Bent in Belize--Blue Hole Incident

[beaverdivers]

Max depth, max time, there's no other way. it's as easy as recording start and ends times as well as max depth. A switch to tables anytime is possible, may not like the results but you probably won't get bend and it's not guessing.

The problem is trying to force a computer dive into a table ( especially a recreational table ) does not always work.

For example, Max depth = 100', Max time = 40 minutes.

 

[RonFrank]

Sorry but I'm just not buying that his problem stemmed from a broken computer or lack of reading charts when he is following the same basic profiles and conditions thousands of others are having no problem with. There has to be more to this. And I would suggest he not get back into the water until a doctor has examined every cubic inch of him and determined beyond reasonable doubt why this happened.

We have a diver who rarely drinks if his story is to be believed. He drank several drinks the night before. He then went on two deep decompression dives, followed by an almost non existent lunch and a third deep dive. He was likely dehydrated and really never replenished the fluid loss. He then drank more alcohol on the trip back. So dehydrated and drinking, a bad combination, and he was exhibiting signs of DCS on the boat. It may not be one factor rather a combination of dehydration, alcohol, lack of nutrition, and deep dives. The drinking also started the night before.... seriously dumb.

Drinking and diving do not mix. Add dehydration and more alcohol and a lack of food, it is a DCS cocktail....

 

[Mike]

O
But whether or not I dive again is a serious question, and for those of you stating that I've got no business in the water... I've got a lot of time to think about it. Certainly no diving until November, but whether or not I'll ever be ready mentally is a totally different question.

I'm glad to hear you are doing better. But, I'd agree with you if you decided never to dive again. I have very little faith that someone who dives the way you do could suddenly make an about face, you're missing some very basic and fundamental conservative attitudes toward diving that simply don't exist in you. I can't see you changing those beliefs unless you suddenly started diving exclusively with a group of experienced divers who stressed safety and you bought into and became like them.

-

 

[CCRDolphinDiver]

My point was that when you said dive insurance or health insurance shouldn't cover the OP's chamber rides:



That's an ironic position to take where there are those who would say the same thing about rebreather divers such as yourself.

The difference is the OP is an AOW diver going well beyond recreational limits, I am a technical diving instructor with an excess of 1250 dives and over 650 hours on CCR that has jumped through all the hoops and am diving within my training. I have passed through the OP's skill level and gone much further. I have had dives where 156 feet was my 7th deco stop, so I don't see the irony. I have dived in your fins, but you have not been in mine.

You can point to 10 CCR fatalities and I can point to 9 cases of fatality in which the cause of death is diver error. The reason CCR accidents are more often fatal is that with a CCR you can get so much farther into the zone of no return than you can with an AL80. You can kill yourself trying to fly a piper cub, but its a lot easier to do while trying to fly a helicopter. Let go of the controls of a piper and it flys itself, let go of the controls of a Robinson R-22 and it rolls and crashes.

I think that there are plenty of safe competent divers out there, ones who maintain their gear, use checklists, do not dive beyond their training, know they can call a dive when they are not comfortable and so on. These divers are scattered through the skill level ranges from bare open water trainees, to the most advanced cave diver. BUT, there are those out there in all those same skill levels that are complete Charlie Foxtrot's as well. Darwin gets some of them, but the Good Lord looks after fools and drunks and luck is sprinkled randomly on both sides.

 

[themagni]

We have a diver who rarely drinks if his story is to be believed. He drank several drinks the night before. He then went on two deep decompression dives, followed by an almost non existent lunch and a third deep dive. He was likely dehydrated and really never replenished the fluid loss. He then drank more alcohol on the trip back. So dehydrated and drinking, a bad combination, and he was exhibiting signs of DCS on the boat. It may not be one factor rather a combination of dehydration, alcohol, lack of nutrition, and deep dives. The drinking also started the night before.... seriously dumb.

Drinking and diving do not mix. Add dehydration and more alcohol and a lack of food, it is a DCS cocktail....

I didn't drink the night before BH and I got about nine hours of sleep. Last time I drank before getting to Belize was in October of 2010.

I drank several litres of water during the day and had to pee several times. That was in the original post but I had to cut it down to fit.

We're talking about dusty tables in Pompeii here, but I thought I should clarify.

---------- Post Merged at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:09 PM ----------

I'm glad to hear you are doing better. But, I'd agree with you if you decided never to dive again. I have very little faith that someone who dives the way you do could suddenly make an about face, you're missing some very basic and fundamental conservative attitudes toward diving that simply don't exist in you. I can't see you changing those beliefs unless you suddenly started diving exclusively with a group of experienced divers who stressed safety and you bought into and became like them.

-

Yeah, I know, and the point was that it's easy to say "no! dickweeeed!" when you're on the computer at home. (Or, say, in a hyberbaric oxygen therapy session.) "I'll drive to the shoreline tomorrow, no big deal." I've called local dives just because three bad things happened.

It's really hard to thumb the dive when you've been looking forward to it for years and figure you're the least likely candidate for getting sick. "No problem, ten years from now I'll fly back down to Belize and try it again."

My last vacation before this was my honeymoon in 1998. When's my next one?

Again, I'm NOT trying to make excuses or condone what I did. I'm just admitting what I did wrong and telling the unvarnished truth about how things went sideways. It looks like a fair number of people have taken what I learned the hard way and are learning it the easy way.

 

[Tjack]

Themagni thanks for sharing your experience, very informative.

Dive shop 2? Why not name the shop?

Anyone telling you you should never dive again is full of it, we learn from our mistakes. The lack of compassion in this thread is weak.

I know it sucks waiting around to fly home after a DCS hit, there is lots of cool topside stuff to do in Belize.

Good luck, I hope you make it home soon.

 

[DevonDiver]

I'm late to this thread. All I can contribute is that on my experience diving the Blue Hole (2005), I saw exactly the same practices - brand new Open Water divers being taken into the deep dark, on an essentially 'bottomless' dive, well beyond recreational diving limits. I suspect that this is par-for-the-course for some dive operators there - it's always happened and it will continue to do so unless the authorities take action to prevent it.

Sadly, I doubt the authorities will take any responsibility for this until someone finally dies. Even then....

Without doubt, the Blue Hole is the premier diving attraction in Belize. Sadly, it is also a very advanced dive, well beyond the capabilities of most divers to conduct safely. To see the main feature (the stalactites), it is firmly within the realms of technical diving. That is also combined with a (from what I saw, and is reported by the OP) very low standard of divemaster supervision, support and duty-of-care.

We won't hear the last of this - it is an accident/s waiting to happen.

 

[Nylorac]

I'm glad to hear you are doing better. But, I'd agree with you if you decided never to dive again. I have very little faith that someone who dives the way you do could suddenly make an about face, you're missing some very basic and fundamental conservative attitudes toward diving that simply don't exist in you. I can't see you changing those beliefs unless you suddenly started diving exclusively with a group of experienced divers who stressed safety and you bought into and became like them.

-

I agree with Mike's point to dive with more experienced divers and learn from them.

That being said, although many dumb mistakes were made here and luckily they weren't fatal, there is certainly the ability to learn from mistakes - it is part of life. I give credit for sharing and admitting mistakes - it attests to the ability to accept fault, look for guidance, change bad habits and/or beliefs and help others from making the same mistakes. Maybe this should have been posted under Near Misses and Lessons Learned because in that forum it is accepted that near misses/dumb choices like this often lead to lessons learned and changed behavior. So I have some faith that someone willing to learn from their mistakes is worth having some faith in. Best wishes themagni.

 

[vladimir]

The BH may be the most over rated dive on the planet.

It has been discussed many times here, but let me once again disagree. The Blue Hole delivers exactly what it claims to: a fairly unique geological formation, a famous dive site anointed (and sullied) by Cousteau himself, and sharks, probably, if you dive from the day boat mooring. I would compare it to Jellyfish Lake in Palau: there's no compelling reason to go twice, but it's very cool to see once.

 

[nrengle]

Thanks for sharing, and my best for a speedy recovery. Now if this could be made a sticky post, and have exactly what happened to the OP printed and shared in every single OW class, maybe more people will think twice. I know it's made me think a lot about whether to go to a tropical dive site such as Belize or GC with my limited experience currently.