Scuabamau diving accident

[RonFrank]

If you're a 5 star PADI dive shop and you want to both keep your PADI affiliation and take customers below 130 ft how would you have to do it?

If you want to dive Deco with PADI take Advanced Nitrox and Decompression. There is nothing wrong with diving deep, just do it correctly. Trimix (helium) removes the narcosis. That deep you are breathing air until you get to your deep stops. 5 star PADI shops offer tech classes, just NOT advanced bounce diving!

The problem is not what they were doing rather how they were doing it.

 

[Mike]

If you want to dive Deco with PADI take Advanced Nitrox and Decompression. There is nothing wrong with diving deep, just do it correctly. Trimix (helium) removes the narcosis. That deep you are breathing air until you get to your deep stops. 5 star PADI shops offer tech classes, just NOT advanced bounce diving!

The problem is not what they were doing rather how they were doing it.

Exactly.

I asked the question to answer the question that others were asking about depth numbers have no connection to anything, just an arbitrary number.

honestly, the 130' recreational limit is pretty much a prehistoric legacy figure that was pretty much pulled out of someone's azz long ago, an arbitrary number that some of us don't treat with religious fevor. The key word is 'routine'. Fortunately, there are dive ops that are capable of making reasonable judgement calls about risks/observed diver competency.

 

[Mike]

And I'm still back to my original question, how did we go 400 pages with every other post being "Why, why, why would Opal do this, why, why, why??????????????????????" dozens upon dozens of people dumbfounded that anyone would even consider diving deep, and now there are 4 pages of people saying, this is routine. Again, WTF? Where were you before? Nobody could understand it, now everybody is on the other side as if everybody is diving deep everyday, 4 or 5 times a day and even in their sleep a couple of times.

oooooh.... it's a private club, you must suck if you're not being invited on midnight panty raid dives to 200 feet through the secret dive underground masonic free mason message system. Come on, give me a break.

 

[driftin' by]

So if you demonstrate you actually do have a clue, sometimes you can be cut a fair amount of slack and not treated like a pod person who's installed his reg backwards on his tank!

Watch using that term, some new comers to the forum take personal offense to it.

The 130 foot limit came about because of two factors. One is that research indicated that dives below that depth increased the likelihood of DCS to the point that decompression stops (and the attendant training) should be required. It was also determined that beyond those depths nitrogen narcosis would almost certainly have an effect on the diver and lead to the possibility of bad decision making, such as continuing downward past the planned depth. (Of course, that never happens, does it?)

I also think it's worthy to note that the arbitrary limits have been given with respect to how each person reacts to differently to levels of concentrated gas. The accident of topic is a good example of one diver having his wits about him to heroically attempt a rescue of another nark'd out of their mind who didn't survive. But sometimes you can't see the forest for all the trees.

 

[Crush]

Victor posted the new shop sign on FB. Is this the profile you are messaging? https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002091799219

I am having some acceptance issues with the name and sign. I guess it's okay, but seems off to me.

View attachment 105925

I have stewed upon this for several days. I agree with you, DD - I don't like the image. There should be some disclaimer such as "you don't want to end up like me" or "don't do what I did - my family and I wish that I hadn't."

 

[DandyDon]

I have stewed upon this for several days. I agree with you, DD - I don't like the image. There should be some disclaimer such as "you don't want to end up like me" or "don't do what I did - my family and I wish that I hadn't."

Her mom likes it. Maybe the question is does it glorify the afterlife, or the deadly stunt? I'd prefer a facial pic, but it's up to them. I'd probably dive with them today if I was there. I bet their safety standards and employee issues are both better than ever, but I take responsibility for my own safety anyway - sometimes exceeding local standards.

 

[driftin' by]

I have stewed upon this for several days. I agree with you, DD - I don't like the image. There should be some disclaimer such as "you don't want to end up like me" or "don't do what I did - my family and I wish that I hadn't."

Zoinks, that's a little harsh don't you think? I doubt dying so young was her dream but all her survivors that wish to carry out her dream of the kind of dive op she ran may wish to do so in honor of her legacy.

 

[Crush]

I don't see it as being harsh, but I could be mistaken. Up in Canada we have new cigarette packages that show what someone dying from cancer looks like - trust me, the "model" looks nothing like the Marlboro Man or some fashionable young thing. However, those packages force you to confront the consequences of your actions.

I am merely suggesting that showing someone frolicking in the waves and enjoying the depths is inappropriate for someone who died in such a painful, humiliating way, given why she died and that many here (on SB) still see nothing wrong with executing similar deep air bounce dives. To my mind, her mermaid image is akin to smoking adds looking like this:



meanwhile the true image of deep air bounce diving should have the corresponding smoking image:



I believe that she was a wonderful, warm-hearted person. I therefore believe that she should also serve to warn others not to do what she did.

 

[Mike]

I believe that she was a wonderful, warm-hearted person. I therefore believe that she should also serve to warn others not to do what she did.

How old was Opal? 40?

Fourty years of living, loving and being loved, only to be defined by a 20 minute event?

If you had a couple too much to drink one night and lost concentration for a moment on a rainy curve and died crashing into a tree would you want to be forever remembered only as why not to drink and drive? Would that accident define you for all time?

 

[Crush]

An excellent analogy - drinking and driving is very much like getting narc'd and diving - you are always sure that you are fine and you can handle it.

If you died drinking and driving, would you not want to warn others of the perils?

If this thread were only about Opal and her misadventure I would not be posting. However, in the past few weeks some members on SB have begun to extoll the virtues of deep air bounce diving. Given this context, and the number of new members who may be impressionable, I feel that shaming someone who made a poor choice is excusable if it saves another.