🎓 Dr. Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@social.cleverlibre.org

@Pat Picture of the chamber.

The part on the right is the moon pool they use for getting in and out at depth. The bit on the left usually has chairs and/or a bed along with some other tools which is where they stay for a few days as they decompress.

If you want to look it up it is called saturation diving because you are at such deep depths and for so long that your body tissues become saturated with dissolved pressurized gas.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

Sort of. commercial divers have a chamber lowered to them, they get in at depth. it is filled with air. and they are then raised to the surface while the chamber is pressurized to the depth they dove at. Then they stay in the chamber on board the ship for a few days as the pressure is very slowly decreased.

@lefarfadet

@Pat I agree personally but respect a persons personal choice to die or risk death as they wish.

Deep diving is tricky because it actually feels way more attainable than it is. That same dive by a commercial diver would actually be no problem. The thing is they would spend days in a chamber decoing rather than try to rush it over the course of 10 hours. Thats the only thing making one impossible and deadly and the other fairly normal.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

for sure.

FYI I was present a few years back on st. Croix when the depth record attempt was made and the diver died. I wasnt involved at all, just present. Very sad of course but I kinda expected it for various reasons.

The deco would have been something like 10+ hours and the deco tanks needed were lined up down the street during filling.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

Indeed. though keep in mind the absolute limits can only be reached by the absolutely most fit of people... Someone like me who is far from a fit athlete would probably die at the top of mt everest at 100% o2 where others would survive... even if i was warm and sitting still.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

For sure. In some ways thats worse. At depth you can always reduce one depth or another... At height, on the other hand, you cant ever add more than 100%. You can be at the top of mt Everest breathing 100% O2 and still faint.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

Indeed and that has a lot to do with how we blend gases. I already mentioned the O2 toxicity at depth that leads to seizure but there are more subtle concerns with other gases. Nitrogen for example in high concentrations and pressure will cause nitrogen narcosis. Feels very similar to being drunk in almost every respect. If you breath air much past about 100 feet or so and it will be so severe you cant function in some cases (depending on depth and sensitivity). Thats why we have trimix gas where a portion of nitrogen is replaced with helium, its mostly just to keep a clear head at depth.

@lefarfadet

@lucifargundam thanks for that info... I'd kinda be surprised if people didnt at the very least know who he was or about his show. I feel bad for anyone who didnt grow up with his show honestly.

@twotwenty Yes I've seen it (and countless other interviews and talks he gave)... the man was extraordinary for sure.

@Pat

Yea the training for full tec is significant. Soemthing like 20 certs to get there (ball park estimate). Took me 2 years to get to full tec if i compressed it down. Its serious stuff too because if, for example, I took even a single breath off the wrong tank it could cause me to have a seizure.

That said, honestly, its not quite as complicated as it sounds. You get into a routine, check your tanks, breath from the right one, know what to do and practice various failures, and you are good. As long as you dont get distracted and dont let your guard down I find its pretty safe. Almost all real injury came from people rushing and being careless which is all too common.

@lefarfadet

@twotwenty Thats cute.. I'm sure fred would have been honored. The man was nothing but positivist.

@Pat

On a deep dive, which implies a deco dive, we usually have a total of 5 tanks, 2 deco, 1 travel, and 2 tanks as "Back gas" (whats on our back and used at the bottom).

@lefarfadet

@Pat

Well in relity deco tanks and travel tanks.

Typically deco tanks are half tanks (half the size of a single tank). One is 100% O2 the other is 50% O2. You use them during your decompression phase where you surface, which isnt uncommon to take up to an hour. Typically you breath the 50% at a 70 foot stop and the 100% at a 20 foot stop.

The travel tank I just mention is used to get you between the hyperpoxic (>21% o2 oxygen) at 70 feet and the hypopoxic (<21%) gas used at depth.

@lefarfadet

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

#Quote #Quotes

@Pat

As a general rule (and this is contrary to conventional wisdom) I dive every dive as a solo dive even if someone is there. Yes in a pinch a person to help may save your life, but I'd never depend on someone despite the training to do so.

That said all tec divers, but specificially ones like me that are solo-certified, will have reduntant systems on them. Should something fail you always have a backup on you. We wear double tanks with two entierly separate connectors and cutoff valves and a third valve in the middle to isolate the tanks should it be needed. Each tanke then has a completely redundant primary and secondary regulator hooked up to it.

The only thing that isnt redundant is the deco tanks. That worries me personally and probably the only reason having a buddy in an emergency is a must (or at the minimum someone on land to signal to come help).

@lefarfadet

@Pat

Depends on where you dive. Even in crystal clear Caribbean waters there is no doubt its a little darker down there and the colors are muted. But there is more than enough light to operate without a flashlight and see in to the distance.

On the flipside if your diving in murky waters like NJ or something it would be pitch dark at that depth.

Anywhere I would care enough to go to 120m+ would be a place that is clear enough I wouldnt need a light. Not including caves of course, need a light for those at any depth.

You could just strap on the camera and forget it, but that tends to result in unusable video. I do often when i cave dibe attach it to my light which itself straps onto your hand in a way you dont need to grip it. That works well since your always pointing the light at the space ahead or whatever you look at.

@lefarfadet

@Pat

I cant recall now but I think the GOPRO lost videos more than the VIRB. I do recall much prefering the VIRB for dives in the past.

But yea im thinking on the bluehole I might hire someone to video tape me so I can demonstrate gas changes and other things I cant tape myself and then carrying another camera on me to tape the scenery.

Its a shame I dont have a camera that can go down to 120m. I do dives 120m+ sometime and it would be so cool to tape that but literally everything i have would implode at those depths.

@lefarfadet

@matrix god this is so true it hurts.