M-Cameron
Contributor
It is usually assumed that a not-technical diver is always well within NDL limits, hence if the ascent happens at reasonable speed he can safely surface without any deco stop. This device is intended for solo diving, a practice which is never safe outside NDL.
It remains to be proven that after such a mechanically-controlled automatic ascent a passed-by solo diver has any chance of being rescued, if no one is looking after her/him at the surface...
ide recon their chances of being found are 10000x better at the surface than they would be 60' under water.....even if it is just a body recovery at that point.
frankly ide just be worried about it malfunctioning and blasting me to the surface unintentionally.
ive not seen any statistics on how many divers die underwater by not being able to consciously make it to the surface...but doing some quick googling lead me to this:
Diving fatality data published in Diving Medicine for Scuba Divers (2015)[3]
- 90% died with their weight belt on.
- 86% were alone when they died (either diving solo or separated from their buddy).
- 50% did not inflate their buoyancy compensator.
- 25% first got into difficulty on the surface
- 50% died on the surface.
- 10% were under training when they died.
- 10% had been advised that they were medically unfit to dive.
- 5% were cave diving.
- 1% of rescuers died.
so if 25% first got into distress on the surface, that means 96 divers were in trouble underwater......and if 50% of them died on the surface, then 48 died underwater......
so this device would have potentially saved around 30-70 people annually....
in a sport where the fatality rate is 1.8 per million recreational dives.....it honestly seems like a greater liability than anything else.