This Girl is Crushed by Her Drysuit

A tragic story. Certainly, this should have resulted in criminal charges. I mean, the dive center owners hid evidence that was vital to the investigation, and, lied to the investigators. Even in an accident investigation, that's a felony.

This poor girl, imagine the horror of sinking to your death, not even being able to breathe because of the pressure on your body. Horrible, and for the instructor to lie to investigators is grotesque and unacceptable. That they didn't even take a light with them just from a layman's perspective is extraordinary, you wouldn't go into the woods at night without a torch, let alone the icy cold water. May Linnea Mills legacy ensure safety is prioritised in the future, RIP.

We call scuba trainees 'duckies' because they can have a hard time starting a descent. Lazy instructors will overweight them to get them to the bottom efficiently, but 44lbs is an outrageous amount of weight to put on someone, though I've seen it happen. In a capacity as an assistant instructor I've seen two trainees plummet down 60ft without time to clear their ears. Then, in absurd pain, they start gunning their BC inflator trying to go back up, which would result in a far too rapid uncontrolled ascent. To save their lives I've had to wrestle them underwater to hold them under until I can simply pinch their noses and end the panic. I saved both from embolism/death, and have a bunch of scars on my face from the struggles. I consider them gashes of glory.

This video needs to be shown, in its entirety, in every single advanced dive class on the planet. All of my dive training was completed in the US military and I've been diving for over 15 years, but it isn't something I advertise when I go out with groups. I am often shocked and appalled at the carelessness of some civilian "master divers" and their lack of understanding for emergency situations. There is no Hollywood soundtrack to give you warning of the impending doom, death is simply around the corner, waiting in murky dark silence for you to make a small mistake without training on how to correct it. This poor girl was a casualty of multiple adults' hubris, and while I hope they lose sleep about it every night, I guarantee you they perform mental gymnastics to blame something other than themselves.

What a terrifying way to die, that poor young lady. Not to mention the survivor's guilt no doubt felt by the man that was forced to let her go to save himself.

That instructor needs to serve prison time. She hid evidence of her incompetence.

Mate... they decided to dive at night without lights? Like... wtf? And then no one went over her suit to make sure it's all ok? That's unbelievable.

Dry suit diving is a whole different ball game if you are used to a wet suit. Years ago , on my second dry suit dive, I found myself inverted heading for the surface feet first. My instructor was on the ball and quickly dumped the air from his own BCD and controlled my ascent. It seems a really bad idea to have someone new to dry suits training in water that deep, especially in poor light.

I specifically remember being taught that you NEVER skip your pre dive safety check, and that there are profit driven dive guides and centers that are notorious for adding way too much weight to divers. That stuff is all supposed to be figured out in the dive pool. Lastly my instructors taught me that you don’t use a BCD in dry suit diving because the dry suit doubles as your BCD

I really admire how Mr. WS can express outrage in such a subtle and nuanced way.

I am a former U.S. Navy diver. That was such an easily preventable tragedy. I almost want to say somebody should have gone to jail as a result of the negligence that took place during that incident. Mishaps are almost always made up of a series of small negative events that could have been interrupted at some point and that chain of events leading to the unfortunate death of beautiful young woman would have been broken. The disgusting scrambling by those responsible, after the fact, to hide evidence of poor management of the so-called “instruction” dry-suit dive was outrageous and in my mind the very element that should have resulted in those responsible going to jail.

I'm PADI Certified. I was fortunate to have instructors who were professional and serious about teaching. I cannot imagine that, if dry suits were part of the kit, my instructors would not have spent class time AND pool time to make sure everyone understood exactly how they work and what to do if something wasn't going as planned.

Woah, she did a deep dive without an inflator hose attached to the dry suit? That's nuts! Someone on Reddit hypothesized the "instructors" filled her dry suit with air before getting into the water then weighed her down heavily to make sure she'd be able to sink some. That would explain the insane 44 lbs and willingness to dive without the inflator hose. Still absolutely crazy dive to even attempt. I'm sure there's more to the story but to me those instructors basically murdered her. Either way this is awful. I'm so sorry for her and her family.

It’s dusk. We’re going to dive dozens of feet below the surface with a newbie… Flashlights? No. Let’s just get on with the dive! —we’re all experienced ! 😮

Very sad story. I have been diving since 1974, previously used a dry suit in Lake Superior, and am a retired PADI Divemaster. I planned to go on training to be an Instructor but ran out of time and money. I don't know about current rules but when I bought my dry suit there was no rule that the diver be trained in using it before buying it. No rule that the diver be trained before using the dry suit. And I admit I had a dangerous uncontrolled ascent when air expanded in my legs and pulled me up upside down. This story is especially egregious that the Instructor concealed evidence and told a false scenario. It goes without saying that the Instructor should have cancelled her dive because she didn't have the necessary suit inflator hose. Letting a SCUBA diver dive without necessary equipment is analogous to letting a sky diver jump with a defective parachute. The SCUBA diver would have been angry she drove three hours for nothing but she would been alive to be angry.

I truly thought negligence and incompetence this ugly was basically nonexistent these days. Genuinely made me feel ill. Tasteful presentation on an important topic, thanks WS. My heart goes out to the family

As a Padi Divemaster, trained in drysuit and ice diving - this pisses me off. Hope the people responsible spends decades in jail.

PADI stands for "Put Another Dollar In" and it charges you ridiculously high prices for the most basic trainings. The diving centers pay a super high royalty for PADI as it practically has no competitors. Its like what microsoft was in the early 2000s

I'm in no way an experienced diver, but the AMOUNT of red flags even before the dive had me GAGGED omg!

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