Scuba Detector - Sadly, it is easy to drown if you step/get into water that is too deep , since it is difficult to swim with clothes on such as (hoody, shirt, pants, shoes etc ). I found it almost impossible to thread water while holding on too metal detector and scoop. As this equipment is very expensive and difficult to recover it most likely be jettisoned as a last resort, most likely after being exhausted.
When you loose your long handeled scoop, you have lost your abillity to push your self back to shore.
Worse, if you are wearing waders, and they fill with water, you are a goner - unless you have flotation.
As your friend was detecting in unprotected waters, any of all of the above could of happened: he could of had the wind knocked out of him by being smacked by a wave, hit by flailing equipment or sucked out further by a a rip tide or strong current.
Another possibility which I have added as it could save someones life is that your friend could of drowned in shallow water. If he thought that he was in too deep, he would expend all off his effort on trying to keep above water rather than on standing up. It is a matter of one's senses being fooled and panic setting in. I personally saved a person who had fallen off a fishing pier from drowning by yelling him to stand up, you can walk to shore.
I have practiced getting out of water that is too deep in protected lagoons, using the extra long handled scoop I carry as a safegaurd plus towing a float with sifting screen for additional safety. Before each practice session, I let the life gaurds know that I would be purposely doing this, so they would not be alarmed.
Even in a protected lagoon, I found it challanging to push back to shallower water with a long handle scoop as there was still was some currenty and I would twist/float off at an angle rather than straight back as desired.
If I was not towing an innertube for screening and flotation, I would definitely wear flotation - my preference being a vest with a tube which I can inflate and deflate by mouth, with CO, Cartridges which will the vest almost instantly when the handle are pulled when it is necessary to inflate faster. I purposely avoid safety device that inflate automatically, as to much flotation can be dangerous. If you are not able to control your boyancy, you can be sucked out to sea and never return, or wedged under a log by the current in a river, or not able to get out of an underwater cave as you are stuck at the top of the cave and the cave entrance/exit is much deeper.
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No muck, all sand. We THINK he went over his head in a trough between sand bars and drowned then the waves pushed him shallower. Nobody will ever know. He lost his long handled scoop that day and I couldn't go back to retrieve it and see where he might have drowned. Somebody found it I am sure.
