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I've been reading techdiver for a couple of months now and had an experience last week that showed me quite clearly that I'd been paying attention and can recognize stupid stroke behavior. It was our second day diving in Cozumel with the "Experienced Diver Program". When we (my brother and I) hopped into the boat, the three other divers asked us where we wanted to go. The guide book listed Maricobo Deep as a 100 - 130+ advanced wall dive, so we decided to give it a whirl. The other three divers perked up at the suggestion and quickly agreed. As we were setting up, one of the divers conspiratorially leaned over and said, "You know, it's a deep dive." When asked how deep my brother & I wanted to dive, we said a max of 130. The other divers (who had logged over 20 dives each at Maricobo) said the wall begin until 130. (We later found that begins at 100-110'). The other divers started talking among themselves about their profile... two hundred feet kept coming up. Let's just mention for a minute that we're in an open 20-odd foot boat off the coast of Cozumel. The boat did have a DAN 02 kit and a working radio, but limited safety equipment beyond that. Everyone was going to use single AL80's. One of the experienced divers advice was "trust your computer." Hmmm.... Before the dive, the experienced divers started talking about the symptoms of narcosis that they had encountered on their previous dives. The listed symptoms included: ringing in the ears, tunnel vision, numbness of the lips. "Sounds like CNS," I replied. "oh, no that's just narcosis," came the response. At this point I just kept my mouth shut and let them ramble on. Hitting the water, the three other divers proceeded to fin down quickly at a descent rate I choose not to keep up with. At 130, I started putting air into my BC (too late to for me to actually stay at 130 I realize). My buddy (my brother) and I ended up stopping at 148' - deeper than intended, but well short of the others below us. Hanging out at the surface interval, the real truth comes out. The dive master originally said he was at 160. We never did find out how deep he was, since he was obviously more than 12 feet below us. One diver was making a "personal best" deep dive to 300'. The other two divers went to 200 as safety divers. To top it off, the 300' diver had a 8" scar down the center of his chest which I can only assume given his age & flabby condition was from some form of heart surgery. One of the safety divers had been bent twice before... I can't claim to be an experienced or technical diver, but thanks to this list I can at least recognize blatant stupidity when I experience it. Thanks - David -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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