I made no reply.

Seems to me this says it all.

Scott

----- Original Message -----
From: "Al Marvelli" <ajmarve@ba*.ne*>
To: "Scott" <scottk@hc*.co*>
Cc: "Robert M. Carmichael" <halcyon@ha*.ne*>; "Jarrod Jablonski"
<JJ@gu*.co*>; "George Horn" <ghorn82707@ao*.co*>; "George Irvine"
<trey@ne*.co*>; "Tech list" <techdiver@aquanaut.com>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: "SCUBA Fight Club"


> Scott,
>
> you do check the masthead for the green over white before you reply to
these
> dont you??
>
> Al Marvelli
>
> Scott wrote:
>
> > Its getting louder.
> >
> > Scott
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Joe Emenaker" <joe@em*.co*>
> > Newsgroups: rec.scuba
> > Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 12:00 AM
> > Subject: "SCUBA Fight Club"
> >
> > > My girlfriend and I got open-water certified through PADI a few weeks
ago.
> > > Last weekend, we went on a dive boat to the California Channel Islands
for
> > a
> > > day trip.
> > >
> > > On her third dive, with another buddy, she somehow got her regulator
> > pulled
> > > from her mouth at about 45'. She got a good breath of sea water and
> > > panicked. She shot straight to the top.
> > >
> > > Long story made short, a Coast Guard helicopter picked her off the
boat
> > and
> > > took her off to get tanked for 5 hours.
> > >
> > > This has left me with 2 questions.
> > >
> > > First, I'm a little disappointed with the PADI instruction. We were
> > required
> > > to do partial and full mask floods in closed and open water. We were
also
> > > required to remove/replace our mask and reg (not at the same time) in
> > closed
> > > and open water.
> > >
> > > However, when removing our mask or regulator, we always got to remove
them
> > > when WE were damn good and ready... which usually means after
finishing
> > > taking a breath. Now, having almost gotten my regulator pulled out a
few
> > > times since then, I know enough to know that it's an entirely
different
> > > story if I were to lose my reg in the middle of taking a breath.
> > >
> > > With that in mind, my current opinion is that current PADI
remove/replace
> > > drills are marginally better than useless.
> > >
> > > Now, I'll digress for a moment. I saw a show on the Discovery channel
> > about
> > > the storm portrayed in "The Perfect Storm". They interviewed a few of
the
> > > para-jumpers, the divers who jump out of the helicopters for the coast
> > > guard. The story I've heard is that their training is hellacious. I
heard
> > of
> > > one part of training where the instructors bascially try to drown the
> > > trainees until half of the current candidate pool has dropped out.
That's
> > > just ONE lesson. Whether it's true or not, I figure it's probably a
decent
> > > representation of what they *really* go through.
> > >
> > > But anyway, back to the interview with the PJ's. They interviewed this
one
> > > guy who said that the rescues he performed in that storm... the worst
> > storm
> > > anyone has ever seen... was "the hardest operation I've done....
except
> > for
> > > my training.".
> > >
> > > ".... except for my training...."
> > >
> > > Does everyone realize how important that is in helping someone not
panic
> > in
> > > real-life situations? No matter how bad it got, he'd always know that
he
> > had
> > > lived through something even worse than what he's in now.
> > >
> > > So, it dawned on me that normal divers... divers who really want to be
> > > prepared for most anything they're going to run into in recreational
> > > diving... should be drilled in situations that are just a smidge more
> > > hostile than anything they're likely to experience in the real world.
> > >
> > > I told my girlfriend that we need something like "SCUBA fight club"
where,
> > > in about 6-8 feet of water, on the bottom on our knees, a group of
divers
> > > could just generally mess with each other (remove their regulator,
remove
> > > their mask, maybe unlatch their weight-belt, whatever....). The last
one
> > to
> > > shoot to the top wins.
> > >
> > > Although extreme, this would definitely expose a diver to losing their
> > > regulator or mask at a variety of places in their breathing cycle and
with
> > > marginally higher levels of fatigue.
> > >
> > > What I would prefer, instead, would be some more formal program for
doing
> > > this. The guy at my local PADI dive shop tells me that PADI offers no
> > > program like this due to liability and also because it would increase
the
> > > drop-out rate (one of the bad things about having a self-regulating
> > sport).
> > >
> > > So, my first question is: Does anyone know of any training program for
> > > divers that are open to the public (so things like SEAL training don't
> > > count) that would expose me to conditions and or equipment failures
> > > exceeding that which I'm likely to encounter in normal recreational
> > diving?
> > >
> > > Now, the second question is this. If I were in her situation, having
just
> > > bolted to the top, I expect that my first reaction would have been to
try
> > a
> > > "do over" of sorts so as to, hopefully, lessen any DCS symptoms;
Resolve
> > the
> > > equipment problem, and quickly get back to the depth from which I came
> > > (maybe even about 10' deeper or so) and stay there for a couple of
minutes
> > > and then come back up *slowly*... 20' per min or so. It would be my
hope
> > > that a "half-assed" decompression like this would help erase the
results
> > of
> > > the emergency ascent.
> > >
> > > After they airlifted my girlfriend off of the boat, one guy said that
it's
> > > strange that they don't have a decomp chamber *on* the island since it
> > > happens frequently enough. I wanted to retort that there IS a decomp
> > chamber
> > > all *around* the island, only certification organizations like PADI
would
> > > never, ever, advocate something like that for liability reasons.
> > >
> > > So, off the record, my second question is: Would it have worked?
> > >
> > > Sincere thanks in advance for your advice,
> > >
> > > - Joe
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
> > Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
>
>

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