RICHMOND — The grief-stricken family of a man who died in a diving accident near Victoria say tougher regulation of the sport is needed to help prevent further fatalities.
At an emotional press conference on Monday, relatives of Timothy Chu said the novice scuba diver should never have been taken to Race Rocks, an area known for notoriously strong currents and treacherous conditions.
Bill Chu, Timothy’s uncle, said the family has reviewed the B.C. Coroners Service report that was released in November and feels a full inquiry is needed to let the public know what is happening in the recreational-dive industry.
Timothy Chu, a 27-year-old British tourist, set up a diving excursion through Ogden Point Dive Centre.
Bill Chu said Timothy had little experience and only had 14 dives under his belt when he went to Race Rocks for the open-water dive on July 5, 2015.
Chu said anyone going for a dive in that area should be closely monitoring the strong current and conditions. He said the dive shop should not have taken a person with such limited experience into the area.
“The current is so strong there, you can generate power,” Bill Chu said.
He noted that just prior to the fatality of his nephew, two other diving incidents had happened in the Race Rocks area, with search-and-rescue crews managing to get the divers to safety.
“Those two were lucky to be found,” he said. “The current there is very, very strong. It’s like playing Russian roulette.”
Chu said it is not difficult to get a scuba licence to have a tank filled, and he called for more training for anyone who wants to do an open-water dive. “Tim, by all accounts, was a novice diver and the dive centre made a whole series of wrong decisions,” he said.
“They did not have a risk-management plan in place.”
Timothy Chu, a policeman from London, was certified as an advanced open-water diver in 2010.
During his time in Victoria, Chu made arrangements with Ogden Point Dive Centre to take part in a dive charter to Race Rocks Ecological Reserve on July 5, 2015.
In the coroner’s report, it is noted Chu sought out some expertise for the dive at Race Rocks.
He hired a “dive master” to act as a “buddy” for that day’s dive.
But problems developed as Chu and the dive master began to surface. In the report, coroner Courtney Cote notes how Chu “encountered conditions which overwhelmed his experience and training.”
During the swim toward the surface, Chu was entangled in a bed of kelp which added to the problem. The coroner also notes that once he began encountering difficulties he consumed more oxygen, resulting in the dive master supplying Chu with oxygen from his regulator. Fighting a heavy current and the kelp, Chu was pulled down and his body was found more than a month later.
Tom Beasley, a director of the Underwater Council of British Columbia, said it welcomed any measures to make the sport safer. “We would like to participate in that review,” he said. “We want to make it a safer sport. We always want to see things improve.”
In her report, Coroner Cote notes there is sizable risk with the sport. “Recreational scuba diving is an inherently risky sport,” she writes.
Cote writes there have been 37 diving deaths in B.C. in the past 10 years, with none of them happening at Race Rocks.
The Ogden Point Dive Centre did not return calls.
B.C. Coroners Service spokesperson Barb McLintock said the family can apply to the chief coroner to have the investigation reopened.
