Record deep dive challenged

[Russjstewart]

From Ahmed Gabr breaks record for deepest SCUBA dive at more than 1,000 feet

When the day finally came, Ahmed needed approximately 12 minutes to reach his record depth, which was measured with a specially tagged rope that accompanied him. But, to ensure safe passage back to the surface, it required nearly 15 hours to have Ahmed return

Lot of variation between 37 minutes and nearly 15 hours, is either time credible ?

 

[BlueTrin]

From Ahmed Gabr breaks record for deepest SCUBA dive at more than 1,000 feet

When the day finally came, Ahmed needed approximately 12 minutes to reach his record depth, which was measured with a specially tagged rope that accompanied him. But, to ensure safe passage back to the surface, it required nearly 15 hours to have Ahmed return

Lot of variation between 37 minutes and nearly 15 hours, is either time credible ?

I think the 37mins was only the first part of the ascent ?

 

[Dominik_E]

15 hours is to surface. They are talking about a deeper part of the ascent.

 

[Doc]

Really? For example:
Should you use 'dived' or 'dove'?.

muckraker.

 

[AfterDark]

"The final point on depth and time leads technical divers to question the ascent speed. According to the evidence on the video, Gabr made an ascent of 245m in 34 to 37 minutes. As most technical divers will tell you, there is no decompression schedule that could safely allow for such a rapid ascent. "

Well how many "tech" divers are going to 1000FSW on SCUBA? None. What does

From Ahmed Gabr breaks record for deepest SCUBA dive at more than 1,000 feet

When the day finally came, Ahmed needed approximately 12 minutes to reach his record depth, which was measured with a specially tagged rope that accompanied him. But, to ensure safe passage back to the surface, it required nearly 15 hours to have Ahmed return

Lot of variation between 37 minutes and nearly 15 hours, is either time credible ?

If SCUBA dives to 1000FSW were common we would know the answer to that question, but since this was breaking new ground only educated guesses are the best that can be done.

It doesn't say but my guess is a chamber was used at some point to get him to the surface. I doubt he spent 15 hours in the water off gassing. He probably made a "mad rush" to the chamber and began his deco there. It wasn't uncommon during the SeaLab experiments for divers to make deep dives and return to the chamber where they lived with little deco.

 

[Bob DBF]

Guinness clearly don't have forensic standards to authenticate records like this.

It bothers me that Guiness is authenticating records using such sloppy procedures. Perhaps they should stick to tallest man, and such, where the results are easier for them to verify. Personally I think they should get out of the deepest scuba dive business, just like they got out of deep air record business.

 

[boulderjohn]

It doesn't say but my guess is a chamber was used at some point to get him to the surface. I doubt he spent 15 hours in the water off gassing. He probably made a "mad rush" to the chamber and began his deco there. It wasn't uncommon during the SeaLab experiments for divers to make deep dives and return to the chamber where they lived with little deco.

No, he did it all in the water. Using a chamber would invalidate the dive.

 

[RainPilot]

It doesn't say but my guess is a chamber was used at some point to get him to the surface. I doubt he spent 15 hours in the water off gassing. He probably made a "mad rush" to the chamber and began his deco there. It wasn't uncommon during the SeaLab experiments for divers to make deep dives and return to the chamber where they lived with little deco.

He spent the full 15 hours in the water. Ahmed spent a lot of time before his dive talking to Nuno about his dive and lessons learned. One of the major issues Nuno had was severe back issues for a LONG time afterward. Ahmed said that they seemed to think it might have been due to the weight of the rig on his back during deco, leading to areas of reduced perfusion and thus localised DCS type injuries. Ahmed had his team assist him to get out of the main gear ASAP once he was shallow enough, and he basically did his deco in a minimalist side mount type harness, allowing him to do stretching exercise during deco to try and avoid the same issues.

I asked him if he had any longer term health issues, and he said that in hindsight he would never do that dive again. He is fine now but it was a long time before he was allowed to dive again.

 

[AfterDark]

No, he did it all in the water. Using a chamber would invalidate the dive.

Wow! Lots of mental discipline there!

Getting into a chamber at couple of hundred feet to deco would invalidate the dive when the objective was to go 1000FSW? How stupid, and not all that safe IMO. A lot can go wrong during 15 hours of in water deco.

He spent the full 15 hours in the water. Ahmed spent a lot of time before his dive talking to Nuno about his dive and lessons learned. One of the major issues Nuno had was severe back issues for a LONG time afterward. Ahmed said that they seemed to think it might have been due to the weight of the rig on his back during deco, leading to areas of reduced perfusion and thus localised DCS type injuries. Ahmed had his team assist him to get out of the main gear ASAP once he was shallow enough, and he basically did his deco in a minimalist side mount type harness, allowing him to do stretching exercise during deco to try and avoid the same issues.

I asked him if he had any longer term health issues, and he said that in hindsight he would never do that dive again. He is fine now but it was a long time before he was allowed to dive again.

I would have insisted on a slung a hammock for 15 hours of deco!

 

[tursiops]

It doesn't say but my guess is a chamber was used at some point to get him to the surface. I doubt he spent 15 hours in the water off gassing. He probably made a "mad rush" to the chamber and began his deco there. It wasn't uncommon during the SeaLab experiments for divers to make deep dives and return to the chamber where they lived with little deco.

Kind of irrelevant, even if your guess were true. Sealab ended more than 50 years ago (a LOT has been learned since then), decompressing too quickly and then going into a chamber is standard Navy protocol, since chambers are always at the surface, ready, for any working dive, and the Sealab divers were saturated at the lab depth (610 ft for Sealab III) so returning to the surface was not an option. Yes, they did excursions to deeper than 610 ft and then returned to 610 ft to off-gas back to being saturated at that depth. But you know all that, so what was your point again?