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Thanks for your reply George.

Not all questions are answered but I am sure that you are doing this incident 
analysis on your side. 

Other subscriber told me that the guy had very little experience for the dive 
he was doing.  It seems that this guy was so foccussed on the tasks to 
accomplished because he was task overloaded.  Every alert diver would notice 
that the gauge on the tank you think you breathe does not move when time pass 
(he tought he was breathing his stage).  That should trigger a verification of 
what's going on.  

I was told that the diver did not go to that depth, did not carry stages like 
he did before and did not use a scooter before.  That seems like a lot of 
learning in one dive.

I think that divers are trying to learn too fast now.  They get in over their 
head easilly.  Today, my reaction underwater is quite previsible because I 
took the time to do what I do.  It took me two years (and many dives) to go 
from 130 to 190 feet.  I took me time to go from one stage to two stages and 
more time to go from to to three stages.  I practiced drills in different 
situations and I got a few arrows in my back (ref. "We recognized an 
experience person by the arrows in his back", Sheck Exley).  I think this is 
the way to learn.  Apparently, the diver did not learn progressively like 
that.

As I said, there is something to learn out of each incident.  While training 
guys to be support divers, their level of experience must be considered and 
time to perform drills should be taken.  It should be emphasized that diver 
safety is secondary to the goal to accomplish.  It should also be emphasized 
that if someone feel he is overloaded with tasks (or another diver observe an 
task overloaded buddy - this is quite easy to observe), the task will be 
adjusted for the diver.

For that incident, it seems that the primary factor was the inexperience of 
the diver.

> Michel, you keep thinking I am talking about you, just because you 
> start the thread - not so. I know you are just curious as to what 
> goes on, and I am happy to tell you . - G

Yes, I started the thread and saw nobody else writting about the incident on 
the lists, so I took that personally. Sorry.

Anyway, thank you for the clarifications.

Michel

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