Polish diver dies in world record attempt to 333m

[helodriver87]

Some back of the napkin calculations (read: very rough estimates) put the ratio of bottom to deco time at roughly 1:45 at that depth. Could be more. I'm just estimating it using reasonable FO2 progression through the ascent. It wouldn't take much to put yourself well beyond your available gas supply. I can easily see a Sheck scenario arising where he realized that he was done and tied himself off.

 

[Hiszpan]

Here is the picture released by one of his team members on FB that accompanied the statement translated before. I only assume it has been taken during those recent dives leading up to the attempt.
It might shed some light on his bottles configurations and numbers?

There is also a bit more information released on one of the polish websites (divers24.pl).
He has managed to retrieve the depth marker from 333m as it was found on him:

More on the critical moment of the dive:
"On his wat up he passed 200m mark and was continuing as planned. He has been familiar with 200m depths as he dove 200m+ few times before. Soon after passing 200mg one of his bottles got tangled up in the guideline and his attempts to free himself from the guideline failed and led to his demise"

 

[Dan]

Dan...

Five...I'm counting nine for sure...possibly 10...

This is not recreational scuba diving...potential death by mis-adventure maybe...

We as sport enthusiasts...have only one mission...the deepest/longest/highest endurance/most task loading...etc...etc...etc...is not the one mission...getting back on the dive boat/shore ALIVE...is the one and only mission...

Photo A...should never be followed by photo B...

W...

View attachment 528077 View attachment 528076

I didn’t see that picture on the link. Just saw these:

Now, I think I see 2 more on the sides and may be 3 in front. So, as you said, there could be 10 tanks total. That’s definitely entanglement hazard. Nuts!

 

[MichaelMc]

Exploring frontiers is great for progress.

But I'd bet the U.S. Navy Experimental Dive Unit already learned any physiology lessons of these attempts.

This is nuts.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Not to encourage this in any way because I quite agree that it is nuts but it must be one helluva rush when one succeeds at their ridiculous personal bests.

I can't think of any other reason for doing this.

If he was indeed entangled by accident, could it have been avoided using a jon line?

 

[HKGuns]

It is great to see the dive community speaking out against the senseless loss of this great Polish warrior.

RIP brother.

 

[doctormike]

I fail to see the significance of this record attempt. I am terribly sorry that it lead to a loss of life.
Similarly, while not directly related to this incident, I saw no reason for the senseless deaths this year on Mt. Everest. Just because someone climbed Everest does not mean that they are good climbers.

Just sad to see lives lost.

Right, but at least the people who climb Mt. Everest want to experience this unique place on earth. They wanted the experience of summiting the world's highest peak. Same with those who dive the Brittanic. If you want to go to that place, here is how you do it.

This is very different, it's just a numbers thing. If for some reason you want to experience compression arthralgia or HPNS, you can do it at 300 meters, no need to break a record. But if you feel that there is no physiologic limit to the depth a human being can achieve on open circuit scuba gear, then what's the logical next step after glorifying and celebrating this diver (if he had survived)? Well, of course it would be to challenge the next diver to go beyond that, right? Isn't that the nature of setting records?

So does it ever end? For those of you defending this choice, at what point does throwing yourself off a cliff to encourage other people to throw themselves off a cliff cease to be a noble effort to push back the frontiers of human achievement, and become just mutually destructive codepencency?

 

[happy-diver]

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[Hiszpan]

There are some more pictures available on his FB from the last few days before the dive. They show him in the similar configuration as the one posted above:

Those 2 were taken on the 2nd of July 2019. There are more from days before but on all of them he seems to be using similar configuration: 3 tanks at the back and 4 on the front. It wouldbe prudent to assume that training dives done to the depths shown before in my posts were done in the same configuration as the final attempt.


Those below were takne on the 26th of June on one of his preparatory dives to 222 metres. I am also attaching his dive computer profile for that dive:

Is there anyone here with enough experience in similar dives to comment impartially on the configuration/dive profile/possible entanglement hazards of a chosen configuration?

@doctormike : I do not think that climbing Mount Everest by laypeople is anything different than trying to reach a record depth. Those folks climbing there see the tips of their toes for most part and as soon as they are on the top the start to rush down. They do not have time to enjoy the view from the top , just like deep dive record attempts do not sit down on the bottom looking at fishes...just my 5 cents. I am in no way gloryfying or condemnign anything, I am simply pointing out that Sebastian's attempt was not ill-concieved or a gung-ho attempt. There were previous attempts in Garda, with fatalities, from polish divers where the whole enterprise consisted of 3-4 days rush in and out. This one here seemed to be planned to last few weeks with preparatory dives done in no rush whatsoever. There was a Polish TV with them (1st picture here) that was recording a documentary called "Silnce of the abyss" (hoepfully it will be released in the future as a tribute to Sebastian). Nothing different than Ahmed Gabr's attempt, the difference being an outcome that could as well be so diferent if it wasn't for some minute details that derailed everything.

 

[fsardone]

I believe the following belongs in this thread because it sheds light on the difficulties and the mindset of deep diving and especially upon deep diving in pursuit of a record. If MODs believe otherwise we can spin off a different thread.

For people wondering about these dives I would suggest two books
Fatally Flawed - The Quest to be Deepest by Verna Schaik
Raising the Dead: A True Story of Death and Survival by Phillip Finch

The first is written by the lady holding for (quite) some time the record for deep diving and the second concerns the attempt (some would call it a success) by Dave Shaw of recovering the body of Deon Dreyer. Out of that dive Don Shirley managed to survive.

These books elaborate on what it takes in term of mind set and logistics to put together such a dive.
Also if you look at Gabr's dive or Nuno Gomez dives there was a bit more training and work up to the dives. I dare not judge from my armchair and maybe all of the training so well described in those books is not (yet) apparent in this attempt ... but reading up about those dives make you wonder what are the reasons why you would do the dive. Verna in this is master in analysing the mind set. She was also the dive marshal of Dave's fatal dive.
About the mentioned records:
Inside the World's Deepest Dive with Egyptian Ahmed Gabr
New Page – Nuno Gomes

The books are very good readings and they are available on Kindle.