bent bad in Grand cayman

[pasley]

..,I dive with 2 Oceanics, and understand them pretty well. Even if you finished in the Yellow, you'd still be within Padi's limits, although their calcualtions are only similar - not identical.....

Some computers are more liberal than others. The SUUNTO is famous for being at the conservative end of the spectrum. Oceanics on the other hand hold down the other end of the spectrum.

I had an Ocanic Data Pro and took an undeserved hit. In the green with maybe a bit of yellow, but computer in my face during the entire asscent. I now dive a COBRA from SUUNTO. Not the computers fault, but at age 48 (now 50) a liberal computer was not what I needed. I have reviewed that day and it was one of those pohone call dives, buddy bailed, can you dive today? Ok ready in 1 hour. Maybe I had not drank enough water that day. But the important thing is 132 dive and not bent again.

 

[RiverRat]

Miked,
Sorry about you getting bent like that. Hope you get well real soon and put this behind you. Thanks for posting, I'm sure it may help someone. It's opened my eyes a bit. I think I'll stick with my Suunto, Nitrox, deep stops, 30 fpm max ascent rate and whatever other tools I can use to give me that extra insurance. I'm going to look at my profiles from my recent NC wreck dives again just to see how much I was "riding on the edge" using the Suunto for these deep dives. Even though the computer compensates for multilevel just how accurate is it when you push the NDL's? As we all know every diver is different even on different days depending on certain conditions.
Take care and get well soon

 

[BWDiver]

Miked, Both my wife and I are new divers. Your story inspired me to finally join DAN. (Run don't walk!) It has been one of those things that "I'll get around to". Left to my own devices I would get around to it too late.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad that you are recovering. Best wishes.

 

[Scott Riemer]

Just wanted to chime in with a thanks for sharing this with us and wish you the best.

 

[scubaranger]

Mike, thanks for sharing You have open all our eyes especially mine. I'm glad your feeling better. You have motivated me take even more, extra steps on my future dive trip to Costa Rica. I hope that you have a speedy recovery and that things work out for the best. I'll be praying for you.
alex t.

 

[DI_Guy]

Some computers are more liberal than others. The SUUNTO is famous for being at the conservative end of the spectrum. Oceanics on the other hand hold down the other end of the spectrum..

Sorry for the digression Mike but I had to ask Pasley a question.

Pasley, can you give a bit more of your insight of the differences between computers. I am in my 50's also and never push the limits.

I have a Mares MC1-rgbm and I wonder if it's conservative compared to others.

Any comments ?

Mike: I have already posted here on your thread and once again I'll say.... I am glad you're OK and that you posted the incident here.

 

[Scuba]

miked, considering the number of dives you have done without incident, and the fact you can find no safety guideline violations as the possible cause of DCS, I would consider a PFO test a necessary expense in order to continue diving. It is possible to make many dives with a PFO before taking a serious hit.

Did you do any kind of strenous physical activity or breath holding, that was unusual to similiar dive profiles?

Best wishes.

 

[divenut2001]

Some computers are more liberal than others. The SUUNTO is famous for being at the conservative end of the spectrum. Oceanics on the other hand hold down the other end of the spectrum.

I had an Ocanic Data Pro and took an undeserved hit. In the green with maybe a bit of yellow, but computer in my face during the entire asscent. I now dive a COBRA from SUUNTO. Not the computers fault, but at age 48 (now 50) a liberal computer was not what I needed. I have reviewed that day and it was one of those pohone call dives, buddy bailed, can you dive today? Ok ready in 1 hour. Maybe I had not drank enough water that day. But the important thing is 132 dive and not bent again.

I also dive with the Suunto Cobra and I'm very glad I do.

I have read a couple of reports on SB where divers using 2 computers one being the Cobra, followed the more liberal of the two even though the Cobra was in DECO, and they paid the price because they did indeed take a hit.

I cannot understand why they chose to do this when our training has taught us that when diving with a buddy you should always follow the more conservative computer. So why wouldn't you do the same when diving with a backup?

Mike, I don't know if using the Cobra would have made a difference in you taking a hit or not but do not make the mistake of comparing someone elses computer to your's even if it's the same make and model to decide whether or not you took an undeserved hit. Slight variations can make a big difference.

To illustrate my point, one of our moderators Rick Murchison found 2 divers both using Suunto Cobras hanging on the wrong anchor line. When he went over to stear them back to the right boat, he found one diver was in DECO with almost no air left and the other had plenty of air and was NOT in DECO. They were diving together but the diver that was not in DECO had stayed slightly above the other diver during the dive.For full story see: http://www.scubaboard.com/t61446-.html

Glad you're ok and hope you can go diving again soon.

 

[DandyDon]

There are just so many possibile variables. I, too, would like to know what pushed Mike into the Hit=Zone, even though this may never be determined.

I'm 57 yo aggressive diver when I get a chance, but I try to take all the precautions I can:
Hydrate early and often - with sport drinks, not "empty" rev-oss water;
No free diving or excercise after.
Surface with both Oceanic computers in the Green. (I see this abused and misunderstood a lot - by divers who never read the manual. Surfacing in the Yellow, having never gone into Deco is not "fine" as it's often put!)

This certainly drives home the need for a plan with caca hits the fan. I shudder when I hear of divers without DAN insurance, and - once I called for Oxygen for a diver on a boat I was on in Coz, only to learn that the O2 bottle was empty. That diver had been DAN covered for 3 days after seeing a non-diving incident that was thought to be diving related at the ime, and we got him to the chamber quickly. He felt a lot better after I gave him a quart of sport drink, but wanted to be careful.

Anyway, how many times have we asked to confirm that the O2 bottle really works on a boat?

 

[donclaypool]

Thanks for the eye opener, Mike, and best wishes.

Perhaps this is not the place to ask but the question comes to mind: if the profile had been reversed, shallow dives first, might this not have happened?

I am by no means a techie, but it seems they shun the deep dive first standard so as not to recompress bubbles, allowing them to pass by tissues that would keep them from the brain, etc.

Didn't know what a pfo was either and grasping for knowledge. Need some better educated opinions here.


Don