Wreck Penetration?

[Gombessa]

Is that the famous rebreather silt-out story? That gives chills every time I think back to it. It also makes me want to buy a reel...

[cummings66]

Originally Posted by DivingCRNA

Thank God I was wearing doubles and had done cavern training. I surfaced with 1700 lb of air left after starting with 2700. It is good to plan by the rule of thirds.

I learned more on that 27 minute dive than I did in the previous 100 dives together.

Tell me, what was it that happened on that dive?

[cummings66]

By the way, he has other stories equally scary.

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[whse56]

Thanks for the link I won't be sleeping very good tonight.

[cummings66]

That's why I won't do penetration dives, no matter how good you are bad things can happen. Training will make the risk much less but it's still there and the postings he's made in that link tell you how lucky he's been.

I'm not sure I ever saw dates on them, I would be interested in when they happened. Was it over a period of years? I'd bet it was, if that many bad things happened to me in a year I'd probably hand my tanks up and go home.

[Daved]

The only penetration that you should be doing is the Hooker.--hehehe! little joke.

I agree with the "if you have to ask" commented above. All the scary stories aside--if you are in doubt--don't do it.!!!!\\

DD

[cummings66]

I'd go one further, if you don't have the training don't. I dove with a buddy who in our predive plan agreed on we will not go in. What happens when we got down, he goes in. I wanted to kick his a?? when he did that.

[DivingCRNA]

Originally Posted by cummings66

I'd go one further, if you don't have the training don't. I dove with a buddy who in our predive plan agreed on we will not go in. What happens when we got down, he goes in. I wanted to kick his a?? when he did that.

I would not say that you were in any way obligated to follow him. So, did you?

[cummings66]

I will not on my own penetrate a cave or wreck, it's not worth the danger. To do so IMO is stupid. You could say for me to risk myself to save that person is also stupid as well.

The whole thing boils down to buddy responsibility. How far are you willing to take it? If you take it as far as reasonably prudent nobody would blame you for not pulling it off. There have been documented cases of divers saving the other person but losing their lives in the process. It goes to the root of humanity. Many of us can't stand the thought of watching somebody die without trying to help, even if we know we may ourselves die in the attempt. Even the pro's goof up and do something they know they can't do but there is a chance and off they go. Sometimes the gamble works and sometimes it doesn't. Look at the WTC and you know the gamble was stacked against them and their training didn't cover that, yet they did it.

I will tell you this much, I have 3 times, almost once a year it seems run across a buddy who deserves to be left to their own devices and luck. I've done the stupid thing and been there for 2 of them. The third I figured I'd let him do it, he had the training but violated our dive plan so I let him go on his own and waited outside for him.

I cussed on each occasion because what they don't realize is that it's not only their life they risk, it's mine if I so choose to help.

I have tried many times to define the point at which I will say you're on your own, good luck. It is the toughest thing a human can do to decide in advance when you won't help, even though you know it's certain death if you don't try.

In your line of work I'd suspect you have some lines you've drawn. I have them as well, but it's not easy to stop at that point when it's time. I crossed mine and drew a second line. I was getting ready to abort and surface when I was able to rescue him. All I could think of was, I told his wife I'd take care of him and I'm not letting him die down here, I remember thinking this is going way beyond what I meant, I'll leave out the foul language that goes along with that.

Do you know what he said to me on the surface?

"That's what buddies are for". He just doesn't get it, and didn't either after we had our talk.

Would I do it again? The logical person says no, I won't risk my life if the odd's are not with me. Will I buck the odd's again? I think I will not.

[Kingpatzer]

If you pick up the book "Diver Down" you'll find a number of true stories of people who got into situations they weren't prepared for, or where they reacted badly. One of these is the story of a girl who followed her boyfriend into a wreck for a look around.

She died, another dive master was crippled for life, the idiot who decided to start the whole thing lived, if I recall. The simple reality is that you're rarely just risking your own life. People will try and help you.

Like I said up thread -- the problem is not knowing what you don't know. I don't think swim throughs are a big problem, and large open wrecks looking in and swimming right out is probably ok.

But smaller wrecks where you can get snagged, or going into an area where a silt-out is possible, and then the stakes are raised significantly.

If you want to do wreck diving, take a course. If you want to do penetration diving, take a course. Learn what you need to know to stay alive.