Another fatal record attempt in Lake Garda, Italy

[Dark Wolf]

right, but why would they get proof and submit it?

No clue, to be honest. My personality type is different, I was just thinking out loud. I should have put that in that post, sorry.

DW

 

[Dark Wolf]

I'm not against record attempts. I'm against stupid record attempts.

That is often a moving target. What is stupid to one person, may not be to another.

DW

 

[doctormike]

Interesting post, thanks! I have seen the same trend in other endeavors. Whether it is skydiving, motorcycle racing, etc. Personally, I am not interested in world record attempts, and don't follow who has done what. I think a good portion of cases comes down to personality/psychological differences compared to the majority of folks who participate. Much like some of the pioneers of wreck and cave diving, they are doing things that most people aren't interested in doing.

I do see your point, I just don't think people will quit pursuing records.

DW

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the conversation...

I think that there is a fundamental difference between people risking their lives to push the boundaries of human achievement and depth records like this.

When Scott and his team died, they had failed to be the first to reach the south pole. Once Admunsen had made it, the pole had been reached and that was that. People looked for other goals to achieve. But that was a defined goal - reaching the south pole.

On the other hand, no matter what scuba depth record is set, it is never settled. Gabr made it to 1090 feet, which just makes 1091 feet all the more enticing to people who want to play this game. And if someone does that, then 1092 feet will be the goal.

Someone somewhere has received a greater force of blunt trauma to the skull and survived than anyone else. I don't know how many Newtons that is, and I don't want to know!

Depth records are a bad game. "The only way to win is not to play"

 

[Marie13]

The only reason I can think of for people to do these stupid depth record attempts is so they can be seen as the diver who's better than everyone else. Because they've dived the deepest and are the only one to do so. If it was just a fun dive for them to explore, they wouldn't be trying for a record.

Testosterone poisoning.

 

[Dark Wolf]

Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the conversation...

I think that there is a fundamental difference between people risking their lives to push the boundaries of human achievement and depth records like this.

When Scott and his team died, they had failed to be the first to reach the south pole. Once Admunsen had made it, the pole had been reached and that was that. People looked for other goals to achieve. But that was a defined goal - reaching the south pole.

On the other hand, no matter what scuba depth record is set, it is never settled. Gabr made it to 1090 feet, which just makes 1091 feet all the more enticing to people who want to play this game. And if someone does that, then 1092 feet will be the goal.

Someone somewhere has received a greater force of blunt trauma to the skull and survived than anyone else. I don't know how many Newtons that is, and I don't want to know!

Depth records are a bad game. "The only way to win is not to play"

My pleasure, I like conversation myself!

You are right, depth records provide a moving goalpost. Very interesting comparison in regards to the South Pole, I had not thought about it in that light.

At the end of the day I believe there always have been, and always will be, people who feel most alive when they are on that razor's edge. Maybe the depth record is just the easiest way for them to get their "fix"?

To expand on that a bit. The same comparison could be made about some of the early wreck divers, many of whom seemed to take great pride in being to areas of ships that no one else has ever seen. Just thinking out loud here, but it is an interesting phenomenon to me. The conversation made me think of a saying that was (if what I have read is accurate) quite a compliment to the early deep/cave divers. "When you die, no one will recover your body".

Again, not saying I agree with such attempts, but I feel that psychology plays a large role here.

DW

 

[DandyDon]

What next, the deepest freediver to survive?

No, there are several of those.

In any case the commercial and military divers have apparently been way deeper than 350m.

I think he was going for the freshwater depth record, but doing it solo would yield questionable records.

The only reason I can think of for people to do these stupid depth record attempts is so they can be seen as the diver who's better than everyone else. Because they've dived the deepest and are the only one to do so.

Less than a week after he set the last record, another diver died trying to break it in the same lake.

 

[Wibble]

Depth records are a bad game. "The only way to win is not to play"

They don’t add to human knowledge, except for another corpse to recover. They don’t add to scuba development, no new kit nor techniques

A bounce dive to some ridiculous depth without sufficient safety measures is purely self-centred ego massaging.

Worse still it brings our SAFE sport into disrepute with the public at large.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Less than a week after he set the last record, another diver died trying to break it in the same lake.

ah, point proven

 

[doctormike]

At the end of the day I believe there always have been, and always will be, people who feel most alive when they are on that razor's edge. Maybe the depth record is just the easiest way for them to get their "fix"?

Hah! Well we certainly don't want to enable addictions, right? Other than buying scuba gear, that one is OK...

To expand on that a bit. The same comparison could be made about some of the early wreck divers, many of whom seemed to take great pride in being to areas of ships that no one else has ever seen.

Right, but again, those goals were to get somewhere specific. Whether that dive site had archeological significance or not might be debatable, but I can at least see the idea of saying "let's see what gear and skills I need to develop to get to this specific place". That not only scratches the itch of an explorer in need for adventure, but also (like the moon landing) helps develop the technology useful in other endeavors.

On the other hand, depth records are completely arbitrary. There is nothing different between being suspended in a water column at 1090 feet and 1095 feet, other than the marginal increase in risk.

You could make the argument that these record attempts could be done dry. If the goal is to probe the limits of survivable ambient pressure, just build a powerful enough recompression chamber and dive to whatever depth you want to in a lab. There's probably a reason why no one is doing that...!

 

[Vicko]

Setting records is something humans do.
But so far 5 people have died in Garda attempting to do the same stupid thing, all the while divers with decades of experience are just preparing to do a deeper dive.
There was a video about the Pierce resurgence dive where you can see the amount of effort and time invested in that dive.
Meanwhile 2 (may be 3 if this was a similar case, I don't know much about it yet) of the fatalities related to Garda depth records happened because the dead guys were on vacation and could not sinc it up with their safety divers, so they decide to attempt the dive anyway.

Gabar, Starnawski, Swierczynski all planned their record dives for months if not years, cancelled the attempt because of bad conditions and survived.
These guy plan them over a beer.