DEMA 2023 Presentation : The Darkest Hours

[VikingDives]

Yes, it really is. Thanks for reading and thanks for the feedback.

For quite some time, I have promoted the idea that our industry should be better at publicly discussing incidents and doing accident analysis. It took a little bit of time for this one to get published, but this my attempt at "walking the walk."

I can only hope that others learn from the incident and are more open to discussing publicly the mistakes they have made. I clearly made some big mistakes on this dive and it isn't always easy to publicly own up to those errors, but it is critically important IMHO.

- brett

It has gone into my mandatory reading list already, so there will be a few students who will (hopefully) learn from your mistakes. I'm a huge fan of using stories to educate, even if the stories are about mistakes I've made, but like those above, I say kudos to you for putting this out there. Stories like this are far more valuable than accident analysis in fatalities, in my opinion.

 

[Wants2divemore]

Thanks for sharing your experience so that others may learn. I'm far from your level but will always remember your lessons as I progress in my diving. I love the 2 quotes at the end.

 

[lostsheep]

I am going to co-present the "near miss" escape and rescue from being trapped inside an upside down Japanese oiler, the IJN Sata, in Palau in Aug 2022. I will be joining Aron Arngrimsson, Geoff Creighton, and Antti Apunen from Dirty Dozen Expeditions to describe the incident, the rescue, and -- most importantly -- the lessons learned. I was one of four divers trapped inside the wreck.

The presentation will be on the Show Floor - Booth #1351 on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 from 3:00pm-3:45pm.

I believe there are plans to record the presentation and I will publish my detailed account of the incident on my blog at Wrecked in my rEvo the day of the presentation.

DEMA show link : DEMA Show 2023: Session: The Darkest Hours - A Six-Hour Struggle to Escape From an Upside Down Wreck

I had posted about the presentation on my blog a while ago but the date/time have now been finalized so I'm posting it here.

DEMA 2023 Presentation | The Darkest Hours

I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t posted much lately but I have a ton of updates I’ll be working on getting posted. The first is a quick announcement that I will be co-presenting …

wreckedinmyrevo.com

Regards,

- brett

In your account, you quote Mr Chatterton. I am curious, did you take wreck training with him? There is no right or wrong answer here and this is not a gotcha question, I am genuinely curious.

 

[bipolarbear]

I am going to co-present the "near miss" escape and rescue from being trapped inside an upside down Japanese oiler, the IJN Sata, in Palau in Aug 2022. I will be joining Aron Arngrimsson, Geoff Creighton, and Antti Apunen from Dirty Dozen Expeditions to describe the incident, the rescue, and -- most importantly -- the lessons learned. I was one of four divers trapped inside the wreck.

The presentation will be on the Show Floor - Booth #1351 on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 from 3:00pm-3:45pm.

I believe there are plans to record the presentation and I will publish my detailed account of the incident on my blog at Wrecked in my rEvo the day of the presentation.

DEMA show link : DEMA Show 2023: Session: The Darkest Hours - A Six-Hour Struggle to Escape From an Upside Down Wreck

I had posted about the presentation on my blog a while ago but the date/time have now been finalized so I'm posting it here.

DEMA 2023 Presentation | The Darkest Hours

I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t posted much lately but I have a ton of updates I’ll be working on getting posted. The first is a quick announcement that I will be co-presenting …

wreckedinmyrevo.com

Regards,

- brett

Thank you for having the honesty and humility to share this experience.

It certainly makes for an eye-opening read for this OC tech diver embarking on his advanced wreck course tomorrow morning!

 

[kommisarrex]

Your story is both terrifying and full of good lessons. Thank you for being humble enough to share both what went right and where you went wrong. My takeaway is maybe to always run a line, even if you know the wreck really well. Also, the safety margin of being on a rebreather. On open circuit, you don’t make it. That’s gotta be a real mind f—.

 

[Dan]

What I learn even driving in city from point A to B, what you see around you, is different from driving from B to A. Turning to the left going forward becomes turning to the right on the return path. Merging lane that you don’t see going forward becomes split lanes that you don’t remember seeing on the return path and have 50% chance to take the right path home. Thank goodness that we have GPS on land and that’s why it is necessary to run a line during diving in overhead environment.

 

[broncobowsher]

Brett,

Thank you for honestly presenting your story.

Several years ago I read a similar story. -Wreck, just going to stick my head in the hole and look around for a moment turned into being lost inside the wreck for a long time. Way overstayed the planned run time. But with a rebreather, survived.- That was one of the stories that convinced me that a rebreather was a good idea and to get one. You are not the first to have done this. I am sure there are others who never tell anyone about it.

I was thinking about some of the wrecks I was just going through in Truk. Very simple, very open, still easy to get lost going through an engine room. Now make that an inverted wreck. No longer open.

It is also one of the reasons I really like the two scrubber design of the rEvo. A normal rebreather with say a 5 hour scrubber, already used 2½ hours and planned to use the last 2 hours on a simple dive. Pretty common thing to do, get the most out of a scrubber. This extended run time would have been an issue. With the rEvo, swap out and rotate the scrubber after that first 2½ hour dive and you have a full scrubber for when problems arise.

 

[AKPDB]

Thank you, Brett, for having the humility and bravery to share this powerful story and lessons learned!

 

[beldridg]

In your account, you quote Mr Chatterton. I am curious, did you take wreck training with him? There is no right or wrong answer here and this is not a gotcha question, I am genuinely curious.

Yes, I did.

I want to be really explicit about this. The training I received from John was excellent and I learned a LOT from him during my class (in fact, I use many of those skills often). This was my mistake and I'm sure John would give me a quick, swift kick in the ass for not putting in a line.

- brett

 

[beldridg]

Thank you for having the honesty and humility to share this experience.

It certainly makes for an eye-opening read for this OC tech diver embarking on his advanced wreck course tomorrow morning!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty sure I would not be here to tell this story if I was on OC in that wreck in that situation.

One thing that helped me personally stay calm was knowing that I had plenty of time.

I exited the wreck with probably 100 bar of O2. My scrubber was probably running low, but once I got outside the wreck I could have done deco on OC since we had support and safety divers in the water with plenty of gas.

- brett