Diver Dies in Lake Huron on the Dunderberg

[limeyx]

So far most participants in this thread are assuming that this was a tech dive. The depth would say yes, but I would like to see confirmation that the participants were indeed technically trained and had planned this as a technical dive.

My comments were specifically NOT about this dive.
However, IMO if you do a dive to 140 then you just "bought" yourself a tech dive whether you wanted one or not.

 

[cerich]

dive to 140 then you just "bought" yourself a tech dive whether you wanted one or not.

what he said

 

[CDNScubaMoose]

My comments were specifically NOT about this dive.
However, IMO if you do a dive to 140 then you just "bought" yourself a tech dive whether you wanted one or not.

I have seen many people on a wreck at 140' with a single aluminum 80. I highly doubt you consider them to be tech divers. Some of us are assuming that this was a tech dive gone wrong, I am only questioning if it was a stupid dive gone wrong.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Then why are you responding about something you dont have any knowledge of ?

I have limited knowledge. I expressed that the statement seems wrong from the basis of my limited knowledge. I then explained why it seemed that way to me.

I apologize if somehow trying to have a discussion in a discussion forum offends you. At what point will I have enough accumulated wisdom to post a comment according to you, oh keeper of the forum?

 

[cerich]

I have seen many people on a wreck at 140' with a single aluminum 80. I highly doubt you consider them to be tech divers. Some of us are assuming that this was a tech dive gone wrong, I am only questioning if it was a stupid dive gone wrong.

what you are seeing is unqualified divers doing a dive beyond their training with insufficient equipment, demonstrating a lack of sound and mature judgment.

 

[CDNScubaMoose]

what you are seeing is unqualified divers doing a dive beyond their training with insufficient equipment, demonstrating a lack of sound and mature judgment.

Yep - I agree 100%, and I am curious if some of the above was present on this dive. I have heard the argument that 140' is just 10' more then the recreational limit, and if I use the navy tables then I can still do the dive without a deco obligation as long as I keep my bottom time short. I am not say I agree with that statement but I think it is more prevalent then we might want to acknowledge.

 

[Kingpatzer]

First of all, if your BUDDY has a problem, the "test" I use for myself is if I can live with myself after I attempt to rescue them. Doesn't mean I have to kill myself doing it.

I don't disagree with that.

And it depends on what you mean by "Serious deco" I will blow off up to 30 mins deco for a buddy without a question.

I already stated I have no idea what my personal cut-off point would be. I'm not about to risk my own families future for another person's life. And me being the sole provider for my kids right now, that would be exactly what I'm doing. I don't think I'd spend time doing calculus at the bottom of a wreck to decide what's the right choice, I'd be winging it. But my buddy would not be my primary concern. He would be the problem I have to address in light of my own priorities.

How long would you have to be at 140 to get more than that deco ?
The vast majority of my dives in those ranges have a max of 35 mins of deco.

I'm not sure, but I do know that at 130' you hit 35 minutes of deco right around 40 minutes of bottom time. With my SAC rate (.65) I'd have about 75 minutes of back gas at that depth with my dual 125s (if my math isn't too far off), so exceeding that significantly isn't that hard to do. (Carrying the necessary deco gas is a different story obviously).

Finally, to your last point --- that's what I have been saying the whole time, we DONT KNOW what happened here so my comments are regarding a "what if" scenario.

I realize that and am not trying to take this off track either.

 

[ianr33]

And it depends on what you mean by "Serious deco" I will blow off up to 30 mins deco for a buddy without a question.

Depends what your breathing.

I MIGHT blow off 30 minutes of backgas deco. No way would I blow off 30 minutes of O2 deco. (Which would correspond to around 2 hours of deco on air)

 

[limeyx]

Depends what your breathing.

I MIGHT blow off 30 minutes of backgas deco. No way would I blow off 30 minutes of O2 deco. (Which would correspond to around 2 hours of deco on air)

True. For me, I only take a 50% time credit for O2, not a 4x factor so it would equate to an hour of BG deco.

I would blow off 30 mins on O2, and if there was any way possible, return to the water (with a buddy) on O2 to finish the deco.

If it was a 200+ dive, then it does get somewhat murkier and a direct ascent is not probably very sensible if you have done any serious bottom time

 

[limeyx]

I already stated I have no idea what my personal cut-off point would be. I'm not about to risk my own families future for another person's life. And me being the sole provider for my kids right now, that would be exactly what I'm doing. I don't think I'd spend time doing calculus at the bottom of a wreck to decide what's the right choice, I'd be winging it. But my buddy would not be my primary concern. He would be the problem I have to address in light of my own priorities.



I'm not sure, but I do know that at 130' you hit 35 minutes of deco right around 40 minutes of bottom time. With my SAC rate (.65) I'd have about 75 minutes of back gas at that depth with my dual 125s (if my math isn't too far off), so exceeding that significantly isn't that hard to do. (Carrying the necessary deco gas is a different story obviously).



I realize that and am not trying to take this off track either.

The bolded statement is fair, and is why you should not (in my opinion) be tech diving. Thats a perfectly reasonable limit to have, but I dont think it's fair in my view to go on a deco dive with that reservation, at least not until you have that discussion with your buddy.

How many 75 min bottom time dives have you ever, or do you plan to do ? For me so far it is exactly zero that I have done.

EDIT: And how do you plan to ascend from those 75 mins ? Even ignoring deco gas, whaty kind of gas reserve are you bringing ?

I would suggest that the vast vast majority of 140 dives done are likely to be less than 40 mins deco (on O2 or some other deco gas)