trymixdiver once bubbled...
A few questions for you SeaJay, i am curious.
Your using surface supplied and a FFM with comms i would assume. if not explain please.
how are addressing food intake ?
How are you addressing going to the bathroom (#1and #2) ?
Your diving WET so how are you going to deal with hypothermia?
What depth are you planning on doing this at?
what kind of support personel will you use?
let us know, i am sure i am not the only one interested in these issues.
Andy
How very cool to be able to talk about the attempt. I don't know if there's anything in the world I'd rather talk about than this.
The Guinness Book has advised me that surface supplied or "hookah" rigs disqualify the attempt. The actual name of the world record is "Longest SCUBA Submergence - Controlled Environment." Thus, everything's got to be self-contained. No hookah rigs allowed.
The attempt will be very DIR, which is interesting. From the dive philosophy to the "holistic" attitude to the gear choices... Everything will be very "DIR." Rigs - your initial question - will consist primarily of backplates and wings, and will be modified slightly to work best for this particular dive. Steel backplates with simple wings on a continuous harness and double, manifolded AL80 tanks will be the mainstay rig. There will be multiple rigs like this available to me, and they will be switched out (the entire rig) every couple of hours for the entire length of the dive. There will also be some loose "stages" on the bottom of the facility, to act as "bailout" in case something goes wrong. I may also have a giant "K bottle" sitting on the bottom for extended time such as sleep. According to my calculations, though, larger doubles or even triples may suit best for sleeping, so the K bottle might be for emergency use only. Those issues will all be worked out before the dive commenses.
There will be a fill station on-site, and lots of surface support for the dive. I anticipate that over the course of a particular day, Many divers will dive with me for an hour or two at a time. Since hookah rigs are out, I'll need their support for exchanging bottles... Getting rid of my empties and delivering full bottles to me, submerged. I cannot break the surface during the two week stay.
I will not always be wearing backgas... Variety is the key here. Sometimes I will be wearing it, and sometimes I'll simply be using a doubles rig (or single "stage") while on the bottom of the facility. When I do wear the backgas (most of the time) it will be in order to swim. Exercise is a key component in my plan to keep me mentally and physically healthy during my submersion.
A FFM will be the mainstay of my gear, as well. However, again, in the interest of variety, I will have a standard second stage and mask available as well. I can see using a "standard" setup an hour or two a day, just to get out of the FFM.
The facility was originally going to be one of the tanks at the SC Aquarium in Charleston, but the safety diver there has decided that he does not want the responsibility and liability, not to mention that his aquarium is currently overstocked, meaning that he doesn't really have the room. At this point, I have not been able to secure a facility, but I've been in contact with Epcot/Disney and Sea World. There may be some interest there. The ideal facility would be saltwater capable, temperature-controlled, and have a depth of around 20 feet. Surprisingly important would be a window, where I could obtain some interaction with others. That brings me to...
Communications. They are surprisingly a very large part of the attempt. No doubt the FFM's will have communicators in them, and I'm going to have to submerge a communicator such that the support staff can communicate with me while they're topside... Yet do this without wires. Remember, I can't have any part of me (or anything connected to me) break the surface during my dive. There will also be a computer, television, movies, and the like on the other side of the "window," with a wireless remote, keyboard, mouse, etc. (encased for waterproofedness) on "my" side of the window, so that I can communicate with the outside world and not have every second that goes by seem like a decade. No doubt, I will set up a message board with Scubaboard so that people can say hello while I'm doing the attempt. 'Course, that's if KN and LD say they'd like to be involved.
There will be a live webcam, too, and likely quite a bit of news coverage.
Food intake is actually not as difficult as one might think. Surface support will be preparing meals... Probably in the realm of 4 per day. They will liquify my meals (spaghetti milkshake, anyone?) and serve them to me in a food delivery bag, not unlike a "CapriSun" beverage bag. The food will be sipped through a straw between breaths from a "normal" reg. Remember, I've got all day to eat.
The removal of human waste, in the form of urine and feces, is quite another trick. I have developed a sort of "underwater toilet" which sort of "flushes" constantly... Imagine a regular toilet connected to the drain in the bottom of a pool, with the drain opened slightly. Using diet and exercise, the idea is to ensure that I always have "sinkers" and that, combined with the vaccum from the toilet, should dispose of the waste quite well. New water will be then added to the facility to replace whatever was lost during the "flushing" process. Of course, salinity and temperature, amongst other things, will be closely monitored the entire dive, and especially when adding new water. It is of vital importance that human waste product NOT be allowed into the water under any circumstances, as this has prevented previous world record attempts from succeeding because of eye, ear, nose, and throat infections.
Interestingly, this "toilet" will be in a sort of "underwater outhouse" that allows for some privacy while I'm busy. Believe it or not, there's also a sort of system that will allow me to "shower" too, complete with a sort of alcohol-based, "soap" solution. I will even be brushing my teeth twice a day using this system, just to make the long stay easy.
Obviously, diving dry would create a problem for any of these activities. Thus, I must dive wet... Creating a whole other slew of demands, such as water temperature (93 degrees exactly) water salinity (35 ppt) and "bailout" in case of superhydration (salt and petroleum jelly).
Interesting stuff, eh?
