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SeaLife Cameras commented on the post, SeaLife Micro 2.0 Review – Leaky Housing & Malfunction 3 years, 7 months ago
Hello, we apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused. We assure you that this is a singular occurrence. Please contact the SeaLife Service Center (http://www.sealife-cameras.com/contact-us), so our team can resolve this issue right away. Thank you for your patience.
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Salty Dog
If you’re looking for a great family scuba vacation, don’t hesitate to check out Ambergris Caye and Ramon’s dive center. Everybody’s friendly, the food and diving are good.
Pamela
Wow! What a fun place to dive! The Guardian of the Sea is so beautiful. I love how your entire family is involved in exploring the oceans.
profesora
<p>thanks</p>
profesora
<p>tst</p>
Salty Dog
Now that is Glock PERFECTION! Too cool!
Salty Dog
Yowza! That’s certainly a black eye for PADI. There are many other SCUBA certifying agencies out there from which to choose.
Salty Dog
What a tragedy. With that said, the family’s attorney says that it’s the instructor’s fault that Rob died because the instructor surfaced with breathing problems and emergency aid was administered to that instructor. -That left Rob unattended and caused Rob’s death, the family is saying.
No jury or judge in Florida will determine that the instructor was negligent to leave his post underwater and beside Rob because of breathing problems the instructor encountered while underwater. SCUBA diving has risks. Not being able to breathe correctly underwater throws all job duties and other assignments right out of the window. The instructor surfaced because he was having trouble breathing. That is an EMERGENCY situation. I’m curious to hear what the family attorney or any member of Rob’s family would have done themselves while underwater and having difficulty breathing. I doubt that if Rob were alive today, he would agree with his family suing the instructor in this situation. Also, it sounds like the family is trying to make it look as if Rob were just a student along for the ride under the care of a ‘teacher’-instructor and that Rob shouldn’t take any responsibility for his own actions. This was a 230 feet dive which is almost TWICE the recommended depth for the maximum on an amateur dive.
Professional Witnesses will all testify that not being able to breathe under water can certainly lead to death. Also, diving too deep can certainly lead to death. Also, having an instructor beside you will not ensure that you won’t die on any particular dive. The dive operator’s insurance company will offer the family a smaller than expected check to settle the suit and go away. The family and their attorney will accept, the attorney will take his fees, the family won’t be left with much, the pain of Rob’s death will be extended during the court proceedings and this will all still be a tragedy in the end. A question is, has suit been filed against the Rebreather equipment manufacturer??? What caused the breathing problems? Tragedy tragedy tragedy. I’m very sorry for the loss of the Stewart’s son, Rob.
Salty Dog
More info:
Filmmaker’s family sues Keys dive operator and Fort Lauderdale instructor – FlKeysNews.com
March 29, 2017
Canadian conservationist and filmmaker Rob Stewart died Jan. 31 off Islamorada after surfacing from his third 230-feet dive in one day retrieving a $15 grappling hook, his family says.
Stewart’s family on Tuesday filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Broward County Circuit Court demanding a jury trial against a Fort Lauderdale-based scuba diving equipment company, Add Helium LLC, its owners and Key Largo’s Horizon Dive Adventures.
The family held a press conference Tuesday in Coral Gables announcing the legal action. Stewart’s family seeks unspecified compensation for damages suffered as a result of their son’s death.
Attorneys for the defendants did not return requests for comment.
Horizon provided the Pisces dive boat and crew that took Stewart out to the Queen of Nassau wreck about 6 miles off Islamorada where he was filming parts of the sequel to his “Sharkwater” documentary series. Add Helium and its owners, Peter and Claudia Sotis, provided rebreather equipment to Stewart that’s used for deep dives. They also trained him on it.
Michael A. Haggard, the Stewart family’s attorney, said Peter Sotis “violated every standard in the dive industry” the day Stewart lost his life and in the months before when Sotis trained Stewart on the complex, and often dangerous, rebreather dive equipment.
Stewart, who was 37 when he died, had been diving since age 13 but he was new to rebreathers. His family said he had not attained the level of expertise needed to conduct the types of dives Sotis allowed that day.
“He rushed Rob’s training,” Haggard said, adding the hastened course on the rebreathers was a “fraudulent inducement to use certain equipment.”
And the third deep dive in day to retrieve a grappling hook used as a navigational aide to mark the Queen of Nassau’s location would be an unacceptable risk for any diver, Haggard said. Someone other that Stewart, who was likely exhausted, should have been sent down to get the hook, Haggard said.
“This was a tragic accident waiting to happen,” Haggard said.
Horizon was responsible for Stewart’s death, Haggard and Stewart’s family argue, because no one from the Pisces watched him floating in the open water after Peter Sotis collapsed on the deck of the Pisces right after the pair emerged from the depths. By the time anyone noticed, Stewart disappeared.
“It’s fundamental,” said Brian Stewart, Rob’s father. “You don’t take your eyes off the diver in the water.”
After an exhaustive three-day, 6,000 square-mile, multi-agency search, divers found his body 225 feet on the ocean floor just 300 feet from where he was last seen.
Rob’s mother, Sandy Stewart, said given her son’s experience and the experience of everyone on the trip that day, there was no reason anyone had to die.
“When you hear about all the carelessness, it’s heartbreaking,” she said.
Haggard also alleges Sotis manipulated the computer on the rebreather equipment, allowing for longer dives. Rebreathers are popular among deep divers because, unlike the limited-capacity conventional compressed air tanks, the diver’s air is recirculated and the carbon dioxide is scrubbed. As the air is recirculated, a smaller tank on the device adds more oxygen based on its computer’s calculations.
“Basically, he lied to the computer and put in new gas ratios,” Haggard said. “This means you can surface faster and spend more time in the water at deeper depths.”
Haggard said this could have been why Sotis collapsed after surfacing, and Stewart likely experienced the same difficulties before he slipped beneath the waves unnoticed by the crew of the Pisces.
“He was using the same gas mixture Peter Sotis was using,” Haggard said. “They both became hypoxic at the same time.”
That rebreather equipment is now being evaluated by the U.S. Navy at the request of the Monroe County medical examiner.
Sotis had it with him when he was at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on his way out of the country to Curacau on Feb. 1. Agents with the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service met him at the airport and confiscated the rebreathers, Haggard said.
Salty Dog
Family of filmmaker who died on a dive in the Keys is taking legal action – Miami Herald
March 29, 2017
The family of famed Canadian conservationist Rob Stewart is preparing to file a wrongful death lawsuit against several companies and individuals involved in a late January underwater film shoot off Islamorada that proved fatal for the Toronto documentary filmmaker.
Among the targets of the suit, expected to be filed in Broward County Circuit Court Tuesday morning, is Peter Sotis, a well-known figure in the rebreathing deep-sea diving community who was with Stewart when the two men surfaced after a 225-feet deep dive on the wreck of the Queen of Nassau Jan. 31. They were using rebreather equipment from Sotis’ company, Add Helium, during the dives.
Add Helium is also expected to be named in the suit, according to a press release issued Monday by the Haggard Law Firm, the Coral Gables-based firm hired by Stewart’s family.
Sotis has a history of legal issues, including being one of four defendants to plead guilty in a $300,000 jewelry heist in Fort Myers in 1991, a conviction that resulted in Sotis serving nearly three years in federal prison, according to press reports from the time. His latest legal troubles include a lawsuit filed by his former business partner in which he’s accused, among other things, of selling military-grade scuba gear to a Libyan militant last August, and selling non-certified compressed air tanks to the company’s customers.
His lawyer, Raymond Robin, could not immediately be reached for comment.
“When you learn more about these defendants and the history of negligent behavior by people like Mr. Sotis, you come to realize this was a preventable tragedy that was going to happen to someone,” Michael Haggard, of the Haggard Law Firm, said in a statement issued Monday. Haggard scheduled a press conference at his Coral Gables office for 10:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, where he is expected to detail the lawsuit and name others being sued.
When Stewart and Sotis surfaced that afternoon, Sotis appeared to have breathing difficulties, and the crew of the dive boat Pisces rushed him on board.
When they turned around to retrieve Stewart, he was gone. Three days later, after a massive, multi-agency, 6,000 square-mile search, divers with the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department located his body more than 220 feet below the waves, about 300 feet from where he was last seen on the surface. He was 37.
United States Coast Guard Capt. Jefferey Janszen said during a Feb. 3 press conference announcing the end of his agency’s search for Stewart that Sotis was given oxygen by the Pisces crew and declined further treatment. Stewart’s body was found less than an hour after the search was called off.
The men were on their third dive that day filming the next installment of Stewart’s Sharkwater documentary series about the importance of shark conservation. The Queen of Nassau wreck is near Alligator Reef, about 6 miles off Islamorada.
Deep-sea diving using rebreathers is risky, but three such dives in one day is considered pushing the envelope, even among many of the most experienced divers. Using rebreathers, as opposed to conventional compressed air tanks, allows for longer dives because the diver uses his or her own air that is recirculated and scrubbed of carbon dioxide.
“The Stewart family hopes the legal action will push out and/or change the ways of all irresponsibly operating diving businesses and help keep attention on Stewart’s mission of ocean conservation,” Haggard’s law firm stated.
SeaLife Cameras
Hello, we apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused. We assure you that this is a singular occurrence. Please contact the SeaLife Service Center (http://www.sealife-cameras.com/contact-us), so our team can resolve this issue right away. Thank you for your patience.
Rick
A boy from Louisiana died using one last weekend.
Battra
SeaLife Micro 2.0 sucks! GoPro’s are less expensive, take far better pics and video and also have stabilization.
Jim H.
My SeaLife Micro 2.0 Camera takes just so-so pics. The new GoPro’s with stabilization take much better still pictures than the SeaLife. The GoPro’s are less expensive too. I won’t buy another SeaLife product either. The SeaLife’s are way over-priced for what they are. I can’t see them staying in business when competing against GoPro.
Salty Dog
These things are crazy dangerous. Used one, one time. They should be called CHINA JUNK MASKS.
Chaffrey
Hi,
Wow so shocked to hear this thing killed people
We are USA based Easybreath retailers, the original Full-Face mask designed by french company DECATHLON, that to our knowledge, has never caused such tragedies.
We would like to know if this also happened with the product we are retailing or only with those cheap copy that do not care about residual air volume..
Basically they get users to rebreathe a consequent amount of air the just exhaled, charged with carbone dioxyde, making the brain lack oxygen.
You might think our request is profit driven but we are shocked to hear about cheaper products causing so much sadness and would like to work on making this market more secure.
Any additional information might help us get those Chinese counterfeits down.
Thank you so much in advance.
Sarah L.
I think SeaLife has gone cheap on their production line.
Salty Dog
“No dive certification needed”. What could possibly go wrong using this system???
-Supposed to go on sale for $1400 USD.
-Air pump lasts for up to 45 minutes per charge.
Nathan Rockell
Sealife cameras are way too expensive anyway. Thanks for the great posting, it should help to keep people from getting bit by Sealife.
James Oberg
Serious reality-challenged claims in Season 1 bode ill for any follow-up. All evidence is there never was such a sensor on Cooper’s flight, and his ‘treasure map’ was an imaginary story he told in his lonely old age, with Parkinson’s dementia, after he’d washed out of the Apollo program for losing his mojo. Sad fate, sadder still by letting his fame be exploited by an unending parade of charlatans and con men.
My debunking of the ‘secret sensor’ and ‘five thousand photos’ —
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3224/1
Loss of Faith — Gordon Cooper’s post-NASA stories
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3228/1
Stephen Kraybill
Looking at the advertising on Amazon, several of these masks are being described as “SCUBA” masks. The fine print states that they are for “surface use only”. The informed dive community should be bringing pressure on Amazon to remove the misleading and dangerous advertising at the very least. As a PADI instructor I have seen the hazards to both the owner and those around them when improper gear is used. Skin or SCUBA equipment, Amazon shares the responsibility for misleading advertising on their site.
Warren Peper
Good afternoon,
I work and live in Charleston, SC. I write a weekly column for local paper and am interested in contacting golf ball diver Steve Goodley, a College of Charleston alum for possible story. Do you have any contact info for him?
Thanks,
Warren Peper