That was a sad read. Essentially the hole in the earth version of mount Everest.
The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
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Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#12https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo Interview with Tarek Omar (the diver rescuer in the article) and location shot. Much better than reading the article.
The article was fantastic. It brought everything to life in a way video essays can't. Video crushes your imagination. It's factual, and leaves little mystery. Well-written narratives are full sensory waking dreams that you populate with sights and sounds, something you can inhabit.
How did you read it? It asked me for a subscription or an account or something. Instaclose.
Subject seemed interesting enough that I came to the comments to get alternative links, which have been provided, thank you posters.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article was fantastic. It brought everything to life in a way video essays can't. Video crushes your imagination. It's factual, and leaves little mystery. Well-written narratives are full sensory waking dreams that you populate with sights and sounds, something you can inhabit.
How did you read it? It asked me for a subscription or an account or something. Instaclose. Subject seemed interesting enough that I came to the comments to get alternative links, which have been provided, thank you posters.
It just asked to choose between adsupported and subscription model. You can switch off js if you dont want to see it.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did you read it? It asked me for a subscription or an account or something. Instaclose. Subject seemed interesting enough that I came to the comments to get alternative links, which have been provided, thank you posters.
It just asked to choose between adsupported and subscription model. You can switch off js if you dont want to see it.
I don't try to bypass walls. If they don't want my eyeballs I won't bother them.
Ofc, I suppose Germans who actually read it for the local info could be a lot more interested than me.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#15A dive instructor I meet in Thailand in told me about this location. According to him it was common to be too narced (nitrogen narcosis) to make rational decisions when going under the arch at 52m, leading to fatal mistakes (like going even deeper).
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#16Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I'd say is alpine hiking):
1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more 'fine', you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of.
2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go on a particular dive. They barely check your papers or equipment, if at all.
3. You often don't really know what exactly you are getting into until you are in the middle of it. And then it can be too late to bail. Is it safer to abandon a group and attempt to go back and potentially get lost, or go into an environment that looks more dangerous than you expected?
I am a PADI open water diver, but only dive a few times a year, so not too experienced. One time I signed up for a shipwreck dive at an all-inclusive resort. I am usually quite careful, and naively thought it would be fine - we just dive down, go around the wreck and come back up. I rented all equipment, and had to pay extra for a wetsuit - the 'default' was to just go in my swimming trunks. Turned out, on the dive we ended up going inside the wreck through a very narrow passage under it, going through narrow dark corridors surrounded by rusted metal. Touch anything and you get scratched (which I did). Your cables or tank can easily get caught (which it briefly did for me - and since I was the last one in the group it was quite scary seeing the group getting away from me as I tried to catch up). The current around the wreck was quite strong.
Somehow the dive was planned such that there was very little allowance for extra air. I ended up using more air than I suppose was normal, and there would not have been enough to make a normal ascent. I ended up having to use the dive instructor's alt supply for some of the return swim and switch to my own for the safety stop, otherwise I would've run out. It is one thing to practice it, and another to actually have to do it on what was supposed to be a relaxing 'touristy' dive.
On another occasion, a dive instructor took me and my partner (who was on an introductory dive - she doesn't have a license) into a cave, which is also more dangerous than I would've preferred.
These experiences - combined with the general experience of wasting the whole day on a rocky boat breathing diesel fumes for an hour or so of diving - make me reluctant to dive again, unless the sight is particularly picturesque.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#17I remember several years ago I watched the video on YouTube where Yuri sank to the bottom of the Blue Hole and drowned in a drunken narcotic state. Pretty much confirmed I never want to bother with scuba diving. ROVs seem cooler anyway and can go way deeper.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#18https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo Interview with Tarek Omar (the diver rescuer in the article) and location shot. Much better than reading the article.
Go to 30:00 and just look at it. It's literally luring people in.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#19Idle speculation, perhaps a diver could answer - could it be that the reef forms a kind of natural solar pond, leading to an unusual osmotic (and therefore density) gradient? Thus resulting in divers suddenly dropping like a stone when they hit a certain depth? The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.
Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world
#20Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I'd say is alpine hiking): 1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more 'fine', you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of. 2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go o…
Not a diver myself but my best friend is (he is also an instructor as well as cave/shipwreck diver and he has also worked for a dive center with a lot of tourists). I remember him telling me that diving in shipwrecks(or caves) requires additional certification, so I assume that those who have only the first/second star were not allowed to join (especially in a trip by an all-inclusive resort).
What you describe sounds like a terrible and irresponsible trip to me.