Darwin Awards of Diving

[Hoomi]

Was that a Suunto Gekko by any chance?

Yep. The funny thing is, I've read a lot of good reports about Gekkos. Not sure what I'll get to replace it, but I think I'll print out a copy of your post and show it to my LDS, and see if they can get any feedback on it.

 

[Jax]

There was a married couple diving on a charter boat I was on this summer who had an interesting approach to ending a dive. They just dived until one of them ran out of air ... then did an ESA to the surface and signaled the boat to come pick them up. Claimed they've been doing it that way for years without a problem ...

Darn you guys and your acronyms . . . what's an ESA, please?

 

[Jax]

I once witnessed a new diver surface from a dive, as he gets back on the boat he lets the DM have it for giving him a faulty octopus on his regulator set-up. When the DM asked the diver to explain what happened he stated that after his primary regulator ran out of air on his safety stop he switched to his octopus only to find that it wasn't delivering air either, forcing him to do a CESA.

Hope he failed his cert!

 

[InTheDrink]

There was a married couple diving on a charter boat I was on this summer who had an interesting approach to ending a dive. They just dived until one of them ran out of air ... then did an ESA to the surface and signaled the boat to come pick them up. Claimed they've been doing it that way for years without a problem ...
QUOTE]

Darn you guys and your acronyms . . . what's an ESA, please?

Emergency Swimming Ascent.

If differs from a CESA in that it's not controlled so either faster than the recommended ascent rate or a buoyant ascent, i.e. after ditching weights. The poster may may have meant a CESA rather than an ESA.

J

 

[Jax]

which is why people practice in controlled environments like pools and quarries, smug idiotic onlookers or not.

Where is that "NO Thanks!" button?

 

[InTheDrink]

Where is that "NO Thanks!" button?

No thanks to what exactly? Genuinely puzzled by what you mean. But it is late here so might just be me .

J

 

[InTheDrink]

Hope he failed his cert!

Of course he could have failed it for not knowing what an ESA is too. People in glass houses etc.

J

 

[ba_hiker]

Similar passenger on our boat. But he only had TWO computers. One for the first dive, one for the second dive. "The first one always starts beeping and flashing towards the end of the second dive, so I just swap computers between dives. Completely solves the problem."

Yeah - REDUNDANCY!

Few years ago i had a dive computer fail suddenly on the last day of a multi day live aboard. Missed the last dive, because of lost deco info. so now on live aboards i dive two computers (on all dives).

guy onboard told me that was all wrong, i was 'wasting' a computer. just use one the first dive, the other the second, and if one fails (or goes into alarm?? ) just stop using it.

 

[Gombessa]

A lot of the "moron ignored his computer" talk is wholly without context. I'm sure some of these people are making foolish decisions, but if I had to use a computer on a trip, I'd probably also ignore the alarms and be upset if it locks up, if I were diving a planned profile I knew was safe but with which the computer disagreed.

 

[irishsquid]

That is not nearly as bad as "Computer Man" as I like to refer to him.
...Said diver responds "Well, I use them and when I surface they say violation or something like that and wont work on the second dive. So I just get a new one so I can keep diving"

I can't figure why in the world this guy would need a computer. He isn't paying any attention to what they are telling him, so; just dive a Mickey Mouse watch or an I.D. bracelet and pretend it's a computer. Does just the same in his application.