Thoughts on Deep and Wreck Diving

[TheRedHead]

Thats interesting. Usually you'd breathe the stages first...

The deco stages. 50/50 perhaps. Are you thinking about a cave?

 

[Kevrumbo]

Could've been Deep Water/CO2 Blackout on backgas as well, thereby leaving the Stage/Deco Bottles seemingly "untouched". . .

 

[JeffG]

Could've been Deep Water/CO2 Blackout on backgas as well, thereby leaving the Stage/Deco Bottles seemingly "untouched". . .

Or was so freaked out..it didn't even dawn on him to go to his deco tanks.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

This whole 'old core' thign is hilarious.....

where oh where is MHK...........oh yeah, I think he watched a few of the old core die stupidly and figured there might just be a better and safer way.

The last I checked half of the core died alone diving deep air.........

Just a thought here Pete, you stand on the shoulders of those that came before you. You built upon their hard work and carried forward.........do you really think no-one, or no team has taken what you've learned and moved beyond your position in the exact same way?

Going to deco gas at depth is pretty brain-dead simple as I think even an OW student realizes that drowning is worse than just about any other decision you can make at that point in time. But to me the whole premise of even contemplating the idea as a point of discussion is pretty pointless. I'd much sooner train to not get into sit's like that........you'd have to be pretty boned to get so tied up in a net you'd have to get out of your rig, bleed your Back-gas dry, go to deco bottles.......please dude, at that point it's over anyway.....what a discussion!

With all respect Pete,

regards

 

[Kevrumbo]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=102324&highlight=6+years+ago

 

[jtivat]

I can't understand this point of view. I don't see my buddy as a liability.

If your buddy is relying on you in any way to do the dive they are a liability.

 

[jtivat]

That is not quite what I meant. I meant that you have to be prepared to get out of a problem by yourself. You can not count on a buddy pulling you out. If he is there, fine it helps - a lot. But if he is not, what then? I just can't assume that you can save me, if you can't save yourself.

Pete J

I agree and was saying the same thing, I don't always communicate my thoughts in words very well.

 

[TheRedHead]

If your buddy is relying on you in any way to do the dive they are a liability.

I hope my buddy can rely on me and me on him, not be dependent, but know that I will do my utmost to be aware of any potential problems.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Thanks Kev.

For you lazy-bones out there:

Exactly 6 years ago today
I get asked often how and why I decided to adopt a DIR philosophy of diving. I've told the story often, but in the course of scanning some old notes, it occurred to me that today is 6 years ago to the day that a certain dive event changed the direction of my diving. It was 6 years ago today that my buddy Mike Carpenter and I were doing a dive on the Andrea Doria, just following a 3 man team consisting of 2 crew members and a passenger who had arrived on the Seeker without a buddy. Pete and Charlie had agreed to escort this diver but on the descent Charlie indicated that he had a problem and was going to ascend, owing to the fact that Charlie was an experienced guy Pete allowed him to ascend solo and continued his escort. About 30 minutes later Mike & I began our descent and at 180' as we were dropping our deco bottles about to penetrate Gimbels Hole, Mike indicated to me that he was having a problem and ascended. I figured Mike was an experienced guy so I let him ascend solo and penetrated the Doria solo. I was the last guy in the water that day so as I made my way back onto the boat after about an hour and a half, the boat lacked the usual joviality and I quickly learned that Charlie had never made it back so they all wanted to quiz me on where I had gone, or if I had seen any signs of Charlie [bottles, line etc.]. After a thorough debrief with Dan Crowell and Gary Gentile, Danny and JT Barker did a search. A few minutes into the search Charlie's lifeless body breached the surface. Several of us jumped into the frigid waters to retrieve the body in some extreme currents. Fighting the current and swimming back a lifeless body of someone you just ate breakfast with has quite an impact.

Driving back to Montauk with Charlie's body on the stern for the entire 11 hour ride [ Coast Guard won't "rescue" a dead body] caused me to seriously rethink my diving habits in light of the fact that I had just done the same exact thing to my dive buddy, Mike Carpenter.

Here's a link to one of many articles that were written on Charlie's death:

http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/under/f...s/index_sc.php

In any event, before I even returned to the dock, the fatality was all over the "tech" list [ at the time it was the foremost internet scuba list] and there was this guy named George Irvine calling me a "stroke" and assorted other non-charitable names. I thought either this guy was the biggest ******* I had ever met, or he must really know his ****. A few weeks later, thanks in large part to Dan Volker, I flew to Florida with my then dive buddy John Walker. John and I did a couple of dives and had lunch with George Irvine, Bill Mee and Dan Volker after which it became quickly apparent that while I had been doing Andrea Doria type diving, I had no business doing so and that I should take the cotton out of my ears and stick it in my mouth and listen to what these guys had to say. Shortly thereafter George arranged for me to meet Jarrod Jablonski and take some training from a newly formed agency called Global Underwater Explorer's. Along the way I have made great friends, taken some serious training classes, advanced to instructor level for this agency, traveled the globe extensively and have gladly adopted the DIR philosophy.

Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble, but given the rash of recent fatalities locally it sort of brought me back to why I believe in the strength of DIR.

Be careful out there guys, there seems to be a stange wind blowing..

Regards

 

[ageddiver]

So this guy has a "revelation", becomes a "convert" and now not only makes his living teaching "the way" but considers it his smug "calling" to bring attention to any fatalities as being a direct result of not being a "true follower".

Speak to me when it all stops being such a religion and I'll listen. Good God!