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Date: Sun, 22 Jun 1997 19:15:39 -0500
From: Drew Mooney <dmooney@cy*.ne*>
Organization: FSI,Inc Wireless Consultants
To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: What would YOU do?
You're on a wall dive shooting video anywhere in the Caribbean. You're
in a wetsuit at let's say 130'  (40m) you're wearing double steel
tanks and breathing air. You reach for your inflator hose to make an
adjustment and feel a sickening WHOOSH of air as the hose separates
from the elbow where it joins your BCD. You are now VERY negative and
out of reach of your buddy. The wall in your vicinity is on an inverse
incline, so there's not even a convenient projection of coral - and
even if there were, it's all fire coral of a variety that would cause
a few moments of excrutiating pain followed by local paralysis of
whatever extremity of yours comes in contact with it. (willing
suspension of disbelief be damned!) and you're not wearing gloves
anyway.

So. Do you nosedive to save the remaining air in your BC even though
this posture is almost certainly going to accelerate your descent?

Do you flare and angle your right side up to keep a little air in your
BC and try to re-attach the hose using the difficult,
over-the-shoulder-blind technique?

Do you go head up and kick like crazy to maintain your depth, or at
least slow your descent a bit? Knowing that doing so is certain to
release the last bit of air in your BC bladder. 

Damn your ears hurt!

Do you try the much touted, but seldom practiced skill of inflating
your wetsuit sleeves / legs with one of your second stages? Are you
wearing a long hose? Are you breathing it? Or is it stuffed behind you
where you can't reach it for some reason? If you haven't practiced
this skill, is it likely that it'll occur to you to try it considering
the amount of fecal matter flitting off of the rotating blades at this
point?

Do you take a mighty breath, grab your Spare Air, doff your kit and
kick for the surface like there's no tomorrow?

The deeper you allow yourself to fall, the stupider you're gonna get.
As your stupidity increases, so does the likelihood you'll panic
increase, and at that point, kiss your ass goodbye.

So. What would YOU do?
--
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