really hard to exit, even for experienced divers.

If you try to ride the wave, or back of the wave, and you can't get a foothold before you get sucked back out, it's just best to drop your gear, and bodysurf it straight in, then make a sharp cut left or right and log-roll onto the sand to protect your neck. You get pummeled into the sand, but it's not fatal. You can tow your BCP vest/tank to just where the waves are breaking, then let go and cut away from it to not get hit by your tank. You let it go into the break zone, swim 20 feet left or right, then catch a wave to ride in.

This would be with an inflated BCP. It after you get on the beach, and catch your breath, the vest will usually be in the churn zone, floating to the beach momentarily, then getting sucked back, over and over, you grab it when it comes in. (If there's a rip current, on the other hand, it will ride to the rip parallel to the beach, and ride out to sea. I'm talking about shorebreak-undertow conditions here.))

Alternatively, you can deflate your BCP in deeper water and sink it, (if you can find a reef to park it under that's best), then swim in, and recover it later when the surf subsides. It's not going anywhere. You may have to sleep in the car overnight to ensure that some other diver doesn't discover it and retrieve it.

There's a lot of good diving you can learn to do without experience. Like guided boat dives in the Caribbean or Catalina leeward side, or self-guided lake dives, or anytime the water is flat. If you want to do from-shore-dives, if the surf is high enough for surfing, it's not that good for diving.

I've gone out in 6 ft surf (9 ft faces), night-diving, solely because it was opening-night for bugs. A total waste of time, because the sediments were stirred up, and viz was sh**t and even when you saw a lobster, one moment it was nearly in your grasp, then the next instant, the surg took you eight feet away. My partner and I got nada. It's a lot more fun to surf when the waves are up, and dive when the waves are down. Night diving is really fun. Especially turning your lights off, and you and your partner give each other light shows with phosphorescent plankton. One of my dive partners and I mostly free-dove at night, because we could cover a lot more ground than with tanks. We used to sometimes poach traps, not that we were set on doing this, but sometimes we came upon one with a full cage, let's take a couple. We were outlaws. This occurred after we were threatened by lobstermen, who said, we can kill you, at a time we were totally innocent. We decided, Well, if we're going to get threatened for not stealing from traps, let's be thieves, since the risk is the same. Actually, to be judicious, there should have been one size limit for commercial trappers, and a slightly shorter limit for recreational divers. Or impose a 15 year commercial license life, use it, sell it, in 15 years, commercial harvesting is abolished.

Shore diving in some surf is best done after learning to body surf, open-water swim, and free-dive, and studying wave action. I don't think the Malibu waves were too big, because of the fact that non-fin-wearing triathletes were able to make a rescue. In big surf, you need fins. The SD County lifeguards always don fins. Anybody who has surf-swimming experience dons fins.

milnerpt

The links to older articles about Malibu residents being anti-cycling is more aggrevating. Hopefully instances like this will reinforce the fact that cyclicsts on the PCH are just out doing what they enjoy, and do not deserve to be run down.

deadprez012

Kinda reminds me of the story Dean Karnazes told in 50/50 in the "Running Saves Lives" chapter...riding in that particular place, on that particular day, at that particular time. All factors leading up to the situation aside, good for the cyclists.

guadzilla

Instructor, not DM - a DM can lead parts of the dive but the instructor needs to be nearby and in control of the situation.

Technically speaking, there is no rule that requires you to be scuba certified. For liability reasons, no reputable center will let a non-certified diver go on a dive, but if you have the gear, your own compressor and access to dive sites, nothing stops you from diving. All the standards set by agencies - PADI, NAUI, etc. - apply only to training programs run by that particular agency, and not to diving in general.

There was a guy in Japan around 10 years ago who used to take non-certified divers down to 100m, at $20k a pop or something like that.

V.

Jaytron

I agree with you, I read some of the older articles and was not pleased.

Essex

Sounds like the fellas did not ditch their weight belts, or gear. As a technical scuba instructor/instructor trainer - I would never advise newly minted divers to take on challenging entries, or exits. California having some interesting topography to deal with. Additionally, most US-based scuba diving agencies align to standards set by RSTC - Recreational Scuba Training Committee. It's rare these days to see anyone who is a shade-tree mechanic try to get in a dive. It's just easier to take a course and get on with it.

Last bits - poorly fitting wetsuits can take on water. A few splashes in the gut area, butt etc can create bulges of water which can be squeezed out if you can manage your wits. However, if you are being spun into a sand corn dog - water in a wetsuit can be problem. Scuba accidents are varied and many. It's not only gas expansion injuries (DCS/emboli), or out-of-air situations - it can involve hypo/hyper thermia, vertigo, stings, bites, killer kelp etc.

My favorite California injury - dropping a tank on someone's foot, or numb nuts because of a tight wetsuit beavertail.

Essex

guadzilla

Maybe things have changed now, but plenty of bozos doing self-taught trimix dives on the Wahoo and other boats, back in the late 90s/early 00s. RJ's Blind Squirrel (is he still operating?) had fewer loony tunes but a goodly number even then. Got some interesting memories from those days (and that is why I do all my tech dives solo, if I can. GI3 can kiss my a**).

V.

Essex

Back then...no standards really for tech mixes. B. Deans was doing his stuff in Fla. and NE guys were doing their own mixes. IANTD / ANDI / Hamilton etc. can claim credit for standardizing some mixes. Since I know the "bozos" on the Seeker/Wahoo from those days I know what they were doing and mixing. Glad that most of them are still around. Luckily I missed the spate of Doria fatalities during those summers on the Seeker.

I also know WKPP fellas and like you - some of them can kiss ____ though some of the ex-members are pretty decent fellas now that they left the cult. That being said- not hard for a clever shade-tree mechanic to make his own mix and kill themselves in a cave...though getting past the keepers is harder now. Thank heaven.

Cheers,

Essex

KiddSisko

Remarkable story. I cruise that route frequently, and depending upon the day of the week and time of day, it's not relaxing. You're on high alert the whole time.

Barrettscv 

The two ladies that came to the rescue are heros. There training in the water as triathalon competitors gave them the confidence to do what was needed.

Eclectus

Yeah, small waves. 5+ foot shorebreak, you don't make it without fins. An undertow, as opposed to a rip current, is, hard-breaking shorebreak, water runs up to sand, and sucks directly out, into the next wave that goes vertical and delivers a torturous body-pummeling lip. If you don't know what you are doing, if you don't have fins, you get sucked up the face, and get taken over the falls and delivered into the sand on the lip.
Some tiathlete girls getting off their bikes, not happening. It was probably a 2-3 ft face shorebreak.