Absolutely Insane Dive Video - Cozumel

This is absolutely one of the most incredible videos I have ever seen. So at 100 feet diver experiences a free flow. Free Flow is handled by DM after he extends his octo. Looks like reg just needed to be propoerly set. What follows next is incredible. The leisurly stroll continues at 100 feet with the poor soul dangling off the DM's octo for how long? Wow..

1. What is the this diver doing at 100 ? no redundant air supply? clearly inexperienced
2. Lets check buoyacy and add weights at 100 feet right at he edge of a wall!! Great idea !
3. What was this DM thinking?????
4. No immediate attempt to ascend at a safe rate following the free flow.
5. What do we take away from this?


Things Go Wrong SCUBA Diving at 100 Feet - Cozumel - YouTube

1. What is the this diver doing at 100 feet? Single tank- no redundant air or Pony.
99.99% of people dive that way in Cozumel.

2. What was this DM thinking?????
If I'll abort the dive then I will have a bunch of really disappointed customers, everyone wants to see a fatality. j/k

3. No immediate attempt to ascend at a safe rate following the free flow.
I am not sure why the diver in distress was still using DM's reg, it was evident that free flow was stopped. I doubt that tank became dry that fast.

4. What do we take away from this?
**** happens. Sometimes it scares more than it is the problem. I don't think that there was much danger to anyone.

@ least he(DM) salvaged the dive.........We were @ CZM a couple weeks ago for a 1 day stopper(damned cruise ship stuff) & @ about the 15 minute mark of both dives, 1 newbie?(musta been IMO----I didn't know the diver) was sharing air with the DM........We made normal 1 hr+ dives----thanks to the DM.........

Landlocked123:

This is absolutely one of the most incredible videos I have ever seen. So at 100 feet diver experiences a free flow. Free Flow is handled by DM after he extends his octo. Looks like reg just needed to be propoerly set. What follows next is incredible. The leisurly stroll continues at 100 feet with the poor soul dangling off the DM's octo for how long? Wow..

1. What is the this diver doing at 100 ? no redundant air supply? clearly inexperienced
2. Lets check buoyacy and add weights at 100 feet right at he edge of a wall!! Great idea !
3. What was this DM thinking?????
4. No immediate attempt to ascend at a safe rate following the free flow.
5. What do we take away from this?


Things Go Wrong SCUBA Diving at 100 Feet - Cozumel - YouTube

Click to expand...

What exactly do you think the DM did wrong and please point out or copy any documentation you have to support yourself. We will wait... take all the time you need cause it's going to be a long time for you to do so...

Let's just start with this one --Redundant air supply... we will wait...

My thoughts were that perhaps this diver did not belong at 100 feet. I still believe it. I don't dive without a pony but i guess that's my choice. I thought that PADI teaches that upon a free flow regulator, once the diver is placed on buddy octo, in this case DM the proper next step is to ascend at a safe rate. That is what the course teaches. I have <60 dives under my belt so perhaps i need to re read the book and retake the class. Nowhere did i see that its acceptable to place buddy on air and continue another 15 minutes at 100 foot depth. What did I miss or mis understand?

Guy with the free flow looks new - lots of hand sculling, both regs dangling. The hand off to the DMs octo was pretty cool, though. Not sure why you think they need a pony or doubles.

We don't know what the diver's air supply looked like after the free flow or how long it lasted.


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Landlocked123,Yeah, you ascend after getting properly positioned after securing shared air. I don't know of his experience (nor that of the DM), cert. level but all that at 100' not good. As asked, why still Air-share if the free flow was in fact fixed by adjusting the 2nd stage? And assuming standard AL80 tanks on both divers, how close to the NDLs were they if they were at 100' 15 mins. plus time before it happened? Maybe they were on nitrox (?), but air supply must've been pretty low. I sometimes use my pony at 80', but always at 100--though many don't. What other info. can you supply?

The info from the video poster in my mind gave all the details that make this an incredibly unsafe practice. 100 foot depth, a free flow, dive not aborted but instead continued for 15 minutes at said dept with now apparently only 1 reliable air supply. I thought diving protocol states terminate dive and ascend at a safe rate. Bottom line to me this was incredibly foolish. Let's play devils advocate for a minute. I dove in Mexico twice with two different outfits both of which came recomened by several folks. In both instances out of a group of 10-20 divers at we had at least 1 free flow in each group and i counted 2 people that had to come back up due to air leaks that were defined as "minor" and got worse at depth (o rings on tanks). So my point is what would have happened if the DM's air supply had been comprmised at 100 feet after the dive continued. Or broken LP hose , etc... my point is I cannot find any official documenation that justifies the behaviour of the DM. if this is common practice at Cozumel I am happy I listened to the advice of several people on this site to hold off on Coz last year until i get more dives under my belt.

Landlocked123. I noticed in the video that the free flow regulator did not occur until after the octo was offered by the DM and the diver removed his to use the octo. The reg then free flowed briefly until the DM inverted it and then adjusted the control. So I read the little caption below the video and according to a fellow diver, the diver in the video was not OOG and did return to his own reg for the safety stop. As LindaSSF noted, this was a diver that obviously had very poor skills.

So that is why the DM has a long hose.

OK my thoughts for whatever they are worth.
Nothing wrong with going to 100 fsw on a single tank.
DM picked up on the situation very fast and donated his reg properly.

Now, to continue the dive with disreguard to the situation...unsat. (unless going up would create more risk)

Not putting the reg. receiver in front of the DM...unsat. (notice that the receiver is not holding on to the reg. thus the donator could fin and pull the reg. from the receiver's mouth. Within my group, students as well as fellow divers, the diver with the problem goes to the front so you can keep an eye on him / her.)
Not asending to a shallow / safety stop after the donation...unsat.
Not asking the diver to try out his reg, post freeflow....unsat.