The pursuit of Records in Diving (depth, etc)

[boulderjohn]

Maybe you missed the news, but apparently the USCG is looking at investigating the world record attempt and subsequent fatality, and there is a good chance commercial charter vessels will be impacted by this. No matter what, it is likely that liability insurance rates will go up in response to the subsequent lawsuits that will be filed over this whole fiasco.

And don't fool yourself into thinking that there will not be any lawsuits filed. A lawyer has already stepped into the fray.

Now tell me again why anyone who has more money than sense should be allowed free reign to kill themselves?

Because how you live (or die) is IMO a fundamental human right, as long as you're not hurting anybody else with it. As somebody else said above, as long as they foot the costs and don't take anybody else with them, let them have their fun.

There are assumptions that he "had more money than sense" and that he was footing the costs. Are we sure either is true in this case? I don't think so at all. A quick Google search suggests to me that neither was true.

 

[diver 85]

Records are made to be broken, always remember that....Chances are---if you set a record(of any kind)--in a few short years only your family will remember it.......Good luck to his wife & son....

 

[Hetland]

Ok, if that were the case why do we commit suicidal people against their will to the psyc ward? Why do we arrest and confine people who just want to go through life naked(indecent exposure....which by the way is a sex crime in this country)?

You are NOT free to live and die as you choose...Period.

Suicide is against state laws in many, if not all states (totally disagree with that). The good news is that if you're successful, they will not prosecute you criminally ;-)

Nudity is usually a misdemeanor, NON-sex crime unless you're naked for sexual gratification. So you can walk down the street nude, and get a fine, but walking down the street nude while masturbating gets you put on a list.

 

[Akimbo]

I don't buy intentional suicide. There are a lot easier and more pleasant ways to kill yourself.

 

[archer1960]

I don't buy intentional suicide. There are a lot easier and more pleasant ways to kill yourself.

True, but many times life insurance won't pay if death is proven to be suicide. However, I don't buy it either in this case. I just think he made a mistake (or likely more than one), in either planning or execution, in a situation that doesn't allow for ANY mistakes, and it killed him.

 

[Diver0001]

This speculation about suicide is over the top, if you ask me.

I think he just underestimated the dive. How many people in the world think they can do things that they can't? How many of those are suicidal? Youtube is full of epic fails, some of them fatal. Remember the Russian guy who tried to go all the way to the bottom of the blue hole by Dahab on a single 80 and was dead by the time he got there? It's just like that. Add it to the list.

Can we move on now?

R..

 

[The Chairman]

Suicide? Sure: it's obvious that he killed himself. Intended or attempted suicide? No way. He was in love with life and simply exceeded his limits.

 

[Akimbo]

https://decodoppler.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/factors-in-deep-scuba-diving/

my two-cents worth on deep diving...

Your comment about just buying your premix from a gas plant should be emphasized. It has been about 10 years, but every gas plant I have been in, in the US and Europe, used all stainless steel diaphragm compressors. You have to be totally ignorant of the process to use gas from a lubricated HP compressor at these depths. An acceptable "contamination" from compressors at 3-6 atmospheres of water can be incapacitating to fatal at 20+ atmospheres.

For clarity, a "gas plant" produces cryogenic Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Argon (among others) by compressing and refrigerating air. Cryogenically separated gas is extremely pure. Some of those separated and liquefied gasses are "boiled off", re-compressed, and sold in HP cylinders. Liquid Oxygen and Nitrogen probably outsell HP gas in most industrialized areas.

 

[Diver0001]

Suicide? Sure: it's obvious that he killed himself. Intended or attempted suicide? No way. He was in love with life and simply exceeded his limits.

People who love life exceed their limits and suffer from fatal and nearly fatal accidents all the time. The list is endless and there are entire internet sites dedicated to poking fun at them.

Almost nobody I know doesn't have a friend, loved one or acquaintance who hasn't died in a car accident. You can't tell me that every single one of the tens of thousands of accident victims who die every year on the roads was a suicide...?!

Once again, it's over the top if you ask me. There are much more logical explanations for what happened here.

R..

 

[archer1960]

Your comment about just buying your premix from a gas plant should be emphasized. It has been about 10 years, but every gas plant I have been in, in the US and Europe, used all stainless steel diaphragm compressors. You have to be totally ignorant of the process to use gas from a lubricated HP compressor at these depths. An acceptable "contamination" from compressors at 3-6 atmospheres of water can be incapacitating to fatal at 20+ atmospheres.

For clarity, a "gas plant" produces cryogenic Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Argon (among others) by compressing and refrigerating air. Cryogenically separated gas is extremely pure. Some of those separated and liquefied gasses are "boiled off", re-compressed, and sold in HP cylinders. Liquid Oxygen and Nitrogen probably outsell HP gas in most industrialized areas.

Yup. I routinely see trucks loaded with what is labeled liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen going down the road. In some areas, liquid nitrogen is cheaper (in quantities of several gallons and up) than bottled water is.