Australian woman dead - South Africa

[ajduplessis]

Not if that decision making is based on false and uninformed education and leadership.

 

[xyrandomyx]

This woman had a goal in mind. Isn't this one of the failings that Sheck warns about in his book, going too deep?200 dives is so few dives to be doing a dive like this, even if she started tech diving from right out of the starting gate. This is another prime example of needing the seasoning to go with the training. Very,very sad story. She may have had blinders on because of her desire to do the "ceolocanth" dive.Are there quite a few "deep freaks" in South Africa? I know that's where the man and woman deep record holder comes from and they dive with a local,private club. Perhaps this fosters a local attitude about deep diving? Maybe some wicked peer pressure?

I haven't noticed any kind of 'deep freak' culture in South African diving in the couple of years I've been diving here. But perhaps there is that sort of sub-culture hiding within the larger South African diving community? Particularly in the areas of the country where there are deep sinkholes that lend themselves to that sort of thing.

 

[cerich]

Deep open water dives should not be attempted without redundent/extra buoyancy. There is absolutly nothing wrong with dual wings/bladder systems. That said you dive with one LPI disonnected to avoid making mistakes/manage problems, or you combine the inflators together (inflate, deflate simultaneously). Some use drysuit as backup buoyancy, but they vent to slow for my liking and is another potetial problem to deal with. We are fortunate to have warmer waters as with this accident site and that makes the wet/semi dry exposure choice a lot easier IMO

Sorry I really disagree. Diving with a piece of equipment intentionally disabled is stupid. If the thing poses such a risk that you need to disable it you shouldn't have it in the water with you. Combining the inflators together is a new one on me but it's real easy to see that is not going to add any benefit to the mix, you just end up not knowing which one is failing if one does fail. If you can vent your drysuit quickly enough to stop a runaway assent even feet up, you shouldn't be diving a drysuit let alone while doing technical dives.

 

[grf88]

Sorry I really disagree. Diving with a piece of equipment intentionally disabled is stupid. If the thing poses such a risk that you need to disable it you shouldn't have it in the water with you. Combining the inflators together is a new one on me but it's real easy to see that is not going to add any benefit to the mix, you just end up not knowing which one is failing if one does fail. If you can vent your drysuit quickly enough to stop a runaway assent even feet up, you shouldn't be diving a drysuit let alone while doing technical dives.

It is still immediately available for oral inflation so hardly disabled.

 

[ajduplessis]

Don't worry, he is new to diving.

 

[clownfishsydney]

So sad. A person who appears to have got nervous often enough for the buddy to give her a nickname related to the noise she made when nervous would appear to me to be someone who should not be diving at all, let alone doing very deep tech dives.

 

[cerich]

It is still immediately available for oral inflation so hardly disabled.

Because you are going to have a technical diver in distress using oral inflation to resolve an issue. Very unlikely to work out well in real life.

I have dove the dual bladder units and tried them in a variety of configurations. I found that they introduced more complexity than the problem they are supposed to solve(namely redundant buoyancy). IMHO, in the majority of places, even the tropics, when you are looking at long run time technical diving you really need to consider vascular constriction and decompression efficiency, thus dry. Dry also offers a second redundant buoyancy. You will never be guessing which bladder isn't working, it's obvious. When I dive wet for lower run time (say sub 2 hours)tech in tropical I dive alum 80's, either as alum 80 BG with 80 stages or SM 80's with 80 stages. I can swim these at any time to the surface and they are very easy to manage buoyancy wise.

 

[grf88]

Because you are going to have a technical diver in distress using oral inflation to resolve an issue. Very unlikely to work out well in real life.

Do I believe a technical diver in distress should be able to orally inflate their BC, in a word "YES". In fact I would hope even an average OW diver would be proficient in orally inflating their BC in an emergency.

 

[cerich]

Do I believe a technical diver in distress should be able to orally inflate their BC, in a word "YES". In fact I would hope even an average OW diver would be proficient in orally inflating their BC in an emergency.

Hope. The fact is that unless somebody were to include oral inflation in their S drills, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that in a real life SHTF moment that most technical divers will orally inflate their bcd for buoyancy control. Even with it being well practiced (s drill prior to every dive) I imagine quite a few distressed divers aren't going to manage the increased task loading.

 

[flots am]

She was a 44 year old woman. She is responsible for her own decisions and actions--no one else is.

If you're going to kill yourself, there are easier ways of doing it.

This was just stupid, and everybody along the way should be ashamed of themselves, including the rebreather instructor (who trained a <200 dives diver) and her buddies, who actually did the dive with her.

200 dives is just about enough to make a competent Open Water diver who can handle most issues and might do some short deco. It's nowhere near enough for a rebreather or a 100m dive.

flots