Do not ever say you are a rescue diver

[tursiops]

Ah ok, thanks.

Normally I would use the term Dive Op(erator).

Agree. Pretty much all Dive shops are also Dive Operators, but not all Dive Operators are Dive Shops. We dive with Dive Operators, not Dive Shops...unless they are also a Dive Operator.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

@Dody

You are on a dive boat. First dive of the day. Wall dive. You jump with your buddy.

You see a member of another buddy group, a man you met on the boat earlier in the trip. He’s in his 80’s. Now he is over the wall and still descending. He has his inflator hose up like he is trying to inflate but just keeps descending. Bottom is at about 1000 feet. The older diver’s buddy hasn’t reacted.

What do you do? He isn’t your buddy. You have ear issues. Your buddy wife is there with you. What do you do with that rescue card? Do you go to help?

There is a scene from the movie "Ffolkes" in which Roger Moore is flown aboard an oil production platform in the North Sea as the title character, Rufus Excalibur Ffolkes (he says it's spelled with two small f's), to assess a terrorist hijacking by Anthony Perkins' character. Ffolkes suggests that the helicopter that dropped him off leave with three passengers effectively getting them off a mined rig. He suggested they take the three youngest regardless of sex because the old have had their chances.

A ruptured eardrum can lead to long-term vertigo and dizziness. Having suffered that for 2.5 years following decompression sickness, you do not want to risk it, believe me. I decided to die through VSED (voluntary stoppage of eating and drinking) because I couldn't take the nightmare any longer. I was in the process of preparing for suicide when my body turned a corner.

My NACD cave instructor taught me to shut down the post with the long hose if my buddy jeopardized my survival in any way. In turn, I taught my rescue and cave students whatever decision you make to help or not help is one you are going to have to live with. Given that situation, I could live with ascending to the surface and alerting the crew. But once I alerted the crew, I'd also be able to make another attempt at descending since surfacing would reset equalization. If any swelling or congestion prevented a descent, I could deal with the probable outcome for a potential victim by aborting the attempt.

If I was diving with my wife, the closest I ever came to that was when my cave instructor ex-girlfriend picked out a dress and did an impromptu beach ceremony as a land drill so to speak, so if she wanted to go save him, have at it.

 

[L13]

I probably had my first 100 dives with steel cylinders. When I started to use aluminium, I felt like I had become Superman climbing the ladder. In terms of lead, I did not have to change a lot bit I also had a thinner wetsuit. I think that only experience will teach me better. Line 1 000 dives in different conditions.

That sounds backward. A steel HP-80 is 3 pounds lighter than an AL-80 out of the water. In the water the steel-80 is 6 pounds more negatively buoyant than the AL-80, so you should need six pounds less lead. The net result is 9 pounds less carried up the ladder (out of the water).

 

[Dody]

That sounds backward. A steel HP-80 is 3 pounds lighter than an AL-80 out of the water. In the water the steel-80 is 6 pounds more negatively buoyant than the AL-80, so you should need six pounds less lead. The net result is 9 pounds less carried up the ladder (out of the water).

I checked and your calculation is right. Strange. I really felt that Aluminum tanks in Thailand are way lighter than steel tanks in Cape Verde at the end of the dive. Maybe because the steel cylinders are 12 l while aluminium are 11l (80cu ft). Or it might have been the thinner wetsuit. Or I got stronger with time. Don’t know. But this really is the feeling I had.

 

[BlueTrin]

But one thing is clear to me, if I go on a boat proclaiming rescue diver then I damn well better have the skills and be willing to back it up. In over 10 years diving I have never once shown my rescue card nor proclaimed rescue diver, not because I don’t want to be held accountable but because I am not sure I have the skills (despite being a card carrier) nor the balls to back it up.

But that’s just me.

@uncfnp pretty sure that most people will match my expectations: I don’t expect you to remember all the rescue diver stuff unless you tell me that you have been doing refreshers regularly and doing first aid classes.

Even then I’d not expect you to be proficient like a pro who would have kept up with refreshers/training.

 

[happy-diver]

A ruptured eardrum can lead to long-term vertigo and dizziness. Having suffered that for 2.5 years following decompression sickness, you do not want to risk it, believe me. I decided to die through VSED (voluntary stoppage of eating and drinking) because I couldn't take the nightmare any longer. I was in the process of preparing for suicide when my body turned a corner.

Perhaps there is naive reasoning behind those that suggest decompression sickness is better than dead

girlfriend or no girlfriend

 

[Dody]

There is a scene from the movie "Ffolkes" in which Roger Moore is flown aboard an oil production platform in the North Sea as the title character, Rufus Excalibur Ffolkes (he says it's spelled with two small f's), to assess a terrorist hijacking by Anthony Perkins' character. Ffolkes suggests that the helicopter that dropped him off leave with three passengers effectively getting them off a mined rig. He suggested they take the three youngest regardless of sex because the old have had their chances.

A ruptured eardrum can lead to long-term vertigo and dizziness. Having suffered that for 2.5 years following decompression sickness, you do not want to risk it, believe me. I decided to die through VSED (voluntary stoppage of eating and drinking) because I couldn't take the nightmare any longer. I was in the process of preparing for suicide when my body turned a corner.

My NACD cave instructor taught me to shut down the post with the long hose if my buddy jeopardized my survival in any way. In turn, I taught my rescue and cave students whatever decision you make to help or not help is one you are going to have to live with. Given that situation, I could live with ascending to the surface and alerting the crew. But once I alerted the crew, I'd also be able to make another attempt at descending since surfacing would reset equalization. If any swelling or congestion prevented a descent, I could deal with the probable outcome for a potential victim by aborting the attempt.

If I was diving with my wife, the closest I ever came to that was when my cave instructor ex-girlfriend picked out a dress and did an impromptu beach ceremony as a land drill so to speak, so if she wanted to go save him, have at it.

I am sorry for the pain you experienced man. I can’t really know how hard it was and I understand your point. However, do you think that the survivor guilt if you lost your buddy wife would not eat you up with the permanent thinking: I could have saved her? I am not even mentioning the look in the eyes of her friend/ family or your kids.

 

[L13]

I checked and your calculation is right. Strange. I really felt that Aluminum tanks in Thailand are way lighter than steel tanks in Cape Verde at the end of the dive. Maybe because the steel cylinders are 12 l while aluminium are 11l (80cu ft). Or it might have been the thinner wetsuit. Or I got stronger with time. Don’t know. But this really is the feeling I had.

Which 12L steel were you using? The heaviest steel 12L available in the US is ~8# heavier than an 11L AL out of water, but with the 13# buoyancy difference saving you on lead, you should still be 5# lighter going up the ladder with the steel 12L and with 25% more air to breath on your dive.

Other than a very few exceptions in the pony bottle sizes, steel will always win for less weight up the ladder than a comparable capacity AL (because of the buoyancy difference saving on lead).

 

[Dody]

Which 12L steel were you using? The heaviest steel 12L available in the US is ~8# heavier than an 11L AL out of water, but with the 13# buoyancy difference saving you on lead, you should still be 5# lighter going up the ladder with the steel 12L and with 25% more air to breath on your dive.

I don’t know which type. I will get more interested in cylinders in my next dives. I just read something that puzzled me. It seems that in the US, cylinders are gauged bu the external volume while in Europe, it is the exact internal volume. In the former case, the wall thickness can really change it all.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Let's please leave a conversation about tanks out of this thread.