First Official DCS Incident on the Spiegel Grove

[Finesse]

The details of the dive so we can all learn from her misfortune??

What % O2 they were breathing ???

Max Depth and time??

How many dives in the profile??

Hang times??

Etc....

This would be good info for us to learn from !!!

 

[Wendy]

I'm not sure what mix she was using, but she was diving on NITROX. This was the first dive she did that day (actually it was the only dive that week). Max depth was 118 feet and bottom time was 37 mins. She did a 7 min stop at 15' and I hear she had a very slow ascent. Of the 4 divers diving that day, she had the most conservative profile.

Maybe it was something non-diving related factor, like hydration. Exersion from swimming against the current at the end of the dive to get to the mooring ball they were tied off too.

 

[WreckWriter]

I'm a little surprised that it took this long for someone to get bent there with some of the dives I've seen (and done) there. The profile of the wreck is conducive to getting bent on aggressive dives if one isn't careful.

The reason for this is that the bottom is at about 130', while the top of the wreck is less than 50'. If one does a fairly long dive on the deeper portions of the wreck then follows it up with a leisurely tour, say back around the stern to the wheels then up and over the hull, one can go above the depth of the deeper required stops.

On one dive I did there we did this and when I looked at my computer (VR3) on beginning my ascent it was already claiming "missed deco". It got bent, luckily I didn't. One must keep in mind that their first stops may need to be conducted while still on the wreck.

As for gas, I believe I read that the lady that got bent was on EANx 32, probably the optimum gas for this dive unless one plans on hanging around the bottom. Their profile was apparently not overly aggressive but may have involved "sawtooth" type depths. Also, as Wendy said, there was likely another factor such as fatigue, dehydration, etc.

The Speigel Grove is one of the greatest wrecks going but it requires care if one wants to go at it aggressively.

Tom

 

[Newhampster]

scuba_junkie once bubbled...
...Its kind of a scary fact that even if you adhere to the dive tables, even conservatively, you can still get bent...

That's what DAN reports, consistently.

Some factors are reasonably well studied, e.g., ascent rates.
Many others are not (e.g., hydration or dive exertion levels or pre-dive exercise levels) at least to the extent that it's hard for a rec diver to measure that.

If you assume a 1.4 PO2 limit, Nitrox EAN32's MOD is only 108 feet and a full trip to the bottom of the wreck is outside MOD limits. (Which would contribute to an O2 problem, not DCS.) When I dove the Grove three times last week, I avoided Nitrox cause my dive shop (Ocean Drivers) wouldn't mix anything other than 32% and I was interested in 120-125 feet...