Three Russian divers missing in Egypt

[Ayisha]

Do people really plan dives on air with any single tank to 90 m? That's a little over 295 feet! Isn't the MOD of air around 200 feet?

It seems that even IF they could reach 90m with their single tank, they definitely wouldn't have enough gas to ascend safely and complete all the stops they'd have to make - even without any emergencies occurring along the way. It's hard to imagine 3 divers thinking up and agreeing to this dive plan.

Maybe the intended depth was a misunderstanding just as the "oxygen" tanks were a misunderstanding?

 

[String]

"oxygen tanks" i think is just an artifact of news article translated from russian into English.

As for do people plan this sort of dive, its rarely planned but is done. Russians seem to love single tank kamikaze diving from my experience.

90m is a high PPO2 on air (2.1 bar), some people have dived deeper and survived, some people have dived shallower and died - you're into partial pressure lottery territory. Narcosis id have thought more of an issue.

A bounce dive could cut the stop required but obviously isnt healthy.

As suicidal as it sounds, certain groups of people do try dives like this.

 

[lamont]

_Caverns Measureless to Man_ by Sheck Exley has a bunch of stories in it about dives roughly like this to 400+ feet...

 

[amitsi]

_Caverns Measureless to Man_ by Sheck Exley has a bunch of stories in it about dives roughly like this to 400+ feet...

bbbbbb...what? 400+ feet on single tank plain ol' air?

 

[PerroneFord]

bbbbbb...what? 400+ feet on single tank plain ol' air?

300+ feet yes. Single tank, no.


A lot of the caves near me were first explored on air back when recreational use of helium was unheard of. Many of the caves here are 200-320ft deep.

To think those guys were doing that stuff on twin 72s, before staging, with air, motorcycle batteries connected to sealed beam car lights, and belly bags for BCs.. it boggles the mind.

 

[amitsi]

I know we out here in the US are extremely conservative about dive tables....but 300+ is still a lot....

 

[stas]

Recently, on a russian diving board, I read a thread where a person was going on a trip to some destination in Russia and was looking for advise/procedure for how to conduct dives to 50 m with 20 min bottom times. This person stated in the beginning of the thread that he was not trained in decompression diving and not trained for mix. He wanted to know what are the optimal gases (he knew he needed He) needed to minimize deco.

Now imagine what kind of a ***** storm would rise up if he asked this question here, or even worse on decostop. There, for about two pages, he recieved advise on how to do the dives, including v-planner calculations. Then, when after about 30 posts, somebody actually pointed out how this might not be a good idea, the owner of the resort to which this guy was going chimed in (he was aperantly a member of the board and saw the thread) and stated how this was completely ok because they stage tanks on a down line at various depth for emergencies or if the divers are running low on gas because they were fighting the current which is known to be high in the area.

Russia has always been a very strange country. It is possible that some of the individuals involved in the above discussion are very smart people. Scientist, engineers, doctors. However, risk is generally viewed very differently then in the west. This is a byproduct of Soviet times. Quicker, cheaper, and faster wins over better and safer.

Thus as someone in the above mentioned thread pointed out, why take a class if they (the poster) has a friend who took the class and told them everything they need to know so that now, he can pass that knowledge along to the OP.

I'm very happy I no longer live in Russia.

 

[shekes]

Stas,

I am happy for you that you don't live in Russia as I am for myself. I'd be even happier if we could move back.

I do not believe that risk tolerance is specific to Russians or even to post-Soviet cultures by definition. The vast majority of humans on the planet take enormous risks on a daily basis and suffer the consequences proportionally. It is rather us, First World people who are relatively risk avert. The city with most traffic fatalities in the world is Buenos Aires, not Moscow. The rest of South America isn't much different and the same applies to most of Africa and Asia.

What makes the Russians stand out is that they combine Third World risk tolerance levels with First World-grade hobbies and, as you corectly observed, educational levels, and, more recently superior financial means.

 

[shekes]

Incidentally, in September I happenned to dive on a boat with a group of Russian divers and can confirm that they are relatively risk tolerant and always push the limits. Some had bends, some kept falling of rented motorcycles and pretty much all males paid for sex with locals. They were fun do be around though.

The most dangerous diver I ever encountered was a German. He decided to close my tank right before I jumped over board, just because he felt that things should be closed. They call it "Ordnungsliebe".

No nation is perfect. These Russians didn't mind drowning themselves for the heck of it. So what? Noone else got hurt right? DIR or Do It like Russians, is a matter of personal preference.

RIP

 

[InGearX]

An instructor who worked in the Red Sea (and now works in DR (Neptuno Dive Center - Training and Education) had told me horror stories about Russians...

(I am Russian my self)

He said 11 died there just this year or did he say 2006... anyway

He said they aways want to push it to the limit... Russian roulette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia comes to mind - yes mind-boggling...

Well we did lunch the first human to space

He said he would tie their jacket to his jacket and when they tried to go deeper he would just inflate his jacket to restrict them...

I think to some extend it's in the blood (not alcohol level ) as from me life experiences I can attest until I got hurt I was pushing the limits on almost everything from driving as fast as my car would go on a highway (or as safely as I could go on the streets of Brooklyn) (gives me the chills thinking of some moments now) to how much I can drink / or out drink my friends and so on...