Voodoo Gas In The Vortex! :)

[Fish_Whisperer]

Was your skin pinker or red than normal? Isn't that a sign of Co2 poisoning?

That's carbon monoxide, I think. I am sunburned, and I was wearing a wetsuit, so I have no idea.

 

[JeffG]

The headache was the worst. The nausea was really just part of the malaise, and not really all that bad... There was no taste to the air either, which is why I suspected the oxygen, rather than the air.

You can get a CO2 headaches. I've had them from overworking my reg. (very bad nasty headache)

Regardless of what actual bad gas was, its sounds like a bad fill. The filter could be gone, the intake for the compressor could be sucking up junk (There is an old thread here where a BC dive shop had the intake to their compressor in a garage that had running cars.)

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Thanks, Jeff. The tanks are being filled by some guy who also runs an air conditioning service. (Not sure what the connection with servicing the air fill point and air conditioning is...)

 

[Wayward Son]

"Bad fills happen sometimes", not in my world they don't. I have never in my life had a bad fill & i value my life enough that I won't go to a shop that has such an apparent casual attitude about it.

One more reason to stay away from Vortex. And at least the knowledge that if I simply have to go there, to never, ever buy a fill.

BTW, CO is odorless & tasteless. But the only way to know what was wrong would be to analyze the gas.

 

[Wayward Son]

Frank, I'm curious. Is your instructor an actual cave or cavern instructor?

 

[mike_s]

Good report Frank.

Sounds like you got a bad fill to me also.


You were there doing Nitrox checkout dives with an instructor if I remember from another post. Were you taking a cave or cavern class at the same time or just doing the nitrox checkout dives?

Reason I ask this is that the instructor should have never taken you into the cave that way as part of another class that had nothing to do with the cave/cavern. He really opened himself up to liability and showed a poor set of standards.

With that said, people enter the front part of the cave at vortex all the time, but not under an instructors direct guidelines/supervision unless they are taking a cave/cavern class. Poor judgement call on his part from a liability point of view.

I know folks go into the front part of that cave all the time. divers of all certifications do it, but to do it with a student as an instructor who is not teaching a cavern/cave class is just asking to get his butt sued off in the event something bad happened.

 

[Wayward Son]

Good report Frank.

Sounds like you got a bad fill to me also.


You were there doing Nitrox checkout dives with an instructor if I remember from another post. Were you taking a cave or cavern class at the same time or just doing the nitrox checkout dives?

Reason I ask this is that the instructor should have never taken you into the cave that way as part of another class that had nothing to do with the cave/cavern. He really opened himself up to liability and showed a poor set of standards.

With that said, people enter the front part of the cave at vortex all the time, but not under an instructors direct guidelines/supervision unless they are taking a cave/cavern class. Poor judgement call on his part from a liability point of view.

I know folks go into the front part of that cave all the time. divers of all certifications do it, but to do it with a student as an instructor who is not teaching a cavern/cave class is just asking to get his butt sued off in the event something bad happened.

This is the concern behind my prior question.

It's consider "cavern" so long as you can see daylight through the opening. past that & it's "cave". From what I've seen it's acceptable for a cave/cavern instructor to take an untrained diver or 2 into a cavern & bring them out, but this sounds like you were well past that.

The basic problem here isn't specifically you being in an overhead environment without the training & equipment for it (that's true & bad enough) but the more general problem of this being an example of a "trust me" dive that could become deadly.

the instructor says "We'll go in the cave, but only to the locked door. You'll be safe. trust me."

You being the student who has gone to this person for your training is, of course, inclined to do just that. This, unfortunately, gets people killed sometimes.

 

[mike_s]

Wayward Son, Looks like we had the same thoughts and just posted them at the same time.

Like I said above, seems like the instructor had a poor judgement call of taking a student there (nitrox or any other non cave course) even though other people do it not as part of classes.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I love the internet. I really truly do... LOL

I started to type an explanation, and thought better of it.

Nevermind.

Thank you everyone, for your concern. I am not discarding any of your comments, by any means.

Much appreciated.

-Frank

 

[TheRedHead]

Dude there are no secrets or special clubs, if you want to cave dive, get the gear, do the training, go cave diving, its not an elite special club that you have to be in the "know" to get into.

I think his intent was simply doing his Nitrox checkout dives. It is very difficult to not trust your instructor.