Absolutely Insane Dive Video - Cozumel

[Mike]

There is really not much worse than falling into the, "that is the way it has been done in the past" concept. In health care and Marine Corps' aviation I have asked, "so it has been screwed up that long?" "What have you done to correct the situation?"

Who's falling into anything screwed up or justifying it? I just explained what is happening and then re-explained where you could find the information to support the explanation.

Extending a dive by extending a diver's air supply long before he is low on air violates no safety rules or dive instruction concepts or dive master training. The diver still has his own air supply that is well stocked with air during this entire process, he goes back on his own air supply and continues the dive.

You might not like it because you're still getting over the shock of discovering this goes on, but it doesn't make the process wrong on the basis of safety.

The side effect I have witnessed many times, is newbie divers who go on the long hose, suddenly develop an very enhanced awareness of their breathing and buoyancy and start calming down and stop their water bug routine of flying all over the reef, up and down motion in the water column and start to realize that drift diving is about slow and steady and a relaxed state of diving. I've seen many divers who go on the long hose at the beginning of their dive vacation transform dramatically during their series of dives over a week and fall out of the rotation of the long hose as they become better at their air consumption. That long hose gets them acutely aware that air consumption is an important skill to begin working on and they become acutely aware that there are other divers in the groups they dive with and that better air consumption is a positive trait to have and appreciated by their fellow divers with them.

I'm not stating that any of the above is good or bad, only stating the experience witnessed.

 

[deeper thoughts]

What exactly do you think the DM did wrong and please point out or copy any documentation you have to support yourself. We will wait... take all the time you need cause it's going to be a long time for you to do so...

Let's just start with this one --Redundant air supply... we will wait...

Those DMs in COZ are great!! They sure earn their money!

 

[Scubadude_LA]

To me one good lesson to be learned from this video is: If you are the poor sucka on the long hose, by all means hold the hose with a free hand or the reg will eventually get ripped out of your mouth and the guy in front who is supposed to be in the back may never know it, an you may never catch him!

 

[Wingy]

Cozumel is not the only place you see this....happens in a lot of tourist destinations.

Also not sure that looks like 100 feet deep to me...where are the fish btw? - someone mentioned an inclining ascent to shallower water, from the light in the video they looked pretty shallow at the end of it.

 

[Searcaigh]

...where are the fish btw?

Mexico Wingy, they have all been eaten

 

[Redshift]

where are the fish btw?

Noticed the same. Is this what Cozumel has to offer?

 

[TracyN]

That is where it happened to me. P III was blown and P II was going. We were the last group in P I. I was in intro cave class and TJ said that it was the longest light out / share air dive that he has performed...BC he did not want us to turn our lights on and see the decreased vis. Early in the day...50-70+ feet...at the end maybe 3 feet and damn cold. They closed the park after we left. After dinner we went to Cow and the water was almost up to the parking area.

Sorry for the highjack

That is exactly what happened to us. Paul told us that we had witnessed an event that not many people get to see.

 

[Allison Finch]

And you know all of this to be fact? Pure 100% BS! No one puts anyone on their long hose because there is no problem. And BTW, how in the heck do you know the PSI pre and post.

Plain and simple: you donate your reg, put the receiver diver in front and you exit in the safest manner. No reading into if the diver is certified, depth, overhead, air remaining, temp, vis, etc. You are only adding to the cluster F%^$ that others may follow.

You don't sound very well seasoned to be so BLACK and WHITE. You put divers who are having real issues in front to keep an eye. This guy was simply an air hog, from what I saw. I didn't see any reg malfunction, other than the usual freeflow when a reg is moved out of mouth. The DM, wisely, turned the sensitivity down a notch.

 

[boulderjohn]

As Mike said, this procedure is common in a lot of places. Here is how it typically works.

The DM tells everyone before the dive that the first person to get to 1,000 PSI (or another number) will share air on his long hose until the second person hits 1,000 PSI. At that point he will take back his long hose and the first person will go back on his own air supply. The DM is constantly monitoring all air supplies, so he knows no one else is running low.

The diver in this case clearly did not have a free flowing regulator problem being solved through this. When he took his regulator out of his mouth, he did not point it down as he should have, and it free flowed briefly until turned over.

Assuming that this was what is commonly done, the diver had 1,000 PSI at all times, and he could have gone back to his own air at any time he wanted.

You may consider this insane, but I would guess that it happens many thousands of times around the world in an average year.

 

[mtl perry]

You may consider this insane, but I would guess that it happens many thousands of times around the world in an average year.

and sometimes you see things like this
changing O-ring 80 feet deep Holguin Cuba
[video=youtube;y6JgLB7Nlns]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6JgLB7Nlns[/video]