Last night I had a terrible call from a friend of mine who is a freediver.
His girlfriend Jane, who was on her first trimix training dive in the ocean,
had not made it back to the surface. He asked that George Irvine , Robert
Carmichael  and I  do a search and recovery as soon as possible.
Jane was a pretty, athletic girl. A triathlete and tennis player, fitness
was not her problem. She and her boyfriend Alan, had planned to go to Mexico
to dive some caves several months  from now, and Jane wanted to learn the
trimix portion of her skills now locally, before traveling to Gainesville to
be trained in deep cave diving by Jarrod Jablonski---the top cave diving
instructor in America. Unfortunately, Jane thought she could pick an
acredited agency like IANTD, to train her on the trimix prerequisite.
If only she had let Jarrod train her in trimix as well.....
But how would she have known this IANTD instructor was unsafe, and
potentially criminally negligent with students??? If you are not already a
seasoned tech diver, HOW are you going to know which tech instructors are
good, and which are potential killers?

Maybe someone thinks I'm exagerating here. Lets run through what I'll call
the "murder in progress":
Its this girl's first trimix dive ( according to her boyfriend Alan). An
intelligent, well trainined instructor would need to teach the new trimix
student how to manage 4 tanks and three gas mixes, , in this case a drysuit
as well, and a Dive Link comunications device was thrown in as well. With
all these new gear stresses, you would expect the intelligent instructor to
do a few dives in 12 to 20 feet of water, while skill could be tested in a
non-life threatening environment, and student reactions could be observed.
What happened????The IANTD instructor, his name Derek, takes this girl down
on what is supposed to be a 300 foot deep dive---even though this is her
first dive.  Now I think this is pretty criminal, but this is NOT even close
to the severity of stupidity the instructor is guilty of next. After getting
to perhaps 270, and only doing a total of 13 minutes since they got in the
water, they call the dive, due to low vis on the bottom layer. Fine. They go
up to their deco stops starting at around 120, and by the time they hit the
40 foot stop, the instructor sees that Jane is out of deco gas, so he tells
her to go up to 30 feet and breathe 80/20 oxygen ( stroke mix in
itself----i.e., moron mix, 100% is what a tech diver should use---but this
is non contributory) ....So you have this "instructor" seeing his student
has somehow managed to run through an entire 80 cu foot tank of deco gas,
after only a 13 minute bottom time....Should he have been concerned that,
"Maybe something was wrong with her"???? What does the butthead do????He
tells her to go up by her self to 30 feet, and use 80/20. HE, the
instructor, then goes back to the very important task of trying to untangle
a down line---certainly more important than his student's life. He then
says, he notices her get to about 20 feet, from too much inflation, and
that she dumped to go back to 30. He goes back to his important task of
fixing the down line, and then notices her at 20 feet below him---and he's
at 40........Now if he "REALLY' is an "instructor, don't you think he might
figure that if she's on 80/20 ( a mix good only to 30 feet), and he's at 40
feet, with her 20 feet below him----there must be a SEVERE, LIFE THREATENING
PROBLEM GOING ON!!!!
What does he do???? Nothing but screw with his downline....
Now, what you have not heard about so far are two of the other divers on
this dive.  One was having to help his buddy, who had been incapacitated at
depth---the word they used was narced out of his mind. The guy helping the
narced diver, escorted his friend to 40 or 50 feet, and was waiting for this
guy to get his "shit" back together. As this was beginning to happen, this
diver noticed Jane was sinking fast.  ( this guy's name was George---I don't
know his last name, but he was the only one who at least tried to help) This
guy  tried to go after her, as he saw her falling 30 feet below him, but had
a bad sinus block, and could not get below 100 feet----so Jane continued
down, unconsicious.  As she dropped below 100 feet, and left view, this
Derek guy stayed at 40 feet, and did nothing to help his buddy, which was
also his student.

Now you might wonder how this girl could have passed out, and how could a
diver get "narced" out of their brains on 13.5 % trimix, on a 270 foot dive.
Robert Carmichael, George Irvine, and I have a theory on this.  When we
found this girl, resting on the bottom in 259 feet, by the foot of the
Cory'n Chris ( a wreck) her arms were outstretched, one hand holding her
dive tables, the other holding her bc inflator hose. She looked like she was
reading her tables. Her mask was right next to her, the gear was
neat----that is to say, the was no chance she had had an oxygen hit----the
violent muscle contractions and body wrenching of a seizure would have
created an entirely different picture than the what we saw.    Our theory is
that the Dive Links, which are for recreational dive of 100 feet or less,
represented "dead space" in the breathing system, where CO2 build up to
dangeous levels. At 250 feet, the partial pressure of O2 is so high, that
the blood continues to supply the body with O2 , even though the blood
chemistry is changing horribly by massive CO2 buildup. As she approached the
surface, she no longer had the high partial pressure of O2 allowing her to
function with the high CO2 levels---at this point, the CO2 levels would
interfere with her ability to absorb O2, and she experienced what freedivers
experience as "Shallow water Blackout".

A. She should have been doing a 20 foot dive instead of this deep dive, to
learn the skills.
B. The instructor should have stayed with her, his student and buddy, and
DONE HIS JOB.
C. The tanks should have been marked---all we saw was some stupid IANTD
stickers--no way for us to know what gas was was coming out of either of the
stage tanks--one would be nitrox, one would be 80/20. Without markings, how
would the other divers know if she was breathing the right mix????
D. Dive Links should NOT have been used on this dive. most of them flooded
and did not work anyway. And they may have caused death by CO2 poisoning, as
well as the mental problem referred to as a narcosis in the other diver.

E.. When Jane dropped, the instructor should have stopped his screwing
around
and gone after her. She could have been resusitated at the surface. With his
tiny 13 minute bottom time, he should have had PLENTY of gas to go right
back down.  If he is not prepared to do this , he should NOT be a tech
diver, and he should NEVER be allowed to teach anyone any kind of diving
again. And who ever certified this criminally negligent moron should be
considered an accomplice to homicide.
Tom Mount,
I am calling you out on
this....This guy should NEVER have been an instructor. How many more ticking
time bombs have you certified as instructors---how many more people will be
trainined by IANTD as instructors, who will then go out and kill by their
incompetence, and reckless disregard for the lives of the students in their
charge.

I submit, ALL IANTD INSTUCTORS SHOULD HAVE THEIR CARDS YANKED, PENDING A
REVIEW OF THEIR COMPETENCE. I know there will be many EXTREMELY GOOD" IANTD
instructors, but I am equally certain, there area great  MANY potentially
"Lethal" threats out there, armed with IANTD instuctor cards, and ready to
kill an unsuspecting and trusting dive public.  THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!  We
see a huge pattern. Andre Smith ( Divers Supply) was the same story, we told
everybody IANTD needed to do something----but NOTHING WAS DONE!!!   Tom
MOUNT...DO something right now, or consider yourself an accomplice to
murder.  I will NOT tolerate more deaths by incompetent instructors, with no
regard for the lives of their students. The world is about to find out
EVERYTHING  about what's wrong with current tech dive instruction.  Forget
covering your tracks---your caught-----worry about trying to find a change
that will strip the large percentage of lethal dive instructors from your
agency.  Derek KILLED this girl. Are you going to support actions like his,
or eliminate threats to the dive public, such as the instructor threat he
represents???
Very Sadly,
Dan Volker











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