Exactly 6 years ago today

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

MHK

Guest
Messages
749
Reaction score
4
Location
Beverly Hills, California
I get asked often how and why I decided to adopt a DIR philosophy of diving. I've told the story often, but in the course of scanning some old notes, it occurred to me that today is 6 years ago to the day that a certain dive event changed the direction of my diving. It was 6 years ago today that my buddy Mike Carpenter and I were doing a dive on the Andrea Doria, just following a 3 man team consisting of 2 crew members and a passenger who had arrived on the Seeker without a buddy. Pete and Charlie had agreed to escort this diver but on the descent Charlie indicated that he had a problem and was going to ascend, owing to the fact that Charlie was an experienced guy Pete allowed him to ascend solo and continued his escort. About 30 minutes later Mike & I began our descent and at 180' as we were dropping our deco bottles about to penetrate Gimbels Hole, Mike indicated to me that he was having a problem and ascended. I figured Mike was an experienced guy so I let him ascend solo and penetrated the Doria solo. I was the last guy in the water that day so as I made my way back onto the boat after about an hour and a half, the boat lacked the usual joviality and I quickly learned that Charlie had never made it back so they all wanted to quiz me on where I had gone, or if I had seen any signs of Charlie [bottles, line etc.]. After a thorough debrief with Dan Crowell and Gary Gentile, Danny and JT Barker did a search. A few minutes into the search Charlie's lifeless body breached the surface. Several of us jumped into the frigid waters to retrieve the body in some extreme currents. Fighting the current and swimming back a lifeless body of someone you just ate breakfast with has quite an impact.

Driving back to Montauk with Charlie's body on the stern for the entire 11 hour ride [ Coast Guard won't "rescue" a dead body] caused me to seriously rethink my diving habits in light of the fact that I had just done the same exact thing to my dive buddy, Mike Carpenter.

Here's a link to one of many articles that were written on Charlie's death:

http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/under/fatal_depths/index_sc.php

In any event, before I even returned to the dock, the fatality was all over the "tech" list [ at the time it was the foremost internet scuba list] and there was this guy named George Irvine calling me a "stroke" and assorted other non-charitable names. I thought either this guy was the biggest ******* I had ever met, or he must really know his ****. A few weeks later, thanks in large part to Dan Volker, I flew to Florida with my then dive buddy John Walker. John and I did a couple of dives and had lunch with George Irvine, Bill Mee and Dan Volker after which it became quickly apparent that while I had been doing Andrea Doria type diving, I had no business doing so and that I should take the cotton out of my ears and stick it in my mouth and listen to what these guys had to say. Shortly thereafter George arranged for me to meet Jarrod Jablonski and take some training from a newly formed agency called Global Underwater Explorer's. Along the way I have made great friends, taken some serious training classes, advanced to instructor level for this agency, traveled the globe extensively and have gladly adopted the DIR philosophy.

Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble, but given the rash of recent fatalities locally it sort of brought me back to why I believe in the strength of DIR.

Be careful out there guys, there seems to be a stange wind blowing..

Regards
 
Thanks for the post Michael. I just want to say thank you for all you've done in helping me in the DIR style of diving. You have taken much of your own time, and spent much effort to help train, mentor and answer my many calls and emails over the past 2 1/2 years. I truly appreciate your willingness to help.
 
Good post Mike, I haven’t seen you on the board for a while I figured you either gave up on it or was getting some good diving in.

I too was on the tech diver mailing list and it wasn’t until I final met George that everything clicked. Lucky for me it wasn’t following a traumatic event.
 
MHK,

Thanks for passing on this story. With all the back and forth on gear, diving stories, what is or is not DIR, and the general routine levity we can always use a reminder that what we do is potentially dangerous. Anything that can serve to minimize the risk is useful...including first hand reminders/accounts of what could go wrong if we don't give diving the respect it deserves.

Thumbs up to you for pushing through that incident and continuing your diving AND reaching such an advanced level. I am sure your knowledge has (or will) save lives.

I am just starting out my journey in DIR after several years of diving. I have always approached each dive as the equivalent of a space launch however, without the benefit of DIR. I can see how it can make for safer diving with every book I read and story I hear.

I appreciate your story and your courage to relate it to others.
 
Thanks for sharing this Mike. It is timely with the recent fatalities locally.

I often wonder what leads people to DIR.

Christian
 
headhunter:
Thanks for sharing this Mike. It is timely with the recent fatalities locally.

I often wonder what leads people to DIR.

Christian

And what pushes them away. I don't mean those that try DIR and then later drop, but those who actually take the time to learn what its about and the decide not to go that route. If you read the Fundies book and sift through the baggage that to frequently accompanies DIR discussion, you will find a sound set of principles that are nearly impossible to rationally disagreee with.


MHK:
..strange wind blowing..

Strange indeed.
Dive safe.
 
MHK:
Be careful out there guys, there seems to be a stange wind blowing..

Regards
I am a relative noob to diving, and am just getting into the DIR way of things. It's going to take a while, but it will make me feel better to know that something as dangerous as diving can be made a little safer just by, what seems to be, some common sense solutions.

Either way, the recent rash of deaths has me believing that a strange wind is blowing too.

Thanks for the post.

Chris
 
MHK:
I get asked often how and why I decided to adopt a DIR philosophy of diving. I've told the story often, but in the course of scanning some old notes, it occurred to me that today is 6 years ago to the day that a certain dive event changed the direction of my diving.

I remember asking you this question, as 7 of us were huddled in one room (picture this people: 5 students with notebooks, Michael, TLM, an easle, a whiteboard, dive gear and stuff for a weekend away for three, two double beds... one room) in the Hermosa on Catalina several years ago - in the first ever Avalon DIR/F. To say it was cozy would be an understatement. :wink:

It stuck with me that a deadly dive spun your head around. I'm really sorry for your loss. SOD was the only diver I'd ever known (better: met) that's died... so I've been in a funky malaise the last couple of days.

DIR/F was an amazing weekend for me. Thanks for your time before the class, and all the time after the class.

DIR divers aren't death-proof. But as a product of 2 major agancies going into DIR/F, I sure came out with a different look at my diving, at safety, at equipment, at fitness and a newfound respect for this endeavor.

Dive safely, everyone.

---
Ken
 
Mike,

Nice post.

I hope things are well with you.

Jack
 
Mike, all the respect in the world to you. Outstanding post, maybe the best I have ever read.

-Chris
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

Back
Top Bottom