Cozumel Incident 9/4/11

[Crush]

The awesome part of deep diving on air is equal to free dive for 3 or 4 minutes... its pushing your own limits, preparing yourself to get to those depths and remaind under control...perhaps knowing that not that many people had being there before...
...there are not pretty fishes to look at...no time for pictures... its the rush to be in a place where you dont suppose to be.
Once again: deep dive on air at 300 ft is not an "impossible" thing to do....you just have to know what are you doing and assume all the consequences.
Its not something that every diver should do...there is a flavor for all kind of tastes. I love dives around 60 ft when I take divers out....long dives, plenty of light, long bottom times.... but I also enjoy the deep dives and fully understand that for some divers the balance reward vs risk is not worth it...
At the end is the rush...the joy of feeling alive after the dive what makes the dive worth it... thats for me.

With 5,000 dives you must work in the business. Please let me know which one - I am making a list of who not to dive with in Coz...

 

[Mike]

With 5,000 dives you must work in the business. Please let me know which one - I am making a list of who not to dive with in Coz...

Those are 5000 internet dives.

 

[Crush]

Those are 5000 internet dives.

Don't get me wrong - if you want to put yourself in danger, whatever your motivation, if you are an adult you can make that decision for yourself. It would not bother me if deep diving on air was someone's fetish; their private, personal dirty little secret that they kept to themselves. Unfortunately, deep diving seems to be prevalent amongst braggarts and those who want the adoration of young divers, and a status commensurate with their "demonstrated mastery" of diving. To reference another thread, Jedi Masters are always in search of Padawans, and Padawans love to worship their Jedi...

Grow up.

 

[gypsyjim]

This is very important. You have a woman and two guys. One is an employee of the woman who is loved by all. The other guy is reported to be her "boyfriend." Certainly he would be watching her intently whenever they got to a point where it became risky. Actually both guys should be watching her closely.

Plus you have a planned depth of 250' - 300'. Would you not slow down around 240' to assess each persons condition before going deeper? If fine at 250' then drop to perhaps 275' to see if all is well before trying 300'? If I were doing it I would be vertical (heads up) by 250' and stay that way while in an area that is new and hazardous.

Given these two factors that would have all three close together, how does the woman drop lower without being stopped soon?

Mostly true, except for possibly one important point:

Had diver #3 also dropped along with divers #'s 1 and 2, he would not have been able to supply any gas at all for their ascent from such depths, as he too would have had none. Instead, having stayed relatively shallower, he was able to allow the three divers to share air until they reached a depth where they could actually ascend to the surface, before he too ran dry. This is not a small factor in their chance at survival.

Had Gabi and Opal stayed well buddied tho, this might be a totally different story completely, and we would not even be aware of this dive.

 

[Tropicalwolf]

Jedi Masters are always in search of Padawans, and Padawans love to worship their Jedi...

Grow up.

Fact, and their is a new Padawan (read: sucker) born every minute.

 

[Ron Lee]

Mostly true, except for possibly one important point:

Had diver #3 also dropped along with divers #'s 1 and 2, he would not have been able to supply any gas at all for their ascent from such depths, as he too would have had none. Instead, having stayed relatively shallower, he was able to allow the three divers to share air until they reached a depth where they could actually ascend to the surface, before he too ran dry. This is not a small factor in their chance at survival.

Had Gabi and Opal stayed well buddied tho, this might be a totally different story completely, and we would not even be aware of this dive.

Correct Jim, but I had already opined that Gabi told Heath to stay put (theory). I just do not buy the "bounce dive" concept that they had to swim furiously down. I don't buy the scenario that Opal was not being watched closely by TWO guys. I don't know what to think other than this was even more screwed up than we know. Something just seems odd that three supposedly very experienced divers ended up the way they did. Simple "narcosis" can't explain away as badly an executed dive as it seems to be (opinion).

 

[ianr33]

. Simple "narcosis" can't explain away this badly an executed dive as it seems to be.

Yes it can.

What's the deepest you have been on air Ron?

I've been to around 200 feet on air several times. I can function well enough to check my gauges. Doubt I could fix anything other than the most simple problem.

At 300 feet I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot my own name. Sure as hell would not be able to monitor a buddy.

 

[Ron Lee]

What's the deepest you have been on air Ron?

Deep enough but nowhere near 300'.

I don't see any reasonable person dive bombing to 300' without knowing if they are being impacted too much by narcosis. Maybe my thought process is too conservative compared to those involved, but I would approach that depth cautiously with ascent in order if any one is becoming too narced.

To do that you need all three close together to see the other two. Hence they should have been close together at some point well above the planned depth (reported 250' to 300') and reported actual depth of 320' (prior to the rescue).

PS: I have no intent/desire to dive near 300' on air.

 

[Tortuga68]

Hey guys I think heroin addicts should just quit taking heroin - don't they know it's dangerous & they could OD? If I was going to take heroin, I would just take it once, to see what it was like and then I would stop. And I would get a couple of friends to take it with me, so that if I OD'd they would be able to help me. We'd all shoot up at the same time, just half a needle each - then we'd stop right there and see how it was affecting us. If we felt good, we could shoot up the rest

 

[Chris Brown Tech]

You're actually missing the point. Nobody is condoning anything. But I can almost guarantee you that had Opal not have slipped from 300 to 400 feet, if you give back the air burned by both Opal and especially Gabi in his efforts to reach her, and had they both started back from 300 ft, this accident might never have even happened. Being at 300 ft is of course just less worse, it's obviously better for nobody to have ever splashed off that boat that day, but the facts are probably true that had Opal been close to her buddy that 300-400ft mad dash to save her might never had been required, there would have been a lot more air and time to ascend properly, do a deco obligation even.

No, I understand your point very well, I just dont agree with it.

There is far too much macho talk in this thread about doing dives to 200+ on air.

In tech training we teach that many consider 200 on air as suicidal.

Your comment about the buddies gas being sufficient to effect some kind of rescue is way off. See below for a plan based on an average gas consumption for a 10 min bounce including descent time.

Dangerous levels of narcosis, extremely dangerous levels of oxygen pressure plus grossly insufficient available gas. I wish those involved well and a speedy recovery, but nobody with any level of training and knowledge of this kind of dive would have attempted this on a single tank on air.

Decompression model: VPM - B

DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 1 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 0ft
Conservatism = + 2

Dec to 200ft (4) Air 50ft/min descent.
*Dec to 400ft (7) Air 60ft/min descent. <<< High pp
*Level 400ft 2:40 (10) Air 2.75 ppO2, 400ft ead <<< High pp
*Asc to 150ft (18) Air -30ft/min ascent. <<< High pp
*Stop at 150ft 1:40 (20) Air 1.16 ppO2, 150ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 140ft 1:00 (21) Air 1.10 ppO2, 140ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 130ft 1:00 (22) Air 1.04 ppO2, 130ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 120ft 1:00 (23) Air 0.97 ppO2, 120ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 110ft 2:00 (25) Air 0.91 ppO2, 110ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 100ft 2:00 (27) Air 0.85 ppO2, 100ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 90ft 2:00 (29) Air 0.78 ppO2, 90ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 80ft 2:00 (31) Air 0.72 ppO2, 80ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 70ft 3:00 (34) Air 0.65 ppO2, 70ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 60ft 5:00 (39) Air 0.59 ppO2, 60ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 50ft 4:00 (43) Air 0.53 ppO2, 50ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 40ft 7:00 (50) Air 0.46 ppO2, 40ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 30ft 9:00 (59) Air 0.40 ppO2, 30ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 20ft 13:00 (72) Air 0.34 ppO2, 20ft ead <<< CNS high
*Stop at 10ft 20:00 (92) Air 0.27 ppO2, 10ft ead <<< CNS high
*Surface (92) Air -30ft/min ascent. <<< CNS high

Off gassing starts at 202.2ft

OTU's this dive: 56
*CNS Total: 968.7% <<< CNS high

216.0 cu ft Air
216 cu ft TOTAL