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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

#111

Post by nradov »

edwardsdl wrote: post #6

Narcosis is nothing to trifle with. After a particularly bad experience at 150ft on air, I understand why some agencies advocate for a maximum equivalent narcotic depth* of 100ft. *For the non-divers out there, it’s possible substitute a less narcotic gas - typically helium but not always - for a portion of the narcotic gas in a mixture. Equivalent narcotic depth (END) is a way to equate a mixture’s narcotic effect t…

Military and commercial divers have done some experiments with hydrogen to reduce narcosis without using helium. But the fire risk makes it way too dangerous for civilian sport diving.

Neon might also reduce narcosis but it's more expensive and the work of breathing is higher.

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#112

Post by spaetzleesser »

ChrisBland wrote: post #96

I'm an avid diver; got certified as soon as I turned 12 years old and have had some great adventures and life lessons diving and continuing my training and education. After many many conversations and encounters on dive boats with others (some seasoned, most tourist / rec divers) - I believe that 90% of the industry sees diving akin to a roller coaster ride instead of Skydiving. The risks with scuba are there for you…

“not even go through the most basic safety checks prior to diving”

From my experience the dive operators in tourist spots often don’t want you to touch anything. Kind of makes sense because most tourists like myself only have a very vague recollection of the procedure.

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#113

Post by meowfly »

maratc wrote: post #103
meowfly wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I read my own link. OP was talking about a guided tour.

The case in point is what you said: "Both caves and shipwrecks are allowed with Open Water". As a rule, they absolutely aren't. In this specific place, PADI allows some of them to make a supervised dive at a certain site following a specially installed line. This doesn't change the rule, which is "Open Water Diver certification does not qualify you to dive on shipwrecks, nor caves". At some other place, there may be…

After looking into this, I'm wrong and I'm going to edit my original comment. My apologies.

Where I'm confused is the difference between a direct line of ascent (even when there is an overhead directly above) versus penetrating beyond that. This is a differentiator that makes swim-throughs OK but most caverns not OK.

Edit: Turns out I can't edit a comment that old.

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#114

Post by marvin »

101008 wrote: post #56
agent008t wrote: post #16

Diving 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…

I just got anxiety reading your story. Then diving it's a no for me for the rest of my life :D

I've found diving to be the least demanding "action sport" activities that I've tried, and I've done a fair bit of climbing, diving and flying gliders. Careful and well trained open water diving leaves you with plenty of safety margins in all directions. There's (well, almost) no single thing you can really screw up that would be deadly.

But of course, if the whole idea of something going wrong will leave you lying awake the night before, it's probably not worth it :)

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#115

Post by leeter »

ghaff wrote: post #26
agent008t wrote: post #16

Diving 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…

The two biggest things with alpine hiking are probably weather and not turning around when you should. (I could probably add just being grossly ill-prepared like lacking map and compass and perhaps depending too much on electronic gizmos.) Over the holidays I was reading a book about a winter fatality on Mount Washington a few years back. The person was actually very well-prepared and fit. And even had some big mount…

As a native of a very well known mountainous state I can say it's more than that. If you're summitting on a mountain you need to be prepared to bivouac at least one if not two nights and survive adverse weather. Even experienced hikers can find themselves trapped far from the trailhead by either weather or fire. That's not even talking about the usual bears, mountain lions (don't hike alone), or ticks (Lyme Disease is real).

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#116

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

diveanon wrote: post #84
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #60

We have something like that, off the coast of Long Island. It’s the wreck of the San Diego ; a WWI battleship that sank at the close of the war. It’s upside-down, with a hole in the hull, and rests in about 40 meters of water (120 feet or so). What makes it dangerous, is that it’s filled with silt, and it only takes an errant kick of the flipper to fill a room with zero-visibility mud. People panic, and panic at 120…

Entering a wreck at 40m without a guide line is asking to die. I have over 10k dives and the closest I came to death was when I was guiding on the liberty wreck in bali when a small earthquake shook the wreck, I was barely 3 meter into the wreck that I had dived hundreds of times and couldn't find my way out. Fortunately my buddy was outside the wreck at the time and used his banger to guide me out. Point is, shit ha…

Mad respect. I don't dive, anymore, but I think I only had about 30 or so in my log book.

What compounds it, is that we have an environment of "Macho Knuckleheads" around here. They will do things like dive the SD alone, and skip the decomp.

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#117

Post by JPKab »

maratc wrote: post #70
ArtWomb wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am certain if you ask 100 beginner divers, 99 will have their own brush with death adventures! Mine came in the form of a six foot barracuda getting a bit too close for comfort. I am sure if I hadn't played it cool. Had somehow attacked or acted aggressively to shush it away (when I was a guest in it's deep sea domain). It would have enjoyed a nice lunch of fresh human flesh. The second was going below the hard deck…

I'm no marine biologist but you can be certain that humans are not a regular diet of barracudas. Once, a 5-meter tiger shark came to me out of the blue and got too close, but as humans aren't a regular diet of tiger sharks either, it swam away.

I've met literally dozens of people who talk about their close brush with a barracuda while diving.

They are a minimal threat but they look kind of scary so people always always think that they had a close call with one when the barracuda is just doing what they do which is checking out a human who might hand them a fish.

It always makes me chuckle because I hear people tell their barracudas stories and they always sound the exact same. At no point were they in any danger but they really think they were.

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#118

Post by permo-w »

maratc wrote: post #74
meowfly wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both caves and shipwrecks are allowed with Open Water as long as you are within a certain distance from an opening and natural light.

Any place with Hard Ceiling (something between you and the surface except water) necessitates specialty training in most dive certification organizations. The issue that many take with PADI is that their values are mostly aligned with making profits.

my dad always called it Put Another Dollar In

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#119

Post by permo-w »

qzw wrote: post #82
permo-w wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

top tip: most humans can float as long as their lungs are full

Only if they're not panicking and thrashing about.

true. it’s definitely easier said than done, but it’s a useful fact to have in your head

Re: The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

#120

Post by samdixon »

ChrisBland wrote: post #96

I'm an avid diver; got certified as soon as I turned 12 years old and have had some great adventures and life lessons diving and continuing my training and education. After many many conversations and encounters on dive boats with others (some seasoned, most tourist / rec divers) - I believe that 90% of the industry sees diving akin to a roller coaster ride instead of Skydiving. The risks with scuba are there for you…

I have a similar theory about motorcycles. It's not batteries included, and some people ride like absolute madmen increasing the fatality rate.
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