Injured Diver - Pensacola 4/9/11

[CaboJim]

Since he was chasing fish @ 102ft, what would his ppoe be?... 1.5...1.55...?

 

[BKP]

Was the deceased nitrox certified?
What is the MOD on 36%......

95fsw at a P02 of 1.4
104fsw at a P02 of 1.5

Good point... But not outside standard limits...

 

[Puffer Fish]

95fsw at a P02 of 1.4
104fsw at a P02 of 1.5

Good point... But not outside standard limits...

True, but when you get that close, there is also the possibility that the number was a bit off... and it would not take much. One way puts you into major deco, and the other is also not good.

From all the testing I have done, a tank labeled with 36% will have something between 34% and 38 % in it. Pushing things to the edge would not seem to be a terribly good idea.

Note: Given the current technology, machine accuracies, human interface, and fill methods, it would be almost impossible to get the range under that amount of variation..

 

[Thalassamania]

The accident has no aspects of OxTox associated with it, air sharing went on to a depth of 15 feet, then something else appears to have gone wrong.

 

[Puffer Fish]

The accident has no aspects of OxTox associated with it, air sharing went on to a depth of 15 feet, then something else appears to have gone wrong.

Clearly... the event has so many single or possible combination events that about the only conclusion one can come to is that it was not OxTox.

 

[Hetland]

No O2 on the boat??? Running the engine so hard it stopped???

Hopefully this wasn't a professional dive operation???

It is very sad that another diver died, I am very sad for the loss. Had an O2 kit been in place, perhaps there would have been a better chance of survival...

These were recreational divers on a private boat. Doesn't sound like O2 would have made a difference, but you can bet the Coasties had a bottle on their boat....

Which leads me to another lesson from this incident: you can't rely on rescue personnel to do jack. You have to tow your own line.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I find this terrible sad. How can there be any divers out there in this area not diving with a computer, and without a buddy? Partcularly one that seemed to have gas management issues.

Only dives I make that are not called by the no deco limits, are those made on the Miss Louse. At least that I have seen, running out of gas would also mean running out of bottom time and carrying a good deco obligation.

How would a computer have changed things. This was an out of air issue, not a computer issue. Almost 100% of my dives are decompression dives. I use a computer as a backup, but I plan all of my dives before ever getting in the water. I know what my decompression obligation is going to be before I ever splash. I also require the same of my students. A couple of my students just finished a trimix class last weekend and one of them doesn't own a trimix computer. His computer was in gauge mode. Guess what? He's doing just fine. In fact, he's posted in this thread. There's way too much reliance on computers these days.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I learned to dive NDL dives on tables too.

 

[Puffer Fish]

How would a computer have changed things. This was an out of air issue, not a computer issue. Almost 100% of my dives are decompression dives. I use a computer as a backup, but I plan all of my dives before ever getting in the water. I know what my decompression obligation is going to be before I ever splash. I also require the same of my students. A couple of my students just finished a trimix class last weekend and one of them doesn't own a trimix computer. His computer was in gauge mode. Guess what? He's doing just fine. In fact, he's posted in this thread. There's way too much reliance on computers these days.

There are two styles of diving that have a reasonable safety factor... diving with a computer and planning your dive and diving your plan. Some personality traits like one, some the other. I'm also a trimix diver and don't have a trimix computer, but I don't do trimix dives by jumping in the water and swimming around until I get low on air.

It is not so much about the computer as it is about the how one is going to plan the dive. Using a computer can mean the plan is to dive until it tells one to come up. Millions of dives are done that way each year.

I would also guess that nearly as many dives were made without a computer.

My comment is about the type of dive being done, and how that dive was being managed. It was clearly not being managed as preplanned dive, in which case, the only other safe option is a computer.

My assumption in this case was that the person involved did not want or like to do dive planning, an assumption that may have been way off base. But if correct, then the only other option to bring some form of discipline to the dive, would be a dive computer.

And yes, I teach tables to new students.

Having known 8 divers who have died over the years in this area, I believe computers have done a tremendous job of keeping the less organized from making tragic dives. It is not so much the computer itself, but that count down as a reminder of the very short nature of the dive. Since those days before computers, the group that was helped the most were the people that were at most risk of making that one tragic dive.

I used to see just unsafe and dive planners, now I see computer users and dive planners...been a very long time now since I heard of that unsafe group.

I guess a direct cause and effect person would say that they should have planned their dive better, but 35 years ago, there was a segment that just never got the concept, even when it was the only concept we had.

 

[gcbryan]

I still don't see how a dive computer (even air integrated) would have done anything. The buddy turned the dive and DIVER still continued to chase fish in the other direction until the buddy had to go and get DIVER again.

How does a computer do much about that? If a buddy tapping you on the shoulder doesn't get you to go up...what can the computer do?