DumpsterDiver emergency ascent from 180'

[Blasto]

I doubt most vacation divers spend the majority of the time around 40 feet so I think it's just as probably that your average vacation diver could have this occur at greater than 70 feet where it's a much less benign situation.

It's just air. Swim up, exhale. Inflate or drop belt if you can't swim; if you were neutral, bcd expansion will get you positive in a few meters. The only way you can hurt yourself in such a situation is by doing something stupid or by having a second malfunction.

70 feet is nothing, you don't even need a tank or serious freediving training to get there and back. Rec diving NDL are there and set conservative for a reason, specifically so you don't have to worry about your ascent rate if you have to do this.

There are scary failures even within rec diving. Entanglements, lost lines, lights or siltouts in overhead, loop flooding, anything that makes you sink or keeps you from surfacing. Reg failures aren't such.

 

[Skeptic14]

It's just air. Swim up, exhale. Inflate or drop belt if you can't swim; if you were neutral, bcd expansion will get you positive in a few meters. The only way you can hurt yourself in such a situation is by doing something stupid or by having a second malfunction.

70 feet is nothing, you don't even need a tank or serious freediving training to get there and back. Rec diving NDL are there and set conservative for a reason, specifically so you don't have to worry about your ascent rate if you have to do this.

Yep, in theory, and giant striding off a boat over weighted shouldn't be a big deal either. I think it's a pretty important point that doing what you can to have some preparation so as to not panic in case of an emergency is a great idea and there are probably a lot of complacent divers not ready for that moment.

 

[CuzzA]

It does not seem a wise dive. Maybe lots of commercial fisherman do it, maybe with lots of experience and at considerable risk to make their living.

The solo aspect of fishing is more about safety, than experience or ego. You really don't want to be around other divers who are firing high powered shafts of stainless steel through the water.

 

[MichaelMc]

The solo aspect of fishing is more about safety, than experience or ego. You really don't want to be around other divers who are firing high powered shafts of stainless steel through the water.

No argument, I don't want steel shafts flying near me.

By risk I more meant the depth vs amount of redundancy. If you're diving solo that deep hunting for work all the time, I'd hope you were prudent on your safety gear, because you're rolling those dice of risk many many times.

 

[stuartv]

It's just air. Swim up, exhale. Inflate or drop belt if you can't swim; if you were neutral, bcd expansion will get you positive in a few meters. The only way you can hurt yourself in such a situation is by doing something stupid or by having a second malfunction.

70 feet is nothing, you don't even need a tank or serious freediving training to get there and back. Rec diving NDL are there and set conservative for a reason, specifically so you don't have to worry about your ascent rate if you have to do this.

A guy I knew here locally died back in May (?). The report was that he was on a simple recreational dive down in Cozumel and had a rapid ascent, was bent, and died as a result. The speculation that I read was that his inflator stuck.

Regardless of the veracity of that anecdote, I do NOT agree with the statement that you don't have to worry about your ascent rate on an NDL dive. I think that is flat-out irresponsibly wrong.

Some recreational computers give NDLs that are very close to what a tech computer would give if it is running Buhlmann w/Gradient Factors and set to GF95/95. If you are using one of those recreational computers, down near the end of your NDL, and you shoot up to the surface at 60 - 90 feet per minute (or more), I would except a very high percentage of the time to result in symptoms of DCS.

 

[Caveeagle]

I dare say 90% of divers would be dead if that happened to them... He does have the skills and mind set to deal with stuff.. So , Let's give him a 40cu pony... It's not changing the outcome.. and we have no clue as to what was left in the 13cu pony.. He may have had the gas to do a safety stop and a little deco.. He could have had his son throw him a tank and go back down for the stop.. We don't know what his back tank was.. Maybe it was a HP120... I don't think anyone is saying that people should be doing what he did.. But, It sure as hell shows what a cool head and working the problem looks like..

Sorry, but that's just bs. 90% of which sample of divers? If you sample only divers diving solo to 180' with inappropriate gear, you maybe close. I would flip this around to say that >90% of divers I know who are trained and qualified to dive at this depth would NOT be caught dead with that gear configuration, or dive profile.

Just because he got away with it, does not make it right! ...or safe.

Perhaps we put to much emphasis on buddies and equipment and not enough on diver competency.

Doesn't "diver competency" include using proper gear for a dive?

I would love to know the service history for that reg. I would bet it was likely showing signs of IP creeep pre dive. If that HP seat seal blew and was within recent service and specs, it would be interesting to know.

I am not at all implying that DD has not maintained proper service, just anytime I see a catastrophic gear failure, I am compelled to dig for the root cause.

 

[Altamira]

So the majority of vacation divers stay shallower than 40 feet? I'm sure there are some excellent shallow dives around the world but there are probably plenty more much deeper. I doubt most vacation divers spend the majority of the time around 40 feet so I think it's just as probably that your average vacation diver could have this occur at greater than 70 feet where it's a much less benign situation.

I did not say anything about most divers staying shallower than 40 feet. Please recheck my post. Of course 70 feet is more problematic for a major reg malfunction, but it is only 10 feet deeper than CESA training for OW. I am an old guy and can do a CESA from 70 feet no matter what happens to my reg. Doing it from 180 feet is a different situation, and my point was that most divers don't operate in that environment, nor do I believe they are one breath away from dying per oldschoolto, whose posts I normally agree with start to finish.

 

[EricTheDood]

Why did his first stage explode? This isn't something that "just happens". Did he service it himself?

 

[Caveeagle]

Why did his first stage explode? This isn't something that "just happens". Did he service it himself?

Based only on the original video, the high pressure seat failed and allowed IP to rise beyond what the diaphragm could hold. This allowed runaway IP into the sealed ambient chamber. This seal is just meant to seal from outside seawater, and blew off.

**I am happy to be corrected... this I'd just opinion based on what I saw in the vid.

Some here have claimed that a hp seat/seal can spontaneously fail, leading to this type of result. Fortunately, all HP seat failures I have seen show symptoms of IP creep first and gave me plenty of warning to allow me to pull from service.

I wish we had more DATA on equipment failures.

I think most (like me) want to believe that spontaneous (no warning) catastrophic reg failures are very rare events. We regularly dive in places where this failure could easily lead to a life threatening situation. That is why regular gear checks and truly redundant systems are NOT optional.

I have often heard it said that: "the backup reg needs to be as good or better that the primary", or that "if your backup is not good enough to be the primary, than it's not good enough". Judging my the quick look at gear in video, this was not the case here. In several ways, DD's backup system was not "as good or better" than his primary, with the only exception being that it didn't fail for the few minutes needed for a ESA. Glad this turned out to be a safe survivor story, but JMHO, DD survived more than just a reg failure. ..he survived a pretty poor backup plan for a 180' solo dive.

 

[oldschoolto]

Why did his first stage explode? This isn't something that "just happens". Did he service it himself?

Yes, Things go bad.. Yes, Things just happen... All one needs to do is look at the airlines and for a better one, NASA.. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars and check and re-check and stuff still breaks.. Stuff goes sideways... Parts fail.. Brand new parts fail... Some parts go 1000's of hours and not fail.. Others 10 minutes...

When I had my 1st stage failure (I was testing how long it would go) I met a dive leaving Bonaire who had his 2yr old just serviced by the dealer Titan 1st stage fail one week in ( 20 dives ).....

And, The list is long of vacation divers bouncing deep on single 80cu... Sit in a dive shop on a place like Bonaire and you will see how the 90% of divers are....

Jim....