Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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Joshua Smith
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Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

more info HERE.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by spatman »

That's quite a feat, for sure. The video is pretty good, but falls squarely into one of my pet peeves about diving videos of this nature: no narration, just a music video with scenes from their dives. I would find it a lot more interesting if they went the extra yard and wrote even a small script explaining wtf it is we're looking at.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

spatman wrote:That's quite a feat, for sure. The video is pretty good, but falls squarely into one of my pet peeves about diving videos of this nature: no narration, just a music video with scenes from their dives. I would find it a lot more interesting if they went the extra yard and wrote even a small script explaining wtf it is we're looking at.
True that. Although my second link provides a lot of info, I agree. I'm also really torn about "depth for the sake of depth" dives. Although it does seem like this one was done in the right spirit, it still troubles me.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Waynne Fowler »

"How to dive 200 Meters" thats what the title says!

I watched it like 12 times.... am I good to go now?
Shoot that was easy
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

Waynne Fowler wrote:"How to dive 200 Meters" thats what the title says!

I watched it like 12 times.... am I good to go now?
Shoot that was easy

Yeah, you should be fine.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by diverden »

Joshua Smith wrote:more info HERE.
Free Magnus at the bottom of the wall! Let's go! :)
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

diverden wrote:
Joshua Smith wrote:more info HERE.
Free Magnus at the bottom of the wall! Let's go! :)

Uh....you and Wayne go first, I'll be right behind you!
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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With my background I have no grounds to critcize anyone else for doing something for the sake of doing it. So, deep dive to 200 metres for the sake of the dive fits right. Great they could get a crew together for the adventure just for the sake of doing it. We NEED more of that.

But there are some things I'd like to know:
-Cost in dollars and time. Sure they say 8 months. But that is elapsed time; not how much actual time. Time off work. The cost must have been astromical.
-Why that combination of kit and location?
-Assuming the videographer didn't go to the bottom, what we saw as a horizontal probably wasn't the bottom. Any images from down there.
-Other technical details.

What a memory they made!
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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Made my original post before reading the others. Now I see that some could see mine as being in your face argumentative. Didn't mean it that way. We may have a different opinion about adventure; oh how I hate that word. To me doing things like this dive are just part of a full life.

To me this dive is no different than mountain climbers, back country Alaska travelers, ultramarathoners and lots of others doing their thing. Folks in the urban areas sometimes forget that for some of us what seems like "adventure" is just a part of life. Part of doing our best to make a lot of memories so when that life changing event happens we won't look back with regret.

It seems there may a substantial difference of opinion. But, it is not argumentative. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. As long as it isn't different than mine :pirate: :angelblue:
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

ArcticDiver wrote:Made my original post before reading the others. Now I see that some could see mine as being in your face argumentative. Didn't mean it that way. We may have a different opinion about adventure; oh how I hate that word. To me doing things like this dive are just part of a full life.

To me this dive is no different than mountain climbers, back country Alaska travelers, ultramarathoners and lots of others doing their thing. Folks in the urban areas sometimes forget that for some of us what seems like "adventure" is just a part of life. Part of doing our best to make a lot of memories so when that life changing event happens we won't look back with regret.

It seems there may a substantial difference of opinion. But, it is not argumentative. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. As long as it isn't different than mine :pirate: :angelblue:

I don't interpret your posts as argumentative, and I do think I get where you're coming from. I haven't done the same stuff you have, but I'm pretty damn sure you haven't done the same stuff I have, either. Time and location separate us, among many other variables.

The only take away lesson I would want any new diver to go home with here is that depth is just a question of how much risk you are willing to expose yourself to- and how badly you want to see those numbers on your dive computer. I hate seeing fatality reports about divers with a year or two in their logbook who thought that doing a bounce dive to 200' on an AL80 would be cool- some of them never make it back. This site has several examples of stupid dives like that archived.

If anyone is reading this and wants to ask questions about deep diving- please, PM me. I can point you towards professional instructors who can teach you how to dive beyond recreational limits with some margin of safety, and,ore importantly, a real understanding of the physics and risks involved with deep diving.

Hats off to the people that are doing the really deep stuff, of course- but in light of James Cameron's dive into the challenger deep, I'm no longer sure what we're trying to prove...........
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by ArcticDiver »

Glad you didn't think I was argumentative.

A couple points about scuba and safety:
-No dive is "safe". On the contrary, all dives are experimental. Since we don't KNOW what causes DCS and since people get hit on dives they have previously done without problems there is no such thing as safety or conservatve dives or aggressive dives.
-Many people think there is some particular protocol that is "safer", or "better" than another. Except at the margins that just isn't the case.
-I've met many people over my few years in the sport who claim their particular protocol that has been derived from some special project or another is "the one". It is "the one" for the project and may, or not may not be, the only way for another environment.
-There is only one way I know of to be as safe as possible. That is to become personally as knowledgable as possible about the science and lore of scuba so you can make your own risk decisions. It is your own life so make your own decisions.
-Remember this is a sport and a hobby. There are very few deep or extended or hazardous environment dives that can't be done more safely equipment other than scuba. People die attempting dives on scuba that are fairly routine in hard hat diving. A 200' dive done on scuba is a far more adventurous dive than the same depth using commercial equipment. When one chooses to use an inferior tool for the job just for the adventure they need to understand they are incuring extra risk and decide if it is worth it.
-Be very cautious about what you accept as "true". People are not immune from economic and power motives just because they are instructors or own dive operation or are part of a particular dive philosophy.
-Diving is supposed to be fun. If you ain't having fun it is time to move to another sport.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Joshua Smith »

ArcticDiver wrote:Glad you didn't think I was argumentative.

A couple points about scuba and safety:
-No dive is "safe". On the contrary, all dives are experimental. Since we don't KNOW what causes DCS and since people get hit on dives they have previously done without problems there is no such thing as safety or conservatve dives or aggressive dives.
-Many people think there is some particular protocol that is "safer", or "better" than another. Except at the margins that just isn't the case.
-I've met many people over my few years in the sport who claim their particular protocol that has been derived from some special project or another is "the one". It is "the one" for the project and may, or not may not be, the only way for another environment.
-There is only one way I know of to be as safe as possible. That is to become personally as knowledgable as possible about the science and lore of scuba so you can make your own risk decisions. It is your own life so make your own decisions.
-Remember this is a sport and a hobby. There are very few deep or extended or hazardous environment dives that can't be done more safely equipment other than scuba. People die attempting dives on scuba that are fairly routine in hard hat diving. A 200' dive done on scuba is a far more adventurous dive than the same depth using commercial equipment. When one chooses to use an inferior tool for the job just for the adventure they need to understand they are incuring extra risk and decide if it is worth it.
-Be very cautious about what you accept as "true". People are not immune from economic and power motives just because they are instructors or own dive operation or are part of a particular dive philosophy.
-Diving is supposed to be fun. If you ain't having fun it is time to move to another sport.
Damn, I was hoping you were going to be argumentative. But I can't find anything to argue with, here.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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ArcticDiver wrote:-Diving is supposed to be fun. If you ain't having fun it is time to move to another sport.
Says it all.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by kdupreez »

rjw wrote:
ArcticDiver wrote:-Diving is supposed to be fun. If you ain't having fun it is time to move to another sport.
Says it all.
To each his own I guess, but I like to enjoy the dive and I dive to get away from it all and go see stuff down there and even cutting edge exploration is very appealing, but "numbers" bounce dives is not representative of what scuba diving really is all about in my mind.

But, I'm sure those depth record holders and chasers all get their adrenalin fix from what they do and enjoy it..

Just aint for me :)
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by diverden »

Sometimes you just want to see what the tropical wall looks like down there at 650'. That's kind of why I spent $1,000s on tec-diving. It's fun to go deep even if it's just to see the bottom of a wall, past rec depth. Shit, some dudes scooter at 130 ft on trimix, for a mile and back, over the mud bottom at Alki because there's a line to follow. BECAUSE WE CAN and it's fun and challenging.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

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kdupreez wrote: To each his own I guess, but I like to enjoy the dive and I dive to get away from it all and go see stuff down there and even cutting edge exploration is very appealing, but "numbers" bounce dives is not representative of what scuba diving really is all about in my mind.
Amen
diverden wrote:Sometimes you just want to see what the tropical wall looks like down there at 650'. That's kind of why I spent $1,000s on tec-diving. It's fun to go deep even if it's just to see the bottom of a wall, past rec depth. Shit, some dudes scooter at 130 ft on trimix, for a mile and back, over the mud bottom at Alki because there's a line to follow. BECAUSE WE CAN and it's fun and challenging.
Not to mention, the deeper you go, the less explored and trashed it gets (Unless you're diving on an old garbage pile, of course).

D
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by ArcticDiver »

kdupreez wrote:
rjw wrote:
ArcticDiver wrote:-Diving is supposed to be fun. If you ain't having fun it is time to move to another sport.
Says it all.
To each his own I guess, but I like to enjoy the dive and I dive to get away from it all and go see stuff down there and even cutting edge exploration is very appealing, but "numbers" bounce dives is not representative of what scuba diving really is all about in my mind.

But, I'm sure those depth record holders and chasers all get their adrenalin fix from what they do and enjoy it..

Just aint for me :)
I don't know what a "'numbers' bounce dive is. I infer that somehow it is less worthy than some other type dive.

As you say though these folks enjoyed the dive and that is the important thing.

To me exploring personal limits is an essential part of life. My personal bias is that our society has become too vanilla. It is evolutions like this that put life into our existence.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by kdupreez »

"numbers dive" is the ever evolving quest to who can do the deepest bounce dive without getting killed. straight down, straight up.

chasing those depth "numbers"..

There are varations to the game where people do it with single AL80's do try get down as fast and up as fast withou incurring deco.. Some bounce dives are done on Air, some trimix, full-on deco... Some on Open Circuit, Some on re-breathers.. and some in open ocean, some in caves, etc. etc. etc.. Its all about chasing and owning the record "numbers" for that specific permutation.

In this case I think it was the deepest re-breather female dive number that they were after..

Like I said, to each his own passion and pleasure in life.. These kinds of numbers games is not for me personally though.

Very cool vid though.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by LCF »

I have no desire to do the dive they did -- no desire at all, not even a twinge. But then again, I don't want to dive the Governor, either.

But there are people who are motivated by projects -- they need a goal, and they enjoy the work and planning and preparation that goes into doing something extreme. I think the video makes it abundantly clear that this was not an idle whim, but required a ton of work and preparation, and a big support team. This was a dive done for reasons that don't connect for me -- but it was done RIGHT, with thought and care and the best understanding of what they were going to do (and the best gear they could get to do it) that they could have had.

In all of human history, people have pushed limits and they still do. Many things that are done by unaided humans could be done by machines -- no deep dive in open water could not be done by an ROV, I suspect. People free climb, or climb Everest without oxygen. I don't understand those people, but if they prepare as best can be done for things that test them as humans, I don't object to them doing them.

I thought the video was an elegant recounting of the story. Written narrative or a voice-overlay might have made it better, but certainly would have changed the feel.

My biggest reaction to watching it was to wonder if there were previously unknown species that they could have photographed or taken samples of, as I suspect little is known of the ecosystem at those depths.
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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by jerryehrlich »

There are personal and business marketing aspects to extreme dives. In the late 1990's the WKPP put DIR and the Hogarthian RIg on the map with some very extreme dives. It can be said that they were doing them to protect the aquifer, and not for adventure, but having met the principles, there may have been just a little score keeping involved :o)
When I was considering a gear configuration, why wouldn't I pick the one that worked for the WKPP two miles deep in a cave with an average depth of 300 feet? It sure as hell influenced me.
Several business ventures flowed from the WKPP project.
Altruism and adventure aside, ReVo, Vr3 and some of the other sponsors will benefit from this dive.

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Re: Uh.....wow. 652' dive.

Post by Mortuus »

Nice video!

Also this:
diverden wrote:Sometimes you just want to see what the tropical wall looks like down there at 650'. That's kind of why I spent $1,000s on tec-diving. It's fun to go deep even if it's just to see the bottom of a wall, past rec depth. Shit, some dudes scooter at 130 ft on trimix, for a mile and back, over the mud bottom at Alki because there's a line to follow. BECAUSE WE CAN and it's fun and challenging.
I know I for one hope to do a dive like that some day. It may be costly, but it would be one hell of an experience. I would LOVE to personally see what a wall looks like at 650', even if it looks the same as it does at 40'. Its for the experience, adventure, the planning, the challenge (including all the training required to get to that point), and the prospect of visiting a place, in the flesh, that very few (if any) people have been to before.
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