black water diving

[hbhobby]

I was curious on how you and your team monitor depth, air, acent rates, and the such in black water? I recently participated in a vehicle recovery it was shallow (38 feet)and was quick (15 minutes) but it got me thinking about how it gets done when visibility is not.

 

[Gary D.]

Training and experience. If you don't know, limit your dives to 20 min or less.

 

[BladesRobinson]

I agree with Gary. A lot of it is training and experience. And credit is given to the tender and the entire support team that is in place to assure the diver's safety. We encourage air checks and depth checks via comm at timed intervals so we can determine that the air consumption rate and depth of the diver is within parameters that will result in a safe dive operation. If the diver is unable to read his gauges, then it is necessary for him to come to the surface and report depth and tank pressure. If we know the depth because of pre-planning, or first hand knowledge of the dive site, we may choose to fore go the depth check and fore go the five minute PSI check too if we are confident that the breathing rate is normal (based on respirations, i.e., bubbles coming to the surface) and air consumption rate of the divers based on past dives. As Gary stated, there is a lot of team training and team experience to assure safety.

 

[ditch-diver]

What Blades and Gary said.

...... and for us, if it too dark and dirty for a diver to read gauges even when pressed against their faceplate, we do the dive on surface supply. Then the criticals can be monitored from topside

 

[tc]

Ditto the above comments.

A good habit I try to ingrain in our folks is that before you look at the pressure gauge- try to guess what the reading will be. After you do this for quite a while you'll find that you'll nearly always know what your pressure is with a very small margin of error.

 

[fedfirediver]

Great mines think a like .. I agree with the above

 

[Waterdog Diver]

What do you guys think about the Oceanic Data Mask. We have a small team here in South GA and limited on $. Two of us on our team own a Data Mask and we use them a lot. I do understand the need for full face, but like I said $ is tight. We are working on purchasing some FFM in the near future.

 

[BladesRobinson]

The data masks costs about $1,100 and an Interspiro MkII / AGA mask costs less than $800. So as you point out the full face masks are better suited for public safety diving. Putting that aside, I like the data mask. If Oceanic would make a heads up display that could be fitted into the Interspiro MkII mask, that would be the ULTIMATE combination. (I will also point out that they would have a bunch of "instant customers" since many teams are using the Interspiro mask)

 

[Gary D.]

Before making any decision I would like to see some real in depth testing on the DataMax technology and the crap we dive in. We dive in heavy metal contaminated bottom silt on a regular basis and I’d like to know if the heavy concentrations of Lead, Silver, Gold, Zink and many other metals will interfere with the unit. :nuke:

 

[dittrimd]

I am always cautious when it comes to relying on technology for safety since batteries can fail, wireless signals can be disrupted. A HUD in the AGA mas would be a good safety item but would not be the best way to ensure the safety of a diver. The DIVATOR actually has a light that mounts to the AGA mask which illuminates when a given pressure is reached.

I think it is similar to the comms on the AGA mask. We still use our line signals as the primary means of communication because comms can fail and if you know your line signals it means you always be able to communicate. Knowing your consumption rates for a given exertion, experienced tenders, and knowledge of the area you are diving all help to keep a diver safe.

Mark D.