UTD rock bottom

[Paulicarp]

How is "Rock Bottom" defined in team diving? With one buddy Rock Bottom is the minimum amount of gas you need to get yourself and your buddy safely to the surface on your own gas. If you've got a team of 3, then is "Rock Bottom" simply the team having a sum total of enough gas to get the whole team to the surface?

[LCF]

That's a good question. The answer is that each team member should carry enough gas to get himself and one teammate to the surface, making all appropriate stops. It is preferable not to have to hand off the OOG diver to another teammate on ascent, if it can be avoided. However, with the other teammate ALSO carrying reserves, should there be a delay anywhere in the process of establishing the air-share and beginning the ascent, the other teammate CAN take over responsibility for the OOG diver if it is necessary. (This is more likely to occur in something like a cave, where thirds really isn't conservative at all, if you go through the numbers.)

Some other team resources can be distributed (not everyone may need to carry a spare mask, for example) but gas is carried by everybody.

[BDub]

Lynne explained it very well Paul.

In short, we don't plan for multiple failures...just the worst case scenario of a single failure

[Paulicarp]

who's RMV do you use?

[Pez7378]

who's RMV do you use?

I'd use yours!

[BDub]

who's RMV do you use?

Base it on the diver with the highest rmv. If that's not known, its generally based on 1.0 for each diver

[Pez7378]

It's probably safe to assume a maximum working RMV of about 1.0 for anyone on the team.

[BDub]

This is as good a place as any...

For anyone interested, I'm planning giving a free gas planning and mangement discussion on Wednesday April 8 at NWSD.

Its been a while since I've done one, and given the recent events I figured the timing was good.

PM me if you're interested.

[Grateful Diver]

This is as good a place as any...

For anyone interested, I'm planning giving a free gas planning and mangement discussion on Wednesday April 8 at NWSD.

Its been a while since I've done one, and given the recent events I figured the timing was good.

PM me if you're interested.

That's good to know ... in the past few days I've gotten several e-mails and PM's asking when my next one was. Since I've not currently got one in the plans, I now know where to refer them to.

Also nice to see that the way I'm teaching this stuff is consistent with what y'all are doing. I'm currently running a Deep Diver specialty and have been getting the same questions from my students (and providing the same answers).

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Paulicarp]

who's RMV do you use?

I'd use yours!

The problem is I woke up this morning at the end an intellectual cul-de-sac: I can't trust my life to anyone foolish enough to dive with me!! :shootself:

[Sockmonkey]

The problem is I woke up this morning at the end an intellectual cul-de-sac: I can't trust my life to anyone foolish enough to dive with me!! :shootself:

I think you just hit the nail on the team diving head.... two to three dumbasses often make one whole smart diver.

Check out this previous discussion that covers tank factors... rock bottom... basic scuba math... and a couple good links to Spatman and Peter's RB tables.

There's also this somewhat old, confusing, poorly organized, but still highly relevant document from the old UTD: Battlefield Calculations

-Eric

[Nwbrewer]

It's probably safe to assume a maximum working RMV of about 1.0 for anyone on the team.

I used to use 1.0 for anyone. Certain recent dives have led me to use 2.9 unless I know the diver.

[Fishstiq]

It's probably safe to assume a maximum working RMV of about 1.0 for anyone on the team.

I used to use 1.0 for anyone. Certain recent dives have led me to use 2.9 unless I know the diver.

Whoever could you be referring to Jake?

[LCF]

I hope you weren't planning 2.9 tonight . . .

[Nwbrewer]

Nope, not tonight, but Chris and Joe know who...

[CaptnJack]

BTW in case there's some ambiguity, there really isn't a "rock bottom" in a horizontal overhead environment like a cave. There are different guesses used to decide how much gas to reserve.