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"David Widen" <dwiden@in*.ne*> writes: >Great report of known facts. > >But, here we go again with assumptions: >* Was he diving a mix? >* He was "Nitrox certified", was he diving Nitrox? What was EAD, MOD, >END, PPO2, etc ? Sorry, my fault, I thought I included that. He was diving air according to his buddy and another diver who was with the same group but not buddied up with him. >* Tanks have not been recovered for analysis in this report. They were still trying to find his tanks when we left. Given the fact that he was alive and according to the EMT I spoke to later, doing ok, I seriously doubt that anyone will conduct an analysis of the tanks, unless he does it himself to see if he was diving nitrox at 120 and toxed. My conjecture is that he did not tox, because based on what I know of oxygen toxicity, "it don't go away if you continue to breathe the same stuff at the same depth" and after he was left by his buddy, he functioned to the point that he was able to ditch his gear. >* No where in the report is it stated that type of mix or normal air. Covered above >* Narcosis - was he deep enough - Yes. There many other causes, >including STRESS, that cause one to loose skills besides NARCOSIS. Some of these are Bad Air, O2 Toxicity, improper breathing, CO2 build up, equipment, >preparation, equipment location, planning, etc. Agreed! >Recreational deep still extends to 130 fsw. So does 120 ffw now falls into >the category of "Deep AIR"? When I started diving in 1962 there was no recreational diving limit, there was no tech diving, there was no nitrox certification, there was no tri-mix, nobody talked about EAD, END, MOD, PPO2, for that matter the first diving course I took in 62 didn't even produce a national certification or card of any kind, just a certificate from Ohio Skindivers Headquarters. As far as the effects of nitrogen narcosis we referred to "Martini's Law", which, for those of you who have never heard of it, is that each 50 feet of depth was equal to one dry martini on an empty stomach. Rather imprecise, wouldn't you say? What I have learned in 36 years in this activity is that the conditions in which you are diving play a large part in the effects or (lack there of) of NARCOSIS on an individual. On the one hand in 1979, I took my wife on a wall dive in Cayman to 120 fsw. Temperature was 82 degrees (f), visibility was 100 +++++++. She had her basic certification at the time (I taught her to dive when I was still an active instructor) and maybe 5 more logged dives, all in Cayman during that same week, No problem, piece of cake!! On the other hand my son was certified in October of last year taught by a friend of mine (I haven't taught since the early 1980's) and I was there during the whole course, in the pool and on the check out dives. He has logged 9 more dives with me this year and I would't think of taking him to 120' in 40 degree (f) with limited visibility (<20 feet), even though he is a strong swimmer and 5 times the diver my wife was. CONDITIONS PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART!!!!! The recreational diving limit of 130 feet was established for liability purposes and is in no way constant regardless of conditions. >We need more information from the buddy that was there with him. Call up Bainbridge Sportsmen's Club and see if they can get you in touch with him. All I know is that his first name is Russ. I play Federal Agent 40 hours a week as it is, I don't need to play diving accident investigator on my weekends. >Check the buddy for panic and stress besides the diver's stress level. When I was trying to get information from the buddy, to assist in the rescue attempt, he was in a HIGHLY agitated state, obviously stressed out to the max! I have no idea if the stress was caused by his inability to function at depth or because he left his buddy impaired and because of that his buddy might die. I don't even know if the buddy left because of he was low on air or because of a catastrophic equipment malfunction. And frankly Scarlet (I mean David) I don't give a damn! As told my son, nobody is totally without value, they can always serve as a bad example. Remember David, you can always trust a guy named David. Sincerely, David _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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