Should the dive industry support record attempts?

[hsinhai]

Question too vague.. but I don't see a problem with the dive industry supporting record attempts, as another poster indicated it does not just have to be depth records.. there are a lot of other records you can 'invent', take Cristi Quill who attempted a record scuba dive duration back in July in San Diego, I happened to be diving there at the time, and I think stuff like this is great..

though damn that San Diego water is cold..

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I have a problem with answering the poll, because it's unclear what "support" means. If it means "encourage", then I think not. On the other hand, the diving community maximizes the chances of having influence on the outcome by getting closely involved, and by offering help and advice, and that is certainly a form of "support".

I think cerich was referring to "Industry Support", as in the commercial dive industry... not us, the great unwashed dive community.

Should the big (and small) dive industry players put their stamp of approval on record attempts? Should they donate equipment, provide funding, and supply technical expertise in order to have their products prominently displayed during the dive and their logos on baseball caps and t-shirts, and banners flying on the support boats?

Or I could have totally misunderstood the poll. It wouldn't be a first for me!

Best wishes.

 

[lucca brassi]

I vote yes ..... progress must be made ......BUT WITHOUT vain stupidity like ex '' deep doc ''; with controlled parameters of dive , max safety and right support team AND ......the sense of setting progress is scientific data and records ; record achievement is only a byproduct !

For example, the racing industry is indirectly introduced in the development of automobile safety, improving power, lower fuel consumption, .....

 

[Rusty Roo]

......

---------- Post added August 19th, 2015 at 11:44 AM ----------

"Years ago 30m would have been considered deep"?

What year would that be, exactly? In 1947 a guy hit 94m on air. In 1962 two flags were planted on the ocean floor at 1000' of depth.

The risks associated with deep diving have been widely known for a very, very, long time. There's nothing to learn by trying to bust 1100' on a bounce dive.

must have skipped scuba history, thanks professor

when you think back the world was considered flat until people "went there"

its out human nature to explore and try and overcome dangers such as space travel etc

 

[boulderjohn]

It would be interesting to learn the degree to which the industry supported this last failed attempt. Did any equipment manufacturer provide equipment or funding?

I believe I read in one of the many threads on this topic that the local dive operator provided support under the supposition that the publicity of the assumed success would bring them a lot of benefit, but I can't recall that information specifically.

The reason I ask is that I would think it would be important for a manufacturer providing funding or equipment would want to be sure that the attempt would be successful. They would not likely want to be associated with a failure of this magnitude. I would therefore assume that if they were going to consider such support, they would very carefully investigate before committing.

---------- Post added August 19th, 2015 at 01:49 PM ----------

When you read about the amount of divers, support equipment, etc. needed for this dive, I would think there had to be some massive amounts of money available for this dive and for all the other deep dives that were done over the past few years leading up to this. A few minutes on Google will tell you that the Doctor was not a deep-pocketed individual who would have been able to bankroll it himself.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

He may well have used an army of like minded, recreational divers who donated their time and maybe even money to be involved in such an "important' world record attempt. The dive shop was actively soliciting support via the initial "big balls" video, so they may have been operating on a more limited budget than we might imagine.


I myself have been recruited to provide support on other world record dive attempts (so in my case, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak).

We have evidence that he was doing very deep dives concurrently with other normal recreational divers doing recreational dives on the same boat. Failure to have a fully dedicated boat and support crew, would point to limited funding as well.

If the sponsors were not clearly identified before the dive, I would suspect that manufacturer "support" may have been pretty limited.

 

[Steve_C]

pushing boundaries is human nature. man on the moon.

I see little relationship between space missions and the recent sad event. Space missions are risky. But there is extensive testing of every part of the mission. There is a gradual incremental approach. Everything is done to mitigate the risk. There is always a lot learned by each mission even the incremental ones. There are hundreds of hours of practice of each part of the mission including by support personnel.

There is the common thread that when there is an accident if it was not totally unforeseen, then it came from getting over confident and ignoring warnings from the experts (challenger).

I do not fully understand the question. It is way too vague and is asking for absolutes. I did not answer it.

A record depth dive that is testing out new equipment that has a good chance of success might be reasonable. My scifi brain can envision a drysuit material that goes rigid at depth and a chemical plant on the back that could extract oxygen and some needed materials from the surrounding fluid. Not existing now but 100 years from now who knows. Testing dive gear for Europa?

 

[JohnnyC]

I see little relationship between space missions and the recent sad event. Space missions are risky. But there is extensive testing of every part of the mission. There is a gradual incremental approach. Everything is done to mitigate the risk. There is always a lot learned by each mission even the incremental ones. There are hundreds of hours of practice of each part of the mission including by support personnel.

There is the common thread that when there is an accident if it was not totally unforeseen, then it came from getting over confident and ignoring warnings from the experts (challenger).

I do not fully understand the question. It is way too vague and is asking for absolutes. I did not answer it.

A record depth dive that is testing out new equipment that has a good chance of success might be reasonable. My scifi brain can envision a drysuit material that goes rigid at depth and a chemical plant on the back that could extract oxygen and some needed materials from the surrounding fluid. Not existing now but 100 years from now who knows. Testing dive gear for Europa?

Astronauts are a funny breed. I have had the opportunity to meet a couple over the years. I once asked Jim McDivitt if he wished he had landed on the moon, his response, "no, if I can't be the first, why would I bother?" Maybe something that has that much support just doesn't garner the same amount of blind enthusiasm of a suicidal depth record.

 

[lucca brassi]

@boulderjohn

It would be interesting to learn the degree to which the industry supported this last failed attempt. Did any equipment manufacturer provide equipment or funding?

What about SUPPORT TEAM awareness ???? - Whole team ??? Industry may be involved but closest collaborators could preserve a healthy mind ..... on one glamorous video on YT from 500 ft dive : support team was made from many PADI instructors ( not a word in whole story about them ! and their responsibility ) with much higher ranks and much more experience . (would my post be deleted again ?? )

 

[Steve_C]

Astronauts are a funny breed. I have had the opportunity to meet a couple over the years. I once asked Jim McDivitt if he wished he had landed on the moon, his response, "no, if I can't be the first, why would I bother?" Maybe something that has that much support just doesn't garner the same amount of blind enthusiasm of a suicidal depth record.

Many of the astronauts, especially the earlier ones started out as air force pilots. I had a graduate student who was a fighter pilot (stealth) that I got to know well. Very nice guy but he was that way about everything including fishing. Extremely competitive.