Dangerous Diving Incident Caught on Video - Fin Breaks 34m Deep

[Spearfishing Life]

Fin breaks 34m deep!

One of the worst spearfishing scenarios became a reality and was caught on video!
Things can go really wrong, really fast!!!

 

[musubi]

Fin breaks 34m deep!

One of the worst spearfishing scenarios became a reality and was caught on video!
Things can go really wrong, really fast!!!

If you don't have the propulsion, drop the weight belt, drop the gun. That should help a ton at 34 m.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

This was one of the reasons I wore a Freedive Recovery Vest. Break a fin, get a hamstring cramp, etc. Inflate the vest and get a rapid trip to the surface.

 

[musubi]

I didn't know vests like that existed. Do you recall which brand you wore?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I didn't know vests like that existed. Do you recall which brand you wore?

There was only one brand. It was developed by Terry Maas and I got to try the prototype before it went into production. Google Freedive Recovery Vest. Then I wore every improved version until he quit selling them a couple of years ago. There are lots of details but the main idea was that you could program time and depth and then if you exceeded either one, a CO2 cylinder was punctured and you got a ride to the surface where you were positioned on your back with you face out of the water. You could also trigger it manually in situations like the broken fin, or maybe coming up with a big fish and wanting some help. It started at around $1500 for the first version and was down to about $950 when he quit selling them to individuals. I think divers are too macho and too cheap to buy sometime that cost less than their big speargun and might save their life. I know he had a contract to sell another version to the Department of Defense for SEALS and special ops people and I don't know if he still does, but maybe dealing with individuals was a pain in the ass.

The only replacement is a vest made in Switzerland. It has the same functions and some improvements such as being able to program depth and time from a cell phone ap. I've never laid eyes on one but if I had not retired from diving I'd have one. My life is too important to me (and hopefully my wife and kids) to not add another layer of safety. Local freedive instructors tell students not to buy the vest. They say that it will cause divers to rely on the vests rather than proper practices such as buddy diving. My response is that proper practices are not foolproof and won't save us very time, so why not at another layer of safety.

sens07vest - Recovery vest for freediving and spearfishing

sens07vest is a sensor-guided, smart water safety vest for spearfishing and freediving. It automatically monitors spearfisher & freediver, but also wave and kite surfers, etc. and triggers inflation automatically if a dangerous situation for the user is detected.

www.sens07vest.com

 

[Bill McIntyre]

BTW, Terry is a champion Spearo who was on the US National Team. He was motivated to develop this vest by the death of his teenage son. He was diving with a buddy on the Kona coast of Hawaii and blacked out on the bottom. The water was very clear and his buddy could see him, but couldn't reach him. Think about it? If you are looking at your buddy on the bottom, are you going to able to relax and breath up to get your best bottom time?

 

[musubi]

@Bill McIntyre Thanks for the link and feedback on the recovery vest. I priced it out with shipping and it's a little over $1K to me, which isn't bad at all for that system and what it does. While my partners are trained in recovery techniques, not all of them are attentive enough to save me. I dive more at my own risk than my partners.

BTW, Terry is a champion Spearo who was on the US National Team. He was motivated to develop this vest by the death of his teenage son. He was diving with a buddy on the Kona coast of Hawaii and blacked out on the bottom. The water was very clear and his buddy could see him, but couldn't reach him. Think about it? If you are looking at your buddy on the bottom, are you going to able to relax and breath up to get your best bottom time?

That's heartbreaking to go through losing someone like that.
I think about that scenario a lot actually. How calm would I (or my partner) be if something happened down deep? Probably wouldn't be able to get any decent breath to do anything. I tell my partners sometimes to just shoot me in the leg or something and bring me up if there was no other way.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Terry said something like "if you dive with a buddy, make sure he's a lot better than you are."

 

[Bill McIntyre]

There is one thing I don't like compared to the FRV. If the FRV activated, all you had to replace was the CO2 cylinder. With the sens07 you have to replace the cylinder and the actuator. But after trying it out to make sure it worked and how it felt bringing it to the surface, you shouldn't be having it activate unless you exceeded your limits and its saving your life. And then it will seem cheap.