Doc Deep dies during dive.

[clownfishsydney]

The following is something I wrote on my web site quite a few years ago about the death of Dave Shaw. It is also very relevant here:

This is a death that should not have happened. The rapid move from novice diver to “expert” technical diver is typical of what has seemed to be a recent trend (since late 1990s) when technical diving became a “fad”. These divers seem to be skipping the routine of doing normal dives and gradually building up their diving experience. As such, they do not get the experience of having minor problems at shallow depths where they can attend to the problem and safely “escape” but which at depth are deadly. They also do not get experience in a range of conditions (note that Shaw had only ever dived in warm tropical calm clear conditions or calm clear caves). They also get almost all of their "experience" under controlled conditions while doing course after course after course.

Another thing I wrote three years ago about the death of Tina Watson is also relevant.

I think that a statement I read once about investigations into crashes of privately piloted aircraft really summarises what went wrong here. This statement, in a 1974 US National Transport Safety Board report, pointed to "a pilot's inexperience mixed with a dose of overconfidence as a fatal mix". I am pretty sure that (put name here) thought he was far more experienced than he really was due to the type and number of courses he had done and this overconfidence led to him wanting to ....

 

[archer1960]

Thank you for posting the link. Other than a pre-existing medical condition, the result of the autopsy will likely be drowning.I fear modern reporting is lacking, though. "Air tanks"? And if the body was recovered then he has certainly been seen.

---------- Post added August 18th, 2015 at 08:27 PM ----------

And he was not carrying a #250lb anchor either. Though his triple tanks, and stage tanks likely overwhelmed the lift capacity of the wing and he passed the 1200ft mark to crash into the bottom at 1300ft

Or HPNS and/or arthralgia made him unable to perform the necessary tasks when he got down there.

 

[Jules Verne]

It is important to realize that people cope with tragedy in different ways. It may be hard to hear, but even the person who says, "Wow, what an idiot!" is using the experience to validate his or her own superior risk assessment skills. The self-appointed moral arbiter who runs around shoosh-ing people is coping in his own way (and there's always one), but they're also smothering the valuable lessons to be learned and compounding the tragedy as a result.

Being dead does not alone entitle anyone to respect. We are told that in life Dr. Garman wished his data and experience to be public regardless of the outcome and this measured and thoughtful discussion is a testament to the respect you all have for his living wishes, and if it matters, I have been impressed. Well done.

 

[UrbanMermaid]

Those around him say he was more knowledgable than any other tech diver. I will await the enlightening posts, video, data, or articles that come from this knowledge but felt Andy's article was appropriate in both timing and tone.
I would generally agree with you Scott but in this case the family likely was already aware of the risks of this attempt and started preparing well before this dive. If they didn't then they were even more blind to reality than previously thought.

Note that S.C.U.B.A./Scuba Tech has retracted the statement that Dr. Garman "understood more about tec diving than anyone else on the planet." Quoting Scuba Tech's Facebook page: "That was written in the grips of grief of the outcome of the dive. He did know a tremendous amount, fully understood the substantial risks involved, and went to great lengths to mitigate those risks. To those who were offended by our 'anyone on the planet' remark we apologize and retract it."

 

[shoredivr]

DevonDiver's posting reminds me to be wary of Groupthink. That can be a difficult thing to overcome when one is in a team, and thanks Devon for reminding us.

This depth record attempt is Groupthink on a larger scale. On a smaller scale, there is the cave diving fatality where Carlos lost his life due to an O2 tank containing O2 being used by the diver because he was *sure* it contained air as he remembered filling it himself....despite being labeled as O2...which it actually contained....and the group accepted his assertions it was air in an O2 tank, did not have him analyze the tank....which resulted in the fatality.

It it is important for thinking divers to remind themselves of hubris, careful and thorough planning, and Groupthink before dives.

 

[rhwestfall]

someone (and seeing that the post of his failed attempt was made here on SB by the entity/team involved) could post the dive plan for consideration.... it could help reduce the speculation somewhat that is disturbing some folks...

 

[Mr. Black]

We also know that March 2015 the project was briefly outlined here by people involved in the operation and the feedback from people with 5 x more experience than the deceased found the plan so risky that they first dismissed it as a hoax and when it became apparent that this thing was really going to go down, many words of caution were sent in response.

These were ignored.

Those are human factors.

The decision making process that enabled this thing to go ahead. Human factors. Very much on-topic in this thread.

I think the operation who supported this project also would have gotten many hits on their website. Projects of these proportions tend to attract people's curiosity. See their post here: If this is successfully pulled off it will show off St. Croix as the Tec Diving destination that it's becoming. Warm water, clear water, blue water, and deep water within minutes of the dock.

This again is an interesting point. When a dive like this gets sponsored or publicized before the fact, it puts additional stress on everyone to make it happen and makes it easier for any misgivings to be ignored for the sake of completing the mission.

I recall when there was a gentleman attempting a 300 meter dive in a JJ CCR off Gili Trawangan, Indonesia a year or two ago, the team purposefully concealed the planned date of the event. The day they went for it they went out like they are going to do just another training dive.

The reason given ? "I didn't want to feel added pressure. Wanted to keep an exit door open in case I didn't feel like it on the day."

 

[dreamdive]

Note that S.C.U.B.A./Scuba Tech has retracted the statement that Dr. Garman "understood more about tec diving than anyone else on the planet." Quoting Scuba Tech's Facebook page: "That was written in the grips of grief of the outcome of the dive. He did know a tremendous amount, fully understood the substantial risks involved, and went to great lengths to mitigate those risks. To those who were offended by our 'anyone on the planet' remark we apologize and retract it."

I objected to the "understood more about tec diving than anyone else on the planet" in the first place and I also don't agree with this "revised" statement. I would hope that he knew something. But least, he did not know himself! I am dissappointed that as a physician and someone trained in hyperbarics, he presumed to jump from a single successful 800 ft dive to 1200 ft. So he could not "fully understood the substantial risks involved" and thus could not go "to great lengths to mitigate those risks".

This is not just an example of "you don't know what you don't know". There are so many short-cuts and mistakes made - i.e. choice or disregard of thermal protection, dealing with HPNS and arthralgia, what was his ascend strategy - for all we know he dropped so fast that he went past the mark, amount of gas needed...etc, etc, etc.

That does not go with risk mitigation.

However, I do appreciate the retraction of the exaggeration. I don't want to sound like I am trashing Dr. Garman, but I call it as I see it.

 

[shoredivr]

If your technical diving instructor did not stress the concept of Groupthink, along with planning, taking stock of your physical and mental abilities and accident analysis then they did you a disservice. This weekend I am doing a relatively minor (in the scheme of things) technical dive, so being re-reminded of Groupthink ...which I *think* I'm always aware of.....is very timely.

---------- Post added August 19th, 2015 at 09:38 AM ----------

Thank you for stating this. This is a very important point! I would even take it a step further - we only know that he is missing and presumed dead.

The body has been recovered by the Coast Guard according to published links earlier in the thread.

 

[Hetland]

Note that S.C.U.B.A./Scuba Tech has retracted the statement that Dr. Garman "understood more about tec diving than anyone else on the planet." Quoting Scuba Tech's Facebook page: "That was written in the grips of grief of the outcome of the dive. He did know a tremendous amount, fully understood the substantial risks involved, and went to great lengths to mitigate those risks. To those who were offended by our 'anyone on the planet' remark we apologize and retract it."

"understood more about tec diving than anyone else on the planet.", or a phrase to the same effect, was posted BEFORE Doc Deep attempted his record.



We know from what was published before the dive, it was inadequately planned.
Inadequate Thermal Protection
Inadequate Decompression Schedule
Inadequate Gas Planning
Non-Existent Reserve Gas

and I'm not talking "a little off", or "pushing the limits" I'm talking "not survivable". If there's a technical diver out there that thinks this was a good, or adequate plan, I've yet to hear from them. It shocks the conscience because it's so far outside the limits of proper planning.

Personally, I want to know why someone like Doc Deep (who had the knowledge and training to know better) would plan such a dive the way he did. That 25-30 people (who also should have known better from their training) signed off on this is even more astounding. None of us are perfect, and none of us are saying that we are, but each of us could walk the same path at some point. This section lets us talk about how to stay off of that path. If you don't like what's here, stop reading it. If you're a technical diver that thinks this was a good plan, please let us know why you think so.