Deepest ever emergency swimming ascent?

Rhone Man · Mar 17, 2009

I am reading Gary Gentile's Andrea Doria - Dive to an Era, and in the early chapters who is talking about some of the first divers on the great wreck, down there at 200 odd feet in just wetsuits with tanks full of air, double hose regs and J-valves instead of SPGs.

According to the book, in 1964 a diver named Joe Paynotta ran out of air and so pulled his reserve, only to find it had already been pulled and he was completely empty. He then did an emergency swimming ascent from 205 feet (linear distance would presumably be longer as he would need to swim sideways out of the wreck). He survived, although unsurprisingly had to do a stint in the chamber.

I thought to myself, that has gotta be the deepest ever emergency swimming ascent in the history of scuba diving. Has anyone ever heard of anything deeper (or even comparable)?

Jan Kruger · Mar 17, 2009

Deepest i've heard about locally was from a depth of 40 metres, in the ocean when the female diver had an out of air situation, and her buddy was nowhere to be seen...She made it and also spent some time in the chamber.

Hickdive · Mar 18, 2009

Stoker John Capes-52m from HMS Perseus in November 1941.

boulderjohn · Mar 18, 2009

Rhone Man:
He then did an emergency swimming ascent from 205 feet (linear distance would presumably be longer as he would need to swim sideways out of the wreck). He survived, although unsurprisingly had to do a stint in the chamber.

My guess is that he would have been a chamber candidate even if his reserve had worked.

The deepest of anyone I know personally is a mere 115 feet. No chamber required.

Although this is the only thread I know that is looking for a record, there have been many threads in which people have talked about CESA's in excess of 100 feet, with no complications. I find this interesting because there have also been threads in which people argue the opposite. Here is one in which someone asserts that a CESA is not a viable option past 15 feet:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/4269158-post11.html

Rhone Man · Mar 18, 2009

boulderjohn:
My guess is that he would have been a chamber candidate even if his reserve had worked.

The deepest of anyone I know personally is a mere 115 feet. No chamber required.

Although this is the only thread I know that is looking for a record, there have been many threads in which people have talked about CESA's in excess of 100 feet, with no complications. I find this interesting because there have also been threads in which people argue the opposite. Here is one in which someone asserts that a CESA is not a viable option past 15 feet:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/4269158-post11.html

Pretty dopey thing to suggest. If you are out of air, you are out of air. A DCS hit or even an embolism is a hell of lot better than staying there and drowning. It may not always be the smartest option, but if it the choice is CESA or die...

AbyssalPlains · Mar 18, 2009

Rhone Man:
Pretty dopey thing to suggest. If you are out of air, you are out of air. A DCS hit or even an embolism is a hell of lot better than staying there and drowning. It may not always be the smartest option, but if it the choice is CESA or die...

If you care to actually read the link, you will see that the OP of that thread never suggested to just drown. The point he was making is that below a certain depth (which is arguably subject to different opinions) one should always carry a redundant air source. While that strategy is certainly not universally accepted, it is far from "dopey."

fppf · Mar 18, 2009

Sub crews are trained for basically a CESA during emergency evac from a downed sub.
Crew will go into an air lock, get pressurized to depth, pop the hatch and rocket to the surface.
They are trained to sound like Santa on the way up HO HO HO HO HO.
Because there only at depth for seconds to minutes DCS is not really an issue. However they go up like rockets, AGE's are the biggest killer.
I don't know if there are any Navel records of this actually being done in open water.

Rainer · Mar 18, 2009

Rhone Man:
Pretty dopey thing to suggest. If you are out of air, you are out of air. A DCS hit or even an embolism is a hell of lot better than staying there and drowning. It may not always be the smartest option, but if it the choice is CESA or die...

Did you even bother to read the post? :shakehead:

Sorry, but there does exist a point at which considering a CESA as a viable means of dealing with OOG becomes ... dopey. CESA just doesn't scale to bigger/deeper dives. Therefore some of us simply accept other means of dealing with the possibility of OOG (gas management, redundancy, buddies, etc). Those practices can scale to just about any depth.

boulderjohn · Mar 18, 2009

pteranodon:
If you care to actually read the link, you will see that the OP of that thread never suggested to just drown. The point he was making is that below a certain depth (which is arguably subject to different opinions) one should always carry a redundant air source. While that strategy is certainly not universally accepted, it is far from "dopey."

Actually, if you read his whole argument repeated over and over again in various places, it includes the concept that doing CESA is dopey and should not be taught to students as a viable alternative to drowning.

cerich · Mar 18, 2009

submarine escape "cesa's" have been conducted over 180m deep.

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3097

Deepest ever emergency swimming ascent?

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Rhone Man

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