4729d30ef579485fa37f1669b03ec9e5

Liberty Sidemount. Solo und als BOB.

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 19:25:10 GMT

Sidemount Rebreather. Nur Aufwand oder die Antwort auf Vieles?

Sidemount Liberty. Warum, wieso und wofür?

Tauchgerechte Ernährung

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:15:50 GMT

Was ist die richtige Ernährung für ambitionierte Taucher? Was ist der "Respiratory Quotient" und wofür ist der gut? Was soll das ganze Gerede? Lasst mich doch einfach in Ruhe meine Pizza mit Pommes essen!

Hi Leute, hier mal was, das ans Eingemachte geht. An Euer Essen und Euren Bauch, respektive keinen Bauch. An Eure Fitness oder nicht Fitness. Wieviel davon ist notwendig, wann ist man zu wenig fit also wirklich zu wenig? Wer ist wann zu dick zum Tauchen und sollte was ändern? Ich bin seit fünf Jahren zertifizierter Ernährungsberater und verbringe im Schnitt 5-10 Stunden pro Woche mit diesem super nervigen, aber leider hochkomplexen Thema. Daher masse ich mir hier an, etwas dazu sagen zu können. Ich probiere seit Jahrzehnten echt viel aus und betrache mich auch ein wenig als "Biohacker". Ganz ehrlich, ab 50 muss man was machen sonst gehts dahin, aber " was machen/etwas beachten" müssten eigentlich alle.

Also:

Laut Schulmedizin ist ein prozentualer Fettgehalt von 21% und mehr bei Männern bereits extrem gesundheitsschädlich und bei Frauen alles über 27%. Nagelt mich und die Medizin hier nicht auf die Zahl fest. Schaut Euch im Internet die Photos zu den verschiedenen Prozenten an, dann wisst Ihr wo Ihr steht, ohne Umschweife. Unter uns, die 21% sind nicht sehr "fett", ne Wampe liegt meist bei 28% und drüber und da geht noch mehr. Dick sein ist nicht nur eine optische Entscheidung. Fettgewebe sondert permanent schädliche Stoffe ab, die entzündlich sind und auch einem möglichen Abnehmen entgegenwirken.

Permanent erhöhtes Insulin ist ein weiteres Problem bei Übergewicht, was wiederum zu Insulinresistenz führt, und die wiederum führt zu Diabetes 2. Viele von uns sind bereits "prädiabetisch" und wissen nix davon, es spielt nämlich nicht so sehr der akut Blutzucker oder der Langzeitzucker ( HbA1c) eine Rolle, sondern wieivel Insulin braucht Euer Körper,. um diesen Zuckerwert zu erreichen und so gut wie niemand macht einen nüchtern und Belastungs Insulinwert-Test.

Gut ich bin crazy, aber ich möchte es auch wissen und meine Insulinwerte sind hoch. Jahre des Vegetarismus und als "Raw-Foodler" mit vielen Green Smoothies mit vielen Bananen und Äpfeln und Orangen haben meinen Blutzuckerwerten deutlich geschadet, aber hey, ich dachte ich mache alles richtig, vegetarisch und mit viel rohem Gemüse und Salaten ...

Pustekuchen. Aporpos Kuchen, ... selber Effekt genau wie alle andere hochprozessiertern Kohlenhydrate (alles was lecker ist).

Aber Freunde: Ernährung ist hochindividuell, leider, d.h. was mir gut tut muss jemand anders noch lange nicht gut tun und umgekehrt.

Der Metabolismus ist wirklich nicht ganz einfach auszuloten, aber, wenn Ihr übergewichtig sein, ist immer was faul. Nein sehr wahrscheinlich liegt es nicht daran, dass ihr zuviel esst! Calories in - calories out ist zwar nicht ganz verkehrt, aber manche Kalorien werden von manchen verstoffwechselt und andere eben nicht. Der eine Körper will Glucose zur Energiegewinnung, der andere läuft auf Fett besser. Wie man nun so einen "Substrat-Wechsel" vollzieht ist keine ganz einfache Sache und es bedarf einer Beratung und viel Information, wenn man nicht aaaalllee Fehler selber machen will ( ich weiss wovon ich rede ...).

Eine sog. ketogene Ernährung hat mit Sicherheit hie und da ihre Vorteile aber es ist durchaus auch mit Sorgfalt vorzugehen. Schaden wird jetzt nicht gleich entstehen aber es kann kniffelig werden. Ein RespirationsQuotient von 0.7l CO2 in einem Fettstoffwechsel gegenüber 1.0l Co2 in einem Kohlenhydrate-Stoffwechsel ist zwar wünschenswert aber er ist auch nicht mit einem Fingerschnippen zu erreichen und es ist auch nicht gesagt, dass es sein muss, wirklich nicht.

Nichtsdestotrotz möchte ich hier darauf hinweisen, dass Übergewicht v.a. extremes Übergewicht und Tauchen keine gute Kombination sind und es meist ja auch bedeutet, dass man nicht fit ist. Ganz ehrlich, meist geht das einher, oder?

Also egal ob Ernährung oder Sport, Vo2 max oder ein "wie passt der Trock"i?

Kann ich meine Flossen selber anziehen, oder wie sehr pumpe ich beim Schwimmen gegen die Strömung, oder wie sehr muss ich arbeiten, um in der Höhle durch eine Engstelle zu kommen?

Und am Ende gehts ja sogar auch noch darum in der Badehose/Bikini halbwegs vernünftig auszusehen, weil das wiederum kann sich auf unser Selbstwertgefühl auswirken und gerade auch letzteres brauchen wir fürs technische Tauchen.

Wir brauchen es für die Motivation es tun zu wollen, trainieren zu wollen, eine Geisteshaltung des "never give up" zu finden.

Fazit:

Never give up! Findet Euch nicht ab, mit den Rückschlägen des Lebens, macht das beste aus Euch und Eurem Körper. Das Tauchen und der Wunsch nach Hochleistung und Gesundheit beim Tauchen motiviert Euch.

Und wenn Ihr mehr darüber wissen wollt, informiert Euch im Netz oder auf Youtube, oder noch einfacher, kontaktiert mich.

Ich weiss nicht alles, aber ich kann paar Tips in die richtige Richtung geben. Mit Sicherheit. Fang heute damit an.

Reisen mit dem rEvo

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 13:37:03 GMT

Wie verpackt man am besten ein rEvo für Flugreisen!

Wer wissen will wie man das rEvo am besten auf Reisen verpackt, schaut Euch mein Video auf dem youtube Channel "HBdiving" an. Hier der Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRzr5uvkeOQ

Wenn Tauchshop dann so.

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:31:42 GMT

Wenn ich einen Tauchshop öffnen wollen würde, dann sähe der auch so aus.

Schaut Euch das Video an! Coole Leute dort in Californ-I-A!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXMOoF44nPQ&feature=emb_title

Mir ging es beim Tauchen schon immer um das Zen des Daseins. Bring mich auch nur 2m unter Wasser und ich bin glücklich. Fühle mich eins mit Mutter Erde. Klar hilft es dabei warme feuchte Luft zu atmen und absolute Stille geniessen zu können. Daher meine Leidenschaft fürs Rebreathertauchen und auch gerne mal Solo. Oder gleich Apnoe. Ist zwar die Zeit da unten begrenzter, fühlt sich aber doppelt so lange an ;-). Finde den Laden, den sie gebaut haben echt lässig und das sind auch die Taucher mit den ich tauchen gehen möchte, oder die ich ausbilden will. Leute, die diese, unsere Welt geniessen, sie erhalten möchten und das Tauchen als Medium sehen genau das zu tun. Keep diving and Zen Out! HB

Letzter Sidemount Kurs war voll. Warum Sidemount ?

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 09:54:35 GMT

Alle gut drauf. Warum mach das Sidemounten so einen Spass?

Der letzte Sidemount-Kurs war voll. Oft werde ich von eingefleischten Backmountern gefragt, was denn der Grund für den Umstieg für die meisten sei. Denn, ja am Anfang kann es durchaus bei dem einen oder anderen bisschen dauern, bis sie mit dem Anlegen der Flaschen usw zurecht kommen. Und ja es ist erstmal bisschen Gefummel bevor man loslegen kann, zumindest die ersten 5-10 Male. Man sieht auch an dem Photo, das am ersten Tag vor dem ersten TG gemacht wurde, wer mit der Umstellung besser zurecht kam und wer noch so seine Zweifel hatte. Ich verstehe das auch immer, es ist, wie gesagt, eine Umstellung, nur wenn man dann im Wasser liegt und nichts drückt im Rücken und man ist leicht wie ein Fisch zaubert es meistens allen Teilnehmer schnell ein Lächeln in die Maske. Und wer schon mal Rückenschmerzen hatte weiss es zu schätzen nicht das Doppelgerät ins Wasser tragen zu müssen, sondern nur einzelne Flaschen. Auch fürs Solotauchen ist es geradezu prädestiniert, weil ich alle Ventile schnell und sicher erreiche und auch vor dem Tauchgang schon einer Sichtprobe unterziehen kann (Bubblecheck). Ausserdem ist eben die Grundkonfiguration schon Gas-redundant ( independent single).

Für viele Sporttaucher stellt ein Sidemount-Kurs einen grossen Schritt dar, weil schwebend gearbeitet werden muss und das Stage-Handling erlernt werden muss. Meiner Erfahrung nach geht das im SM-Kurs viel leichter und spielerischer, als wenn jemand schon mit einem Mords-Druck in einen Advanced Rec TX oder Adv. Nx Kurs kommt und genau weiss, auweia, gleich muss ich schwebend die Stage aufräumen, ablegen usw usf. Im Sidemount-Kurs lernt man das alles quasi nebenher. Naja nicht ganz, aber es kommt mit einem anderen Vorzeichen. Ganz einfach ist es natürlich dennoch nicht und Tarierfehler, die sich bis dahin eingeschlichen haben rächen sich auch im Sidemount Kurs, und nicht erst in späteren technischen Kursen. er

Aber oft sind die Teilnehmer froh so früh über ihre Fehler gestolpert zu sein und eben nicht erst später in Ihrer Karriere als Taucher.

Warum also sidemount? Weil es enorm flexibel ist, weil es in allen Situationen anwendbar ist, und das Wassergefühl einfach unübertrefflich ist. Wie Apnoetauchen nur ohne Luft anhalten. ;-) Es macht einfach einen riesen Spass. Und ganz ehrlich, ob Tekkie oder nicht, ob tief oder nicht, das Tauchen i.e. die Skills müssen beherrscht und trainiert werden, ohne das geht's nicht aber es soll uns in erster Linien auch ein Lächeln auf die Lippen zaubern ( nicht durch den hohen PN2 ...)

Schwebend diese Welt unter Wasser zu erleben in einer Konfiguration, die einem Spass macht anzulegen, und die auch ein wenig Können erfordert. Mir macht das Spass und das lehre ich auch.

Artx Plus Kurs. Limit 51m. Wahnsinns Kurs! Danke Jungs.

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 04:50:29 GMT

IANTD Advanced Rec Trimix Plus. Tiefe 51m.

Bestes Wetter und gute Laune. So kann man technische Kurse gut durchführen. Gute Skills und konzentriertes Training.

OC-Sidemount Kurs im Echinger.

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 19:59:21 GMT

Wieder zwei Sidemounter mehr im Wasser. Gratuliere.

Intensiver Kurs. Verschiedene Level erfordern manchmal verschiedene Massnahmen. Aber gut durchgebissen. Weiter so. Und immer weiter üben!

Sidemount Kreisel voll im Einsatz.

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 19:55:51 GMT

Für alle, die es noch nicht probiert haben. Sidemount Kreiseln macht dufte Spass.

Leider hab ich echt grad den Affen gefressen am Sidemount Kreiseln. Nicht, dass ich das rEvo tauschen möchte, neeeiin, der WOB vom rEvo ist um Längen besser, kein Vergleich. Dagegen kann man das neue Gerät in die Ecke stellen, aber Spass macht trotzdem. Zu schade, dass man es nicht unterrichten kann .... But keep it safe and simple. ( hat ja keiner was von der WOB gesagt.) Ich sage nur "richtige Wasserlage, richtige Work of Breath". Was zählt is im Wasser.

rEvo Schnuppern heute am Starni

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 19:51:19 GMT

Erfolgreiches rEvo Schnuppern heute mit Kim vom Bodensee.

Ich glaube das rEvo hat einen neuen Fan. Mal sehn, das draus wird aber heute hats schon echt Spass gemacht. Und hinterher für die Anreisende noch ein Guiding an der Allmanshauser Steilwand. Super wars. Danke Kim!

rEvo Crossover Finished!

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 19:41:35 GMT

Auch wenn er sagt, er braucht das rEvo "nur" für die engen Höhlen es hat einen Höllen Spass gemacht. Danke Georg für den guten Kurs!

Zweieinhalb Tage. 5 Tauchgänge. Bei uns 270 Minuten in water time. Geil wars.

Digging Deeper: A Fresh Case for Deep Stops

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:11:00 GMT

by Reilly Fogarty
Header photo by Jong Moon Lee.

For nearly two decades a vocal minority in the diving community has been gathering their pitchforks and protesting against deep stops, and anyone who would commit the thought-crime of considering them. The data has appeared to legitimize this pursuit, with several studies failing to confirm benefits or indicating negative outcomes with the addition of deeper decompression stops. Endless debates among academics and divers alike ultimately made it taboo to promote deep stops in the North American dive community.

Across the pond the backlash against those who would perform their decompression marginally deeper has been similarly negative but rather less dramatic. Whether that contributed to the ongoing research in deep stops is hard to say, but some theories have indicated that deep stops may yet provide value. Data from some of the biggest names in diving research has indicated a potential decrease in decompression risk with some profiles, and while the data is far from conclusive, it warrants a closer look.

Dr. Costantino Balestra and JP Imbert are two proponents of continued research, and their research seems to show a correlation between the addition of deep stops and a decrease in post-dive bubbling in some cases. Here’s what we know:

DIY, This Is Not

Most discussions about deep stops veer into the realm of specific practices. All too often technical divers see promising research results and apply derivations of the latest hypotheses immediately. In the case of deep stops, this usually manifests in the manual addition of deeper decompression stops either during their dive planning or on the fly. It is theoretically possible that Balestra’s and Imbert’s hypotheses are correct, and the added deep stops might happen to coincide with their recommendations in some fashion, but the typical outcome is an increase in bottom time and, potentially, in decompression risk.

On-the-fly implementation of theoretically suggested practices was common enough that a paper from 2011 aimed to study the models divers were modifying rather than finding the ideal application for deep stops (Cronje, 2011). Research to determine if deep stops have any benefit whatsoever is still being performed, so the range and specific applications of those stops are still a ways off.

Even just the three papers cited at the end of this article show three separate deep stop protocols, and those are carefully calculated protocols designed for research purposes. The reality is that we don’t yet know enough for divers to be adding these to their profiles. Confounding the issue further, there is so much about decompression science that we don’t yet understand that any benefit or trouble from the addition of these stops might be caused by factors that appear unrelated.

Crunching the Numbers

Broaching a topic that many consider to be put to rest long ago is tough, and it requires excellent data. Balestra and Imbert point to several papers as background and supporting documents for their ongoing research. Each of these focused on the addition of a decompression stop significantly deeper than the first indicated by their decompression model of choice and looked at the rate of DCS incidence in the participants. The first used a stop added at half the maximum depth (Cronje, 2011), another added a stop at 50 feet following a test dive to 25 m/82 feet (Bennett, 2007), and a third used a range of ascent rates and compared a each to a range of deep and shallow stop protocols following a 25 m/82 ft dive. (Marroni, 2004).

The Cronje paper was actually written in response to end-user modification of dive tables to add deep stops at half the maximum depth with anecdotal or Doppler evidence to support them. Significant debate over the efficacy of the modifications at various depths ensued, and the aim was to determine whether those modifications put divers at risk for spinal DCS. An animal model was applied; it involved compressing groups of rats to 3.5-6.0 atm for one hour and then using a 7-minute decompression schedule with and without a 5-minute stop at half the maximum depth.

Interestingly, this profile is known to cause spinal DCS in anesthetized rats, but no rats displayed symptoms of DCS. Thus another trial was conducted to determine the threshold for DCS in the subject participants. This trial involved compressing 11 animals to 4.93 atm (without results) and another 14 animals to 5.4 and 5.9 atm with and without deep stops, also without results. Across all models there were two deaths and two breathing abnormalities (both in the group compressed to 5.4 atm without deep stops) and zero instances of spinal DCS or other symptoms. It’s difficult to point to a reason for the apparent fortitude of these rats, but the lack of symptom evolution in any subject — using a proven DCS-causing profile — illustrates the wide variability in DCS onset.

The Bennett and Marroni papers had somewhat greater success with their subjects, and their work provides a foundation for an ongoing interest in deep stops among researchers like Balestra and Imbert. The Bennett paper compounded on prior work indicating a correlation between deep stops and a decrease in precordial Dopper-detectable bubbles. This paper focused on optimizing the stop times from the initially applied 5-minute stop at 15 m/50 ft following a dive to 25 m/82 ft with an ascent rate of 9 m/30 ft of seawater (fsw) per minute.

Subjects were asked to perform 20- and 25-minute dives to 25 m/82 ft with an ascent rate of 10 msw/33 fsw/min and apply one of 15 profiles with stop times ranging from 1 to 10 minutes at 15 m/50 ft and a second shallower stop performed at 6 m/20 ft. Decompression stress was estimated with the use of precordial Doppler bubble counts. Data indicated that deep stops of 1 minute actually increased bubble counts, leading to the greatest bubble evolution of any profile tested, but a 2.5-minute deep stop followed by a shallow stop of 1-5 minutes led to the lowest bubble counts.

Increasing time at the shallow stop did not measurably decrease bubble count. The results led the researchers to recommend a deep stop of “at least 2½ minutes” at 15 m/50 ft in addition to a stop at 6 m/20 ft for 3-5 minutes following dives to 25 m/82 ft, but the authors noted that they could not extrapolate those recommendations beyond those profiles without further study.

The Marroni paper also relied on precordial Doppler bubble counts to measure decompression stress, although its focus was more specifically on spinal and neurological DCS. The authors of the paper hypothesized that introducing deep stops would reduce bubble formation specifically in fast tissues and result in a decreased risk of neurological DCS, measurably by a lower bubble count. 181 dives to 25 m/82 ft were performed by 22 volunteers, with bottom times of 20 and 25 minutes and 3.5-hour surface intervals. Eight ascent profiles were utilized with ascent rates of 3, 10, 18 msw/min (10, 33 and 60 fsw/min) combined with no stops, a shallow stop at 6 m/20 ft, and a deep stop at 15 m/50 ft plus a shallow stop at 6 m/20 ft.

The greatest bubble counts were found in divers utilizing the slowest ascent rate, while the lowest were found in divers using the 10 msw/min (33 fsw/min) ascent rate with a 5-minute stop at both 25 m/50 ft and 6 m/20 ft. These divers showed nearly half the bubble load of the control group at 5 minutes post-dive and 70% of the bubble load at 10 minutes postdive. As with the Bennett paper, the researchers could not extrapolate the data to other profiles but did find the use of deep stops correlated with a reduced overall bubble load.

Decompression research is a tough field because of the variability inherent to individual subjects and symptom onset, but that’s no surprise given the breadth of factors involved. It’s disheartening to wade through a decade of research just to discover that we have, at best, anecdotal data on the application of deep-stops, but that’s where things currently stand. There is significant data that indicates that deep stops in a small range of researched profiles may decrease bubble load, and more research is warranted.

What we don’t yet know is how the deep stop profiles compare to profiles using the same decompression time or tissue gradients but at shallower depths, how those deep stops affect decompression at technical depths, or how they can be applied in the field. The nature of the work makes it difficult and time-consuming to collect research subjects and data, and it’s unlikely that we’ll have answers to these questions in the immediate future, but the possibilities are fascinating to consider.

Additional Resources:

Decompression, Deep Stops and the Pursuit of Precision in a Complex World:
https://gue.com/blog/decompression-deep-stops-and-the-pursuit-of-precision-in-a-complex-world/

References:

Reilly Fogarty is a team leader for risk mitigation initiatives at Divers Alert Network (DAN). When not working on safety programs for DAN, he can be found running technical charters and teaching rebreather diving in Gloucester, Mass. Reilly is a USCG licensed captain whose professional background includes surgical and wilderness emergency medicine as well as dive shop management.

The post Digging Deeper: A Fresh Case for Deep Stops appeared first on InDepth .

Super redundante Lampe. 4 Stunden Brenndauer.

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 09:50:16 GMT

Tolle Lampe besonders fürs Sidemounten, egal ob mit dem Kreisel oder OC! Kabel nervt.

Hi Leute, ich will Euch hier eine Neuheit ( naja) vorstellen zumindest in dieser Montage von DIVETEC. Thomas Winkelmann baut uns da eine super Lampe aus zwei Tilly Tek zusammen. Das Ding ist Hammer. Bis 200m, 4 Stunden Brenndauer und mächtig Licht.

Vor allem: kein Kabel. Neueste Akkutechnik machts möglich. Grade beim Sidemounten nervt das Kabel, ich hab auch den Akku sonst quer am Hintern trotzdem, wenns ohne Kabel geht ists besser. Auch wieder eins weniger, das kaputt gehen kann. Meine Meinung. Wenn Ihr überHBDiving bestellt gibts nochmal einen Rabatt! Melde euch per email bei mir.

Sauerstoff Toxizität Teil II

183:818323273 (Harry Blank) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 19:20:12 GMT

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Cameras Kill Cavers… Again

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 10:55:00 GMT

By Natalie Gibb
Header photo by Natalie Gibb

I squinted my eyes against 30,000 lumens of blinding light aimed directly into my mask. Somewhere in that burning star was my model, hovering expertly below crystalline stalactites, fragile as glass. I had schlepped seven lights into the passage and balanced them precariously around the chamber where they would not leave marks on the cave. It was beautiful, but after a few minutes, neither of us could see very well.

Considering that cave diving is a navigation-intense style of diving, it makes sense that temporarily blinding oneself with bright lights while engaged in a task-loading activity such as photography can have disastrous results. In this case, I managed to back over a jump line while repositioning myself. When the shot was finished, I turned into the cave along the jump line, thinking I was turning into the direction of exit. I glanced at my compass (a habit whenever I make a turn) and looked at the cave in front of me. Whoops, wrong direction, wrong formations! I thought to myself, and finished turning back to the mainline. There was no incident, just a split second moment when I turned the wrong direction, thinking I was pointed to the exit.

Yet, how many cave divers visiting Mexico’s caves know the lines as well as I do? My tiny mistake had zero negative consequences because I was shooting in a cave I have dived well over 100 times. I recognized the jump line because I have swum down it many times, and even though the mainline twists and turns, I know the cave well enough to know the exact direction of exit in that section, and I have a safety protocol to implement that knowledge.

A visiting cave diver making the same mistake would likely swim down the jump line away from his exit, at least until he hit a landmark indicating that he was going the wrong way. Even then, his safety would depend upon his noticing that landmark or reference point, and then having the humility to admit he made a mistake and turn around before it was too late. If he continued to fuss with his camera, he would have no chance.

Cameras Killed Cave Divers

Even when working with weaker lights, using a camera in a flooded cave is extremely distracting in an environment where one cannot afford to be distracted. Most, if not all, of the modern cave diving accidents in Mexico involve cameras and navigational mistakes as a contributing factor.

The famous Kalimba accident over ten years ago saw four divers follow an arrow away from their exit toward Grand Cenote, which they could not reach. Two of the divers had cameras. In the same cave, a more recent accident involved two divers with a camera and stages, who over-breathed their tanks while shooting, and then similarly followed arrows away from their point of entry and stages towards Grand Cenote.

A cavern diving incident in Calavera a few years back involved tourists with GoPros who swam off the line. Two years ago, in Grand Cenote once again, an instructor shot photos of a recently certified cave diver on the Cuzen Nah loop before they were separated, and one of them perished.

What’s going on? I think the caves in Mexico are so spectacularly beautiful that any photographer or videographer with functioning eyeballs will find themselves inspired to document the beauty of the cenotes. Add to this the improvements in modern photography gear (you don’t need to be a professional photographer to get good cave images) and the dopamine rush of receiving hundreds of “likes” on Instagram—which only reinforces someone’s ego and sense of identity as a badass cave diver—and it’s clear why cave photography is becoming more and more popular.

Yet many of these people are only visiting our caves and do not have the experience in cave diving, the familiarity with Mexican cave navigation, or the understanding of their particular shooting site to safely take photos in the caves. Taking photos when new to the environment has certainly proven to be a recipe for disaster. In many cases, not only do the divers capture fabulous images, they helpfully document their own demise for the accident analysis team. Do not underestimate Mexico’s shallow, warm caves.

Is Safe Cave Photography Possible?

It certainly is! The main issues with cameras and cave diving are distraction and navigational errors. There are ways to avoid this, but no quick fixes. Here are four suggestions for safe cave photography:

Where Art Thou Accident Analysis?

Why don’t we hear more about cameras killing divers? How is this not taught in basic cave courses? Perhaps it’s because no one talks about their mistakes anymore. When was the last time a formal accident report was released to the cave diving public? In our modern, politically charged and lawsuit-oriented society, stating that a cave diver made a mistake resulting in his death seems to be akin to saying the person deserved to die.

The only way cave diving became reasonably safe in the first place was through accident analysis—cave divers observed how others died and then decided, well, guess I won’t do that. These days, not only does cave diving lack accident analysis, it lacks incident analysis, the review of non-fatal mistakes. How valuable would it be if cave divers, experienced and novice alike, publicly announced their mistakes to the world? If you read that it’s important to check all your gear before every dive, it sounds like a reasonable idea, so you might do it. However, if your wreck diving hero admits he got complacent and ended up with a total light failure because his back-up lights had low batteries and he didn’t check them, it has a different and more powerful effect.

Having observed my own mistakes while filming and shooting, as an experienced cave diver with over 5,000 cave dives, I can say that what keeps me safe is vigilance and a strict adherence to safety protocols. In short, doing everything right except for my one small mistake has been what’s saved me. I have lived to tell my tales, but I will be the first to admit I am not infallible. I have missed a T intersection, swam onto a jump line while filming, and knowingly swum into an unstable cave.

Understanding that real divers, even ones more experienced than you, can and do make silly mistakes serves as a valuable reminder that no diver is infallible. This improves diver safety by keeping us vigilant against complacency and the normalization of deviant behavior. Yet, these days, it’s almost professional suicide to admit one’s mistakes so that others will learn from them, and as a community cave diving is weaker for it. Instead of ridiculing mistakes, we should thank those who admit their errors and endeavor to learn from the mistakes of others.

How many cave diving accident reports have you read recently? I don’t mean message board rumors or third-person synopsis, I mean the original, impartial report? Have cave training agencies actually run the statistics recently and analyzed incidents in the light of modern cave diving, with the advent of all the modern technology most divers use in the cave? I think perhaps that information is going missing somewhere, and one piece of that information is the prevalence of cameras in cave diving accidents.

I have been pretty vocal about what I consider the sixth rule of accident analysis which in my opinion should join the other classical five rules taught in cave diving courses. Cameras are frequently a contributing factor in cave diving fatalities, distracting divers from navigation, gas management, and a host of other safety concerns that they would normally adhere to, and I think it’s time that we talked about it.

Additional Resources

Famed explorer Sheck Exley’s original work on cave diving accident analysis, “Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival, ” is available as free download by the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section.

The Five Rules of Accident Analysis

When Cameras Ca n Save Lives

Natalie L Gibb’s passion in life is underwater cave exploration and conservation. With her exploration partner Vincent Rouquette-Cathala, she has led her team to discover over 20 previously unknown cave systems in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, mapping more than 80 kilometers of cave passageways. She is a public speaker, author, photographer, and videographer, and a member of the Woman Diver’s Hall of Fame. Natalie is co-owner of Under the Jungle, a cave diver training center in Mexico, and a TDI Full Cave Instructor.

The post Cameras Kill Cavers… Again appeared first on InDepth .

Decompression Bubbles

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 12:15:35 GMT

Newsflash.

Wissen ist besser, als nicht wissen.

Sehr guter Artikel über Dekompression, eines meiner Hauptinteressengebiete.

link auf Bild

Sidemount und Rebreather

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 12:15:35 GMT

Sidemount Kreisel Projekt

Wir bauen uns selber einen SM Kreisel. Langsam is er fertig. Jetzt muss er nur noch tauchen ...

Bin ihn die letzten Tage ausgiebig getaucht. Langsam hab ich die Wasserlage vom Rebi raus. Sidemount Rebreather sind, jedenfalls im Eingenbau, eine kniffelige Sachen. Das wird jeder bestätigen können, der das jemals versucht hat. Der Atemkomfort reicht von eigentlich sehr ordentlich bis "richtig sch ....", ich ersticke. Man kann also durchaus versuchen sich so ein Teil selber irgendwie zusammenzubauen, aber man muss wissen, dass die Testphase, die die ( sehr teuren) Geräte auf dem Markt schon ausgiebig hinter sich haben, mit dem eigenen dann erst beginnt. Nervig und auch teuer, allein die richtige Loop-Länge herauszufinden ist mühsam und kostet Geld. Man darf dabei auch nicht nur das Geld für das Produkt und das Porto (gerne aus England) rechnen, sondern auch die unzähligen Fahrten an den See, Stunden an Zeit usw usf. Gut, es macht auch Spass und es vertieft das Verständnis eines Rebreathers gehörig. Und so ein mCCR vertieft auch nochmal gehörig die Skills. Das Ding bringt einen wirklich um, wenn man nicht aufpasst. Better watch out! Im Ernst, constant mass flow, hin oder her. So nen 0,11er Partial Druck macht man nicht lange mit. Dass so ein Gerät keine CE hat muss ich glaub ich hier nicht gross erwähnen aber wollte es gesagt haben. Wer sich für Sidemount-Rebreather interessiert kann mir gerne einen Kommentar hinterlassen und wir oder eben auch Fragen. Allerdings gibt es Taucher, die da noch deutlich mehr drüber wissen ;-).Trotzdem könne wir hier gerne über den Sinn und Unsinn von SM -Rebreather diskutieren, v.a. wenns dann Richtung BOB geht, wovon ich noch weit entfernt bin. Freu mich über Eure Kommentare, ( hoffe ich jedenfalls mal : -))

The Best of InDepth in 2019

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 01:31:00 GMT

InDepth just completed its full first year as a blog, and what a year it has been! Over the year, we’ve published 92 stories covering exploration, diving science and medicine, technology, education, conservation and technical diving culture. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you, our readers, for your interest and support, and also thank our illustrious contributors who made the blog possible. To celebrate our first year, we wanted to look back on the most popular stories of the year. Here are the Ten Most Read Stories of 2019.

1. Gradient Factors in a Post-Deep Stops World

World-recognized decompression physiologist and cave explorer David Doolette explains the new evidence-based findings on “deep stops,” and shares how and why he sets his own gradient factors. His recommendations may give you pause to stop (shallower).

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2. How Deep is Deep? The 20 Deepest Tech Shipwreck Dives and How They Compare to Dives in the 1990s

The advent of mixed gas technology in the late 1980s/early 1990s followed by the introduction of closed-circuit rebreathers a decade later has enabled technical divers to explore increasingly deeper shipwrecks. How much deeper?Here InDepth editor Michael Menduno examines the 30 deepest technical shipwreck exploration dives as viewed today, including who did them and how, compared with the 10 deepest dives from the 1990s. The results will likely amaze you. One data point: The deepest wreck dive in the 1990s, that being the SS Edmund Fitzgerald , aka ‘The Fitz,” laying at 529 ffw/162 mfw, is now #11 when viewed from today. That is to say that the top 10 deepest shipwreck dives today were all conducted after 2000.

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3. Decompression, Deep Stops and the Pursuit of Precision in a Complex World

In this four-part series, Global Underwater Explorers’ (GUE) founder and president Jarrod Jablonski explores the historical development of GUE decompression protocols, with a focus on technical diving and the evolving trends in decompression research.

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4. GUE Configuration vs. Jacket-style Configuration

In this five-episode equipment series, GUE Instructor Dorota Czerny discusses the differences between a GUE-configured equipment set , consisting of a single tank, backplate, harness, wing, and long hose regulator system, and a jacket-style system that is most common in recreational diving. The comparison covers general components and goes into detail about streamlining, fit, and function; weighting options; managing out-of-gas situations in the two regulator configurations; and offers some advice for GUE-trained recreational divers.

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5. A New Look at In-Water Recompression (IWR)

What is your best option if you or a team-mate get bent at a remote diving location, that is more than two hours from a chamber? If you are prepared—that means having the right equipment and know-how—the new consensus among the hyperbaric docs is to treat with In-Water Recompression (IWR).

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6. High-Pressure Problems: Pulmonary Edema in Technical Divers

If you don’t know much about immersion pulmonary edema (IPE) have a read! This not-well-understood disorder is on the rise and can not only effect tech divers, but seriously ruin your day if you’re unaware and unprepared to deal with it. DAN. Tekkie Reilly Fogarty has the deets!

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7. No-Fault DCI? The Story of My Wife’s PFO After She Kept Getting Bent

What does it mean if you keep getting bent, even when you follow all the rules? Avid tech diver James Fraser recounts his and his wife’s Deana journey of discovery that led them to realize she had a PFO. Does any of this sound familiar? Read on!

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8. How Record-Breaking Scuba Dives are Hurting our Sport

The recent death of 41-year-old technical diver, Sebastian Marczewski, aka “Iron Diver,”
during a failed attempted world record scuba dive to 333 m/1093 ft in Lake Garda, Italy, highlighted the dangers of deep diving record-setting. The tragedy occurred just after GUE instructor Dimitris Fifis had penned an opinion piece for InDepth exploring the nature and motivation of deep diving record-setting. Fifis explained that he wrote the post in order to get a better personal understanding of what motivates divers to set deep diving records. His post was motivated in part by the deaths of two other technical divers attempting deep records. Here are his thoughts and suggestions.

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9. Density Discords: Understanding and Applying Gas Density Research

Do you know the density of your breathing gas at your planned working depth? New research conducted by Gavin Anthony and Simon J. Mitchell suggests that you better! A gas density of 6 grams/liter (g/l)—the equivalent of diving nitrox 32 at 110 ft/34 m, or trimix 18/35 at 200 ft/61 m—significantly increased the risk of dangerous CO2 retention, resulting in test subjects experiencing problems at three times the rate of divers using gas even 1 g/l less dense. Divers Alert Network risk mitigation leader Reilly Fogarty explains.

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10. Incident Report: Lost in a Cave

How could four experienced divers get lost in a cave? Human nature got in the way. Human factors pundit Gareth Lock analyzes the factors that led to this “Oh S***” moment and how they might apply to your diving; they are much more common than you think.

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The post The Best of InDepth in 2019 appeared first on InDepth .

My Journey Into Sidemount Rebreathers

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 06:34:00 GMT

By Becky Kagan Schott

When I began diving twenty-five years ago I heard the phrase, “A good diver is always learning,” and in many ways I’ve lived by that motto throughout my entire diving career. I’ve been humbled underwater, and I’ve had days when all of my training and years of experience have come together, allowing me to create inspiring imagery with my camera. I wouldn’t be able to do that without experience and the thirst for knowledge. Leave your ego out of it. I mean, we all have one, but the environment doesn’t care if we are male, female, black, white, young, or old, so your ego won’t help you much, but being humble will. I practice skills frequently. I teach others to stay sharp and pass along my knowledge and most of all, even as an accomplished tech instructor, I am always finding new techniques and trying new things. I still take classes and seek mentorship from more experienced divers. I am always learning.

A few years ago while shooting a cave exploration documentary in the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas with Brian Kakuk and Brett Hemphill, I found myself back on open-circuit sidemount, although I prefer to be on closed-circuit rebreather (CCR). We had several stages, and I pushed a large Red Epic Camera along with me. I find open-circuit sidemount to be the most difficult configuration for me to film in. Constantly checking gauges, changing regulators, and moving tanks around, while trying to keep the camera steady and focus on the environment around me, as well as simultaneously directing a team of divers, is challenging. I’ve always enjoyed diving sidemount, and after that shoot I had a handful of other projects that required yet more sidemount diving.

I’ve always felt there is no reason to move on until you have a need to, and after twelve years on backmount CCR, I finally found I needed another tool, a sidemount rebreather. I began a yearlong process of looking at different units, demo’ing some, and talking to explorers and people way more experienced than I in sidemount CCR. For over a decade, one of my best dive buddies, Evan Kovacs, dived a Prism Topaz sidemount unit, and several other dive buddies use them, so I wasn’t that unfamiliar with them. I had a list of options that were important to me, and I began to talk to manufacturers and to watch as more divers started making the transition.

In the end, I chose the Divesoft Liberty sidemount unit because I liked that it is neutrally buoyant and can be clipped off, just like a traditional sidemount bottle with no fuss. It has both onboard diluent and oxygen (O ₂ ) cylinders, a water trap in the counterlung that sits up high against your chest, a 5.5 lb radial scrubber (short), and its clean design with the Manual Addition Valves (MAV) running up the loop to the Diver Supply Value (DSV) (i.e., mouthpiece), which makes adding diluent or O ₂ manually very easy. This is a clean design, and while I’m shooting I’m not fumbling around looking for any MAVs. There is also an Auto Diluent Valve (ADV) that can be activated by just breathing, if you’re in a head-down position or if you need more loop volume. I found that to be really nice for descents. The unit has sophisticated electronics that some divers may like or dislike.

I thought it might be overwhelming, but a lot of thought has gone into everything on this rebreather. I like the built-in checklist and the ability to make a lot of personal adjustments in the menu system. The calibration is easy, and the unit walks you through predive checks, including positive and negative checks, even showing millibars of pressure. I also like that it’s sold ready to dive with little tinkering. Travel is important to me, and the unit is just 50 lbs/23 kg in a pelican case (minus tanks). Lastly, it has several modes that include CCR, manual CCR (mCCR), and a bailout rebreather mode that I may use down the road.

Putting It to the Test

I was nervous about how I’d feel on a sidemount rebreather after years of diving various backmount units. I put the DSV in my mouth and opened it up—at first a little awkward because I was standing on the steps at Ginnie Springs. I went horizontal in the water and descended into the basin. I immediately felt comfortable and made a few small adjustments, like moving the unit to a D-ring further back and adjusting the loop hoses into a more comfortable place under my arm. I couldn’t believe how well it breathed and the ease of activating the ADV or manually adding gas using the MAVs.

After becoming certified on it, I spent another 15 hours practicing skills in open water and then another 20 hours in the first 500 ft/152 m of Devil’s Cave system, just practicing and getting used to the idiosyncrasies of the unit and pulling random drills on myself. Changing set points is easy; I like the vibrating to give you alerts, and the Heads Up Display (HUD) and buddy light are easily seen. I took a camera, and it felt really natural to me. I had fun learning this new tool and gliding through the cave, and it felt really streamlined and clean. It was actually the most comfortable I’ve ever felt in sidemount. I used it with my Hollis Katana harness, and everything trimmed out nicely and felt comfortable in the water.

I spent more time with it back home in Dutch Springs. That was fun, considering it was March and the water temperatures were a balmy 37 degrees Fahrenheit or 3 degrees Celsius. I had no issues with dry gloves, but everything did take me a little longer to get together in colder water, wearing thicker undergarments. I had added Shearwater transmitters and an offboard gas addition supply, since it didn’t come with any. That’s important to me, and I easily added one to the unit. I added the transmitters to clean it up because I found it difficult to read the gauges or button gauges under my arm.

A Belize cave project suddenly came up at the end of March. This is exactly the reason I wanted a sidemount rebreather and a perfect project with friends. I’d been to Giant Cave and Winter Wonderland on several past trips, so I was also somewhat familiar with the systems. I decided I wouldn’t change my configuration too much and continued to dive drysuit, but instead of a steel tank, I went with an AL 80 in the warm water since the unit is neutral.

Giant Cave is an advanced cave system that’s located off the island of Caye Caulker in Belize, and the entry is in the ocean just off a dock. It’s fascinating in many ways, but one thing that can’t be timed is when it’s siphoning or springing. It siphoned every time I entered the cave that week, making visibility less than 2 ft/0.6 m. It’s a challenge because you drop down a hole that narrows into a small fissure crack that you have to go through head down about 40 ft/12m into another open chamber before squeezing through about 100 ft/30 m of restriction that goes up and down sandhills and twists and turns.

Luckily the jellyfish weren’t there this time so they weren’t siphoned in with us! I’ve done this entry almost a dozen times in the past but never in a siphon when I couldn’t see, and never on the sidemount rebreather. I knew the head-down position was going to be tough, and breathing might be hard during that time. I went for it and before getting to the bottom, in no visibility, I got tangled in the line. Inverted and unable to breathe, I signaled to my dive buddy and safety diver Anthony Tedeschi for some assistance. He was on a KISS Sidekick but he’s been diving it for over four years. He helped me out, and I caught my breath as I descended less than gracefully into the open chamber below. I caught my breath easily since the ADV activated, and I manually added diluent to get a proper loop volume. At this point, a lot of sediment was getting sucked into the cave, but we could see the line, and we slowly followed it in, passing crabs, sponges, and little coral pieces. Once through the restriction, the cave opened up into a huge room, and the visibility was clear. We had a good dive and shot some great video that day.

Exiting the cave was a similarly uncomfortable experience, as now I had to go vertical again, but in a head-up position where all the gas wanted to push its way out of my mouth. It’s a different feeling, trying to hold it in and only let out little bits. If you let out too much, you’ll drain the counterlung. The head-up and head-down positions are the biggest things to get used to. Going slightly head up or down is no problem, but being vertical is more challenging.

Each day the entry and exit became easier as I committed to the entry and just went without hesitating. Once inside the huge, clear cave system, I could easily stay in horizontal trim, which is where the sidemount rebreather performs best.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy I took the Liberty with me to Belize for this project. It’s probably the most challenging cave I’ll ever take it to, and it was a great tool for this particular shoot. We dived for a few hours each day, and I’d usually have only a few tablespoons of water in the counterlung and nothing in the canister. After a week in two different sea caves, both sidemount entrances, I was very happy to have gained experience that was totally different than my dives in the Florida caves on the unit. My plan is to continue to gain hours on it, in all types of environments, so that when opportunities arise, I’m ready and more confident. It’s important to me to have the tools that can help me do my job as an underwater image maker and be safe while doing it. I’m looking forward to putting more time on the sidemount CCR and taking it to some awesome locations this year. So far it’s been a fun new journey practicing, and enjoying silent sidemounting.

Becky is a five-time Emmy award-winning underwater cameraman and photographer whose work appears on major networks including National Geographic , Discovery Channel and Red Bull . She specializes in capturing images in extreme underwater environments including caves, under ice, and deep shipwrecks. Her projects have taken her all over the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic and many exciting locations in between, filming new wreck discoveries to cave exploration and even diving cage-less with great white sharks. Her biggest passion is shooting haunting images of deep shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. Becky is a frequent contributor to numerous dive magazines, both US-based and international, and her photography has been used in books, museums, and advertising. She is also a technical diving instructor and leads expeditions all over the planet. www.LiquidProductions.com www.MegDiver.com

The post My Journey Into Sidemount Rebreathers appeared first on InDepth .