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I've done coconut point... my infamous dive #10... i'm not surprised that the group got separated...
i've heard of divers dragged down to depth by down-currents or those washed up by up-currents... but to hit 300ft??? is that possible w/o a diver being able to notice?
too bad for the guys though... disturbing news... too bad the article didn't add details as to experience level, prior dives, possible stress contributors... sigh
it's easy to hit 300ft if you planned to go to that depth, then realized somehow there was an error in the dive planning ....
Originally Posted by shugar
I've done coconut point... my infamous dive #10... i'm not surprised that the group got separated...
i've heard of divers dragged down to depth by down-currents or those washed up by up-currents... but to hit 300ft??? is that possible w/o a diver being able to notice?
too bad for the guys though... disturbing news... too bad the article didn't add details as to experience level, prior dives, possible stress contributors... sigh
In the case of the two divers, they went beyond the safe diving depth of 130 feet, as indicated by the data on their portable dive computers.
Pascobello said one diver registered having gone to a depth of 100 meters, or about 300 feet,
Interesting that the article keeps jumping between metric and imperial units of measurement. Are the Phillipines currently converting to metric? It certainly sounds like the computers were set to display metric measurements. I wonder if the divers thought the display was in feet?
(Just guessing here. I have no knowledge of the accident or the area).
THey dive both metric and imperial, but 80% is metric. Imperial is part of the american influence. Raymond was a personal friend, i've dove with him a number of times (most recently multi-week trips in Dec/July). He was an experienced diver and skilled, although I was a little surprised by the depth. Deep diving is very common there for both locals a tourists, I've seen people from europe bounce to 250 before. The up/down of the computer leads me to believe something happened that dragged them back down (dropped something and were narc'd?????). I was supposed to meet up with him and rest of the Nerds (local dive club) next month to dive Apo.
Raymond was a good man, always there to help and crack a joke (even when it wasn't in the best of taste).
Yes MEtric and imperial. i dive with Suunto on imperial and Citizen HyperAqua on metric, as divers would be in either metric or imperial on a dive.
Originally Posted by kraken
THey dive both metric and imperial, but 80% is metric. Imperial is part of the american influence. Raymond was a personal friend, i've dove with him a number of times (most recently multi-week trips in Dec/July). He was an experienced diver and skilled, although I was a little surprised by the depth. Deep diving is very common there for both locals a tourists, I've seen people from europe bounce to 250 before. The up/down of the computer leads me to believe something happened that dragged them back down (dropped something and were narc'd?????). I was supposed to meet up with him and rest of the Nerds (local dive club) next month to dive Apo.
Raymond was a good man, always there to help and crack a joke (even when it wasn't in the best of taste).
I am amazed either of them made it back to the surface at all. Their tanks must have been pretty close to empty as at 300ft, say 90m, a diver with a surface air consumption rate of 18 litres per minute will hoover down an 11 litre cylinder at 200bar in a little over 12 minutes. Add a bit of stress induced hyperventilation to the equation and you could easily halve that time.
It is almost certain that these guys were suffering from nitrogen narcosis which we all understand starts to have a noticeable effect at PPN2 levels as low as 3.16ata. At 90m the PPN2 will have been 7.9ata and this could easily explain a lack of depth / spatial awareness. Also of concern with breathing air at such depth is the risk of a CNS O2 toxicity hit. The PPO2 at 90m is 2.1ata, well above the recommended maximum contingency of 1.6ata.
As for the cause of the accident, we are all reduced to speculation. It would have to be a pretty foolhardy diver to risk 90m on air with only a single cylinder, so I would have to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that these experienced divers were a victim of some unknown circumstance. I have dived in the region and would attest that viscious currents often sweep through the area, including dangerous down currents / up currents.
All of this reinforces the need to be prepared for the worst. Even with excellent awareness of one's depth, air and time, it is possible to find trouble, or rather for trouble to find you. Good support and planning is an important part of even the simplest forms of diving and is essential for more challenging and remote areas. Having the proper equipment to deal with emergencies on the surface (100% oxygen, first aid kits, evacuation plans and such like) can be the difference between life and death for victims.
As for the cause of the accident, we are all reduced to speculation. It would have to be a pretty foolhardy diver to risk 90m on air with only a single cylinder, ....
While we are all reduced to speculation on many items, one can also get some info by reading the news reports carefully. For example, "Pascobello said the two divers, bringing two scuba tanks each, entered the water ahead of their companions " ---- this sounds like the two divers had doubles, not a single cylinder.
One can also infer from the various comments that it is quite likely that they were caught in a downcurrent, rather than descending too deep either on purpose or due to narcosis.
The other tidbits that particularly caught my attention were "...and Sarrosa surfaced four times 'as if seeking assistance.' ", and "Sarrosa was able to resurface and got into another pump boat where he found a spare scuba tank. He immediately went on a decompressing dive."
It sounds like the surviving diver managed to get a tank and do some in-water recompression, but only after popping up to the surface repeatedly.
personally i prefer to see depth in feet and temp in Celsius... tank pressure preferrably in PSI...
as a good writer though, he should have stayed consistent or doubled up on the values (f/m, C/F, etc.)... but the editor probably isn't a diver or knows all this so probably left it to print
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Originally Posted by shugar
