Cave Ccr Student Dies At Blue Grotto Today

[Maxpcf]

Shame,

Is there any development yet as to whether it was a roll off or part of a boom drill?

Thanks for all the analysis and facts to those who reported/weighed in. Learning from others' mistakes is an invaluable experience.
Hopefully transparency like this will lead to fewer fatalities down the line.

 

[The Chairman]

Is there any development yet as to whether it was a roll off or part of a boom drill?

There's really no way for us to know that. All we know is that the O2 was off. It would take a few minutes for the O2 to run out after being turned off and a few minutes after that for the diver to expire. I bet a check of the PPO2 and the SPGs before the exercise would have revealed a problem. It's not like you roll off the O2 and die within a couple of minutes.

 

[cerich]

That is directly contradicted by the TDI course standards linked to above.

which also clearly state "At NO point is the student to be unable to monitor their PO2 while on the loop. Zero visibility drills must be performed in a way that the student may monitor the status of the breathing loop; i.e. no mask but able to monitor HUD, lights out but able to use display back light to view PO2, etc. Or, the drill must be done on bailout."

Black out isn't the issue, black out when you can't monitor the loop is

From what has been posted earlier in this thread (I have not verified) the PADI standards are quite different, requiring a diver to maintain without any monitoring, which I think is insane.

 

[Jack Hammer]

No one has asked if the neoprene mask allowed or was modified to allow PO2 monitoring. Not being able to view the HUD is a recipe for disaster.

 

[boulderjohn]

From what has been posted earlier in this thread (I have not verified) the PADI standards are quite different, requiring a diver to maintain without any monitoring, which I think is insane.

I missed the part where this was posted. Could you point it out to me?

 

[rongoodman]

I missed the part where this was posted. Could you point it out to me?

Just curious, did none of you have a skill similar to this in your open water CCR course:

Without using the HUD or any display, maintain the oxygen content within .1 of setpoint at a steady depth while at rest and while swimming by manually adding oxygen to maintain loop volume as the oxygen is consumed by metabolism for a period of at least 10 minutes.
​

I know different agencies have somewhat different skills, but this is required for PADI Tec 40 CCR. It sounds like most of the posters would have refused to do it.

I remember a similar exercise in my IANTD class, but thought of it more of an illustration of minimum loop volume. I definitely had access to my monitoring while doing it.

 

[hotelconucc93]

If it wasn't a roll off it should have been caught during a five minute pre breathe.

 

[The Chairman]

I missed the part where this was posted. Could you point it out to me?

It was a quote from a PADI Tek40 outline stating that the students were to "feel" their PPO2 through their change in buoyancy. I looked quickly, but failed to see it. I think it was in the first couple of pages.

 

[Garth]

Is that common practice in a Cave CCR class? Closing my eyes so that I could no longer monitor my PPO2 would be a step too far for me, not at all the same as doing so during an OC drill.

From my perspective I would be definitely okay with not knowing my ppo2 for about a minute as long as I knew what it was before I put the mask on. I suppose I will get flamed for this but if you are experienced and know what your PPO2 is and ensure you are staying within the same water column it doesn't change much in a minute. 10 minutes? Different story but if I was in a complete black out for a minute or 2 I don't see myself being bent out of shape.

 

[cerich]

From my perspective I would be definitely okay with not knowing my ppo2 for about a minute as long as I knew what it was before I put the mask on. I suppose I will get flamed for this but if you are experienced and know what your PPO2 is and ensure you are staying within the same water column it doesn't change much in a minute. 10 minutes? Different story but if I was in a complete black out for a minute or 2 I don't see myself being bent out of shape.

how will you know you aren't moving in the water column. Is this a case when you can't see your HUD or your computer but can your depth? If the argument is you can "feel it" I have pretty good buoyancy and in a zero viz silt I won't be wanting to trust my life on "feeling" my depth. Sorry