Callin major BS

[HowardE]

Didn't see any spare airs. And they both had short primary hoses...

My NAUI chart maxes out at 8 minutes @ 130 ft. Anything deeper and I have to deco for five minutes @ 15'. Do the Navy charts show NDLs for deeper dives than this? (Not that I'd ever be interested in trying...)

I'm sure they had stage bottles and they were just editing for the sake of brevity, but the way they described it was that it was important to deliver the specimen as fast as they could. But if I were the producer, I'd know that there would be a good chance that divers would watch the show, so I'd be a little more thorough explaining the nuances of the dive.

Yes, the Navy Tables do show deeper.

They MAY NOT have had stage bottles. It IS entirely possible to complete this dive with a minimum amount of Deco.

For example, here's a v-planner plan that gives 4 minutes of actual bottom time:

DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 5 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 0ft
Conservatism = Nominal

Dec to 190ft (3) Air 50ft/min descent.
Level 190ft 4:12 (8) Air 1.42 ppO2, 190ft ead
Asc to 40ft (13) Air -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 40ft 1:00 (14) Air 0.46 ppO2, 40ft ead
Stop at 30ft 2:00 (16) Air 0.40 ppO2, 30ft ead
Stop at 20ft 2:00 (18) Air 0.34 ppO2, 20ft ead
Stop at 10ft 4:00 (22) Air 0.27 ppO2, 10ft ead
Surface (22) Air -30ft/min ascent.

Off gassing starts at 89.5ft

OTU's this dive: 15
CNS Total: 5.8%

60.5 cu ft Air

Again. Depending on your training level, this is not a recommendation to try it. Just that it is PLAUSIBLE and certainly do-able.

 

[vladimir]

There is no reason to think that they didn't do the dive the way they described. While not particularly safe, it is totally doable. With a 75' per minute descent, a short (1 or 2 minutes, say) stay at depth, a 60' per minute ascent back to 60', and a computer, whatever ceiling you acquire will clear as you slowly ascend to the surface. You don't need a fabulous sac rate, you just need a high tolerance for risk and the willingness to forgo the kind of contingency planning that makes a dive to this depth a lot safer.

 

[Rhone Man]

What type/kind of Coral is to be found at 190' that isn't also at 70' ?

I can't speak for other areas, but around here Black coral (which they harvest for jewelry) only really starts to grow thick at about 130'.

Although I am not sure if Black coral is a true "coral" or not. I am not really a jewelry guy.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

What type/kind of Coral is to be found at 190' that isn't also at 70' ?

Well, in the waters of Puget Sound and Vancouver Island that would be the red gorgonian sea fan.

Cloud sponges are also rarely seen at 70 feet, and the shallower ones are small and anemic looking ... you have to get down to at least 100 feet to see any that are worth the name.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[fishoutawater]

I have no idea what kind of coral it was, but he was testing a theory about the Great Barrier Reef, postulating that the reef has been previously killed and reborn several times by ice ages. He was reasoning that during the ice ages, the sea levels dropped as much as 450 ft, exposing and killing the reef. But when the ice melted, the reef would come back to life each time, and he was trying to prove that spores from coral at deeper (non exposed) depths would settle and grow on the dead reef and repopulate it.

I guess if I was a coastal boy back in my crazy days, I would probably have tried something like what Bob described. Not now though. I'm happy just beeboppin around the shallows.

 

[Rhone Man]

My NAUI chart maxes out at 8 minutes @ 130 ft. Anything deeper and I have to deco for five minutes @ 15'. Do the Navy charts show NDLs for deeper dives than this? (Not that I'd ever be interested in trying...)

Yes they do - scroll down to page 59 of the linked PDF. They are pretty aggressive tables though.

http://www.s297830378.onlinehome.us/usn/Chap09.pdf

If you still find yourself reading on page 63, make sure your life insurance is paid up.

 

[Steve50]

What type/kind of Coral is to be found at 190' that isn't also at 70' ?

The more daring type/kinds...

 

[Nemrod]

I was watching a show called Wild Pacific this morning, and these guy's dive plan was to dive to 190' to collect a sample of coral from that depth. Then they giant strided off the boat with what looked like a single AL80 strapped on. No Nitrox, extra bottles or other gases evident. Then they descended to "190 ft".
They collected the sample and the narrator said they "hurried back up" to give the researcher the sample they'd collected. They didn't show any stage bottles or decompression stops. They just showed them getting back on the boat.
Now, I'm no deep diver. Deepest I've ever been was to about 90 ft in Cozumel.
Is it even possible to go down to 190 ft and return to the surface with just one bottle of air, let alone spend 10 minutes down there hammering a piece of coral loose?
Second of all, will coral even grow at 190 ft?

Yes.
Yes.
N

 

[scubadada]

My Oceanic computer gives me 5 minutes at 190 feet with no decompression as does the USN table supplied by Rhone Man. The Navy table has just 4 minutes of decompression with a 10 minute stay. No argument, very agressive/liberal

Good diving, Craig

 

[RJP]

short hoses and they didnt die?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I just hope they weren't diving SPLIT FINS!

:shocked2: