Diver Killed In Hawaii Kai (Oahu) on Sunday

[blaiz]

Teenage diver killed by a boat in Hawaii Kai on Sunday

Hawaii Skin Diver • View topic - Diver Accident in Hawaii Kai

A thread started by one of the divers envolved
Hawaii Skin Diver • View topic - DIVER ACCIDENT IN HAWAII KAI (MY BUDDY)



My condolences to the family and friends who suffered a major loss.

 

[shoutatthesky]

Condolences to all affected. I wish all boaties were made aware of the need for vigilance at all times. This sort of thing happens far too often.:vangry

Is it necessary to have a licence to operate a motor boat in Hawaii? There was an incident here in NZ recently in which a young girl who had just fallen off waterskiing and whilst waiting for the boat to come back for her was struck by another boat. The cry went up for licensing but was soon forgotten.:head

 

[blaiz]

nope anyone can operate a boat here in Hawaii... Im not sure if there is an age restriction tho.

PWCs are different. They just passed legislation saying that all PWC operators have to have a license and take a class... at least here in Maui.

 

[jtkwest]

nope anyone can operate a boat here in Hawaii... Im not sure if there is an age restriction tho.

PWCs are different. They just passed legislation saying that all PWC operators have to have a license and take a class... at least here in Maui.

that SUCKS! that has to be by FAR the biggest danger to divers. especially where i live. everybody is scared of the bull sharks, because of discovery channel shark shows. and what we need to be worried about is the idiot people with boats and no brains. i wonder if all the trend toward camo everything is really such a great idea. it looks cool , but i suspect the fish arent fooled much, if at all. but it sure makes a diver hard to spot from a boat. that is why i am thinking about wearing red, it disappears at 30ft turns to greyish. but on the surface would be easy to spot.

 

[Mr. X]

Sad stories. A hi-viz float with the appropriate "diver down"-flag is a must. I noticed at a spearing competition in South Devon several years ago that several of the older (presumably more experienced) spearos had very big torpedo floats (>> 11 litres) -- I'd guess 20-35l. But that's no shield of protection, Portinfer (I think) wrote of a boater using his dive float as marker for racing around and swore at the diver to get away from it!

 

[Salehthefish]

When i hear these stories i will be afraid that i will remember such story while i am diving!!! It is terrible and accidents are expected which makes me more concious while doing everything underwater... I am using normal buoy while diving is not it enough to keep boats away?

 

[blaiz]

The problem is that its not a lack of safety precautions with most divers its boater neglagence. All divers involved in this accident had red dive floats with legal sized flags. do you know that in Hawaii you have to stay atleast 100 yards (300ft) away from a humpback whale but boats can approach a diver down flag within 100ft and in some areas only 50ft

I have been nearly killed by a boat while diving with a friend. We both had oversized dive flags and my dive partner at the time was so paranoid (rightfully so) about getting ran over again that he had a giant pink boogieboard with TWO diver down flags stacked on top of each other... I was still ran over by the boat as it went by at 40mph... the only reason I was not injured was because the boat just so happened to be a jet boat... no prop.