Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

[Texas Torpedo]

Man, you guys use a lot of big words. It just seems like.. if the rebreather failed and flooded etc. (at depth or on the surface) a diver would go to an open circuit bail out and it would make little sense not to be able to get off the bottom, (or stay on the surface) should the worst occur.

Wonder how easy bailing out to OC would be if you just sucked down a throat full of caustic cocktail...?

So Pete's premise, if I understand it, is he flooded his unit and sunk. Would not a highly experienced tech diver press the "up" button on his BC as he started to sink? Seems like that would be recoverable.

Hearkens back to not knowing if he had enough gas left to make that happen.. Without other issues, the "up" button on either the wing or suit should have been reflex..

 

[The Chairman]

ALARP ALARP - Wikipedia is perhaps a better consideration than unnecessary....
If you engineer out as many risks as possible first, you minimise the need to mitigate poor design choices later. Adding a safety buffer for the diver!

Would not a highly experienced tech diver

Highly experienced? Sure. That's at question here. He was a photographer first and a tech diver second.

Wonder how easy bailing out to OC would be if you just sucked down a throat full of caustic cocktail...?

Indeed. Add surprise and panic to that and you really have a huge issue.

 

[PT4476]

Re: 'pushing the up button' — either wing or drysuit, as Texas Torpedo says that would depend on the diver having enough gas to make that happen. A lot ?? in this accident…

 

[Patoux01]

Re: 'pushing the up button' — either wing or drysuit, as Texas Torpedo says that would depend on the diver having enough gas to make that happen.

It would be profoundly stupid to not have these two on separate air sources...

edit: Or were they not using drysuits?

 

[PT4476]

It would be profoundly stupid to not have these two on separate air sources...

edit: Or were they not using drysuits?

Agreed, it would be stupid. As mentioned this accident presents a lot of questions, I hope we get some answers one day.

 

[boulderjohn]

edit: Or were they not using drysuits?

I don't recall any information on this.

In the past 1.5 months I have been in Florida, I have seen a lot of rebreathers on the boats--so many I have been thinking about starting a thread on that observation. I would say about half half have been rEvos. I have seen a couple of classes from Add Helium. Almost all of these divers were wearing wet suits--another observation I was going to make in that contemplated thread.

 

[Wookie]

ALARP ALARP - Wikipedia is perhaps a better consideration than unnecessary....
If you engineer out as many risks as possible first, you minimise the need to mitigate poor design choices later. Adding a safety buffer for the diver!

You say ALARP, in 1981 when I first heard the term it was ALARA, As Low As Reasonably Achievable. Had Open Safety understood this, they would probably have not pissed off half the rebreather world (not the website, but them too) and understood that Reasonably means just that. It is not reasonable to "Diver proof" a rebreather. Diving cannot be made safe, but it can be done safely. Risks can be mitigated. Good training is a huge part of that. Experience is the rest. I believe that good training and experience is exactly what this thread is all about. Even if you try to make it about the rebreather, I will drag the conversation back to training and experience. Something I want to make perfectly clear. A rebreather never ever ever killed a diver. The Open Safety minions have expertly testified a number of times about the failure of the rebreather to keep the diver alive, and y'all have been stomped every time. Rebreathers don't kill divers. Divers lack of training and experience kill divers. Every time.

 

[Patoux01]

I have seen a couple of classes from Add Helium. Almost all of these divers were wearing wet suits--another observation I was going to make in that contemplated thread.

When I made that edit, I quickly looked at the AH fb page, which showed many wetsuits. I don't think there are many redundant wings sold on rEvos either, are there?

Deep diving on fairly thick wetsuits and no redundant buoyancy? What could possibly go wrong.

And that is not only a rebreather issue.

However, even if you somehow magically use a rebreather as a buoyancy compensator (gonna have some nice full lungs there, and it's like 10kg of lift maximum), it still should be on a separate air source as the wing... eg the wing on a bail-out (RIP those 2$ of trimix that might go in there) and the diluent (obviously) on the loop.

Isn't that what is commonly taught? Or did I miss something?

 

[Dan]

I don't recall any information on this.

In the past 1.5 months I have been in Florida, I have seen a lot of rebreathers on the boats--so many I have been thinking about starting a thread on that observation. I would say about half half have been rEvos. I have seen a couple of classes from Add Helium. Almost all of these divers were wearing wet suits--another observation I was going to make in that contemplated thread.

According to his sister, they wore dry suits. Check post # 40, in page 4 of this thread, posted by @Cali_diver:
Filmmaker Rob Stewart dies off Alligator Reef

 

[The Chairman]

Good training is a huge part of that. Experience is the rest.

Indeed, indeed!

A rebreather never ever ever killed a diver.

Says our NRA spokesman (National Rebreather Association).

Rebreathers don't kill divers. Divers lack of training and experience kill divers. Every time.

Indeed, indeed! Again, again!

Deep diving on fairly thick wetsuits and no redundant buoyancy? What could possibly go wrong.

One of the first mods I did to my SF2 was to add Dive Rite's double bladder rebreather wing.