Tom,
When I talked to the investigator on Jane's death, on Friday, he told me
that Derrick swore to him that he and the students had a conversation prior
to the dive, about how "if something happened to any of them, the others
would have to leave them" ---as  if buddy breathing or helping another would
be life threatening.
Tom,  do you believe this actually happened---that an IANTD instructor could
have had this kind of a conversation with his students prior to a dive....,
or do you think these guys are just lying to the cops??? Do you think
Derrick is just saying he was afraid for his life, and that is why he would
not go down after Jane, because he thinks its a convenient way to avoid
criminal  prosecution? Or do you think you could have an instructor trainer
working for you, who is actually afraid to do a five minute long ,  259 foot
deep dive,  to save a girl's life.   Please answer this.



After George Irvine and Robert Carmichael located Jane  on their first 20
minute bottom time dive,  but needed  to return to the surface for more gear
to lift her --she was heavier than anticipated...., George went back down on
the second dive and  used 400 psi on the actual  recovery dive, I used about
950 psi( but from just a single stage bottle, as I was not on doubles---but
George had a scooter, and I had to swim fast enough to keep up with him ..
and MUCH FASTER than Derrick could ever swim, even if his life depended on
it)  So while I used about one third of the gas Derrick had left,  I used
this much swimming at close to full pace for depth. He would have only had
to drop to the bottom, inflate her drysuit, and or/his BC,  and then head
up, saving Jane's life.  He would have had no real exertion, and should have
used far less than I did. He could NOT have perceived risk to himself,
provided he was actually a trained technical diver.  We could duplicate this
with dozens of technical divers, and each time, the diver would come up with
no where near the 1500 psi  use that Derrick had available to him.

I suspect you will agree this is an issue of poor training on Derrick's
part---or cowardice--one or the other. Tom, this was  a "bounce" dive that
he was faced with. . Again.... Derrick would only have had to go straight
down--unlike George and I, as we had to descend up current, drift in , and
look for her. Derrick would Not have needed anywhere near as much search
time as we did.  He had 1500 psi in his back gas---low pressure
doubles---that's a  huge reserve for the mission.

Was he negligent. Was he stupid. Was he a coward??? Was he untrained in
technical diving?
Or did he just not consider the death of his student worth the small risk of
doing more deco??
Is this another case of  decompression paranoia?

Dan Volker


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