A coroner has asked the government to ban a cheap breathing device sold online after a Lower Hutt man drowned while using one for the first time off Mana Island, north of Wellington.
In findings released on Wednesday, Coroner Amelia Steel ruled the death of 58 year old painter Shengwei Cao an accidental drowning, with decompression complications contributing. RNZ reported that she recommended the device be banned from importation into New Zealand, that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment run an awareness campaign about products like it, and that the ministry look more broadly at the risks and the rules covering the whole product category.
The device was a Wolach 919, a surface supplied breathing unit of the kind divers call a hookah system. Instead of a tank strapped to the diver’s back, a small compressor floats on the surface and pushes air down a long hose. The design lets a free diver stay under far longer than a held breath allows, and units like it sell online for a few hundred dollars.
Cao had been free diving for five or six years, usually in shallow water close to shore and only in good weather. He had no scuba training. He bought the Wolach online and tested it in his bathtub on 4 March 2023. The next morning he met friends at the Mana Boat Club and the group headed out to the island, where he began using the unit for the first time about 11.30am while the others scuba dived.
After 10 to 15 minutes he came back to the boat feeling seasick and said the device was not working properly. A friend had to help him out of the water, which the findings noted was unusual for him. About 10 minutes later he said he felt better and went back in alone, roughly 30 metres from the boat. When his friend called out to him there was no answer, only bubbles on the surface.
A passing boat was waved down and its occupants found Cao in about five metres of water, still tethered to the buoy that carried the pump. The pump was still running. “However, the mouthpiece attached to the breathing tube was to the side of Mr Cao’s head, rather than in his mouth,” the coroner wrote. He was declared dead onshore a short time later. A funeral notice published after his death said he left a wife, a child and two grandchildren.
A specialist from the Police National Dive Squad later tested the same gear in a diving pool. 1News reported the specialist found it hard to draw air from the unit, particularly at depths of around 4.5 to 5 metres, because the compressor only kicked in once pressure in the hose had already dropped. The report described it as a “dangerous system” that could leave a diver feeling as though the air was running out, which can trigger panic and a build up of carbon dioxide.
The same testing turned up other problems that had nothing to do with the pump. Cao had been diving without a dive computer, dive tables or a depth gauge, so he had no way of tracking how long he had been down or how deep he had gone. He was also carrying so much lead in two harnesses and a weight belt that he was negatively buoyant, and none of it could be released in a hurry. Using the Wolach, carrying on while unwell and diving alone were all treated as factors in his death.
Whether the coroner’s central recommendation goes anywhere is now a question for the ministry and, ultimately, the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The power sits in section 31 of the Fair Trading Act 1986, which says that where it appears to the Minister that goods “will or may cause injury to any person, the Minister may, by notice, declare the goods to be unsafe goods”. A declaration also covers goods that may injure someone through reasonably foreseeable misuse. It runs for 18 months, and if no product safety standard has been set by then the Minister can prohibit supply indefinitely.
An importation ban of the sort the coroner asked for does not need a separate step. Section 33 of the same Act says goods that cannot lawfully be supplied are automatically prohibited imports under the Customs and Excise Act 2018, which puts them in the hands of Customs at the border.
The ministry is not there yet. Its manager of consumer services, Simon Gallagher, said it was considering the findings and was committed to assessing any appropriate action, and noted the Wolach 919 is not currently on sale here. He told 1News that “before determining whether regulatory intervention, including restrictions on supply or importation, is warranted, MBIE considers that further assessment of the broader product category, associated consumer risks, market presence and available regulatory options would be beneficial”.
Water Safety New Zealand called the death an avoidable tragedy. Rob Hewitt, who leads the organisation’s MΔori water safety work, said the findings read like a “tragic list of everything you must never do” underwater.
“Diving in open water is absolutely not the place to try new equipment,” he said.
Hewitt knows the stretch of coast better than most. The former navy diver was swept away from his boat between Mana Island and Kapiti Island in February 2006 and spent about 75 hours in the water before he was found alive. He told RNZ that reading the coroner’s report “sort of touched my heart and woke up a few thoughts of when I was lost out at sea”, and that men in particular needed to stop assuming they were bulletproof.
“When the unexpected happens you need someone close to you who can immediately give you some help. Tragically this was not the case for Mr Cao,” he said.
The findings land in a bad year. Water Safety New Zealand’s drowning insights page recorded 62 provisional drowning deaths for 2026 as at 8 September, which is 17 more than at the same point last year and nine above the ten year average for this stage of the year. The 2025 calendar year total was 79, seven below the ten year average, and 66 of those who died were men. New Zealand’s ten year average drowning rate of 1.6 deaths per 100,000 people is well above Australia’s 1.12 and Canada’s 1.3.
None of that is an argument against getting in the water. It is an argument for the unglamorous parts of the sport, which is roughly what the coroner’s file amounts to. Try new gear somewhere shallow where a bad surprise is only embarrassing. Get out and stay out if you feel unwell. Carry a way of knowing your depth and your time. Make sure your weights can be dumped in a second. And dive with someone who will notice within seconds, not minutes, that you have stopped moving.
Have you bought dive gear online, or do you think devices like this should be stopped at the border? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
Leave a Reply