Fifteen Years Today Oct 12.

[1_T_Submariner]

Thanks for sharing....thoughts and payers

 

[Kevrumbo]

Pete Johnson's post on TDS puts the Rouses' Tragedy into sobering context, and shows how far we've come since:

I also remember that day. I got my call around 10 or 11PM that night.

The internet was new and we were just graduating from the 486 chip to the “new” Pentium. The contacts were still by phone for almost everyone.

To put it into perspective:
-NITROX was new and called a death gas by the industry. It was banned by most Caribbean dive resorts.
-Trimix was something you talked quietly about only among friends. You heard about it, but few had ever tried it.
-OMS was a young company, most likely to be gone in a year or so
-DIR and GUE were years in the future
-O2 decompression was something the “Hard Core” did, no one else needed it, or trusted it
-Billy Deans was talking about diving trim, use of two, even three gasses, and had set the bar for training. We started to head to Key West to work with “The Guru” of diving.
-There were air computers, but most still used the US Navy tables. Nitrox and Gas computers were in the future.
-Canister lights were really big and mostly back mounted. The batteries were sealed lead acid and heavy. HID lights were “in the lab” at companies like Phillips and LED’s were these little red lights on your watch.

I remember meeting a guy called Chrissy Rouse on the Old Wahoo. He was loud, brash, and a hell of a diver. I don’t think I ever met his father Chris, but might have.

Joel [Silverstein] was this new diver who thought he knew enough about diving to be some expert.

What we take for granted is only 10 to 15 years old.

We all stand on the shoulders of the Giants who blazed the path before us.

Rest in Peace Chris and Chrissy

Pete Johnson

 

[Codyjp]

Thanks for the reminders of what divers deal with. It also makes you think about what will be said in another 15 years from now. Will we look back and realize how much we didn't know?

Dive safe!

 

[JS1scuba]

Thanks for the reminders of what divers deal with. It also makes you think about what will be said in another 15 years from now. Will we look back and realize how much we didn't know?

Dive safe!

My goal is to be here 15 years from now so i will tell you then! To answer the question of what we dont know is this. The more i know each day the more I know what I don't know. The moment you belive that you can no longer learn something then you are doomed to failure. Even old dogs can be taught new tricks. My friend Pete Johnson who posted a little bit ago pinged me last year "so lemme know when I can come out for a trimix course" and about a week ago called and said .... "ok let's do this trimix course already -- lets set it up for January" Pete's been diving longer than me. An outstanding wreck diver who still has an over the shoulder gear line, an incredible wreck historian and a damn fine engineer. But .... he still wants to learn more.

What the Rouse fatality teaches us is that we still have a long way to go in learning how to eliminate diving deaths. Because in 15 years since they passed we still have not achieved perfection on that .... but we are still learning.

Be careful out there.

Cheers

 

[mikejclark]

I just came to this board recently, sorry for the late Thanks, for writing this. I actually just finished (About 2 wks ago) reading the Last dive, Both an amazing father and son and an amazing mother/wife as well for being so strong to this day.

 

[Anthony Turner]

thanks for the reality check

 

[lburel]

Great Article, Everyone needs to be reminded about the potential risks involved. Most divers take for granted that they will come back to the surface with out a hitch until its you or one close to you. Be conservative and dive safe everyone