80cu Tank at 800 Feet ????

[speedyal]

I assume a deep dive to 800 feet would have a drop line that looks like a christmas tree with tanks ?

 

[Tigerman]

For the ones who actually do it, no.. Theire living down there in a little metal ball and breathe through a straw to the surface

 

[Superlyte27]

For the ones who actually do it, no.. Theire living down there in a little metal ball and breathe through a straw to the surface

Not on the Sat vessels i've seen.

 

[Cave Diver]

I assume a deep dive to 800 feet would have a drop line that looks like a christmas tree with tanks ?

Brief History Of Mixed Gas Diving

It was called "A Study In Controlled Paranoia." It was the deepest ever dive made by a free-swimming scuba diver. On April 5, 1988, Sheck Exley added another exploration to his personal log. This event was a milestone in diving history; it was not a typical sport dive. Sheck plunged to a depth of 780 feet within the Mexican cave system known as Nachimento Del Rio Mante.

The descent took 24 minutes; the decompression time was longer than 10 hours. The decompression times and gas mix utilized were controlled by a computer generated protocol developed by Bill Hamilton and Dave Kenyon known as the DECAP (Decompression Computation and Analysis Program). Since there was no previous experience with free-swimming "sport" divers at 700 feet, the tables were considered experimental. In addition to the four cylinders that Sheck carried, the dive protocol called for 16 staged bottles at depths between 30 and 270 feet, containing 11 different gas mixes, with 52 separate decompression stops beginning at 520 feet. The dive ended at the surface with breathing pure O2 for 30 minutes.

The dive was the essence of the true explorer: a highly skilled individual testing theoretical decompression protocols while venturing into areas previously unknown to mankind. If this had been a pilot's adventure, Hollywood would already have released the movie (starring Errol Flynn), and Sheck would be battling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for prime time ratings. As it was, after finishing the dive, Sheck and his team loaded the van and drove home... just another day of diving.

The cave diving community has consistently been on the cutting edge of technology. Their continual drive to go deeper and further than anyone before has given rise to much of what is known in the recreational dive community about the use of gas mixes other than air for deeper diving. Sheck's dive was not an isolated event, but rather the pinnacle of a series of carefully planned advances in knowledge about deeper diving. The advancement of knowledge has not been without its price. Along the way, pioneers and adventurers have died while seeking to dive deeper, extend bottom time and cover more distance. We, who sport dive today, owe our "recreating" to those who have gone before.

 

[Van Isle]

I assume a deep dive to 800 feet would have a drop line that looks like a christmas tree with tanks ?

You better believe it! I've seen some of the videos of deep dives, and they are crazy. YEARS of logistics alone to go to those depths, not to mention training, dollars, 100s of support team members, many with technical dive training for in water support. If you haven't yet, check this video of Nuno Gomez setting a record deep dive. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I'd guess that more climbers get to the top of Everest every year than divers SCUBA to depths of 800'+.

Search on this board for good SCUBA movies or books if you want to stoke the dive passion even more!

Cheers
VI

 

[Rhone Man]

If you read Diving Into Darkness, which is about the fatal dive which killed David Shaw, they spend about a week setting tanks for the dive to about 890 feet.

Many of the dives setting tanks were themselves decompression dives.

And those were all back-ups. Shaw was using a rebreather. As it happened however, it was a good thing they did stage the tanks. But I won't ruin it for you if you haven't read it...

 

[Cave Diver]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I'd guess that more climbers get to the top of Everest every year than divers SCUBA to depths of 800'+.

I believe there are less than 10 people who have dove below 800' and returned successfully.

 

[Akimbo]

I believe there are less than 10 people who have dove below 800' and returned successfully.

I can accept "I believe there are less than 10 Scuba Divers who have dove below 800' and returned successfully." There are hundreds of military and commercial saturation divers who have been to 800' and deeper. I was well below 900' in 1973 and was far from the first.

I'm sure Cave Diver knows this, but the clarification is for the benefit of others.

There is a very high probability that at any given moment there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people, working in saturation somewhere in the world. There is no central registry so there is not way to prove it, but I stand by the statement. It is not uncommon for a single diving support ship to have divers in sat 24/7 all year excluding their annual yard period. The bells come back without a spec of paint left inside, even under bolted stainless steel brackets.

 

[Cave Diver]

I can accept "I believe there are less than 10 Scuba Divers who have dove below 800' and returned successfully." There are hundreds of military and commercial saturation divers who have been to 800' and deeper. I was well below 900' in 1973 and was far from the first.

I'm sure Cave Diver knows this, but the clarification is for the benefit of others.

Yes, you're correct about the distinction. Since the question I responded to asked about SCUBA specifically I felt that was pretty obvious. In case it wasn't, I was referring to SCUBA divers specifically.

 

[Jax]

I can accept "I believe there are less than 10 Scuba Divers who have dove below 800' and returned successfully." There are hundreds of military and commercial saturation divers who have been to 800' and deeper. I was well below 900' in 1973 and was far from the first.

I'm sure Cave Diver knows this, but the clarification is for the benefit of others.

There is a very high probability that at any given moment there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people, working in saturation somewhere in the world. There is no central registry so there is not way to prove it, but I stand by the statement. It is not uncommon for a single diving support ship to have divers in sat 24/7 all year excluding their annual yard period. The bells come back without a spec of paint left inside, even under bolted stainless steel brackets.

What do you mean by the bolded statement, please?