Doc Deep dies during dive.

[Hetland]

OK, let’s stack the deck in his favor. Let’s say the water temperature was 70° instead of 45°. A wetsuit at that depth is basically the same as compressed Neoprene in a DUI CF200 drysuit… which is how they discovered the process. That would give you the thermal insulation value of less than a 1mm suit at 30'. I don’t know about you but I can’t keep my RMV down to 1/2 Ft³ basically naked in 70° water.

Another planning failure. To me, this whole misadventure is shocking. It seems like every element of this plan was developed by someone with a poor understanding of decompression theory, or a wish to commit suicide with as much fanfare as possible. I find it difficult to believe, and also find myself doubting (seriously) that this guy had ever made it down and back from 800ft. 500 is a little more believable, but not by very much.

 

[tomfcrist]

If the news hasn't hit yet, I've been advised that his body has been recovered and the USCG has it.

Well that means at least some info concerning what happened will be openly reported eventually.

 

[Akimbo]

I was contemplating how to do this dive on the cheap with a reasonable possibility of surviving. You don't have to be a genius to figure out you can't pack enough gas. Rebreathers have serious respiratory work constraints at that depth.

Surface-supplied would be functionally challenging. There isn't enough time for the umbilical to get purged of rich O2 mixes as they are switched at the surface with the a necessarily fast descent. Decompression is doable… pointless but doable. A lightweight hat and umbilical would at least give you communications, live video, hot water, a good chance of surviving HPNS tremors -- and make body recovery easier.

 

[SterlingCGJ]

"Buckley said the physician had far surpassed his trainers - whose highest-rated level is at 65 meters, or about 215 feet"

OMG - that is pathetic!

Not really sure what the "highest rated level of 65 meters" is about. I know of several of the support staff had lots of dives at 350 FSW and some 400 FSW dives. Please do not take this out of context and say I am saying the support divers had "only" been to 350 FSW. I am only stating that I know the support divers had lots of dives to at least 350 FSW.

At first I didn't even realize that he was in a wetsuit... would it even be possilbe to survive half an hour without insulation in freezing cold water? How cold is it below 200m? Can't be much higher than 40 °F.

He had done several of his other deep dives in a semi dry suit so I would suppose he was in the same suit for this dive.

35 cylinders. You would need 5,000 - 6,000 cuft of gas to do this dive, and to be safe, you'd really want double that amount. Sixty extra seconds at depth would add between 500-600 cuft to your gas bill.

Of course MY plan makes this more of a 25 hour run. HIS plan was for ~10 hours. If I found out a guy like this was on my boat, I'd cancel my charter.

My understanding is the run time was closer to 18 hours. Again, I don't know this as fact just what I have heard.

 

[nimoh]

He was in a semi dry suit.

A semi dry suit is still a wetsuit and is subject to compression and loss of insulation at depth....and extreme loss of compression and insulation at extreme depths.

I don't know what the water temperature was for that dive, but I have to think that they thought about exposure protection. I have about a dozen dives below 200', and have never been below 300' yet I think about these sort of things on every dive.

 

[SterlingCGJ]

A semi dry suit is still a wetsuit and is subject to compression and loss of insulation at depth.

Don't remember saying it wasn't. And I changed my wording in the above post. I wasn't there and don't know exactly what suit he had so I changed my wording to reflect that.

 

[diver 85]

(Have not scrolled thru the 10 pages of posts on this one)-----------so, with the way 'things' were setup, what was his % of 'making it' heading into the dive???.......tia...

 

[Redshift]

Not really sure what the "highest rated level of 65 meters" is about. I know of several of the support staff had lots of dives at 350 FSW and some 400 FSW dives.

I think that info was about his instructor. Was it normoxic only? Or did he ever do hypoxic trimix course?

 

[Hetland]

Thanks for the info Sterling

Not really sure what the "highest rated level of 65 meters" is about. I know of several of the support staff had lots of dives at 350 FSW and some 400 FSW dives. Please do not take this out of context and say I am saying the support divers had "only" been to 350 FSW. I am only stating that I know the support divers had lots of dives to at least 350 FSW.

It means they had passed a class that certifies them to dive to about 200ft. At that level, you learn about diving a helium mix, containing at least 18% oxygen. This is enough O2 to support life at the surface, and is also referred to as "Normoxic" Trimix

The next step, "allows" you to go deeper, at which point, most people agree, you'll want a "Hypoxic" mix, meaning less oxygen than would support life at the surface. This is critical because even air at those depths starts to become toxic. Among other things, a mix with too much O2 can lead to an underwater seizure, which is almost always fatal. You also have to plan travel mixes, and usually several decompression gas mixes.

If you're diving to 350ft, you really need to know all that you can about dive physiology and decompression theory. This was a suicidal dive plan, and anyone with proper technical training, or even gas management training, should have recognized it as such.

He was in a semi dry suit.

Better than a 3mm, but still not enough (imo), especially when you consider the long decompression, and the effects of cold water on fine motor skills.

 

[SterlingCGJ]

I think that info was about his instructor. Was it normoxic only? Or did he ever do hypoxic trimix course?

I do not know that information, sorry.