An accident waiting for a place to happen

[Gary D.]

Today I heard a story that has shocked me very deeply. I thought of posting this in the accidents forum - but it hasn't happened yet. I have a friend who is Japanese and an OW Scuba Instructor with the Japanese Scuba organization (don't know it's name). The guy is a good instructor with new divers from what I've observed - but on his own he is another story.
I was at his house this evening and he asked me what was the deepest dive I had ever done. I told him 38 meters (124ft) and asked him why he wanted to know. He told me that he had just broken his personal record and done a dive to 65 meters (213ft). Shocked - I asked him if he had done this on air. Yes, he replied, and so I asked him if he was aware how dangerous it had been. He seemed to think that the only problem that he could have had was narcosis - so I asked him if he knew about oxygen toxicity - he didn't (he has never done a Nitrox class and knew nothing about it). I explained partial pressures to him quickly, and he was interested - but not overly concerned about what he'd done. I tried to tell him that there can be no warnings to sudden convulsions and at that depth it's almost certain death. I don't think he believed me.
The guy did this dive on a single tank with another diver (also on a single tank) - they had no stage or pony at all - they had no idea what they were really doing.
Now I'm just waiting to hear one day that he's been killed - possibly with someone else.
I don't really know what to say to him now - 'goodbye' doesn't seem that constructive.

(If the mods feel this post is in the wrong forum - please move it)

How would you feel about a dive to 60' on 100% O2?

Gary D.

[Kim]

I agree, this is not a dive, this seems to be someone who should know better, but aparently does not, being in a place where he probably shouldnt be. I hope he has either the sence to take this type of dive seriously, or to stop doing it before he gets hurt.

Maybe you should print out this thread and show him. It might save his life.

I wish he could read it! Unfortunately he only reads Japanese.

How would you feel about a dive to 60' on 100% O2?

I wouldn't do it - I'm only rated to EANx40 and thats as far as my tables go! I also have no idea how long you could tolerate a PPO2 of around 3.0 (for 20 meters/66ft) - just from reading I thought deco divers only used 100% O2 just below the surface - but again - this is still beyond my training!

[Sideband]

I wish he could read it! Unfortunately he only reads Japanese.

http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate
There's a link to a translator if you don't mind doing a bit of cutting and pasting. You could send it to him. Just an idea.
a caveat though. I tried pasting in a translation of your original post and noticed a few "funny" things. It wasn't there when I pasted it into the reply but when I previewed it there was a "1 2 3 4 " and I'm pretty sure that isn't Japanese. Should work ok into an email though or maybe using the url to translate the entire page. Again... Just an idea..

Joe