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Diving Safety, Accidents and Incidents Post here to discuss accidents, incidents, ideas, gear, or anything else to improve spearfishing safety. Memorials and condolences threads should be placed in that separate forum.

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Old 05-20-2008, 05:50 PM   #76
Louis Rossignol
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

This just in, I talked with the captain on Friday, they were pretty shook up. The guy drifted for 8 hours.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...l.html#preview


Saturday May 17, 2008, 9:42 PM
Photo courtesy of John AndersJohn Anders, right, and Darryl Couvillion, left, hold up a 60-pound lemon fish in a boat 30 miles off the coast of Grand Isle. Not long after the boat's captain took this picture, Anders went missing in gulf waters. He was rescued by the Coast Guard after 4 hours.

John Anders had been drifting in the Gulf of Mexico for an hour when he realized he was being circled by a shark.

The professional diver had lost his grip on a nearby oil rig while wrestling with a fish he had speared, and was adrift in open water, alone with no boat, miles from safety.

Foolishly, Anders had refused to let go of his catch, and it had drawn the shark's attention.

Now it was the fish or his life.

"I realized the only reason that shark would mess with me was for the grouper, so I fed it the thing," he said.

It was the first of two critical decisions the New Orleans diver would make Tuesday to ensure his survival after four harrowing hours in cold, choppy Gulf waters, nowhere near land.

The tale of his rescue is one he will always carry with him.

Early Tuesday, Anders and two of his friends took a catamaran 30 miles off the coast of Grand Isle to go deep-sea spear-fishing near an oil rig.

The fishing venture was shaping up to be an ordinary one.

Anders was an experienced diver and had been fishing for years with his buddy Darryl Couvillion of Belle Chasse and catamaran captain William Wall of Baton Rouge.

And on his third trip down into the rig structure, Anders speared a particularly feisty grouper.

He began to ascend toward the boat's deck, where his ice chest was, cradling the fish under his left arm, pulling through the water with his right arm and paddling upward with his legs.

He paused and rested 15 feet below the surface to let his body decompress, to purge potentially fatal nitrogen that builds up in the bloodstream during deep-water dives.

Anders grabbed a steel wire on the rig for support as he waited. But the grouper continued squirming on the tether of his spear gun, becoming more and more difficult to control with one hand.

Anders let go of the rig to wrest the grouper back under his control.

"That was my mistake," Anders said.

A current ripped him from the rig, and before he knew it, he was 300 yards away, Coast Guard Lt. Russ Hall said.

Anders is well acquainted with tricky ocean currents -- he has been swimming since he was 4 -- but the harder he kicked through the Gulf's 3- to 4-foot seas, the farther he found himself from the rig.

Anders screamed toward Couvillion and Wall. But the winds drowned out his calls.

He didn't want to fight the current. He also didn't want to tread water for hours, waiting for a rescue helicopter.

He saw a tiny speck on the horizon: another rig, eight miles away. In his second life-saving decision, Anders decided to swim toward it.

He began rhythmically kicking and breathing, kicking and breathing, careful to make sure he didn't cramp up.

His goal: to get close enough to the rig to scream for help.

Feared dead

It was 1:15 p.m., 45 minutes past the time Anders was supposed to surface and meet Couvillion and Wall on the deck of the catamaran.

Couvillion panicked. Maybe his buddy had become tangled in something on the Gulf's floor.

He and Wall radioed the Coast Guard, then Couvillion suited up and dove in to the water. He combed the ocean floor for three hours, searching for any sign of Anders.

But he found nothing. His tank ran out of air.

Couvillion surfaced and climbed aboard the catamaran. He called his wife.

"John has been missing for hours," he told her frantically. "A Coast Guard helicopter is searching for him, but there's no sign of him."

Couvillion's wife told him to take a minute to pray. He kneeled on the deck, his phone pressed up against his ear, and listened to his wife recite a prayer for Anders.

"Keep the faith," she told him before they hung up.

"But I didn't," Couvillion said. "I thought he was dead. How was I going to tell Stephanie (his wife) that her husband wasn't coming back home?"

A pink air tank

Fifteen minutes after Couvillion talked to his wife, the radio aboard the catamaran crackled.

"Man overboard," a voice said.

The call was from a ship called the Deep Seas Discoverer. A Coast Guard rescue helicopter had spotted a man in the water, and the ship's crew was sending out a small motorboat, thinking it was one of their own.

Was it Anders? Couvillion wondered.

He hurried to the radio and broadcast a question to the Coast Guard: "Is the guy wearing a black bodysuit and a pink tank? And is he alive?"

Silence.

Couvillion again broadcast his question: "Is the guy wearing a black bodysuit and a pink tank? Is he alive?"

The Coast Guard answered: "Yes. He's in a black bodysuit with a pink air tank. And yes, he is alive."

Couvillion's heart leapt.

Tired, relieved

Couvillion and Wall sped off to find Anders, who had been taken to another oil rig to be examined. There, Anders said he gazed at them with tired but relieved eyes. His friends couldn't believe he was alive.

"We hugged in that, 'I'm glad to see your breathing carcass is still alive' kind of way," Anders joked.

The Coast Guard later determined that Anders swam at least eight miles in four hours.

"His wetsuit provided some protection from the elements, but he was in danger," Hall said.

Anders' legs didn't cramp until he stopped to tread water near the end of his ordeal. But by that time, he realized the nearby ship's crew had spotted him, and that help would come.

Less than a day later, Anders was home in New Orleans with his wife, Stephanie, who is five months pregnant.

Sizzling on the grill: a fish he had managed to haul into the boat before he got lost at sea.
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Old 05-20-2008, 07:32 PM   #77
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Where did this guy go wrong?
He pulled the fish up to him!!!
If anyone one learns anything from this thread it should be not to rodeo the fish!
Why do this, why. Let the fish beat it self aginst a pipe or fight it in open water.
There is no need to pull it up to you. If this guy would have let the fish fight out on the end of his riding rig or gun, which ever one it was, this incident would have never happened.
I sit around constantly hearing new divers tell stories about getting wrapped up with a fish, running out of air and almost killing himself and sometimes a buddy. The fist thing I ask them is “How the hell did that fish get you wrapped up”. Always the same answer, “When I went to pull it up to me……” I stop them and say, “Why the Fu@k are you pulling it up to you,” There is no need for this!!!

Also people getting shot with spearguns, WTF? The first time someone brings a gun to the boat loaded, tell them to unload it, then grab it and chunk it in the water. They will never do it again.

This sport is growing very fast. Not everyone had Rok, Terry, Stan, Rafe, Corey H showing them the ropes. To all the new divers, You don’t know it all. Dive with experienced guys, we will be happy to take you out. Pay your dues, lug some tanks, take an ass chewin, learn to throw a rope. Also be like a sponge around these guys, soak up every piece of knowledge you can, learn about your sport, where it came from, and more importantly how to rig dive.
Dive hard but dive safe,
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Old 05-20-2008, 09:44 PM   #78
Wil
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

jonathon, i think there are 1 or 2 stories we could tell about you also, like never try to act like tarzan and swing from the deck ropes on the rigs
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Old 05-20-2008, 11:44 PM   #79
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Yea, we all got a few, "hey guys check this out" moments.
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Old 05-21-2008, 10:34 AM   #80
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Diving the Winter invitational in March. Outside temp was about 55-60. Water was about 70. I think you are referring to this moment...
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Old 05-21-2008, 11:09 AM   #81
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

You know Rok, that story about the drifter reminds me of a few years ago when we were diving with one of the new club members. Nobile you were on the boat for the trip also.

We were diving in about 100ft of water around the GI rigs. Current was ripping and it was about 3-4ft seas. 4 of us were on the Catillac that day. And I am not kidding, when I am telling you that I had watch that stupid azz movie "Open Water" a week before this trip.

We had been switching tanks about every 2 dives, as we would come up with about 2k psi after the first dive on the tank and we were not diving that deep. Before we dove the fourth rig, I asked the new guy how much air he had and he said about 1500. So, we all told him to watch his air and not hand around too long. We all jump in and make it to the rig and about 8-10 minutes into the dive, I see 2 big eyes shooting up from about 60 feet coming straight for me. His hand is outstretched to grab the regulator in my mouth. So I immediately grabbed my octopus and shove it in his mouth. Grabed his BC and tried to get him under control. Finally, got him under control and we start to head up for the boat. Needless to say, Nobile or Mark don't see any of this as they were busy playing with the manta rays. So we end up coming up on the opposite side of the rig from the boat. So now we have to swim across the current to get to the boat along with battling the 3-4 ft seas. We both inflate our BC's and start swimming. So the guy is fine at this point and we start to swim to the boat, well as soon as I get to the back of the boat, I hear the guy screaming "HELP!!!HELP!!!!HELP!!!". The guy was 10 feet from the back of the boat and I don't know what the hell is happening to him. So I swim to him and shake him to get him to calm down. The next thing I know I look up are we are 30 feet from the safetly line. So we both kick to make it back to the line and are both out of gas at this point. So we start getting further and further away before finally giving up. We kept yelling back to the rig and the boat, but by the time the other 2 guys surface they can't see or hear us, cause the current and waves have taken us a 1/4 mile from the boat. While adrift, I started to think of a plan. There was a rig that was about 2 miles away that was in-line with our drift. I told the guy that we need to make that rig or we ain't getting out of here any time soon. Needless to say, we both made the rig and got someone's attention on the rig to help us out. We radioed the other rig to tell the Catillac to come pick us up. Mark and Nobile had just gotten up from their second dive of that rig to try an look for us as they thought we had gotten caught up in some cable or something on the bottom. Luckily they were still there and came and got us.

Turns out that this new guy was was a dive master. And after a discussion at the next club meeting some other stuff was brought to the table and the guy was "asked to leave" (i'll put it in a nice way) the Hell Divers.

So, lesson learned the hard way.

1 - Always be cognicent of your dive buddies and where they are under water.

2 - Always carry a dive whistle and one of those 8 ft inflatable yellow tubes in case you don't make the boat.

3 - When you come up from a dive, look around to see if anybody did not make it to the boat and is drifting somewhere behind the boat.

4 - Always pay attention to you air pressure gauge.

5 - Just because you are a dive master, doesn't mean you are invicible.
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Old 05-21-2008, 12:36 PM   #82
Scott
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Quote:
1. If you rig your gun with SS cable, make sure you bring something that can cut it, and make sure it's capable of being tethered to you so you don't drop it in a panic. This is key because there are so many ways to get entangldd on a rig and a fish can tied you to the rig like a Christmas bow if you aren't careful.
You mean like this?

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=GFJa6Q...eature=related

It sure looks like he wants to kill the scuba dude..
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Old 05-21-2008, 05:34 PM   #83
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott View Post
You mean like this?

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=GFJa6Q...eature=related

It sure looks like he wants to kill the scuba dude..
That just looked like the dumbest thing you could do in that situation.
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Old 05-21-2008, 07:10 PM   #84
Louis Rossignol
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Don't grab the fish in the first place,

When the fish starts heading for that peice of cable, jerk his head and make him swim the other way.

Next time a Dive Instructor comes for your regulator, whip out your dive knife on his ass, he should know better.
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DISCLAIMER: "My spearfishing is entirely legal in the geographic area within which I dive. If you don't like my pictures, posts or website then don't look. I will NOT waste any more bandwidth on this board (or my valuable drinking time) to argue with you ass clowns about it".

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Old 05-21-2008, 08:36 PM   #85
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Rok,
Great job posting this. Anyone who is new or knows everything about rig diving, pay attention and take heed. There is alot of experience on this board. I spearfished for 3 years before joining the HD'S and learned more from the talk at the meetings and my first required dives with Smurf, Stan, Matt and Calahan then from anywhere else. Week and a half to go!
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Old 05-21-2008, 08:46 PM   #86
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

edit: I only read the first 3 pages, didn't realize Louis had already shared this with you guys
Terry Migaud wrote the article below...

They say that time heals all wounds.
I can't believe it's been 19 years since we lost The Whip.
Here is an account of the events that led to the loss of our friend on July 8th, 1989, and how we were fortunate enough to retrieve his body 4 days later.
Whip was the last person any of us would have expected something like this to happen to.
I don't know if anyone will find this useful but, I thought that it would be a reminder of the fine line between triumph and tragedy.
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Last edited by elCajuna Grande; 05-22-2008 at 03:03 PM.
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Old 05-21-2008, 08:50 PM   #87
Louis Rossignol
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Quote:
Next time a Dive Instructor comes for your regulator, whip out your dive knife on his ass, he should know better.
Alright, I said to myself, I was going to be serious on this thread and then I post this, sorry, don't pull the knife on the Instructor.

BTW, that last story about the diver drifting for hours got me thinking,

My BC leaks like a Hell Divers meeting after all they already drank 3 cases of beer. I figure if I ever do get wahsed out and need to do the 4 hour drift, my tank will run our of air refilling my BC before I get to wherever I'm going. I need to get that fixed. Also, air leaking out of the swivel of your air pressure guage will give you the same result. I never made it to the dive shop today as planned but that is one of the things I'm gonna fix tomorrow hopefully.

Also, notice the "dos gris" in that video, you don't swim with your hands when you have those big ol' long things on your feet. Kick! I could tell at first glance these guys were in trouble. Get wrapped up by that AJ at 150' or more and your time becomes very limited, especially if you didn't put on a new tank before that dive.

AJ's come on your first/deeper dives. If you're shooting AJ's after you've already knocked the tops off your full tanks, your in the wrong place. Shoot the AJ's on the first few rigs with 3000psi bottles.
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http://www.TheRokZone.com/

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Old 05-23-2008, 11:41 PM   #88
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

A friend of mine just moved to Houston. Any good spearfishing near by?
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Old 05-24-2008, 07:46 AM   #89
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott View Post
You mean like this?

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=GFJa6Q...eature=related

It sure looks like he wants to kill the scuba dude..
Look at all the douchebag comments at the bottom of it. There sure are a bunch of ignorant people in the world. "Hope he gets eaten by a shark" etc... What a bunch of dipshits.
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Old 05-24-2008, 09:53 AM   #90
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Re: 100 Ways for a Rig Diver to Die

Any more stories coming to mind Rok? Or any of the other hell divers/rig divers.
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