Mares Abyss world record

[Delhi Diver]

Here's a bit of Mares propaganda about my favorite regulator! Not a bad achievement, eh, a world record. What do those Apeks and Poseidon partisans have to say for themselves?

1032 feet with the Mares Abyss

 

[d33ps1x]

Here's a bit of Mares propaganda about my favorite regulator! Not a bad achievement, eh, a world record. What do those Apeks and Poseidon partisans have to say for themselves?

1032 feet with the Mares Abyss

What was the record broken by? Something like 15 feet? Clap clap clap.

 

[SA-Diver]

I'll just have to rush out an ebay all my SP regs to replace with Mares

 

[ElectricZombie]

Probably any top of the line reg would work for a dive like that.

 

[gj62]

Not to in any way diminish the accomplishment, but doesn't this strike people as contradictory:

"1032 feet *solo* dive supported by a team of 12 support divers"

 

[ElectricZombie]

Not to in any way diminish the accomplishment, but doesn't this strike people as contradictory:

"1032 feet *solo* dive supported by a team of 12 support divers"

Yeah, the guy is an idiot...that's a given. The sole purpose of the dive was to break a record...big deal.

 

[Greg Barlow]

The solo portion was for the actual descent to depth. The support divers were present to deal with decompression logistics. Heck, if you follow the logic of not "solo", then the record dives of GI3 and J. Jablonski would follow the same frame of mind. They, too, had support divers on their record penetrations at Wakulla. One of their divers is an instructor at the shop that I used to teach at. His portion of being a support diver on the record penetration required him to have a deco obligation of over 4 hours. Yeah, he didn't lay any new line, but they wouldn't/couldn't have made their dives without highly competent support divers.

To make dives of this nature without support divers would be akin to traveling into space without ground support.

While I personally dive Mares regs, I'm going to agree with Zombie in that most any high end reg would have been sufficient for this dive. The mix that was used would be the equivalent of diving to around 250' or less on air regarding the density of the gas mix.

Dives of this nature are extremely hazardous due to decompression issues. Even though they are literally bounce dives in nature, the pressure gradients are such that M values are often exceeded resulting in the high possibility of hits throughout the deco schedule. I have heard conflicting reports on whether or not the RGBM was utilized in this dive. I would be interested in seeing the run tables for its execution.

Greg Barlow
Former Science Editor for Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine

 

[ElectricZombie]

The solo portion was for the actual descent to depth. The support divers were present to deal with decompression logistics. Heck, if you follow the logic of not "solo", then the record dives of GI3 and J. Jablonski would follow the same frame of mind.

The issue isn't that the guy was using support divers...I don't see how he could do the dive without them. The point is that he did a solo dive to 1032 feet simply to break a record. Not too smart in my opinion...I don't see the point. GI3 and JJ were diving together, not solo.

 

[gj62]

Yeah, the guy is an idiot...that's a given.

I wouldn't say he's an idiot - I don't think he could be and come through such an event unscathed.

To me, this exercise seems to be pointless - much like climbing Everest without oxygen. In the end, you're just there to get the T-Shirt :ditsy:

Science could be served better under conditions far less dangerous.

However, Greg, my comment regarding support divers was not meant to be derogatory, I just found the sentence amusing... As you said, it probably could not have been done alone, so let's give credit to the team, who were all at some risk...

 

[simbrooks]

Seeing as how they use the breathing machines to test these regs for review/comparison, couldnt they pressurise those tests up to see which reg can go the "deepest" and end this peeing contest for regs at least. As for the guy going that deep, really needs to prioritise his life or at least value it more.