Instructor bent after running out of air at 40m

[doctormike]

Also, this:

Diving with Stevie Wonder

 

[Colliam7]

Sadly, this guy may have become a much better diver/instructor as a result of his injury and we keep picking at the scab...

It's certainly possible (even likely) that he could have learned from the experience and now be a great instructor. . . . The part that doesn't sit well with me, though, is the implausibility of his explanation for what happened.

And, I believe that is a legitimate concern.

Yes, we need to make at least some allowances for how a BBC person might have framed the write-up of the interview, and how such a write-up might have diverged from what the diver believed he was saying. But, I don't find that to be a compelling possibility in this case, I must admit.

A 'great instructor' is far more likely to be brutally honest with himself, and candid with others. I have certainly made mistakes as a diver, and I regularly use some of them as examples of the importance of following proper procedures, and the consequences of not doing so.

Given the implausibility of the event - at least as described in the summary of the interview - it is not unreasonable to be somewhat skeptical of learning that may have come to him as a result of the event.

 

[EireDiver606]

"Accident" strongly implies unexpected, with no deliberate cause. If you're doing things you shouldn't be doing, calling the outcome "unexpected" is a bit of stretch.

But you have to have all of those things come together in this one guy. That's why the odds feel wrong.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

On this day Darwin held the pooch down while Murphy applied the lube.

Best quote to diving I ever heard.

 

[EireDiver606]

I was doing my PADi deep dive specialty and was in 40 m depth.... I did not feel any gas narcosis and even did mathematical calculations on 40 m. depth faster than I did on surface I guess different people have different tolerance levels. GUE considers that diving deeper than 30 m should be with trimix. I think that due to different body composition and, of course, bottom time, there might be gas narcosis cases even at 35 m depth.

You can’t build a tolerance no matter what people say, you just get better at handling the same/similar situation over and over again.

Just because you didn’t feel it, doesn’t mean you weren’t narked. You’re so barked you don’t know you’re narked. And people who say they never get narked are talking absolute

 

[Dan G]

I was doing my PADi deep dive specialty and was in 40 m depth.... I did not feel any gas narcosis and even did mathematical calculations on 40 m. depth faster than I did on surface

I guess different people have different tolerance levels. GUE considers that diving deeper than 30 m should be with trimix. I think that due to different body composition and, of course, bottom time, there might be gas narcosis cases even at 35 m depth.

Not only are different people impacted by depth and narcosis differently, the same diver can react differently at the same depth on different dives. Narcosis is nothing to be trifle with nor is thinking that one is immune at certain depths because they went to that depth and didn't "feel" narced.

 

[Steve_C]

Just because you didn’t feel it, doesn’t mean you weren’t narked.

When I did the deep dive as part of AOW we did a timed puzzle first. Then on the dive, at only about 70 ft., I did the puzzle again. I remember thinking wow I did it a lot quicker then on land. All the way to shore I was thinking I was special. Until during the debriefing the instructor pointed out that I had taken considerably longer at depth.

A slow computer processes things slower. It take the same number of cycles to do a problem but each cycle takes longer. The computer cannot tell because its clock has slowed down.

Most of my dives at the coast are 70-100 ft. At 70-80 I am a little narced. At 100 I have to make a conscious effort to keep checking the spg and the NDL.

 

[falcon125]

It just goes to show "If nothing else you can always be used as a bad example"

 

[chillyinCanada]

I recognize that I'm narced when it dawns on me that I haven't been able to retain the info that I just looked for on my computer and spg. This doesn't always happen and doesn't always happen at same depth, when it does happen. Sometimes I'm so happy during the dive that I'm still not sure upon surfacing, whether I was narced or if it truly was spectacular. (The truth can often be determined through other divers' responses). And I've also experienced dark narcs . . .

What I've learned is that I must never trust that I won't be narced at some point. Experience, for the most part, has helped me understand when it's happening and what, if anything, to do about it. I've also learned that for me, the dark narcs may appear when I'm particularly tired.

I realize that many folk don't want to accept that they've ever been narced at some point (or many points) in time. It will be better for you to accept that you have been and will be again. Much safer that way.

 

[Blueringocto_73]

Chilly what would you estimate your ratio of dark narcs to the pleasant variety to be? I mean roughly speaking. Not an exact number.

I recognize that I'm narced when it dawns on me that I haven't been able to retain the info that I just looked for on my computer and spg. This doesn't always happen and doesn't always happen at same depth, when it does happen. Sometimes I'm so happy during the dive that I'm still not sure upon surfacing, whether I was narced or if it truly was spectacular. (The truth can often be determined through other divers' responses). And I've also experienced dark narcs . . .

What I've learned is that I must never trust that I won't be narced at some point. Experience, for the most part, has helped me understand when it's happening and what, if anything, to do about it. I've also learned that for me, the dark narcs may appear when I'm particularly tired.

I realize that many folk don't want to accept that they've ever been narced at some point (or many points) in time. It will be better for you to accept that you have been and will be again. Much safer that way.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm rarely dark narced, perhaps a max of 10 times in 20+ years with approx average of 60 dives a year. They are unusual because instead of hearing singing, I feel great discomfort, sometimes a bit of fear but always with "omg, I want this dive to be over!" Since I easily recognize one now, I've learned how to handle it.

Obviously, if I must be narced, I much prefer the happy kind where I'm singing and checking my guages every minute, lol.