Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
>>or >> they may have just indicated that his grossly inadequate cardiovascular >> system was not up to the CO2 processing job tech diving calls for---this >> may have contributed to the heroic death of Detective John Claypool, who it >> appears was safe at 100 feet after the dive end, but went back down to try >> to help Andre and the student, when he realized Andre could not get the >> student up. > >Please explain what you mean by this? > >> Dan Volker > >PS On a lighter note, nice web site. If some lazy, fat slob, lets say he's a smoker, with no aerobic regimen---no cardiovascular fitness, tries to swim fast at 60 feet on scuba, they will very quickly develop so much CO2 buildup, that they would feel very sick, their head would pound, and they would not be feeling good for the rest of the day.....at 250 feet, they would not be feeling good for the rest of their fat lazy life, because they'd be dead. I'm not saying that every diver who is heavy can not process CO2. There are overweight divers who swim laps or bike ride, at good intensity levels, and who have an above average cardiovascular system, despite the fact they are overweight. If these same divers managed to get their bodyfat down to below 15%, they would have such an increase in VO2 max, that their gas processing abilities would make them exponentially safer. What I'm saying is that if you take a very fat diver without any cardiovascular training, this person should NOT be allowed to be a tech diver. Their ability to process gasses can be inferred from a VO2 max test,..... but an overweight person who trains diligently, could qualify to become a tech diver, even if he/she could not manage to get down to a low bodyfat. To be the best tech diver this person could be, they would want to obtain a low bodyfat, this providing them a superior gas processing ability ( gas exchange potential per pound of bodyweight---as in VO2 max, which is ability to process Oxygen per kilo of bodyweight). Since a person's ability to process gasses can be tested in this way, and without undue cost, there is no excuse not to include this in medical screening, along with the PFO test. If they want to techdive, this must become part of the process. This Detective, John Claypool, was in good shape. Andre, the instructor, looked like he had not run any farther than the bathroom since Vietnam. He was massively overweight, without aerobic conditioning---he was not involved in any regular aerobic regimen---i.e., running, biking, lap swimming like a competitive swimmer.... He was not in shape to pull a sinking student up from the bottom at 240, along with his own negative buoyancy from his horribly convoluted gear configuration. The police officer had the fitness to get himself off the bottom, to 100 feet, which would have placed him into the safety zone. With the two stage bottles he was carrying, he had massive amounts of deco gas. We attribute his death ( this is our best guess right now, from the conditions, the equipment used, and the consistencies which remained fairly constant in the several variations of stories which came out of the survivor's mouth), to his attempt to help Andre and the student up from the bottom, but with insufficient bottom mix to make it back up. So apparently, they all ran out of trimix at 235-245, or if any of them had trimix left over, they passed out from the exertion of fighting the negative buoyancy at this depth----this as a result of a huge CO2 buildup, which will become fatal at this depth, given all the other incidents occurring at the same moment. The athlete would tolerate far more exertion here, than the person without aerobic training. But there is a limit to what even an athlete can do at this depth---certainly pulling 25 to 30 pounds off of the bottom would put most athletes to their safe limit or beyond---while it would shut down the non-athlete. If John had tried to pull Andre up, this would have been 50 to 60 pounds minimum, or possibly 100 pounds, if inflation had been lost due to an out of gas issue. John would NOT have been able to survive this attempt if he persisted, even assuming he had sufficient trimix, which it appears he did not. Regards, Dan And thanks for the comment about the web site. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]