You guys make this worse every time you open your mouths. I am suprised
the Slob himself has not showed up over there to "muzzle" all of you. 

 What you need to do is get our your copy of Deepair magazine and turn
to the article about me, and go to the post about how to operate Chris
Parrot's deco program. You all thought I was kidding, and how here it s
in real life: you guys either needed to set it for "Central Florida Cave
Diver", or you needed to admit the truth about yourselves and "give John
Crea a call". 

 Dennis, you just have to be kidding here. "Smoker"? Hello!
When you can tell me how somebody who smokes and is 33 pounds overweight
is "in good shape", I will kiss your ass in Macy's Window. 

 This is nuts.
 
Dennis JR Harding wrote:
> 
> David,
> 
> The profile was based on Abyss 100.  Amongst some of the physiological
parameters
> set included setting
>    'Smoker' - there was one smoker amongst us, the Course Director.
>    Age = 41-50.  The oldest were the course director & his assistant.  The
rest of were all younger.
>    Slightly overwieght - which Hennie and I were (say by 15kg).
>    We were all in good physical condition (or appreared so).  All were active
divers involved in
>      Cave and Extended Range diving.
> 
>    Dive suite and environment, water temp was set 10 degrees celcius, and
suite type was set
>     to 5mm wet.  Hennie & myself were indeed wearing dry suites.  I used
Argon.  I can't remeber
>     at this stage what Hennie used for inflation.
> 
>    As I stated earlier, the actual bottom temprature was 24 degrees Celcius.
> 
>    The decend rate was kept by all.  The average depth of myself, was 106.  I
dipped to 108 for
>      less than a minute in the early stages of the dive.  Hennie was always
above me.  He did have his
>      Jon line connected to Steve, but they were in my close proximity, and
always shallower than myself.
>    I lost sight of them on leaving the bottom - which was on time as per the
profile.  The only reason I lost
>      sight was because I was now concerntarting on my ascend, and not on
Hennie, who was effectively
>      Steve buddy.  Once I started my shallow stops I meet up with Steve &
Hennie who were some 30m
>      away from me.  My support diver pointed me towards them.
> 
>    There was a 23 hour surface interval between dives.
> 
>    I hope this answers most of your questions.
> 
>    Dennis.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   David Shimell (shimell) [SMTP:shimell@se*.co*]
> Sent:   20 November 1997 17:37
> To:     'Techdiver List'
> Subject:        RE: THE FACTS: TDI Training Death, 16 April 1997
> 
> Dennis
> 
> Thanks for the post.  I would like to express my sympathies for the loss
> of your friend.
> 
> Hoping to understand better the circumstances, I have some questions:
> 
> 1. Which Abyss algorithm were you using (100, 120, 150)?
> 2. Although I am not aware of any proven merits of the Abyss scoring
> system, 63 still seems low.  Prior DCS would contribute to this low score
> but not totally, do you know what  were the other factors (age, weight,
> etc.)?
> 3. Why did you both exceed maximum depth planned and for how long.  Was
> this at the start of the BT or the end?
> 4. What was Hennie's history of exposure to previous Trimix dives and
> were these dives asymptomatic of DCS?
> 5. Were the descent rates followed and what were they?
> 6. Were the ascent rates followed and what were they?
> 7. Were there any ascent warnings on Hennie's computer?
> 8. Did you leave the bottom spot on the run time, early or late?
> 9. What was the surface interval between the first and second dive and
> was this treated as a repetitive dive?
> 10. Did Hennie have a PFO?
> 
> David Shimell
> Project Manager, Sequent Computer Systems Ltd, Weybridge, UK
> Email: shimell@se*.co*
> 
>  ----------
> From:  owner-techdiver[SMTP:owner-techdiver@aquanaut.com]
> Sent:  20 November 1997 13:33
> To:  'Techdiver List'
> Subject:  THE FACTS: TDI Training Death, 16 April 1997
> 
> On 16 April 1997 Hennie Pretorius died while participating on a TDI
> Trimix
> Instructor course.
> 
> Hennie was a friend and diving partner to many.
> 
> The TDI Trimix Instructor course was attended by initailly 4 candidates,
> but
> only three
> continuted to complete the dives.  There was Hennie, myself and one other
> instructor
> from Cape Town.  Besides the course director, there was also one
> Technical
> Instructor.
> 
> The dives were to be executed on an unknown wreck of the south east coast
> of
> South Africa near Port Alfred.  All we know was the wreck lay in 80
> meters
> (264')
> of water.
> 
> As part of the planning, the local NSRI was briefed how to handled diving
> emergencies
> of this nature.  All ships passing by were alerted of the diving
> operations
> to occur in the
> area - we were diving in the shipping lane.  A tracer boat was to
> accompany
> the main
> diver boat, skipped by one of the NSRI members.
> 
> Dive planning was attended by all the candidates.  Using the Abyss
> Decompression
> Software package the age, fitness levels, weight, age and history of
> previous
> DCI were
> taken into account.
> 
> Hennie had DCI some 18 months earlier - this was taken into
> consideration.
> The
> Abyss provided us with a physiological score of 63.  All dive profiles
> were
> to include
> J factor of +5 meters on all depths.  All the dives were to take place
> using
> the following gases:
>     Bottom: Heliair 50:38:12
>     Travel: Nitorx 32, switching at 40 meters
>     Deco: Nitrox 80, switching at 6 meters.
> 
> The first two dives were executed on the wreck which did bottom at 80
> meters.
> 
> 
> Some 12 nautical miles off shore. The visibility was poor, no natural
> light
> and
> only 5 meters by flash light.
> 
> We, the candidates decided that the last dive we wanted to get closer to
> 100
> meters
> (325'), and further off shore were whe should have better visibility.
>  Due to
> the
> gradual slope of the bottom, it meant that we needed to double the
> distance
> of shore to 24 nautical.
> 
> The dive was executed in near perfect conditions.  A slight swell with
> little
> or
> no wind.  There was a considerable current though.  The max depth planned
> for
> was 100 meters (plus the 5% J factor).
> 
> The maximum depth attained was 108, by my self.  Hennie had reached 105m
> as reflected by his Aladin pro after his death.  Hennie had teamed up
> with
> Steve,
> the Course Director.  The ascend was started on 11
> minutes as planned.  I lost sight of Hennie for a while but we remeet
> while
> executing our deco stops.  Steve completed his deco stop and excited the
> water.
> Hennie moved over towards me and continued to stay in the water for
> another 2
> minutes - this was over and above the required deco schedule.  Hennie
> was very joyious and happy about the dive - so was I.  Bottom temprature
> of 24 degrees Celcius and visibility reached the 30 meter mark.  No flash
> lights were required.
> 
> Hennie and I exchanged notes on slates while he was with me.  he signled
> that
> he was going to surface.  I stayed anoth 2 minutes before surfacing.  I
> was
> accompanied by one of the support divers at this time.
> 
> As I reached the surface,  Hennie, some 20 meters away from me shouted he
> did not feel well.  I sent my support diver over to him.  By the time the
> support
> diver had reached him, he had already lost conciousness.  Immediately
> evacuation procedure are kicked into place.  Hennis was removed from the
> water
> and loaded into the tracer boat which speed back to the harbour in
> Port Alfred.  Emergency services were contacted by HF radio, switching to
> mobile phones once within working range.
> 
> >From the harbour, Hennie was flown at low level to the chamber at East
> London.
> As of the time of hime losing conciousness, it took lees than 3 hours to
> get
> him
> into the chamber.
> 
> Hennie never regained conciousness, but during the chamber treatment it
> was
> noted that he was paralysed on his left side.
> After the chamber treatment, he was sent for Brain scans.  There were
> signs
> of air/gas trapped behind the brain.
> Hennie was resubmitted for subsequent chamber treatment the next morning.
> 
> He passed away while in the chamber.
> 
> The final diagnosis was death by misadvanture, created by an AGE.
> It was suspected the the AGE occured on the Brain.
> 
> The day of Hennie's funeral, TDI(SA) held an independant investigation.
> On the panel were Nuno Gomes, Johnny van der Walt and Dr mark Victor.
> Present was Roly Naaiman and others.  This very much brought all the
> great name in SA technical diving together.  The investigation was open
> to any member of the public who had any interest in the accident.
> The investigation revealed that NO HUMAN ERROR OCCURED TO CAUSE
> THE DEATH OF HENNIE PRETORIUS.
> 
> Department of Manpower investigated Hennies equipment and analysed
> the gas used, it proved to be well within the required specifications for
> 
> the use there of.
> 
> The SA Police Services also completed their investigation and could not
> find
> any human error in the whole diving or rescue operation.
> 
> I trust that this information suffices all your questions that you may
> had.
> Should you require any further indepth information, feel free to contact
> the
> TDI(SA) office.
> 
> My thanks to Elsie Pretiorius, Hennie's wife for allowing me to extract
> some
> information from a article that she forwarded for publication
> in the Divestyle 9a South African Dive magazine).  The article was never
> published.
> 
> Dennis Harding
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