Below:Decompression
stops are no place to let your
attention lapse.67 divErFast-forward 21 years and, in a different
ocean off the coast of a different
continent, another diver was making her
way through the technical-diver levels.
She had a 100m dive as her goal. After
completing a dive to 70m a few weeks
earlier, her deepest to date, she heard on
the grapevine that a group of divers were
planning a dive to 100m. She asked if she
could join them and they agreed.
On her descent, she had a problem
switching from travel gas to bottom gas
and needed a little help but they all
eventually reached the seabed at 100m,
where she threw her arms up, fists
clenched in a victory salute, and
screamed in joy. She hugged all her fellow-
divers and babbled in excitement through
TECHNIQUE
her regulator.
After a few minutes, the group began to
ascend. At the depth where they switched
from their bottom gas back to their travel
gas, the diver who had just celebrated the
fulfilment of her dream got into difficulty
again, and started to float up beyond her
decompression stop depth.
One of the team swam over as quickly
as he could to attempt to arrest her ascent
but, by that time, she was well out of
reach and going up fast.
She was still conscious when she
reached the surface and screamed
something unintelligible to the surface
support crew, but she passed out soon
afterwards and was not breathing when
she was pulled into the boat. Attempts
were made to revive her but they failed.There were a number of factors, both
human and procedural, that contributed
to these fatalities. In fact, the first incident
served as a wake-up call to the world of
technical-diving, which was still small and
fragmented at the time, and led to
significant changes in the way technical
divers were trained.
But for the purposes of this article,
I want to focus on one particular factor
that the two incidents have in common.
Just like the people on Everest on that day
in 1996, and perhaps some of the Everest
climbers whose deaths we have read about
in the media recently, the divers had got
their priorities wrong.
Having reached their target depth, the
divers acted as if the difficult part of theROUND TRIP
exercise had been accomplished, which
was far from the case.
Such a mindset can often lead to
a slackening of concentration; a diversion
of focus. This can be seen clearly in what
eventually transpired on the ascent.
Mistakes were made, the divers were not
paying close enough attention and
reactions were slow.
The divers’ minds had been fixed on
a goal, but it was the wrong goal. For
climbers, the top of the mountain should
never be the primary aim.
And, for divers, on any dive, the depth
is not the primary aim, nor is the end of
the cave, or the back of the engine-room.
Survival has to be the aim, every time,
without exception.
When, in 1961, President John F
Kennedy promised the American people
that, by the end of the decade they would
put a man on the Moon, he didn’t leave it
at that. He added another key element to
the promise.
Not only would they put a man on the
Moon, said Kennedy – they would also
“return him safely to the Earth”.
That was the important thing –
Kennedy and his advisors knew that there
is no point achieving something if you do
not survive.
A final point: the people who hold the
deep-diving records are those who
ascended safely to survive and tell their
stories in books, at conferences or on
YouTube videos.
Those who die on deep dives are
mourned but nobody celebrates their
achievement for simply having
descended. A brick can do that!TECHNICAL DIVE 2
Read more from
Simon Pridmore in:
Scuba Confidential – An
Insider’s Guide to
Becoming a Better Diver
Scuba Professional –
Insights into Sport Diver
Training & Operations
Scuba Fundamental –
Start Diving the Right
Way
Scuba Physiological –
Think You Know All
About Scuba Medicine?
Think Again!
Scuba Exceptional –
Become the Best Diver
You Can Be
All are available on
Amazon in a variety
of formats.