One dead and one Missing at Buford Springs (FL, USA)

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

So 137 depth there is stupid.. That seems like a pretty clear and definitive answer/opinion - rather than pure speculation. I'm not too familiar with that site myself.

At what depth would not be stupid, in your opinion?
How many feet away was the body from the "smart" versus the "stupid" distance/depth?


I don’t like being beyond 60’ on a single tank (and I can freedive to 100’).

137’ is beyond my limit for using air, I want helium. I’m not going to pretend the universe might collapse into a singularity if you dive past 100’ without helium, I’m not gonna tell you I haven’t been past 137’ sans helium, and I’m not gonna tell you where you should set your personal depth limit.

I don’t want to be in any overhead except the shortest of swim throughs with a single tank.

Divers might routinely get away with any or all of the above; that doesn’t negate the fact that it stacks the odds against you.

YMMV
 
So 137 depth there is stupid.. That seems like a pretty clear and definitive answer/opinion - rather than pure speculation. I'm not too familiar with that site myself.

At what depth would not be stupid, in your opinion?
How many feet away was the body from the "smart" versus the "stupid" distance/depth?
We don't know the divers intentionally dived to 137, only that's the depth one body was found. The cavern is big. This is where I'd really like to see the dive-logs. While a 137ft open-water dive on a single AL80 tank is risky, doing one in a cavern/cave is where it becomes stupid.

I dove once on a single tank, air, at 130ft in open-water. My "older and wiser" self isn't comfortable with that. These days, I have redundant air (19cu or bigger) on EVERY dive, even at 15ft. A pony tank and extra regs may seem pricey, if you think of it like an insurance policy with low reoccurring costs, it's rather inexpensive. At 100+ feet, it's a no-brainer to use two tanks, but that's also because I dive sidemount, and have those skills/equipment. Sure, maybe I can CESA from 60ft, but I'd rather save myself the trauma of almost drowning.

Besides for agency standards and potential for narcosis causing problems.. at 5atm the “average” unstressed diver can make an al80 last 15minutes. [77cf/(1cfx5ata)] Thats not accounting air used getting there and having enough to get back to the surface at a safe speed. Now put a diver under stress and his air consumption doubles so the tank lasts only 8 minutes, then make him share air with another stressed diver who had a failure and the tank gives you 4 minutes. Then account for a need to do a 4.5 minute ascent to arrive safely at the surface as well as subtract what air it took during the decent to depth…. If nothing goes wrong you can make the dive without issue, but you’re gambling on your life that you and your buddy won’t have a regulator problem and/or won’t have anxiety if you end up sharing air..
My 130ft dive had a bottom-time of almost exactly 15 minutes (excluding descending and ascend time). I think I ended with around 750psi, with 5min safety stop.

Of course with stress, entanglement, air-share, regulator-issues, etc ... that was risky by my standards. In terms of "3 strikes you're dead" I'd rate my own dive a 1.5 strike dive, given no backup lights, no redundant air @ 130ft, and inattentive dive-buddy. Not cool, but I don't do that anymore.
 
The guy didn't get to 137 without swimming there. Maybe he could have been a little shallower, and then sunk down when he had a problem, but the geometry of the cave is that it kinda gets narrow top to bottom as you angle back into the deeper portion. And I don't think there are currents or anything that would move a diver's body.

I don't normally dive much past 60 feet without some redundancy, either, but that's not really relevant to this accident.
 
The guy didn't get to 137 without swimming there. Maybe he could have been a little shallower, and then sunk down when he had a problem, but the geometry of the cave is that it kinda gets narrow top to bottom as you angle back into the deeper portion. And I don't think there are currents or anything that would move a diver's body.

I don't normally dive much past 60 feet without some redundancy, either, but that's not really relevant to this accident.

I was simply comparing my usage of a single tank to the use by the victims. You asked if a single was stupid; I say yes in this application
 
Ive dove buford a few times. If memory serves correct, you could dive along the ceiling and be at about 80 ft and be directly above the 130 or so foot depth floor. The tunnel part of the cave starts at nearly 170’ but it is black by 140’. The steep downslope of parts in the back that have less rocks would also allow for a body to “tumble downhill” a bit even if they landed a bit shallower.
 
... My 130ft dive had a bottom-time of almost exactly 15 minutes (excluding descending and ascend time). ...
"Bottom Time" includes time spent descending.

rx7diver
 
What kind of cylinders were they using? If we know, I missed it.

My dive two days ago was a single cylinder dive to 126 feet maximum. Total dive time was 83 minutes. I was using an HP 120.
 
What kind of cylinders were they using? If we know, I missed it.

My dive two days ago was a single cylinder dive to 126 feet maximum. Total dive time was 83 minutes. I was using an HP 120.

It is confirmed they were on single AL80s and it was there second dive after a first dove of undetermined length and they did not switch cylinders between dives.
 
It is confirmed they were on single AL80s and it was there second dive after a first dove of undetermined length and they did not switch cylinders between dives.
Thanks! Can you provide a link to that information?
 

Back
Top Bottom