Doc Deep dies during dive.

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The local dive shop (Scuba Tec) who were supporting him dropped the line.

Sorry, I misremembered that, stcroixscuba posted: "There was a question about the line. Dr. Garman had contracted with a commercial dive company here to sink a 1,300' line anchored by a 250# anchor."

Nope, stcroixscuba also posted "To facilitate this dive we have sunk a 1,300' line with a 250# weight on it. This was the line used for the 815' dive." This made me think they (the dive shop) had done it, rather than a commercial diving outfit. Note sure what the truth is!

"we have sunk a 1,300' line..." could mean that they contracted to have the line sunk. However, I don't think stcroixscuba anticipated that his words would be scrutinized to this level and at this point it really isn't all that important how the line got there.
 
"we have sunk a 1,300' line..." could mean that they contracted to have the line sunk. However, I don't think stcroixscuba anticipated that his words would be scrutinized to this level and at this point it really isn't all that important how the line got there.

Precisely, it's important how the line gets UP. To me, just this one detail seems to summarize just how poorly planned this whole thing was from the start. The fact that St Croix SCUBA have absolutely NO idea how to raise the line speaks volumes about a lack of planning and complacence about this whole endeavor. Borders on criminal behavior.
 
... The question I've had since the start of this is how someone can make one dive to 800-odd feet and then feel that it prepares him for 1200 knowing full well that the hard core deep experts haven't done dives deeper than about 1000...

Depends on how you define "expert". Real experts have been working and supporting divers below 1000' for over 40 years. See: What is Saturation Diving

I don't accept using the term "expert" for armatures that don't even have a chamber onboard to handle DCS treatments -- or the ability to operate one if it was onboard.
 
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. I wonder how many members of their team wanted to speak out against this attempt but felt the pressure to agree or be seen as prudish or not one of the 'cool kids'. This is very sad, but not necessarily a new phenomenon in the world of humanity. And when the stakes are so incredibly high, this is precisely when we need to resist this pull to conform; we need to utilize our rational thought processes.

One aspect of the "group think" in this case that has not been discussed is the overall lack of expertise within that group. Members of the group have said words to the effect that "Dr. Deep" knew more about technical diving than anyone else on the planet. It is hard to say this without appearing to show disrespect for the deceased, but that is simply absurd. On the other hand, he probably did know more than anyone in the immediate vicinity, and that may have been a contributing factor. We just learned that his most experienced instructor had never dived below 215 feet! Research has shown that people who are not themselves highly expert in a skill are not able to identify true expertise in others. It is very possible that no one in the group had enough understanding of the issues surrounding deep diving to have those doubts, let alone express them.

We saw a similar thing in the (apparent) death of Ben McDaniel. McDaniel disappeared in 2010, and the assumption was that he died in a cave. Regardless of the truth of the incident, what was remarkable to me in its aftermath was the discussions about it in the social media in which his friends and relatives participated. They indicated a belief that Ben was one of the planet's greatest cave divers. In one memorable post, one of his friends said that some of the people looking for his body were among the best in the world, almost as good as Ben. In truth, Ben had no cave diving training and relatively little experience. A video of him diving in a cave surfaced, and it showed him to be a true beginner. He had a good way to go to achieve the skills needed for basic cave certification, but his immediate circle believed he had godlike cave diving skills. There was no one in his circle who knew enough to tell him no, let alone have the courage to speak doubts among that chorus of encouragement.
 
There was a picture from the supporting dive op in the original thread in tech diving. It was a LOT of cylinders.

Here:http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/te...6-doc-deep-plans-1200-dive-5.html#post7476439

35 cylinders. You would need 5,000 - 6,000 cuft of gas to do this dive, and to be safe, you'd really want double that amount. Sixty extra seconds at depth would add between 500-600 cuft to your gas bill.

Of course MY plan makes this more of a 25 hour run. HIS plan was for ~10 hours. If I found out a guy like this was on my boat, I'd cancel my charter.
 
One aspect of the "group think" in this case that has not been discussed is the overall lack of expertise within that group. Members of the group have said words to the effect that "Dr. Deep" knew more about technical diving than anyone else on the planet. It is hard to say this without appearing to show disrespect for the deceased, but that is simply absurd. On the other hand, he probably did know more than anyone in the immediate vicinity, and that may have been a contributing factor. We just learned that his most experienced instructor had never dived below 215 feet! Research has shown that people who are not themselves highly expert in a skill are not able to identify true expertise in others. It is very possible that no one in the group had enough understanding of the issues surrounding deep diving to have those doubts, let alone express them.

We saw a similar thing in the (apparent) death of Ben McDaniel. McDaniel disappeared in 2010, and the assumption was that he died in a cave. Regardless of the truth of the incident, what was remarkable to me in its aftermath was the discussions about it in the social media in which his friends and relatives participated. They indicated a belief that Ben was one of the planet's greatest cave divers. In one memorable post, one of his friends said that some of the people looking for his body were among the best in the world, almost as good as Ben. In truth, Ben had no cave diving training and relatively little experience. A video of him diving in a cave surfaced, and it showed him to be a true beginner. He had a good way to go to achieve the skills needed for basic cave certification, but his immediate circle believed he had godlike cave diving skills. There was no one in his circle who knew enough to tell him no, let alone have the courage to speak doubts among that chorus of encouragement.

I think a more recent example is the death of Darrin Spivey and his son at Eagles Nest on Christmas day 2013. These 2 had been diving in caves even though neither was trained or certified. In fact, I believe the son was not even a certified diver. But going beyond training and managing to survive seems to instill a sense of immortality that makes people want to push more and more. Eventually it caught up with them in a place that neither one should ever have been. This doctor may have had the best of intentions, and all the dedication and book learning in the world. But by surviving his 550 and 800 foot dives, he just set himself up for pushing once too often. There is a huge difference between 800 and 1200 feet, just as there was between 550 and 800 feet. I have no doubt that if he had managed to survive the 1200 foot dive, he would have immediately been planning for 2000 feet. This thinking paradigm is deadly.
 
"we have sunk a 1,300' line..." could mean that they contracted to have the line sunk. However, I don't think stcroixscuba anticipated that his words would be scrutinized to this level and at this point it really isn't all that important how the line got there.
Agreed, but if it was dropped by the dive operator, it's probably just a long line with a big-ass weight on the end; if it was sunk by a proper commercial outfit it might be fixed, giving more hassle to retrieve it.
 
After looking at the 537 ft dive video where the wetsuit, triple oversize tanks and stages were visible, I wonder if the wing was simply unable to stop the descent at 1200 ft and he crashed into the bottom at 1300 ft.
 
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Agreed, but if it was dropped by the dive operator, it's probably just a long line with a big-ass weight on the end; if it was sunk by a proper commercial outfit it might be fixed, giving more hassle to retrieve it.

I don't know much about commercial diving, but can't imagine why they would fix it to the bottom. Perhaps Akimbo can answer that.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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