The liveliest letters from the Diver mailbag...

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Are you fit to dive with my sister?
Having read Keeping up the Watertime (Off-Gassing, October 1999) and So Who Fails PADI Courses? (December 1999), I'd like to comment.
Every diver has a responsibility of care for others from the moment they start training. Unfortunately, just as there are people who do stupid things behind the wheel of a car, there are people who do stupid things with a tank on their back.
There are dive centres that put money before safety - we all know of at least one. And there are instructors working on commissions and under the pressure of quotas being pushed to sign off students. Yes, we are engaged in a commercial activity, but cash must not take precedence over safety in our business.
As diving professionals working in resort locations, we have an ethical responsibility to sign people off only when they have completed the course requirements - not because it is the end of their holiday. The referral programme is there for a reason. When guiding certified divers, we should not only look at their certification card, but ask questions, evaluate their comfort level with equipment and take them on a check-out dive if necessary. This can all be done in a diplomatic, non-confrontational manner.
We should match people up according to ability and give extra support where it is needed. We should be a guide if that is all people need, but if we have a diver who would benefit from a skill session, we should offer our help. If you want to turn a guided dive into a buoyancy workshop, do it. Diving is fun - for everyone.
All divers, instructors or not, are responsible for keeping up their skills, and should not be insulted if a qualified professional recommends a "Scuba Tune-up" after a break from diving. We are all constantly learning, and diving with the right professionals will provide this opportunity. Would you be happy if the tables were turned and you found yourself buddied with someone not up to your level?
As a PADI Instructor, I've had the joy of working with naturals who seemed to have diving in their blood. I've also had the challenge of teaching others who required a lot of extra work to get them to the mastery level rightly required by PADI guidelines. And, yes, I have had to suggest to a couple of people that they take up skiing instead!
My rule is that, before signing anyone off, I ask myself: "Would I be comfortable if this person buddied up with my sister?" If I can't immediately answer yes, then it's back to the water.
Andrea Palmas, Playa de las Americas, Tenerife

...if not, cash back
My wife and I recently passed the PADI Open Water course with Emperor Divers in Hurghada, but they didn't hesitate to tell another attendee that he'd never learn to dive as long as he lived - and gave him his money back at the end of Day 1.
At the end of the course, we were made very aware of just how much more we needed to learn, how much more experience we needed to get, and the need to get accompanied orientation dives when going anywhere new.
James Avery, Saffron Walden

The price we pay for gear
I feel I must put pen to paper about the spiralling prices of diving equipment. I feel sorry for newly qualified divers buying their first equipment - it appears that their enthusiasm for our sport is being taken advantage of. Some of them have no idea what a reasonable price is, and end up paying rip-off prices for some brands.
Some dive shops try to point them in the right direction, but this can be difficult when their hands are tied by manufacturers.
I was told in a local dive shop recently: "Sorry, I can't discount the price of that item. If the manufacturer finds out that I'm discounting, it will refuse to supply me." What is the world coming to when a retailer can't decide his own profit margins? Is this even legal in today's "free market economy"?
Today's high prices will no doubt be blamed on design costs, research, marketing, etc. But with manufacturers using plastic mouldings, modern manufacturing processes and, in some cases, cheap labour from the Far East, prices should be coming down, not going up.
It is usually much cheaper to buy the same equipment abroad. Are manufacturers doing the same as the car industry and seeing the British as an easy target? It's about time that all diving equipment prices were reduced to give the British diving public a fairer deal.
Paul James, Ulnes Walton, Lancs

Diving's painful learning curve
1999 was a very bad year for the diving community. The latest incident off Oban in November involved diving's unlucky number, a threesome of an instructor and two trainees. Without knowing anything about the qualifications and experience of those involved, it is difficult to pass judgment, but the incident is reported to have occurred in a strongly tidal area of at least 50m.
Will we be fully informed as to the circumstances of this and all the other fatalities in the past year? Unless we know the facts, we cannot learn from them, and it is the duty of the training organisations and the diving press to fully inform the diving community of the conclusions to be drawn from the investigations, however painful.
It is to the credit of the father of Rob Hadfield (What Happened To My Son?, September, 1999) that he is prepared to go into detail regarding the loss of his son. Although it will not deter others from undertaking this kind of adventurous diving - and there is no reason why it should - it might help in the planning and assessment of risk on similar dives. Once again, Diver leads the way.
John Ferguson, Kirkintilloch Thistle BSAC, Glasgow

Timely reminder
I was alarmed to read the letter from Steve French (Off-Gassing, November 1999), in which he mentioned that his Traser watch leaked in the dive pool at 2m.
His complaints about service could not possibly have been aimed at Traser UK, as we are very proud of the quick and efficient service we provide our customers regarding any repairs or warranty issues. Don't forget, we are a new brand with a reputation to build.
Just to put the record straight, there was a batch of watches that went out early last year and with which we had a few condensation problems. The model was the original Traser S3000 all-black polymer watch, which has been the most popular until now.
Any watch that had condensation was immediately replaced without question and I hope that Mr French received this level of service from his retailer. He certainly would have done if he had contacted us directly.
Roger Green, Traser Watches

Another way of breathing
In the article Extremely British (October 1999), Mark Andrews mentions that through yoga and free-diving he can control both his breathing and heart rates with great success. And in the letter Air Pigs Might Fly (Off Gassing, November 1999), Mr R List talks about taking a deep breath and rolling it around his alveoli.
I am an asthma sufferer and have dived for the past 12 years, trying to control my breathing and heart rate with some small success. I tried this after seeing a TV programme about a Russian scientist who says asthma is a problem of incorrect breathing - over-breathing.
His method involves holding your breath and gradually increasing the time over which you do this. This has proved to be quite successful, even for chronic sufferers. I would like to hear from any other divers who have had success against asthma and also what the Diving Doc has to say.
Chris Brailsford, Sheffield

Editor's reply: Dr Peter Wilmshurst, our Diving Doc, had not heard of the method but is dubious about the merits of any such breath-holding techniques. We would welcome comments from other asthma sufferers.

I am the living proof
I read with great interest the Off-Gassing section in December's Diver. The response to my record-breaking deep dive on air only goes to show that British divers can make judgments for themselves, unlike the "medical experts" who harp on about arcane theories in the belief that those divers are lemmings who will follow people like me over the cliff and into the abyss.
Dr Pitkin states that I still do not understand the effects of slow breathing and that I should have speeded up my respiratory rate to combat the effects of narcosis and oxygen toxicity.
I respect the doctor's position, but believe him to be wrong.
The last thing I want is for people to copy my profiles, which is why I do not go into specifics here, but I have done 38 dives over 100m, 20 over 120m, 12 to 130m and one to 156.4m, all on air. Perhaps I am missing something, but I feel fine and continue to dive this way with no ill-effects. I suffered severe narcosis once beyond 140m, but no signs of oxygen toxicity. I am living proof that my methods work.
Dr Pitkin mentions escape dives from submarines and a record of 180m, then claims that my dive was a pointless mission. The record for submarine escape is 190m, set in Norway, using a specially-made diver escape suit in which the submariner was projected to the surface at 3m per second. What bearing does this have on my dive, which was surface-to-surface?
Both experiments were carried out purely for curiosity as to how deep a person could go and survive an ascent. So surely we are as pointless as each other?
I want to have a healthy relationship with the diving medical world. Physical fitness, the power of the mind and individual susceptibility all have a big part to play in extreme diving. We can learn from each other, so come on down from your lecturer's podium and let's give the diving community what it deserves - reliable, honest and safe information.
Mark Andrews, Hartley Wintney

No automatic ban on oversized divers
Dr Peter Wilmshurst's reply regarding obesity (Medical Q&A, November 1999) was essentially correct, but more could have been said. The current medical standards state that all divers with a BMI [Body Mass Index] greater than 30 should be referred to a medical referee. It does not state that they should be disqualified.
Opinions regarding overweight divers vary, but are, I hope, changing. It was once thought they were more susceptible to decompression illness and that, as they had increased incidence of heart disease, diabetes and other medical conditions, they should be barred from diving.
The increased incidence of DCI is now no longer thought to be the case, but the increase in medical conditions is worth considering.
The level of fitness and flexibility also needs to be addressed. Overweight divers should be assessed individually, medical and physical fitness checked, and an opinion of fitness to dive based on this.
We should not penalise overweight divers on what they might get, only assess them on what they have got, if necessary restricting the type of dives they undertake and where they do them. Discussion with the club DO and adapting their equipment might help.
Finally, the review period of the medical might need to be shortened to review the overall success. Who knows, the sport and the extra attention might be all the diver needs to lose weight.
Dr Ian Sibley-Calder, Hornsea, Yorkshire

Some shops do, some shops don't
I met with the same problem as described in the letter Still Going Spare (Off-Gassing, October 1999) when I tried to buy a cylinder pillar valve service kit at my local dive shop. It refused to sell, saying that the valve had to be fitted by a trained technician, even though these spares used to be available in the past. Undaunted, I travelled outside the county to another dive shop, which sold me the service kit.
Another member of our club who wanted the same kit phoned in an order to another dive shop, which duly supplied it by post.
So it seems that some shops are willing to sell and others are not.
Roland Church, Redcar

Cruising with a bruising
We all know that if we are tired, dehydrated, smoke and drink alcohol, we are more likely to experience decompression illness, but what we tend to overlook are the hidden items - injuries.
The diver I am thinking of has 20 years of varied diving conditions behind him and dives regularly on air and trimix. On a day on which conditions were good, he completed a dive to 41m for 36 minutes with 28 minutes' deco on 51.5 per cent deco gas and a bottom mix of 26 per cent. There were no problems and the ascent was done at an accepted rate, with his computer clear.
On surfacing, he dekitted and had the usual cup of tea, showing no signs of a problem. Twenty minutes later when he stood up, he fell over. He couldn't stand or move his head without getting dizzy, and soon became nauseous.
Evacuated by helicopter to Haslar Hospital, he was placed in a chamber on oxygen for eight hours. He was kept in for 24 hours and told not to dive for a month, but the dizzy spells continued for three weeks. The hospital concluded that he had suffered a DCI affecting the nerves just behind the ear, which caused the imbalance, but could give no reason why a diver in good health should become susceptible to this type of DCI.
Two weeks later, I recalled a conversation we had had some weeks before the dive, about a kick-boxing match the diver had gone on to win, but during which he received a heavy blow to the side of the head on which the DCI had occurred.
Further investigation found this to be the only possible cause of the DCI. The blow had damaged the nerve and caused a bruise. The bloodflow to the nerve would have been reduced, reducing vastly in turn the transport of gases and causing an imbalance in the body's system, increased removal time for nitrogen and a bend.
Any injury, especially the usually unnoticed ones, can put even the fittest of divers at risk. Diving fitness covers what we do to our bodies throughout the day. The diver is now back to full dive fitness and is still my most trusted buddy.
Ian Hanness, Banstead, Surrey

Synchronised leaking?
How about this for a disturbing coincidence? On Day 1 of our annual November pilgrimage to the Red Sea, a leak started to develop on my wife's Aladin Air at the high-pressure hose connection to the computer. No heart-stopping event, but damned annoying.
Day 2 and my Aladin Air developed a similar leak - in sympathy, perhaps?
OK, I can accept one, but two? I gather that the O-rings had degraded and perhaps the pins had worn. Both computers were purchased new in October 1998 and we had been very happy with them. When the leaks occurred, one computer had 38 dives logged and the other 39.
SDS Watersports took up the gauntlet, and the O-rings in both computers were replaced and returned immediately. I am still concerned, however, that the O-rings failed so quickly and simultaneously. Has anyone out there suffered from a similar event?
John Campbell, Chesterfield

Scubapro (UK)'s Technical Manager Nick Bailey replies: The Aladin Air has a good reputation as a safe, reliable dive computer. Divers do need to be aware that the O-ring in the "quick disconnect" is subject to a lot of dynamic movement during use. The O-ring on a regulator is disturbed only on an annual service but the one on the Aladin Air is disturbed every time the computer is removed and refitted. Also, I have found that divers fit the connector at an angle that pinches the O-ring. The central pin needs to be kept clean, to avoid damage from salt and sand. I hope this will be of use to your readers - keep up the good work.

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Appeared in DIVER - February 2000

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