BMacdon732 wrote in article
<19980122030501.WAA17704@la*.ne*.ao*.co*>...

>Concerning the use of surface towed float balls.Having attempted to use
float
>balls on dives of more than 110 ft in the Palm Beach area on several
>occassions,I can assure you that it's one sure way of splitting up a dive
>group.I am reliably imformed that the last person who attempted to use a
float
>ball on the Classic Barge used approx 750 ft of line and the ball still
>submerged.I can only imagine the difficulties this caused the diver holding
the
>line.I personally believe that float balls should be used when ever
>possible,but I also believe that under certain conditions they have limited
>benefit and in deep strong current situations can create more problems than
>they solve.


Wrong.
I have been doing these deep dives here in Palm Beach since long before
Andre came here----use of the float ball by the barges,  or the much more
intense current of the 200 - 240  ft deep Jupiter ledge, or the much deeper
pinnacles off of Stuart, ... the use of the float ball is still standard
procedure. If you can't pull a float ball by swimming---without exertion,
you use a scooter. If you can't follow one of these choices, you abort
forget about the tech dive.

If you don't have a float ball, there is no way to be sure you will have a
safety diver over you when you make your first stop. You can deploy your
float, but there  is much more likelihood of the boat missing it.

Many of the deep reef dives get a parallel current, allowing the float ball
to work while just swimming. .  Some get cross currents-----so much for
swimming the ball. If you can't afford scooters, sometimes you'll have to
abort the dive.  Oh,  some people don't want to have to buy a
scooter.....and some want to just buy one big 160 cu ft tank, and use a
spare air  as an alternate air supply----but the people that teach this have
to get serious and TELL their students what gear they need, and not allow
them to dive without the right gear.  And the training agencies need to be
sure their instructors are clear on what the right gear is , and what the
right procedures are----lives that are entrusted to them are at stake!




It strikes me as very strange that whenever a tragedy of this nature
>occurs people seem so concerned with trying to pin the blame on some one
that
>they seem to ignore or disbelieve alot of the facts.I find it difficult to
>believe that Andre,John and Mike were breathing a different mix from
>Larry,Larry's tanks were impounded and analyzed and found to be of the
correct
>mix according to a statement from the Palm Beach Sherriffs Dept.reported in
the
>Palm Beach Post.Lets stop puffing our chests out and trying to make
ourselves
>look important and knowledgable by pointing accussing fingers at people who
>can't defend themselves and lets get on with trying to make our sport as
safe
>as possible by being as good at as we can.P.S.sorry didn't realize I was
>shouting last time.

Wow. You really don't have a clue what just happened.  The greatest tragedy
the tech diving world has yet faced has just occurred, and you don't want to
know why or how???  Three dead tech divers on one dive is the worst tragedy
ever---its a record.  It seems to be followed by a record for the most
deliberate attempts to sabotage the truth of exactly what has happened.
We don't have to have been there to KNOW about several events which could
easily have prevented these deaths. The safety diver and float ball issue
certainly applies here as one.  The safety diver could have seen the problem
as the first diver hit his first stop, and immediately brought a  tank down.
This does call for a REAL safety diver in the water. All future tech dive
MUST be performed this way!

We also don't have to have been there to KNOW that 4 steel tanks apiece,
are horribly bad planning for an instructor to supply his students and
himself with----for him not to have been aware of how negative this would be
at 250 feet, given the wet suits they were wearing instead of dry
suits....., and to hold an instructor card---this really scares me that a
student could be compromised in this manner. This must change all the way
the  tech standards of each agency----acceptable gear configurations---and
instructors should be responsible for this.

I am very uncomfortable with the idea that the student could run out of air,
and this was not monitored by the instructor---but this is one of the areas
where without my being there, I can only really say I'm uncomfortable about
it-----I know any time I've ever been down with a new tech diver, I check
their gas periodically---and I'm not even actually their instructor.   I'm
uncomfortable with the story that Andre did not attempt to share trimix
with the student.   But again, this is an issue we would need to know much
more about before we can really pass any judgement on it, from within the
tech community.
I was horrified to hear that not two weeks prior to this tragedy, Andre was
seen deep diving on a boat in Pompano, with trimix in one back mounted tank,
and nitrox in the other, separated by the isolator-----I  would hate to find
that this was consistent behavior, and that Andre taught this as standard
procedure to his students----though it would explain how one could run out
of bottom mix after only 15 or 20 minutes. Even breathing hard, the large
doubles ( if both filled with trimix) should have provided closer to 40
minutes at 250, perhaps much more for someone with instructor ability.  Many
of us would use less than 72 cubic feet of trimix  in 25 minutes at 280
feet.  If they did have both tanks filled with trimix, a safety diver had
huge amounts of time to realize a serious problem had occurred, and to have
headed down with more gas, and to help with solutions.

I can only hope the righteous indignation you now sound,  has nothing to do
with anything as trivial as legal liability for Divers Supply.   Divers
Supply is NOT a living person. Its only a company, and as such, any
repercussions it may face have  no place in our minds...NONE!  Three people
died. John Claypool was a very good friend of my brother, and a good friend
of several other friends of mine. I know he was a good diver, he was fit,
and my best guess is that he died in a heroic gesture, trying to pull Andre
off the bottom . If you are upset, than these deaths are the only valid
sources for your indignation.  As this is the largest tragedy the tech
community has ever faced, you had better start dealing with the how and why,
before someone else pays the ultimate price as well.
Dan Volker




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