Posts by Dan

Funny, before you posted it I was thinking that song and Tina Turner's "what's love got to do with it". What a blast from the past, used to dance my butt off to that song <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> Isn't it a little before your time Mark? Never saw the video before, pretty cool vampire theme.

What is love anyways?

I'm going to give serious thought to keeping a scuba tank/regulator/harness on the boat.

117cm and 127cm.

For those who don't know here's the incident Red Tide spoke of, from the perspective of the victim and the rescuer.

Quote from Steve Bennett 07-09-2008

I want to start this email off by giving God all the glory right now, the fact that I'm even around right now is nothing short of a miracle. Without Cameron Kirkconnell's quick thinking and actions, I'm sure I'd be laying in 180ft of water off the west coast of Florida. This is my account of the incident, and much of it will overlap with Cam's which I will include at the end of this email for those who have not read it. This all occurred while freediving, there were no tanks involved whatsoever. I was wearing board shorts and a rashguard, no wetsuit and no weightbelt, water temp was around 85*F.
We had planned this to be the last dive of the day, 70 miles offshore of Englewood, FL, in 180 ft. of water and it was approaching 6:00pm. On a previous dive, we had spotted a cubera snapper in the 100lb class, between 75 and 100 ft, and discussed our tactics on the surface prior to the drop. We'd always joked around about rigging a fishing rod directly to the shooting line on the gun to reel the fish in, and for one time out of the thousands of combined shots that we had taken, Cameron decided to give it a try. After a thorough 5-7 minute surface breathe up, I dropped down to somewhere between 75 and 100 ft (I was not wearing a freediving computer) to look for the fish. After about a minute of searching, I decided to head for the surface as I could not find the fish. Cameron observed much of my ascent and dropped down to look around for the cubera with his "fishing reel Hawaiian-breakaway setup." I remember swimming upwards and seeing ripples on the surface appx. 25 ft away in the crystal clear water, and instantaneously, bam, I was out cold, shallow water black out. As Cameron lined up the shot on the cubera, the white handle of my speargun sinking past him caught the corner of his eye, moments before he pulled the trigger. At this time, he looked up to see me sinking head first, unconscious and convulsing, about 60 ft away from him laterally in the water.
He immediately dropped his weight belt and swam full speed at me with hopes to get a shot off at the meat of my thigh for a good holding shot, but could not be confident that such a shot would hold at a distance. His second thought was to shoot my calf, but the bones of my lower leg blocked the shot as I was facing him. For a split second, my fiberglass longblade fins turned broadside towards him and he squeezed the trigger, wham, a perfect penetrating shot to the center of my fin. Cam has said that, at this point, it was the closest he had ever been to blacking out himself. However, he made it to the surface and proceeded to instruct everyone on the boat to cut the achor line and reel in his shaft, because I was on the other end and had drowned.
When I reached the boat, I had been under water for appx. 3 and a half to 4 minutes at depth; my body was limp and completely blue, I was also bleeding out of my eyes, ears, nose and mouth. I had a faint pulse but was unconscious and not breathing, and my airway was not opened. This is what is known as a "dry drowning" because the glottis in the back of my throat had closed, not allowing air or water to enter or exit. Cam tilted my chin back and head to the side, blowing air across my cheeks and under my eyes to stimulate breathing as you would an infant.
At this point, still unconscious, some foamy, blood-like fluid (called "sputum," the result of a pulmonary edema) leaked from the side of my mouth. After a short time I sputtered a small cough and took what Cam described as a 1% lung capacity breath. Another 30 seconds later, I did this again with more sputum foaming from my mouth, and after 10 minutes or so of this repetitive action, I had about 15% lung capacity. This entire time, Cameron and the others on the boat were on the radio with the Coast Guard to get oxygen out to us ASAP. I can't say that I was aware for much of the time prior to this, but I remember hearing Cam's voice assuring me that everything would be okay as I drifted in and out of awareness in my own mind. Another 5 minutes later, after a total of 15-20 minutes of unresponsiveness, I finally slurred out some words and could lightly squeeze his hand. From this point on, as the boat was speeding towards shore, I slowly regained motor functions and lung capacity (up to about 30%), until the Coast Guard helicopter arrived, 45 minutes after the original accident, still 55 miles offshore. They lifted me in a basket into the copter, and I was at Tampa General Hospital within 30 minutes.
I still had very little lung capacity as they were filled with the sputum from the pulmonary edema, I was throwing up blood that was in my stomach, and my entire body ached. Luckily I dodged two other bullets which were of concern: the blood from my ears and eyes. The blood from my ears was caused by the fact that I had not equalized as I sunk from appx. 25ft to 80ft, but somehow I did not burst my ear drums and my hearing was not affected. The blood from my eyes was a result of the massive mask squeeze on my face caused by the fact that I had also not blown air into my mask to compensate for compression as I was sinking, but once again I escaped without injury. I spent a total of one day in the Trauma Center, two days in the Intensive Care Unit, and one day on the hospital floor, with the majority of the time spent concentrating on reducing the amount of fluid in my lungs. There was absolutely no long term damage to my body or brain, and my lung capacity is back to nearly 100% after only days.

I can not stress enough how amazingly fortunate I was. I am not aware of anyone else surviving a shallow water blackout after being retrieved from such depth without major physical and mental damage. Every little thing worked out perfectly, and if anything was different, I can say with 100% confidence that I would not be here. If I had watched the whole thing from a third person standpoint, I would also say that there is no way I should have survived. Why we decided to rig the gun to the fishing reel on the boat for this one shot out of the thousands we had taken in our lives, I don't know. How my gun sank right next to Cam, I don't know. How he saw the gun before pulling the trigger on the fish and thus not having a shot left for me, I don't know. Why the shaft penetrated my fin perfectly without cracking it or breaking, I don't know. Why my fin didn't slip off while I was being reeled in resulting in me sinking, I don't know. Why my ear drums didn't burst and my eyes sucked out of my head, I don't know. All I do know is that I'm here, and God is great. Cameron's multiple freedive spearfishing world records speak for themselves as far as his diving ability is concerned, but I'm sure he would agree that this was the best shot of his life. There is nobody else on the planet that I would trust more to take a long range shot directly at me to save my life in 200ft of water.

The scariest part is that this could happen to anybody at anytime, and those with more experience are even more susceptible to shallow water blackout. If this email and my story saves one person then everything that has happened was more than worth it. To everyone, dive safe, always dive with a buddy, and don't push your limits because NO FISH IS WORTH YOUR LIFE!

Steve Bennett

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Quote from Cameron Kirkconnel email

This is Cameron's original email:

Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 08:33:57
Subject: Steve
Sad but rewarding story from yesterday diving. I am going to write it all out in full but am stil la bit shook up and need to help out his family in the hospital today.
Was diving in 180 ft of water with a friend Steve Bennet who is a 21 year old from Tarpon Springs. We were diving on an area of broken bottom in strong current from an anchored boat. Making one dive down and getting swept away each time before swimming back to the boat and resting to make another
he dove to down and was on his way back to the surface, I watched and he looked fine and regretfully left the surface myself and headed down. I dove and while I was down at 75 ft his gun floated past me,
i immediately looked around and saw my friend upside down drifting unconcious and convulsing about 60 ft away at that same depth.
With a strong current and no one else in the water and one chance I ditched my weight belt and swam hard towards him extending the gun to shoot him. I was well past my breath hold limit and knew that there was no point of us both dying but there was only this once brief glimmer of hope to even get his body. I couldn't get close enough to be confident of penetrating his meat in his leg shooting him in the fin
headed for the surface and was as close as I have ever been to blacking out in my life. before the dive, by pure luck we had secured my gun to a huge fishing reel on the boat in anticipation of me shooting a 100 lb Cubera snapper which we had seen at depth.
I screamed for the boat to cut the anchor line, reel up my gun because it had Steve on it.
Suffice to say despite my yelling of orders and trying to tell them quickly that steve had drown and we were about to have to perform CPR on him they had no idea the gravity of the situation.
we pulled him to the boat and he was completely limp, bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears and was completely blue.
I put him on the back of the boat and checked his vitals immediately found a faint pulse and no breathing. From freedive and medical training, opened his airway while talking confidently and softly to him and blowing lightly across his cheeks just under his his to trigger the breathing reflex like a new born. within the first minute and just before I was going to start rescue breaths, some foamy blood leaked from the side of his mouth and i turned him on his side and supported him so as to ease the flow of fluid from his lungs.
a short while later he sputtered a bit and was able to take in what i would estimate was a 1% capacity breath.
20 seconds later he made another one and expelled more foamy blood from his mouth and nose. with each sputter he expelled more and within 10 minutes he could take about a 15% breath but was still completely unresponsive and from what i could see in a comatose state with only his body barely functioning.
The whole time we are on the radio with the coast guard and are 70 miles off shore.
After 15 minutes he started to slurr and for the first time was able to squeeze my hand slightly letting me know that he could hear me.
From there i sat him in my arms and over the next 20 minutes as we sped in as fast as the boat would go he regained more and more motor functions and was able to talk more and more. 45 minutes from the time it happened and still 55 miles off shore we rendezvous with a coast guard helicopter and airlifted him to Tampa General hospital.
He has severe lung damage but is alive and has no noticeable brain damage. He is stable and will live a lot happier having not been shot in the leg or having sunk to 180 feet never to be seen again. The best shot I have ever made
This is the single heaviest thing that was ever happened to me or any diver I've ever talked to. Throughout the ordeal if i was looking at it from the outside i would have told anyone with a 99% certainty there was no chance he would ever regain conciousness or be able to be recovered from that depth or the fin would have stayed on or the second diver would have been able to get him or the fin dould not have split. Once in the boat... the worst sight I've ever seen. NO one should be able to live through that. the human body is an amazing thing and that he came back is a miracle.
Thank your lucky stars tonight because it is possible for everything to align perfectly and work out sometimes
Cam

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Here are pics of Steve's fin. I believe shooting a diver you can't reach is a valid option (obviously). Targeting any area of his body other than the vital organs and head is better than no shot at all, if that's the only opportunity that presents itself. If there's a choice I'd go for the thigh. Calves and arms are a smaller target and there's a chance of missing. There are major blood vessels in the thigh, but the possibility of hitting one is small and the alternative of no shot is certain death. Oddly Pantoja and I were also discussing this possibility only a week or two before Steve's accident. When I heard the story it was not a revelation, I was more surprised Cameron chose to shoot the fin, I didn't know at the time there was a reason for that. They were fortunate to have by chance set up this strange rigging with Cameron's gun. We always use float lines and are familiar with the float line assisted diving method, so it would be a natural thing to do.

I shoot 720p narrow at 120fps. I can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p, fish appear too far away in the wider frame, and I love the smooth super slow motion effect for some segments.

Many Cuellar Miami, Speardiver Predator wetsuit.

Very nice classic look, beautiful color and finish.

From Mate's spear pierces diver's chest

A DIVER has told how he cheated death after a fishing spear pierced his chest just centimetres from his heart.

Brett Clarke, 39, was swimming off Cape Schanck, southeast of Melbourne, when a mate accidentally shot him on Sunday.

The experienced spearfisherman yesterday told how he feared for his life after the metre-long spear from his friend Jim Bigness' gun slammed into his chest, puncturing his left lung.

"As I was lying there I thought of my wife and two boys," Mr Clarke said. "I thought, is this it, am I going to die here?"

He said he did not realise he had been shot until he saw the stainless-steel spear sticking out of his chest.

"We were swimming in a single file formation through these rockpools when I felt this large smack on my back," he said. "I put my hand down and felt the spear beside me. The pain was excruciating."

Mr Clarke attempted to swim back to the shore.

"We got washed on to a rock shelf and when we were washing back the spear caught on the rocks and went in further. I started to get pins and needles and I kept trying not to blackout because there was still a lot of work to do to get me back in to shore.

"I forced myself to stay awake and calmed myself down and concentrated on my breathing."

He was flown to hospital where firefighters cut off the shaft before doctors successfully removed the barb.

"I spoke with him (Mr Bigness) this morning and I said it was a bad accident," Mr Clarke said. "I've only got one rule . . . from now on when we go diving together he's at one end of the beach and I'm at the other.

From Speargun Accident:

Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simons Town station commander, said: “At 08h15 on Sunday the 25th of August NSRI Simons Town duty crew were activated following reports of 38 year old Willie van Wyk, from Hout Bay, who had a speargun’s spear through his right upper leg at Boytjies Drift, near Buffels Bay, Cape Point.

“Willie was sitting on rocks, preparing to get into the water to go spear fishing early this morning when a wave washed over him, causing him to be dragged over rocks by the force of the water. In the process he fell on the spear from his own spear gun and it went through his leg.

“There were fears that the spear may have penetrated or severed his femoral artery and an urgent medical rescue response was activated.

“Our Simons Town volunteers responded in our sea rescue vehicle and CMR (Cape Medical Response) ambulance, the WC Government Health EMS and the Red Cross AMS Skymed helicopter responded.

“On arrival on-scene he was found with the spear straight through his upper right leg. It was protruding out of both sides of his leg. Fortunately the spear had missed his femoral artery.

“Paramedics stabilized him before bolt cutters were used to shorten the spear (He would not have been able to be loaded into either an ambulance or into the helicopter if the spear was not shortened on each side).

“The spear gun was not loaded and the injury was caused when Willie fell onto the spear when a wave knocked him off the ledge he was sitting on. It appears that the spear gun was wedged in a crack and Willie fell on it.

“He was airlifted by Skymed to hospital in a stable condition where doctors will surgically remove the spear from his leg. He is expected to make a full recovery.”

This is an old one, if I remember right a diver from Hawaii who's dive partner shot him in the butt with a polespear prong.

From Gruesome speargun accident today w/ pics

Quote

was releasing my bands and pulled my hand across the shark fin tab on the shaft and tore the top of my hand wide open. Bones revealed, torn tendon was hanging out of my hand!!

Just heard the story about the above pic, mind you it's 3rd or 4th hand. It happened in Miami. The gun was a brand new Seac pneumatic. Apparently the gun misfired 2 times in the water and one time on the boat. The diver continued using it, mind boggling if true. At the time of being shot he was in the water and handling the gun to someone on the boat. The person turned the gun so it was pointing at the diver in the water, and the gun misfired again.

Thanks Sergio.

What to do if one of your dive partners doesn't return to the surface is a very important topic. We should have a separate thread where we can focus on it rather than on Nate's thread. I started it here http://spearfishing.world/spea…nt-surface.html#post90899 and copied your post.

The recent death of our friend Nate Romig, most likely due to a blackout, shook up many of us. Every year on average we hear 2 reports of freediving spearfishermen dying this way. I want to start a discussion to establish a protocol for the divers on the surface, to give the blackout victim the best possible chance of survival. I don't want this to be a discussion of "safe diving practices" that should've been followed by the victim, just the scenario where one or two divers are on the surface, with and without a boat, and one diver that fails to surface.

I must make one exception to state that in this situation the victim wearing a Freedivers Recovery Vest would be a huge factor in increasing his chances for survival. If the victim is not wearing an FRV and one of the divers on the surface is wearing one, could also be a big determining factor. Raising an unconscious body from depth is no easy task, but simply reaching the victim and grabbing hold, then inflating your own FRV will raise both divers effortlessly to the surface.

<img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">

Yep, it can be done with spit and without stretching the rubber first. But if you want it to be effortless with a thicker insert that's how it's done.

I've been asked a few times if Speardiver small hole speargun rubber tubing is difficult to insert wishbones into. Here I have a piece of 19mm small hole Speardiver rubber and dishwashing detergent. The head on the Speardiver 14mm-1 Euro Muzzle Band Adapters is pretty big and not pointy, as you can see it goes in quick.

Some of you are really missing the point. This is about Nate, and possibly about what we can learn from this tragedy, not about feeling sorry for Andrew. Andrew didn't start this thread, and he wouldn't have as he doesn't really participate on Speardiver. He came on because we were already talking about it, to make clear some things that he wanted to make clear. It is my view that he is obliged to give an explanation, not on any forum but he is obliged, and the story came out. Once he responded here he opened himself to being questioned. I'm not happy with the explanation, angry and simply don't understand why he didn't even make an attempt to dive. As such I have little sympathy for Andrew. My heart goes out to Nate's family, being a parent myself I can't imagine a more terrible thing to happen to someone else mother or father. I think I'd rather die than survive my child, I don't know how I would go on. A close friend dying is pretty bad also, more so when you were involved in the situation that caused the death. But I can't help thinking that a close friend being in danger would have provoked a different course of action.

I heard this before about the first dive of the day being the best, and believe it's theoretical nonsense. In worse case scenario acting on this premise will cause exactly what happened to Nate. The exception is guys who dive very often, like commercial spearos. They also have a faster recovery time.

Panic is not an issue, if any one of my dive partners didn't surface and a fish did my instinct is to go in. It's the only chance they got. That would come way easier to me than throwing an anchor and calling rescue. I'd probably make the terrible blunder of forgetting to anchor and jump in, then what would I do floating in the ocean with an unconscious diver.. I don't think I can pull up a body from 50ft on the first dive of the day. But I know I can get to 30 and shoot him in the thigh.

It's a strange empty feeling to think we're talking about Nate and he's no longer here. Almost like it's too early to let go. But he is gone, and I believe not without long reaching repercussions in the spearfishing community. I bought a FRV today, even though I think I'm the last candidate for making use of it.

I would have looked right under the fish. Calling 911 in this situation, all it's good for is to retrieve the body as they'd never get there in time.

Quote from Andrewk

When I didn't see Nate is when I called out his name. Then I screamed his name over and over looking everywhere but in my gut I knew something wasn't right. I called 911 at 12:23 pm Sunday June 8th, 2014 . By 12:41 he had been brought to the surface by rescuers.

You had the presence of mind to throw the anchor. Why did you not dive after him?

These are the details I was told. Nate and Andrewk took Nate's boat out of Haulover. They were drifting in 50ft. Andrew was driving the boat and Nate was diving. At some point he didn't surface. A shot grouper floated to the surface (without a shaft). Andrew threw anchor and called emergency services. Help arrived and Nate was found on the bottom right near where the boat was anchored, but it was too late to revive him. I don't know if he was pronounced dead right there or at the hospital.

When I was first informed of this via pm there were no details, only that Nate died. My first thought was a car accident or something, I just didn't think it was diving related as Nate was an experienced diver. When I was later told that it happened spearfishing I couldn't assimilate it. But when I saw the link to the news I knew it was true.

My thoughts about how it happened are as follows. Nate obviously shot the fish. A grouper is a bottom fish and will stay close to the bottom after being shot, hole up if possible. In my experience a shot fish that gets off the spear doesn't float up from the bottom at 50'. So I believe Nate was on his way up with the fish and blacked out midwater or near the surface. The strange thing to me is that the fish was off the shaft, as I would never mess with the fish and spear until I'm at the surface, especially after a deep dive. But Nate's close dive partner Steven says that it was consistent with Nate's diving style, that he would on occasion manipulate the fish on ascent.

Pantoja told me that in some rare instances a fish will float up from the bottom after being shot. I'll leave it to him to explain how this happens as I've never seen it. To me the first scenario is more plausible.

[IMG2='left']http://spearfishing.world/cust…pics/profilepic1478_1.gif[/IMG2]I'm shocked and saddened and angry because this didn't need to happen. I knew and liked Nate. He had a calm pleasant presence, and a logical approach to spearfishing gear which I respected. He had a true spirit of an outdoorsman, threads like this one really made me feel http://spearfishing.world/othe…uburban-duck-hunting.html, and his posts like in this thread http://spearfishing.world/spea…-vertical-reel-users.html demonstrate his straight forward approach and desire to help out others with his knowledge. I think his profile picture makes a statement, something all of us who have been in the water enough can relate to. I took for granted that Nate will be a member of our spearfishing community for years to come, even with his pending move back home to Louisiana. I will miss him.