shakeybrainsurgeon
Contributor
I am not trying to spread disinformation, that's why I qualified the story by saying it was at best incompletely relayed or, at worst, diver folklore. Thanks for the info, re: ditching weights --- these are tidbits that aren't easily found in books and are best not learned from experience.
The thread has gotten a little off track --- the original issues were how fast can a diver ascend uncontrollably and can that ascent rate, even in an unpanicked diver breathing normally suffer lung barotrauma simply by virtue of being unable to equalize pressure in the chest during rapid ascent because of anatomic limitations of the airway. The impression i get is that, under the right conditions, ascent rates greater than 200 fpm may be possible, but whether this causes barotrauma alone may be impossible to know because ascending divers may hold their breath and if they do so even for a few seconds, they may get AGE.
These are not arcane issues, given that rapid ascent is a leading cause of injury and death. The only reason to relate anecdotes like he one i repeated is to try an establish a dialogue about similar episodes of people who corked to the top wih no ill effects. What they have in common might be useful in preventing injury in others, or it may be that these divers have some idiosyncratic resistance to DCS
The thread has gotten a little off track --- the original issues were how fast can a diver ascend uncontrollably and can that ascent rate, even in an unpanicked diver breathing normally suffer lung barotrauma simply by virtue of being unable to equalize pressure in the chest during rapid ascent because of anatomic limitations of the airway. The impression i get is that, under the right conditions, ascent rates greater than 200 fpm may be possible, but whether this causes barotrauma alone may be impossible to know because ascending divers may hold their breath and if they do so even for a few seconds, they may get AGE.
These are not arcane issues, given that rapid ascent is a leading cause of injury and death. The only reason to relate anecdotes like he one i repeated is to try an establish a dialogue about similar episodes of people who corked to the top wih no ill effects. What they have in common might be useful in preventing injury in others, or it may be that these divers have some idiosyncratic resistance to DCS