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two weeks ago a diver had a spinal hit after making a deep air dive off the island of oahu. he was diving with a buddy with no surface support (no one else on the boat). this guy is a local diver that collects fish to sell. he dives many times a week, usually on a 200 foot pinacle or ledge. he does these dives (against my advice) on air. he is one of if not the most comfortable person i have ever seen in the water.. having grown up here on the islands and fished his whole life (33 years old). he has spent the last two years going thru our courses after coming into our shop as a padi divemaster. imo he advanced at a good pace (slow) thur the courses, due to the lack of money and his trouble with the physics and math. he had been a part of a trimix course a few months ago but was working on finishing as he had trouble with the final exam.... his skills were excellent and he was in extremely good physical shape. during the trimix course on one of the dives his buddy had to convince him to call the dive when they had reached the mod of their gas. other than that he had always shown complete respect for our standards and rules (which i have been called assorted names many times for strictly enforcing). after the course he continued to dive deep on air (our deep air limit is 170fsw, we rarely go deeper than that but never past 220, the rule is simple, you pass 220 on air and you don't dive with us again). this man knew well our limits and continued to push his luck. i heard that he was taking another diver with him in his quest for a couple of fish that would bring in $3k as a matched pair. this guy was 19 and had no formal deep training. when i found out i sat them both down and told them i didn't approve and would not continue to support their diving (give them gas or rentals). i was told they were taking other divers (open water certified) deep on air as well. they went out together to somewhere between 200 and 300, for some reason they don't want me to know the dive profile. their travel bottles were hanging on the line (something we will do if we plan to not leave the line, ie hook reels to the anchor or other jump lines, in this case we will also keep enough travel with us to do the complete deco if we get blown off the line). their o2 was also on the line. one diver, the young boy (19) got so narced he stayed on the line. the collecter went to work trying to catch the fish. while he had his head down the anchor pulled away and the boat and all his deco drifted off out of sight. the inexperienced diver didnt' think to signal the collector and he couldn't find the line or the boat. they were not following the rule of thirds (another of our strict standards) and when the collector surfaced due to an air shortage, the boat was a 20 minute swim away. his buddy was still on the line doing his deco. the collector then finished his deco and used up all gas left on the boat. one story says he felt the back pains during the swim, the other says that he didn't feel the numbness until they were putting the boat on the trailer. they did not have any o2 left for surface treatment. they put the boat up (45 minutes) and then drove to the chamber (30 minutes, did not take the o2 they had at their house in other bottles with them for the ride), drove over the liki liki (a pass thru the mountain at 1500sfl). by the time they reached he chamber he couldn't get out of the truck without help, he was still concious. could not feel past his waist. chamber spiked him twice the first session (220fsw), he got worse, numb to his nipples. 15 days later and as many treatments in the chamber he has improved to the point of having feeling to his waist, below that... nothing. prognosis.. he'll never walk again.. aloha, dennis pierce epic dives
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