Deep, Deeper, Freakin' Deep!

[dkatchalov]

Lol "you first" indeed.

Not saying it's easy as in anyone can do it, just less amazing than same depth in OW.

 

[ScubaFreak]

Just in case your interested in JUST HOW FAR DOWN YOU CAN GO...


Comex Divers did:

* In 1977 - 501m in the Meditteranean Sea breathing Heliox

* In 1988 - 530m, again in the Med., breathing Hydro-Heliox ( 49/50/1 ) - 8 days to reach depth, 18 days deco.

* In 1992 - a dive in a test saturation complex called "Hydra 10" took them to 675m after 18 days of compression, again breathing hydro-heliox. One of these lads transfered into a smaller chamber & was further compressed to 701m. Deco. took several weeks.

No one experienced any significant problems at these depths.

Book early to avoid disappointment!

Best,
DSD

pffftt...i did...702m yesterday....:sprite10:

 

[Buoyant1]

Well for a surface consumption rate (SAC) of 0.6 cubic feet per minute and 15 breaths per minute there are .04 cubic feet per breath at the surface. So to breath a 80 cu ft cylinder down in one breath the ambient pressure would have to be increased by a factor of 2000 (80 cu ft/.04 cu ft/breath). Since there is one atmosphere at the surface, and 33 fsw (or 10 msw) for each additional atmosphere you would have to be almost 66,000 feet down (or 20,000 meters). But the ocean is not that deep. But...if you dug a 6 mile deep mine shaft at the deepest place in the ocean and filled it with salt water you could breathe an 80 in one breath.

Of course the ambient pressure would be 30,000 psi (or 203 MPa) so an aluminum cylinder might well fail. Maybe with steel (yeah right).

You go first.

Maybe like sucking air out of a crumpled soda can!

I can see my LDS now "What the ____ does he MEAN that he wants a 1% mix?"

 

[TNdiver6387]

this

Hi DeepSeaDan,

is it possible for you to post links to more information about these dives? Just very interested in all the stuff that went into that dive and how it went. Google throws up a lot of different information when looking for deep dives and none that I could find with a lot of detail.

Thanks!
Sarah

was a request for LINKS and CREDIBLE INFORMATION about the dives.

lazy assumptions like this

These were chamber dives.

In a chamber, in a building, in France. Pressure in the chamber is pumped up to simulate a dive. No one is in the ocean, no one is wet.
In the Trieste dive the personnel were not exposed to any pressure, the vehicle's hull kept the pressure out, in the COMEX "dives" the personnel were exposed to the pressure inside the chamber, pressure equivalent to that at of the depths indicated.

that ignore the very information given in the original post

Just in case your interested in JUST HOW FAR DOWN YOU CAN GO...


Comex Divers did:

* In 1977 - 501m in the Meditteranean Sea breathing Heliox

* In 1988 - 530m, again in the Med., breathing Hydro-Heliox ( 49/50/1 ) - 8 days to reach depth, 18 days deco.

should not be made, because newer less experienced people tend to take the word of people they feel are more knowledgable than they are with out question, and it is WRONG for people to misinform people like that just because they wont bother taking the time to even read the post they are discussing

 

[hokie_diver]

This link may help the thread: Bienvenue chez Comex - Industrie sous-marine, navires de recherche, maitrise des atmosphères confinées,Sous-marins, ingénierie, développement d'équipement et machines spéciales, essais hyperbares et hypobares,Achille,aircraft crash,Archéologie,ASLS,A

Along with this one: Comex - Hyperbaric Experimental Centre - Presentation and History

 

[Guba]

And Dr. Sylvia Earle holds the record for solo diving at about 1250 m. Sure, it's a pressure "suit", but the photos and videos of the dive are remarkable!
And I get to meet her next week! Can't wait. (Okay, so I'm a science diver groupie...so what!?)

 

[ACR]

I think a good rule is to turn when you can light is crushed... PADI should add that to their OW course.

 

[Thalassamania]

While most all of the COMEX dives (PDF) were conducted in a chamber on land, a few were wet, the record dives were:

Hydra 8
Depth : 500 / 520 / 534 metres (1988) (Operation at sea - world record)
Divers : Th. Arnold - S. Icart - J.G. Marcel Auda - R. Peilho - P. Raude - L. Schneider


Hydra 10
Depth : 675 / 701 metres (1992) (world record - conducted on shore with simulated in water work at 660 meters)
Divers : S. Icart - Th. MavrostomosR. Peilho

 

[Thalassamania]

And Dr. Sylvia Earle holds the record for solo diving at about 1250 m. Sure, it's a pressure "suit", but the photos and videos of the dive are remarkable!
And I get to meet her next week! Can't wait. (Okay, so I'm a science diver groupie...so what!?)

Sylvia set the "solo women's record" in a Jim Suit that was tethered to a submersible. She later broke the women's record in the Deep Rover vehicle at 1,000 meters.

Sylvia in JIM suit, note umbilical and submersible in the background.

Sylvia in the Deep Rover submersible during training dives off the California Coast.
Note the EDGE decompression computer I put on the right manipulator arm as a joke.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Sorry bout that - post a thread & then evapourate!

To answer a few of the questions asked:

> All these dives were "saturation" dives, where a dive team enters a complex of hyperbaric chambers, flange-mated together, to form a system of tankage.

Rather than me wax on about sat., you can read all about it here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/2524-saturation-v-m-c.html

Someone asked about the deepest working dive - I believe it was in the neighbourhood of 1800 fsw., & I further seem to remember it was to facilitate a major pipeline repair utilizing hyperbaric welding ( a very nifty thing - dry welding in the deep sea ).

Comex was once very interested in extending the reach of the working diver, as was Duke University in the early 80's. Past 2000 fsw., finding a workable combination of breathing gases became quite problematic; that, & the realization that rov's & 1ata. armoured diving systems were improving exponentially, combined to put deep manned diving experimentation on the back-burner, then to the back/bottom of the freezer, so to speak.

Hope you enjoy the story!

Best fishes,
DSD