I was on a dive boat this past Saturday on a scuba dive around Shark Island off Koh Tao and one of the divers tragically drowned.

I cannot find a link to any news story on this. Can anyone?

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This post has been edited by Braveheart: Sep 7 2008, 07:19 AM

What a tragedy. Perhaps it is just taking time for the report to be published.

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This post has been edited by Braveheart: Sep 7 2008, 06:24 AM

possibly happens a bit, but with very little publicity.

when i did some diving on koh tao some of the people diving with me could hardly swim

and had minimal experience in the sea!!

tourist come to australia and die in the sea/surf regularly.

I didn't think you had to be able to swim to be a diver, but PADI training is pretty minimal.

Generally you don't hear much about tourist deaths in the Land Of Smiles, but recent statistics show that brits are more likely to die in Thailand than any other country, India coming second.

BigBangkokTheory - do you know how he drowned?

This post has been edited by particle: Aug 24 2008, 09:06 AM

Same me, can't find anything. Suppose they're trying to keep it under wraps. Very bad publicity. Can you fill us in on how you think it happened??

I wouldn't want to be a dive master looking after novice swimmers with little experience in the sea!

Apparently he panicked, swallowed water and drowned. I was underwater the whole time and only saw them administering CPR as I climbed back on the boat. The company was Easy Divers which has facilities on Samui and Koh Tao. Our crew & boat was out of Samui. We were at about 10 meters depth. I think it was this guy's first open water dive. Not sure where the disconnect occurred with the divemaster. It sounded like they lost sight of him underwater...one minute he was there, the next minute gone.

The dive shop gave me more details about the accident when I stopped by later. In his panic to surface, the victim apparently pulled his inflator hose completely off and did not ditch his weightbelt. He struggled and swallowed water, and went unconscious. He was an Australian citizen of Chinese decent, and the dive shop would be taking his family out to the site for a Chinese ritual of some sort. The guy at the dive shop said "this always happens with Asians", referring to the panic behavior.

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This post has been edited by Braveheart: Sep 7 2008, 06:17 AM

Advanced open water diver here with enriched air endorsement. You have to have the following skills to get your basic open water ticket:

Waterskills: Before completing the PADI Open Water Diver course, your instructor will have you demonstrate basic waterskill comfort by having you swim 200 metres/yards (or 300 metres/yards in mask, fins and snorkel). There is no time limit for this, and you may use any swimming strokes you want. You will also float and tread water for 10 minutes, again using any methods that you want.

I havent ever had to tread since the course, but don't think I would want to have to tread out in a 3 foot chop like I dove in off the Similans in 2007.

Looks like just an unfortunate event. Diving is a pretty safe sport, just like everythign else though, keep your wits about you and don't do anything that you are not trained to do.

I thought you were referring to this news story, but you said he's Chinese. This guy is Iranian and it looks like he did off Pattaya, not Koh Tao (why would Pattaya One be showing KT news anyway)


Iranian dies following Scuba Diving Accident.
http://www.pattayaone.net/news_29_08_51_3.html