Scuba on a budget

[BRT]

Only if you drove there without a helmet on a motorcycle you built from parts found on AliExpress. And obviously no license needed because you googled how to ride a motorcycle.

Seriously, the fatality rate for uncertified scuba divers is a full order of magnitude greater than certified (which is already much higher on a fatality per hour rate than driving). And that's without considering your gear and air quality.

I'd like a cite on the fatality rates.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Yes, I know what pressure is, I have a degree in physics. But I'm only using it for just over an hour, and it's a lot cleaner than the air you breathe behind a bus.

Only differences I don’t put my lips around the pipe for an hour. Lol

 

[Naked diver 2]

I'd like a cite on the fatality rates.

Wikipedia says "1.8 deaths per million recreational dives", which I assume is about 1 hour of diving for each dive = 1 million hours.
injuryfacts.nsc.org says "1.2 deaths per 100,000,000 vehicle miles, which is presumably about 2 million hours.

So to compare, for every million hours of diving, 1.8 people die. For every million hours of driving, 0.6 people die. So scuba is only more dangerous by a factor of 3. And.... most people drive more than they scuba, even if all they do is drive to and from the scuba site.

 

[Naked diver 2]

Only differences I don’t put my lips around the pipe for an hour. Lol

I bet there's a fetish somewhere that involves doing just that!

Think how smelly it is behind that bus. You are inhaling enough pollution to smell. I can't smell any oil when I'm using the tank.

 

[jale]

a lot of bad stuff is odorless and tasteless but yoy should know as you have a degree in physics

 

[rsingler]

A fine post sent to me by @OTF just as the thread was temporarily closed. Thank you, @OTF !

"6 pages of **** talking and nobody bothered to explain WHY they're worried about you diving on that little compressor. Disgraceful on our part as a community, not yours. You don't know what you don't know.

• Carbon Monoxide (CO) isn't just sucked into the compressor from possible sources in the air, it can be MADE in the compressor when a hard-working / hot piston starts to burn small amounts of oil through heat and compression. Even an electric compressor can produce CO. A tiny bit of burnt oil makes a lot of CO. It can happen quickly, or sporadically as the compressor heats up. You might even get one random contaminated fill when the compressor is hot, while other fills are fine. This is especially dangerous in small overworked compressors without advanced filters like you have. Those compressors are made to fill small tanks like paintball bottles with non-breathing quality air. They get hot when made to fill big scuba tanks.
• CO is especially dangerous underwater because of partial pressure. When you double the ambient pressure by going down 1 atmosphere (33 feet deep) you're actually breathing 2x the concentration of carbon monoxide. The risk isn't long-term health impacts of breathing pollution like you'd get from living near a highway. The risk is acute CO poisoning that causes you to pass out and drown underwater. It doesn't take much CO in a tank at all. Concentrations that are barely noticeable on land will kill you quick deep underwater.
• The user "dandy don" is an expert in CO safety and you could ask him for more info.
• For what it's worth, I also work hard to dive on a budget. Almost all of my gear is used high quality stuff snagged in great deals, and I build some of my own. Diving on a budget is possible, but please be careful with mini chinese compressors."

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread is now closed.

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[chillyinCanada]

Nor has anyone mentioned hypothermia.

"A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) can lead to death in as little as one hour, and water temperatures near freezing can cause death in as little as 15 minutes."