The body of a female scuba diver who tried to retrieve a dropped camera was recovered from a reported depth of 87m near Kakaban, one of the Derewan Islands off Indonesian Borneo, on Saturday, 3 May.
Chinese tourist Zhang Xiao Han, 30, had completed a dive at Kelapa Dua, one of the rare sites where divers can observe thresher sharks rise from depth for cleaning at the top of a steep wall in the mornings.
During what appears to have been the dive-group’s 5m safety stop Zhang was said to have dropped her GoPro camera and, despite attempts by at least one dive-guide to prevent her, followed the camera down.
The other divers surfaced as planned, and Zhang was reported missing at around 9am. Three dive-guides were joined by local divers in an initial attempt to find the missing diver, but they were hampered by the depth of the wall and strong currents.
Basarnas Balikpapan, the local search and rescue agency, led a search and recovery operation that also involved the Berau SAR team, police and military technical divers. It took repeated attempts before Zhang was located and brought to the surface, some six hours after the alarm had been raised. Her body was taken to a local hospital for examination.
Also on Divernet: IPO hit UK diver at Komodo’s Crystal Rock, Female diver’s body parts found in shark
Yeah, that’s why I always weight my cameras to be slightly positively buoyant. You’ve got a lot better chance of recovering it floating on the surface than if it descends into the depths. Even if it is within your dive plan’s limits, it’s perfectly capable of getting lost down a fissure, or hidden in seaweed.
One of my camera housings has a detachable weight for salt- vs fresh-water diving. The “GoPro-a-like”, I attached a wrist loop, with a small block of wood in the knot, so it was buoyant in fresh water.
Simple.
Works.
One thing less to worry about.
That’s terrible. I can’t help but wonder if she was properly trained to understand the extreme danger she put herself in though. I’d personally never have gone down so far.
I always have my camera attached to me using a spring with a bolt snap at either end. The one at the far end stays attached to me all the time, and the one at the camera end I can attach to a D-ring when I am not using it.
Attached is the simplest option using just a shoe attached to the underwater housing (for a selfie stick for example), but usually I use a tray instead and it works just as well. I can even stash the entire setup in my Fourth Element tech shorts, so I have nothing dangling anywhere upon entry and exit or in tight spaces.
So many people assumed she dived down to 87m to retrieve her GoPro. This is not the case. There are very strong currents and also downward currents. She was most probably swept away and down, and her body was discovered at 87m quite a distance from where she was diving.
Why is 87m depth a problem/issue?
Narc, gas consumption, and deco. You need trimix and special training at those depths. Probably got narc about 120 to 140ft and didn’t even realize what’s up.
For most people, narc comes on around 30~40m, and overwhelmingly by 50m ; but it’s variable between people, and variable across time and recent practice across time.
Which is why most amateur dive training puts a “floor” at 40m. Ditto insurance policies.
You’ll learn this during nitrox training, but above certain partial pressures of oxygen you run the risk of seizures. Maximum recommended operating depth of air (21% oxygen) is roughly 55m. Divers going substantially deeper than this need to use hypoxic gas mixes.
That’s over 240ft deep. That is suicide
I survived a bounce at that depth on air. Dumbest thing I ever did. One of the rare times I did social diving vs solo. The buddy wanted to do the same dive in Honduras his parents did. I filmed the entire dive. He did not significantly add deco time but followed his computer. I did an extra 1 hr of deco just for fun. I have switched to a chest mounted rebreather now.
Not suicide. But dangerous.
I had a friend “bounced” to those depths by tide currents. (Against fully-inflated ABLJ, drysuit, and dropped weight belt.) He didn’t dive for 3 or 4 years after that, but got back into it about the time he left the company and we lost contact. Helluva ride!
I assume you nest.
“Nest”?
I sincerely hope he’s not a diver – or has only just started his training.