What is the deepest you can do an OOA?

[Diver Dennis]

Panic is the main cause of things getting bad, fast. Seeing a panicked diver in your face make you a bit uneasy and get your blood rushing too. In the incident I described, she was half way to the surface after about 5 seconds.

 

[gangrel441]

Try to think of some ways it goes pair shaped that quickly. My guess is there are many on this board who could pick that (and most any) scenario apart and show you that it didn't really happen that quickly. People just think it does because they are not really aware of it happening prior to the Oh Sh#$ moment.

Dan - I am not speaking from experience, since I have never had anything go snowball on me. I know they never should, and that preparation, training and experience are the best ways to prevent it from happening. But the funny thing about that word "prevent" is that it isn't 100%, especially when dealing with humans. I don't have the attitude that I don't need to prepare because, "Hey! I'm human!" I just find it arrogant to say I have prepared for anything that could happen to me, and therefore can say I would never need to do a CESA. In risky activities, arrogance is often what kills. But hey! Just my personal philosophy, right?

You may disagree philosophically, but from an objective standpoint, tell me where I am wrong.

 

[Diver Dennis]

In effect, we are three blind men describing an elephant ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thats the problem discussing a vague scenario with divers of different experience and training levels. Most recreational divers don't know about tech or tech type diving protocols and unless it's explained to them, they understandably think that some responses are wrong, as in Soggy's case. They don't realize all the preparation he, and others may do before a dive. Frankly most vacation divers are used to gearing up, a little dive brief and then rolling off the boat, I see it all the time. There is little preparation so it is difficult to relate.

Good point Bob.

 

[Soggy]

Another thing to consider is that many "open water" dives really should be thought of as overheads. It is a really really bad idea to just go straight up in situations where you are in a shipping channel (like where most wrecks are) and have an immobile boat tied in to a mooring (like most North East dives). I generally treat even shallow wreck dives the same way I treat my deeper dives (which have been too few recently ) and it concerns me when I see people jumping in as solo divers with nothing but a pony strapped to their back that they cannot reach. Thankfully Murphy isn't very good at his job, so most of them come back fine.

I'm not saying all recreational dives are overhead dives, but many really are if you think about the consequences of surfacing in-place and people should be prepared for that before rushing out and doing that dive that is "only" 80 ft deep, but is at the mouth of a harbor.

Maybe I'm just over-conservative and have an overly well developed sense of mortality for my age.

A few people have been using me as an example and I want to make it clear that I am, by all standards, a newbie to technical diving. I went into it because I wanted to see some cool stuff a little deeper and stay a little longer. My mentality about CESAs has not changed since I first started working with a competent group of divers. This was long before I know anything about DIR.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Dan - I am not speaking from experience,

That much, at least, is obvious ...

since I have never had anything go snowball on me. I know they never should, and that preparation, training and experience are the best ways to prevent it from happening. But the funny thing about that word "prevent" is that it isn't 100%, especially when dealing with humans.

What makes you think that a CESA is somehow a 100% guarantee of safety? Would you be willing to consider the notion that not everyone who ever attempted one made it to the surface alive?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MikeFerrara]

Maybe it would be better if we stayed away from all the phylosophy and instead of making it a "tech" vs. "rec" thing or my c-card is bigger than yours...LOL...took a diving context/type of dive or whatever and discussed how we might approach it including what problems or mistakes we think are most likely and how we might manage or avoid them?

 

[Diver Dennis]

I didn't mean to make you an example Soggy but I'm a new tech diver just like you and I know the procedures we follow. Most of the folks reading this may not.

Mind you, I'm mostly a solo recreational diver...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Hell, I haven't even decided yet whether or not I WANT to be a tech diver ... but I do dig the training ...

Oh, and Mike's got a good idea ... but I think it's already been attempted earlier in the thread ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[JeffG]

Mind you, I'm mostly a solo recreational diver...

You misspelled photographer.

 

[H2Andy]

Hell, I haven't even decided yet whether or not I WANT to be a tech diver ... but I do dig the training ...

i'm a Tech diver cause it turns chicks on ...

well... what i mean is, i mess with my reels so my wife goes "that looks soooo complicated..."

oh yeah, baby...

plus, chicks dig scars, and i got plenty of those from dropping my steel tanks on my toes ... oh YEAH baby!