247 Feet -- "We can't stay here for very long"

[Bob DBF]

They say hindsight is 20/20, but it never shows the context of the times when looking back past your own experience. The times he lived, blowing a hole in a reef for his ship to access its interior was not even a minor transgression. Today, because of JYC and the ones that he inspired, behavior as small as a diver kicking a reef with his fin is a major faux pas.

History is full of inspirational, forward looking people, who still lived within the morality and laws of their time. Flawed human beings trying to make things better.



Bob

 

[MrVegas]

JC is the reason I learned to scuba almost 30 yrs ago - do you have a link to that video? I would love to see it.

It looks like all or most of the episodes are on Youtube, and there is a convenient list of episodes on Wikipedia: The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Wikipedia

Secrets of the Sunken Caves is the one about the blue holes in the Caribbean, and there are also two longer movies: The Silent World (the one that started this thread), and World Without Sun.

The Wikipedia entry for Jacques Cousteau also has a complete filmography, and I have discovered that there is also a Cousteau thread in the tv and movies section on this forum.

I remember watching these shows with my Dad when I was a little kid in the 1970s.

 

[drbill]

Who can dive deeper and accomplish meaningful work on a repeatable basis is good.

For several years I repeatedly dove to a maximum depth of 200 fsw on air. One day I averaged 180 fsw on three successive dives. My purpose, as a marine biologist, was to document the marine life at depths below the recreational "limit." I gradually acclimated my body to reaching deeper depths over a period of several months back when I was doing about 350 dives a year. I had little noticeable narcosis at those depths (as judged by my ability to locate, frame and follow subjects). After this period I resumed my normal dives within recreational limits. I wouldn't consider returning to 200 fsw at this point as my diving frequency is much less.

 

[CT-Rich]

JYC was a film maker first and foremost. He did a lot of stuff that he later regretted as he became more aware. He regretted the scene where they were killing the sharks that were going after the baby whale. When it came time to re-release the film, everyone wanted to cut that scene, he said they should leave it in because it was what happened and it was important to not hide from their mistakes.

He wasn't above doing things for dramatic effect. Narcosis and DCS are great for drama, but these were professional divers equipped with chambers and all the bells and whistles available at the time. I am sure that Rachel Carson used bug spray in her youth.

 

[MrVegas]

I don't know if I should keep posting on this thread, but what the heck. I watched the Cousteau Truk Lagoon episode the other day -- very cool. It is interesting what you notice after obsessive reading on Scubaboard. At one point, Jacques Cousteau dives: (1) 150 feet; (2) on air; (3) wearing a single tank with a J-valve (no pressure gauge); (4) with one regulator (no octo that I could see); (5) with no buoyancy control device; (6) and into a wreck. There were a bunch of other divers with him, though. Later in the episode two divers go to 280 feet (if the narration is to be believed) on air into a wreck.

I guess the one historical question I actually do have out of all of this and from reading some other threads here, is why didn't they use helium at all for the deeper dive? I think by the time this was filmed (1970?), helium was in use and Cousteau's team had worked with it previously. Maybe they just didn't have any with them and decided they had to try the dive when they located the ship.

Just passing the time until it gets warm enough to get back into the 20 foot deep quarry -- where I will have an octo, pressure gauge, and bcd.

 

[Akimbo]

I guess the one historical question I actually do have out of all of this and from reading some other threads here, is why didn't they use helium at all for the deeper dive?

"Probably" because they didn't have any Helium onboard and they were a very long way from a supply. What wreak were they filming? That would give us an idea if they were exaggerating the working depth.

 

[MrVegas]

After a little internet research, it appears that the deep wreck in the Cousteau documentary was the Aikoku Maru, which, according to what I can find online ranges from 80-210 feet in depth. One online source indicated that the depths stated in the documentary were exaggerated.

 

[SteveMKentucky]

Cousteau was a strong influence on me. He's one of the main reasons I became a diver. When I grew up in the 60's SCUBA was "the thing." There were many TV shows such as Diver Dan, Flipper and others. Also many movies incorporated SCUBA diving scenes, usually filmed at Ivan Tors studios. Thunderball is a good example.

With respect to the technology and attitudes years ago I can add that when I was diving back in the 70's I only owned mask, fins, snorkel, backpack and regulator. My dive buddies and I had no wet suits, no octopus rigs, no consoles and no LP fed BC's. We rented a tank, strapped them to a backpack, attached our regulators and went diving. We often dove in water temperatures in the upper 60's with the expected results. We paid little attention to the dive tables as we usually only dove one tank in less than 35' of water. The only person that I knew who had an octopus was an instructor at the dive shop. Scubapro had just come out with an integrated BC/backpack and my friends all scoffed at it. The BC was on the back so the common belief that it would float you on your face in an emergency.

When I went for my refresher last weekend, I was a bit surprised to find that four hoses off the first stage were essentially required. In retrospect I'm surprised that we got away with our casual approach to diving. The new changes make perfect sense.

 

[drbill]

I didn't start diving until the 60s and despite being certified on Nitrox I have yet to dive anything but air. For about two years of my diving career I dove deep air to 200 fsw, often with repetitive dives, to film deeper water ecosystems. I considered 200 fsw to be my basement depth and given the submarine topography off Catalina Island I was able to slowly work my way up the slopes from my max depth so I rarely stayed at max depth more than a few minutes unless there was an unusually interesting critter to film. Having worked in the past for Jean-Michel Cousteau and his father (dating back to the mid-70s), all of our dives were at recreational depths on the films and equipment tests I was involved in.

 

[kelemvor]

When I went for my refresher last weekend, I was a bit surprised to find that four hoses off the first stage were essentially required.

Some people do that, including the folks at the shop where you did a refresher obviously. With hoseless AI and air2 type devices that are both a power inflator and second stage you can fairly easily do it with only two hoses. It makes things much nicer to manage; although obviously there is a (dollar) cost involved in buying the necessary equipment.