Deepest ever emergency swimming ascent?

[Rhone Man]

Did you even bother to read the post?

Sorry, but there does exist a point at which considering a CESA as a viable means of dealing with OOG becomes ... dopey. CESA just doesn't scale to bigger/deeper dives. Therefore some of us simply accept other means of dealing with the possibility of OOG (gas management, redundancy, buddies, etc). Those practices can scale to just about any depth.

I did. I am also familiar with String's views on this subject and on dive planning generally. My comment that this was 'dopey' related more to boulderjohn's interpretation of String's post that a CESA is "not viable" below 15 feet. That is just putting it way too strongly. Of course it is viable. It just shouldn't be a first choice. "Not viable" means "not viable". It does not mean "should only be a very last resort", for which we have different words in the English language.

String advocates redudancy and careful planning to avoid the need. I think we all agree with that. But even if you are 205 feet down and inside a wreck, if there is no other gas available - it is a pretty frikkin' viable option.

 

[Thalassamania]

I am reading Gary Gentile's Andrea Doria - Dive to an Era, and in the early chapters who is talking about some of the first divers on the great wreck, down there at 200 odd feet in just wetsuits with tanks full of air, double hose regs and J-valves instead of SPGs.

According to the book, in 1964 a diver named Joe Paynotta ran out of air and so pulled his reserve, only to find it had already been pulled and he was completely empty. He then did an emergency swimming ascent from 205 feet (linear distance would presumably be longer as he would need to swim sideways out of the wreck). He survived, although unsurprisingly had to do a stint in the chamber.

I thought to myself, that has gotta be the deepest ever emergency swimming ascent in the history of scuba diving. Has anyone ever heard of anything deeper (or even comparable)?

THat's as deep as I've heard of a scuba ESA. In the old days in science programs we had to do ESAs from our depth of certification, so there are some oldtimers kicking about that have done a 190 fsw ESA.

Sub crews are trained for basically a CESA during emergency evac from a downed sub.
Crew will go into an air lock, get pressurized to depth, pop the hatch and rocket to the surface.
They are trained to sound like Santa on the way up HO HO HO HO HO.
Because there only at depth for seconds to minutes DCS is not really an issue. However they go up like rockets, AGE's are the biggest killer.
I don't know if there are any Navel records of this actually being done in open water.

submarine escape "cesa's" have been conducted over 180m deep.

Submarine Escape Training Tank : HMNB Portsmouth : Naval Bases & Air Stations : Establishments : Operations and Support : Royal Navy

The unclassified record for an in-water submarine escape depth is 601 feet Norway (MK 8 SEIE) (Submarine escape tower upper hatch depth.)

 

[ShakaZulu]

I did it from 20ft while I was getting my certification.....

 

[Divedoggie]

The unclassified record for an in-water submarine escape depth is 601 feet Norway (MK 8 SEIE) (Submarine escape tower upper hatch depth.)

Cool link!

I just spent WAY too much time looking over some of that info!

While its not as deep as the old ESA from cert depth, a good friend of mine who was living in Maui and young and bulletproof at the time, did an ESA from close to 100 feet just to see if he could do it. Nowdays, he laughs when he tells me about it and says, "no problem, I could have done it from much deeper."

 

[ShakaZulu]

Cool link!

I just spent WAY too much time looking over some of that info!

While its not as deep as the old ESA from cert depth, a good friend of mine who was living in Maui and young and bulletproof at the time, did an ESA from close to 100 feet just to see if he could do it. Nowdays, he laughs when he tells me about it and says, "no problem, I could have done it from much deeper."

Also note the suits are kinda yellow, sharks favorite color

 

[Divedoggie]

Also note the suits are kinda yellow, sharks favorite color

I guess that helps the Navy hide the AGE evidence.

 

[Gilldiver]

Here is the submarine escape suit. They use air to pressurize the escape chamber which at 600 feet will result in the narcosis knocking you out. This works in favor of the escape, being unconscious as you head for the surface (at 200-300 feet/minute), your mouth is open, you keep breathing, and run much less risk of an AGE then any SCUBA diver.

You may wake up on the surface with your ears hurting if not burst, but you didnÃÕ escape from a sub because it was a nice place to stay. Alive on the surface is much better then dead on the bottom.

 

[LouieLouie]

The unclassified record for an in-water submarine escape depth is 601 feet Norway (MK 8 SEIE) (Submarine escape tower upper hatch depth.)

Several countries practice submarine escape in the deep Norwegian fjords. This video is from a Norwegian sub. I believe the commander is a friend of mine - this used to be his sub, and the voice seems familiar.

LiveLeak.com - Submarine Escape Training

 

[Divenomad]

Not a "I know someone" story, This was me, years ago. Was stupid, and the event caused me to deeply rethink how I do things. I now see far more clearly the value of good, repetitive training, and keeping your head. I ran out of air at 100 feet. Signaled my "buddy' and the divemaster, but they did not notice. I then performed a swimming emergency ascent, getting two small breaths on the way up. My ascent rate was far too fast, and I beat the odds and did not get bent. I managed to achieve positive buoyancy at the surface with the bob method and did not ditch my weight. I should have; on the ascent I did not feel it was prudent, I was ascending way too fast as it was and at the surface, I managed the positive buoyancy without having to do so. I would ditch at the surface now; with greater knowledge and understanding many predominant mechanisms of diving fatalities, at the time, it did not seem necessary.

For those who put forth the idea that the training is not worth it, I offer as a counterargument that if I did not have excellent instructors who trained me properly in the correct method, I would be dead.

To convince me, you would have to offer proofs of sufficient quality to offset the tangible evidence of my continued life.

-Nomad

 

[Jersey Chris]

Whats the freediving record? Kinda the same thing