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Great account and example of what can happen even to the best on a Trimix and skilled buddies. Deep Air is a real problem, people do not understand that. I have stopped more then one diver from diving air (DEEP) up here on our trips. I will continue to in the future. David > -----Original Message----- > From: kirvine@sa*.ne* [mailto:kirvine@sa*.ne*] > Sent: Sunday, December 12, 1999 8:35 AM > To: techdiver > Cc: wkpp@eg*.op*.co* > Subject: My Dive this weekend an "Air" thing > > > I did a dive yesterday that really opened my eyes on this air issue. > It was the 300 for 42 that I discussed the deco on before. > > I was mixed in my stage and on my back with 11% oxygen , 60% helium > trimix. I was diving D Tunnel of Wakulla, a clear tunnel , with Casey > McKinlay and Barry Miller - both long time dive partners. I know the > tunnel, so do they - a comfortable dive. > > The dive plan was to go thorugh A to D, switch to backgas > but keeping > the stages for the video effect, turn on the video lights, and go the > the last room , filming each area as we went. It was a beautiful dive. > At about 2600 feet in we found the spot where Exley and > DeLoach had lost > a scooter and De Loach was towing Exley. Sheck's compass strap had got > caught in the Aquazepp prop and it ripped it from his wrist. > Exley ended > up swimming all the way out by himself - an amazing feat that took all > of his gas plus five safety bottles. > > We found that compass on the floor and videoed it, with me > picking it > up and holding it to the camera lens and then putting it > back. I had no > trouble doing this cleanly and steadily at 306 feet. By the > way this is > one of the best videos we have ever made. > > We then came across some ridiculous cluster that the usct had had, > with a line run over a bridge in the cave to the roof and > back down and > then cut off and left flapping in the breeze. We wondered what kind of > panicky screwup that was about. No problem , knew what that was right > away and it did not throw us off at all. > > Moving on we got the the last horizontal room ( then there is a > vertical room with a 100 foot rise but we did not want to get > into that > ). The second to last room is spectacular, white walled with > blue water > and quite large. Barry moved a little off the line into the room with > his camera, I moved sideways to the middle, and Casey went all around > the room with his video light) . > > I had my back to Barry, but could see his steady bright > video lights , > and my back to the line, concentrating on lighting in the direction of > Casey. Unknown to me, three other WKPP divers had scootered past us > behind me towards the last room. Casey signalled to us to wrap it up, > and I stowed my video head and turned the canister off. > > But I was still all lit up. I then tried to turn it "off" again. It > went back on instead. I then turned it off again, and I was still all > lit up. I was getting concerned. I did not want to blast the battery > pack and have it offgas. I turned back to look at Barry for advice ( > Casey was now in front of me stowing his light as well). > There were two > Barrys!! I could see his two video lights and his primary, and three > more primarys in a triangle just like his three lights. This was > lighting me up. I scanned my light around the room looking > for what was > causing the "reflection". I looked at my lights to see how > many were on. > I looked at Casey again to be sure he was still on the > outbound side of > me . I looked back at Barry, and then droped down to see if I was > hitting a halocline and if that was causing the "reflection". > There was > none. I checked my gas - a habit when confused. No problem. I then > thought I had just seen that same reading, so I checked my left knob - > it was on. I check my gas again. Still the same, I hit the guage on my > stage tank - still the same, and then I saw it move a little when I > breathed - it was OK. All this for nothing but confusion over the > lights. > > I waited for Barry to move towards me while watching Casey - > I did not > want Casey to move while I was feeling like I was "leaving" those > lights, even though I had no idea what they were, but I could not tell > which was the "real" Barry. I still did not realize that > there were six > divers, not three, depsite the evidence ( I could only see > their lights > shining at me, not their bodies or scooters). Then is slowly dawned on > me that it was divers, and then it was a few seconds before it > registered that they were our divers ( like where else could they have > come from), and then I was still wondering how they could have gone by > me, and then I figured that out about three minutes later. This was 5 > minutes of confusion that I am glad was in a non-emergency situation. > > When we got back to A Tunnel, there were five divers at the > junction , > a cool site in a place like that, and easier to recognize > since we were > now 60 feet shallower and I could see the bodies of the dives > as well as > the lights . We tightened up so as not to confuse each other > - the other > divers stopped and gathered above us while we got out of the way so as > not to cause a mixup. I unhooked the line form Gregg Jackson's scooter > handle as I went by - this was Bill Stones spiderweb mess > floating free > in the cave that had cought Jackson's scooter. > > At deco, on the slope there were divers everywhere, and it was a > spectacular site seeing all of those lights floating up out > of the cave. > > If this is what 60% trimix does with an "AED" of 85 feet in > a familiar > setting in clear water with the best divers as dive partners, what is > happening to the student out there and the new divers who are getting > the Pete Hess bullshit that " if you can not do 170 on air you have no > business trimix diving"? > > We have a serious problem in the dive training industry and in "tech" > diving with the ignorance and moronity of the big mouths who > have never > "been there done that" except in their own minds in the most pathetic > little weenie bounce diving do nothing way - none of these guys have > been "Downtown" or played hardball and as such have no idea what the > real story is. These people are influencing diving and that is why we > have so many "unexplained" accidents. > > It behooves all of us in the WKPP and anyone else with a > brain on their > shoulders to get out there and counter the Pete hess's and other > horrendous ignoramuses in diving in and out of the "training" > agencies . > We owe it to everyone to do this, since we have the real > experience and > know for certain what the problems are and can see why the deaths are > stacking up. > > We are doing things underwater for years with a perfrect track record > that none of these big mouths has ever or will ever do, and we need to > have the confindence to point that out to everyone and to > take the abuse > from the Big Vons and other lowlifes and keep telling the > story and keep > refering to what we really do and what our scorecard looks like, and > save some lives in the process. > > You have all seen the extreme measure that some of the > training agency > jerks have gone to in order to try to discredit me and the > WKPP, and you > constantly see the viciousness of the attacks out of the > representatives of these agencies and the deep air or > bullshit equipment > crowd. We are blowing the whistle on all of them, and that is why. We > need to have the same tanacity that they do . > > There is no reason to ever be polite to a dangerous idiot, > and there is > no reason not to step all over them with the facts every last > time they > stick their heads up, I would appreciate it if more of our > members would > take the time to teach other people the truth, and to kick > some of these > strokes right in the ass publicly whenever you can with extreme > prejudice. > > -- > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to > `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to > `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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