Lesson for Life, what do new divers think about this?

[doctormike]

The depths mentioned are (probably) average depths.

Giving the author the benefit of doubt, we have been assuming that those depths specified were not average depths. If the depths specified WERE average depths, the diver almost certainly would be dead..!

 

[FinnMom]

Exactly.

And the thing that makes it really silly is that these stories are just BASED on real events, but the author is under no obligation to accurately report any particular dive profiles. They are created specifically to make a teaching point.
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I suspect these have very, very little basis on a real events. Not since Ange was writing these.

Note: meaning that the details conform to a (as in one) real accident.

 

[doctormike]

I suspect these have very, very little basis on real events. Not since Ange was writing these.

Eh. Guy pushes NDLs on a dive trip and gets bent? Pretty generic. I’ll bet that happens hundreds of time a year....!

 

[Steve_C]

Although poorly written with not many specifics, I read through the lines. Those bottom times are (probably) dive run times. The depths mentioned are (probably) average depths.

I think you mean max depths.

 

[FinnMom]

Eh. Guy pushes NDLs on a dive trip and gets bent? Pretty generic. I’ll bet that happens hundreds of time a year....!

Well yes of course :-D
I meant that the accidents don't read like any one real accident, or at least not like one that should have come as a surprise to anyone.

The stories generally have the unfortunate diver make at least 3 significantly great lapses of judgement from the start, not like someone reasonably responsible got caught out by bad luck or some unforseen danger/circumstance. One was about a kid with relatively little diving experience taking a speargun he'd hardly used onto a very deep oil rig dive. Another about 2 guys with no reel, hardly any scooter experience and of course no cave training zooming into a cave system. Who could ever have guessed these stories might end badly.

I thought the stories were better when they used to describe someone who just got caught out unusually badly by something many divers would never have expected to be such a big deal. These were situations you could imagine happening to real people, maybe even you. In recent years the victims have generally been a disaster just waiting to happen.

 

[kmarks]

I'm not a new diver, but not a seasoned veteran, either. I remember reading this article and thinking those bottom times at those depths were a little unreasonable (ok, very unreasonable), and of course they weren't within NDL, but I assumed that with limited text space they just didn't give us a printout of his actual dive profile. The bottom time was the whole dive time, from submersion to surfacing, and the depth was just the max depth of a multi-level dive, I reasoned. The purpose of the article wasn't to give all the pain staking detail of a real situation, even though it is based on one, but to make sure that people are aware that even though his computer never told him that he was going beyond NDL or that he needed to slow down and take a dive off or shallower, he still ended up with DCI. It's easy for a new or not yet certified diver to assume that "If the computer says I'm good, then I'm good." But that may not be the case; everybody is different, every computer uses a different algorithm, and nothing is going to be a perfect match for you.

The message here is that even if your computer tells you everything is rosy, if you start feeling symptoms of DCI, especially after pushing the limits of your computer, listen to your body. That's what this guy and the boat crew did and it paid off.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Giving the author the benefit of doubt, we have been assuming that those depths specified were not average depths. If the depths specified WERE average depths, the diver almost certainly would be dead..!

Yeah you’re right.
I thought about that, those had to be maximum depths for unspecified times and the average depths had to be much shallower to stay with NDL of any rec computer. It would have been helpful if the author had published the actual dive profile graphs in the article.
I forgot how insanely razor sharp this forum is and I am in constant awe with the precision in which single hairs can be split around here.
Forgive me.

 

[doctormike]

I forgot how insanely razor sharp this forum is and I am in constant awe with the precision in which single hairs can be split around here.
Forgive me.

Sorry, man... didn't mean to be snarky. I apologize if it came off that way.

 

[Saniflush]

From my humble newbie perspective articles like this make me roll my eyes. In my limited experience most divers who take diving seriously are information junkies when it comes to accidents, incidents, or just a different way of doing things. (I know I certainly am). Many who are on the outside view this as a bit ghoulish but it is really about the unvarnished information. When we (I) don't get what we think of as unvarnished information it becomes hard to take it seriously.

In a world where plenty of real life examples exist, it's tiresome to read something that seems pretty well over the top or outright embellished either by design or by process of excluding information.

Now, the other side of it is it has gotten people talking about it, albeit not always in a positive light, but talking none the less so that is not all bad.