Bent in Belize--Blue Hole Incident

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Very well said, as usual. Thanks for being there, and being here.

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[ktomlinson]

Do you know that you're describing a dive that requires precision depth control, gas management, relaxation, timing and ascent and decent speeds, that's marketed to people who can't stay off the bottom and many times "accidentally" end up on the surface or out of air?

flots.

Yeah, I know. I would discourage anyone from doing the dive that wasnt deco trained and properly equipped. Like I said, I wouldn't do the dive using a recreational kit. I actually figured that posting the profile would discourage recreational divers from doing the dive. I don't subscribe to the idea that one shouldn't talk about information that may be beyond someone else's training, especially when anyone with a computer has access to the profile I described. We don't know how many minutes the folks are already hanging around at 150', but I would suspect it is longer than 3 or 4 minutes.

 

[TechDeep]

He'd done lots of things very wrong, insanely wrong, but I think nonetheless he was unlucky in what happened to him.

Funny how those two things seem to go together in many areas of our life. Not just diving.

 

[themagni]

check your thyroid.

0.9; I'm good.

Yeah, I know. I would discourage anyone from doing the dive that wasn't deco trained and properly equipped. Like I said, I wouldn't do the dive using a recreational kit.

Well, I know that NOW, don't I? I knew that going into the dive too, and I worried about it. It was the dive that worried me more than any others I'd ever done. I did it anyway, figuring I was the least likely to get sick.

We don't know how many minutes the folks are already hanging around at 150', but I would aspect it is longer than 3 or 4 minutes.

I can tell you precisely. I filmed it:

Here we're starting the swimthroughs at 4:15:


And here's the guide telling us to start ascending at 11:35:


So that's 7:20 at 150 feet. Or as they say in Belize, "All the DMs tell me that their computers never went below 130."

Having said that, I I reiterate what I said before. When I bike to work, I assume that a bike never has the right of way. If a guy in a van blows a stop sign and t-bones you, do you care whose fault it is? It doesn't matter. It's your body, it's your fault.

 

[Ayisha]

BTW, for those wondering about life in the Blue Hole, it seems to be hit or miss. We saw huge lemon, reef and bull sharks, as well as huge grouper, so for us it was a hit.

As I understand it, that life is there for free handouts from the day boats. That theory was borne out by my experience; we saw the sharks when I dived it from the day-boat mooring, and didn't see them when I dived it from the mooring that the Aggressor and Peter Hughes boats use.

That may be the case, but FWIW, no one in our group had any type of food on the dive and we were there extremely early and didn't see other groups there yet either. We saw the (small) schools of sharks down there in the distance and we made our way to them...

 

[themagni]

Funny how those two things seem to go together in many areas of our life. Not just diving.

No kidding. If you give luck nothing but "good" outcomes to choose from, it doesn't matter what you roll. Once you start adding in outcomes like "chamber ride", "death", or "lifetime impairment" that's when you're gambling.

I've been a very lucky person most of my life. Sunday was especially lucky.

 

[flots am]

So that's 7:20 at 150 feet. Or as they say in Belize, "All the DMs tell me that their computers never went below 130."

I don't want to encourage anybody by posting the profile and gas usage, but I calculated it for an an average SAC (not an internet SAC) an an AL80, and there is very little margin for error, and air sharing in case of an emergency isn't a "sure thing".

I'm also guessing that the DMs didn't explain where/how long the deco stops should have been.

flots.

 

[Hawkwood]

I don't want to encourage anybody by posting the profile and gas usage, but I calculated it for an an average SAC (not an internet SAC) an an AL80, and there is very little margin for error, and air sharing in case of an emergency isn't a "sure thing".

I'm also guessing that the DMs didn't explain where/how long the deco stops should have been.

flots.

You are assuming they are called "deco stops". They are simply "pausing on the way up" to spend some time "looking" at something on the wall. Just happens that the length of that pause will be determined by the DM's computer. The uninformed masses would have no clue.

I went to the Blue Hole, did not dive it, but listened to the briefing. NO mention about "deco stops", but they were told they might stop and look at stuff on the way back up since they would not have the time during the descent. "Smoke and Mirrors".

 

[Mike]

What did unlucky have to do with any of this?

Every mistake was a conscious decision to ignore proper dive training and safety protocols, seemingly based on the belief that I'm in such great shape I'm impervious to harm. Somebody played with fire and got burnt.

If anything good is to come of the incident it should be a lesson for all divers to remember to dive safely and conservatively no matter what shape you might be in. The lesson certainly is not about being lucky or unlucky. New divers shouldn't be led to believe their fate is out of their hands and it's totally just a matter of luck whether they will get hurt or die diving, but there is cause / effect to your actions.

 

[themagni]

I don't want to encourage anybody by posting the profile and gas usage, but I calculated it for an an average SAC (not an internet SAC) an an AL80, and there is very little margin for error, and air sharing in case of an emergency isn't a "sure thing".

I'm also guessing that the DMs didn't explain where/how long the deco stops should have been.

flots.

I'm fairly sure my SAC was higher than normal and that's probably true for anyone.

"Your computers may go into deco. That's okay, if you have to stop at 80 or something, just let us know." The safety stop at 10 ft was not referred to as a deco stop, just a long safety stop. There were hang tanks though. (All atmospheric mix)