Cave Ccr Student Dies At Blue Grotto Today

[The Laconic]

One can launch a 10-page thread full of speculation, analysis, infighting, condolences, and meta-commentary (like this) with nothing more than "someone died on a cave dive, although no details are available".

 

[The Chairman]

Speaking for my CCR instructor, I was always very confident that he knew the current status and current configuration of my rebreather nearly as well as I did, and ensured it was back in a safe and stable state at the conclusion of every drill.

Tom put the fear of God into me every time we splashed. He often reminded me that it's trying to kill me. While I'm certain he knew what I was forgetting, he constantly pushed me to take ownership of my dives. He had these laminated cards with him. "CC=>OC?", "Dil on?" and things like that. He pushed me to the point where sometimes I had to give him the time out signal and sort out my kit and my thoughts. He was awesome.

but the last sentence brings all the hypothetical back to the Blue Grotto diver,

It was his dive. Even while taking a class, his life is his ultimate responsibility. Whether someone lives or dies all goes back on them. Something went wrong; diver error, machine error or health wise. He should be completely in control of the first two and is still responsible for the last one.

Is that common practice in a Cave CCR class?

I've never taken such a class, so I have no idea.

 

[Scott]

Is that common practice in a Cave CCR class? Closing my eyes so that I could no longer monitor my PPO2 would be a step too far for me, not at all the same as doing so during an OC drill.

Not a CCR pilot
The instructor not having a mask cover or any other material to place over the mask and HUD would be one reason I can think of.
It's possible this divers configuration wouldn't accept anything other than a bag over the head.
The realestate on the front of a CCR always looks crowded to me.

 

[The Chairman]

The realestate on the front of a CCR always looks crowded to me.

Which is why I love my SF2. The breathing loop is almost the only giveaway.

 

[Dsix36]

Is that common practice in a Cave CCR class? Closing my eyes so that I could no longer monitor my PPO2 would be a step too far for me, not at all the same as doing so during an OC drill.

I agree. When I did my CCR Cave class and this was expected from us, I would go as long as I was comfortable and then would shield my vision with my hand but look at my HUD. I was not willing to be unable to know my po2 while my eyes were shut. I was also not willing to trust other to monitor it for me.

Much like Pete said, the diver is responsible for his own arse.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Not a CCR pilot
The instructor not having a mask cover or any other material to place over the mask and HUD would be one reason I can think of.
It's possible this divers configuration wouldn't accept anything other than a bag over the head.
The realestate on the front of a CCR always looks crowded to me.

Rebreather divers are able to access masks. Having a cover or black out mask is possible. Some lights out drills are conducted with a normal mask and the lights off.

I'm suspect there is more to this incident

 

[Patoux01]

During a boom drill (gas leak), you turn off both cylinders to simulate looking for a leak. It's easy for the instructor to hit you with yet another drill before you turn those cylinders back on. That alone can be fatal, especially if the next drill is "lights out" and your eyes are closed so you can't see the PPO2 levels diminish to dangerous levels.

And in the meantime, the instructor, who's supposed to be an expert in this, doesn't realize you didn't complete the first drill, keeps going with the 2nd without checking on your ccr (because assuming someone is an expert when he's following a course to learn seems pretty stupid to me), and when he notices things go wrong he just disappears and goes diving a bit further away?

Sounds a bit huge to me, but I'm no expert. Not in ccr, and not in cave diving either.

 

[The Chairman]

There were two students. I've heard some instructors having as many as 8 in the water. I don't know what the ratios are supposed to be but I'm glad I was the only in my class. I know that @Tmccar1 knew I had these procedures down cold on land before we splashed. In retrospect, I wish there were a "check yourself" signal/drill in between drills. Checklists are crucial in this sport but they aren't practical while at depth. I have my own post jump routine I perform a few times during the dive. ✔PPO2=>✔SPGs=>DIL&O2 Valves Off=>Back On=>Isolators Off=>Back On=>✔PPO2 The first one of these is done on descent at 20ft and I add an O2 flush to check that the cells can read at least 1.5 PPO2. Then I do a partial Dil flush before I continue down. I'm always checking my PPO2 during the dive. I do that more often than I check my buddy and I do that a lot. I go through this again anytime I feel like it, but for sure as I head back up. It takes less than 20 seconds I would imagine. I'm not trying to rush it nor waste time, but I do want to be sure.

 

[ffdiver]

Pete did you happen to just take a ccr course with Tom? I can't tell if you did or not.

Without any real information this thread is absolutely useless and even with the information it would be just about chest thumping speculation.

I'm all for acident analysis but nothing about these kind of threads is actually any sort of analysis.

 

[matt_w]

Just curious, did none of you have a skill similar to this in your open water CCR course:

Without using the HUD or any display, maintain the oxygen content within .1 of setpoint at a steady depth while at rest and while swimming by manually adding oxygen to maintain loop volume as the oxygen is consumed by metabolism for a period of at least 10 minutes.
​

I know different agencies have somewhat different skills, but this is required for PADI Tec 40 CCR. It sounds like most of the posters would have refused to do it.