Apparently this may have been what occurred when he was on his way back to the surface after having retrieved his gun from the bottom in 20 metres of water...Originally Posted by Dan5
Apparently this may have been what occurred when he was on his way back to the surface after having retrieved his gun from the bottom in 20 metres of water...
Thanks for that scott. SWB does put a different spin on it, and was something i didn't consider. Either way a sad day.
cuzza
Can someone tell me what actually happens in shallow water blackout? I haven't heard that term before.
type it into google,mate.
You can find just about anything out.
Though given the apparent depth that this guy was diving it may have been deep water blackout.
Major Defect may be able to shed some more light.
The poor young lad would have been a work colleague of his, I would think.
scott
John the fella who was with him said he saw him coming up through the water then he started to sink back down and he couldn't get to him.He worked at the same mill, hard working and was doing really well for himself.
20m!! that does put a whole new complexion on this, 20m is getting quite deep for the average spear fisho, such a shame all of the events talked about above.
cheers fnq
You know whats its like on the reefs out here,Scott.
One minute you are floating in just a few metres of water on the top of a bommie and then you are in 15 or 20 metres as the bommie falls steeply away.
You can imagine the dilemma if you drop your gun or a fish bricks you and you have to leave it behind to sink to the bottom in the deeper water while you ascend to get some air.
In this case I heard the same as major defect as well as the young guy had been trying for 10 minutes to retrieve the gun off the bottom.
Just imagine how it must feel for his poor mate (apparently the father of the young fella's girlfriend )knowing that he had been watching him ascend (from in the boat I heard)then get into trouble and start sinking away but not being able to get to him while there was still a chance to save him.
It would have been a terrible time for him out there alone 50 km's out knowing that the young fella was dead on the bottom.
What a sad day.
This from another forum.
(I hope its ok to post the link, if not I apologise and please remove)
http://spearfishing.com.au/board/showthread.php?t=6730
SWB occurs when you hyperventilate and so reduce the concentration of CO2 in your lungs( the concentration of co2 triggers the breathing response). You then stay down too long because you dont feel like you need to breathe. As you surface your lungs expand and suck what little remaining oxygen back out of your system into your lungs. The level of oxygen in your blood then rapidly drops below a critical minimum and you black out and maybe drown if no one around to save your arse.. You get very little warning because the O2 is removed so rapidly. Called " shallow water blackout" because the greatest change in pressure occurs in the final 10m as you approach the surface. This young fella would have drowned from SWB for sure. Shark attacks are very rare and fatal ones even rarer. His mates nearby would have seen something if a shark was involved.A sad story for all involved.
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