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On Wed, 8 Feb 1995 4700gbera@um*.cc*.um*.ed* wrote: > But, given the possibility of a CNS O2 hit, with its high probability > of disaster and (seeming) capriciousness of ocurrence, and the numbing > effect of nitrogen narcosis, what is the *motivation* behind doing extreme > air diving, as opposed to heliox or tri-mix, which simply seem to be more > suitable technologies? There are many people who have conducted hundreds or even thousands of deep (i.e., >200fsw) dives without incident, for much longer than anyone has been doing surface-to-surface helium dives. Many of these people are professional divers of some sort, and they see no reason to introduce additional logistical complexities and costs into their activities. One very experienced diver said to me: "I'd rather deal with the devil I know, than the devil I don't know." It's easy to say these types of divers have just been "lucky" to have "gotten away" with deep air diving for so long...but eventually the numbers of successful dives get high enough that we have to accept these people are operating within their limitations. Although introducing helium into breathing mixtures for deep dives reduces a number of potential hazards, it also increases the logistical complexity of the dive, and thus indroduces additional new hazards. Bottom line is to maximize the [probability-of-survival] : [logistical complexity-and-cost] ratio, and that doesn't always mean the addition of helium for deep dives. Aloha, Rich deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or*
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