Guy to Break World Record

[Dr. Lecter]

So I guess you want to put this in the "victimless" area, hence he becomes a statistic,then there is nothing but dirty laundry. The none of my business part is that it is highly unlikely that I will be diving in that region or a desire to do deep diving there,but what about people who do. You remember in the late 90's two guys that were trying to set depth records in Cozumel, and they ended up becoming a fatality. This caused the local government to really restrict deep/tech type dives because they didn't want bad PR to decrease their recreational diver cash cow. So,there is always the remote possibility that they receive negative PR it could hurt tech diving efforts there.

No, the local officials being mouth-breathing, banana republic morons caused them to pass the restrictions they did - heckler's vetos are bull, whether it's speech or diving.

 

[Doppler]

I had Mark at the shop who was diving with the guy yesterday type his reply to your question himself.

For anyone on facebook the guy attempting the dive is on Facebook as Doc Deep. You can see some photos of him and his gear on his dives.


"We do partial pressure blend. As far as accuracy our blenders are within 1% tolerance. As the helium increases and oxygen decreases in the mix it become more like heliair and we have seen an even smaller margin for those mixes. Hope that answers your questions! Mark Nevin Trimix Instructor"

Thanks Tammy.

Plus or minus one percent is about what most of us can get with calibrated digital gauges and standardized methodology... but would not a supportable starting margin of error, for my comfort at any rate, on a dive for which the oxygen percentage of my bottom mix would likely be shy of 4.3.

Anyhow, turns out he and I have several mutual friends, so I will follow up through them. Thanks again.

 

[DougCoDiver]

Good luck to him. Seems foolish to me.

 

[Wingy]

Dive accomplished 815foot and hes alive and talking on FB chat. Well done.

 

[reghunnicutt]

Saw that. One hell of an accomplishment and years in the planning.


Reggie in Midland, NC

 

[tomfcrist]

The basis of my opinion is that it is a zero defect dive..meaning nothing can go wrong, because if it does you are ****ed.

 

[Kevrumbo]

In an increasingly tamed and homogenized world, risk is not only a means of escape but a path to spirituality. . .the fine line between life and death actually entices outdoor adventurers to risk everything for the chance to explore their own physical and mental limits. In fact, it is exactly this close proximity to death that makes the experience come alive for certain individuals with the overriding desire "to strip away the superfluous, to remove the protective boundaries between that thing you call a self and something larger." . . . --Shawn Carkonen

 

[RJP]

I had Mark at the shop who was diving with the guy yesterday type his reply to your question himself.

"We do partial pressure blend. As far as accuracy our blenders are within 1% tolerance. As the helium increases and oxygen decreases in the mix it become more like heliair and we have seen an even smaller margin for those mixes. Hope that answers your questions! Mark Nevin Trimix Instructor"

Plus or minus one percent is about what most of us can get with calibrated digital gauges and standardized methodology... but would not a supportable starting margin of error, for my comfort at any rate, on a dive for which the oxygen percentage of my bottom mix would likely be shy of 4.3.

Reading this thread now in hindsight, but I wonder if the guy mixing the gas understood that what he meant was that he had a 1 percentage point tolerance. That is NOT the same as a 1% tolerance.

If the target mix is 5%... 1 percentage point means a +/- 20% margin of error. Not saying that the gas mix was the cause of the fatality here, but obviously dives like this don't accommodate that type of slack.

 

[kwinter]

Reading this thread now in hindsight, but I wonder if the guy mixing the gas understood that what he meant was that he had a 1 percentage point tolerance. That is NOT the same as a 1% tolerance.

If the target mix is 5%... 1 percentage point means a +/- 20% margin of error. Not saying that the gas mix was the cause of the fatality here, but obviously dives like this don't accommodate that type of slack.

I believe the bottom mix was planned for 4% O2 and came out 3.9%. That's certainly acceptable. Helium % was fine too. END of 138 ft. Bottom pO2 of 1.46 (or higher if he went deeper than planned, like he did on his 2 training dives) might be a bit high for my taste, especially for a 10 hour dive.

 

[tomfcrist]

I believe the bottom mix was planned for 4% O2 and came out 3.9%. That's certainly acceptable. Helium % was fine too. END of 138 ft. Bottom pO2 of 1.46 (or higher if he went deeper than planned, like he did on his 2 training dives) might be a bit high for my taste, especially for a 10 hour dive.

1.46 would be a little high if he planned on staying down there for any significant amount of time...but it was a bounce....how long do you think he would have stayed in our" a little high for my taste" range? My guess is not very long. On the other hand, would a deeper END have remade HPNS less of a concern? Id personally rather be a little narced than shaking uncontrollably.