Terri Skiles suing Diverite?

[jkaterenchuk]

I agree with you on personal responsibility but if there was an equipment failure, not saying that there was, but it needs to be addressed

Everyone that dives a rebreather does so knowing full well that an equipment failure can happen at anytime or several other problems that render continuing on the rebreather impossible. That is why it is drilled into you on the first course to carry seperate bailout as backup. I suspect it's just human nature to think it can't/won't happen to me.

On the other side of the coin CCR manufacturers, other dive manufacturers and the community in large are legendary for excusing build and design issues in CCR's and blaming everything on the diver.

These are not necessarily my view or relate to this accident, rebreather or people involved but it is just what I have gleamed from reading over the years.

[skip]

If I remember right, Wes was at 40 feet in open ocean. Carrying bailout was not an issue - he could rather easily bailout to the surface at any time. I also seem to remember that he simply went unconscious with no forewarning, so even with bailout it would not have helped.

Litigation is driven by the need for money. I suspect that Terri has discovered that the family finances are not so good. I'm not saying that's the sole motivating factor, only she knows that, but it is easier to see the logic of someone else's fault when the checking account shows zero.

skip

[a64pilot]

If I read the article right, was Diverite given the rebreather to inspect for malfunctioning equipment?

I believe it was probably Dive Gear Express, and the press being ignorant and lazy couldn't tell the difference between Dive Gear and Dive Rite

[LLWS]

I have a real appreciation for the work and worlds Wes allowed me to explore in film and print, but I love my wife and family too much to dive my CCR Alpinist. If you take a rebreather in the water otherwise unknown to you in an Aplinist configuration, I believe you're being selfishly disrespectful to your loved ones. How much trouble is it to carry say an AL30 of air, really?

[RAL]

If I remember right, Wes was at 40 feet in open ocean. Carrying bailout was not an issue - he could rather easily bailout to the surface at any time. I also seem to remember that he simply went unconscious with no forewarning, so even with bailout it would not have helped.


skip

If you are diving OC at 40' and have a failure the last gas delivered will contain whatever %O2 was in the tank. Keep it simple air at 40' ppo2 about .46 dropping to .21 at surface minus what was metabolized during accent. You probably will make it. On a rebreather many things can go wrong....let say some glitch has occurred and by the time you realize there is an issue the ppo2 in the loop has dropped to .2 at depth but as you make your accent from (2.2 ATM) 40' it drops to .09 PPO2 at the surface (1ATM) minus what was metabolized on accent. At some point after the PPO2 drops below .15 depending on the person and the work load you go to sleep. You ain't going to make it cowboy. Bailout was and ALWAYS is an issue for the prudent. FYI bailout hooked up to a BOV makes it possible to be on a known gas in less than a second. It makes self rescue possible in situations that would otherwise be very unlikely.
We will never know if Wes was aware of a problem or not. He was not with his buddy at the time, he lost consciousness on assent and he was not carrying bail out. Everything else is just speculation.

RAL

[jcook]

If I remember right, Wes was at 40 feet in open ocean. Carrying bailout was not an issue - he could rather easily bailout to the surface at any time. I also seem to remember that he simply went unconscious with no forewarning, so even with bailout it would not have helped.

You gotta be kidding me, you ALWAYS need to carry bailout. Saying that is not only reckless, it is beyond stupid.

It looks like you just made the case for a BOV and gag-strap.

Does anyone know if he was trained on the unit?

[Captain Bil]

If I remember right, Wes was at 40 feet in open ocean. Carrying bailout was not an issue - he could rather easily bailout to the surface at any time. I also seem to remember that he simply went unconscious with no forewarning, so even with bailout it would not have helped.

For yours and your families sake, I hope you're not a rebreather diver.



Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[jkaterenchuk]

You gotta be kidding me, you ALWAYS need to carry bailout. Saying that is not only reckless, it is beyond stupid.

Am I correct that PADI is not requiring seperate bailout on their Recreational CCR class?

I am not saying that it is correct or that you cannot bailout to a suitable CCR dil tank via BOV but just asking if my memory is correct.

John

[jcook]

Am I correct that PADI is not requiring seperate bailout on their Recreational CCR class?

I am not saying that it is correct or that you cannot bailout to a suitable CCR dil tank via BOV but just asking if my memory is correct.

John

From what I have been told from speaking with one of the PADI guys that developed the Rec CCR class, you still need to carry bailout. Whether it is on the unit or off-board. That is the big reason PADI is requiring a BOV on every unit. Then again, the guy thought the VR Sentinel was the greatest rebreather ever, so I take what he says with a grain of salt, lol.

[LLWS]

If I remember right, Wes was at 40 feet in open ocean. Carrying bailout was not an issue - he could rather easily bailout to the surface at any time.

Scary concept to avoid the bailout with surface bailout being the option. I can just imagine realizing you're at a low PO2 and the option selected is a CESA. That's not going to end well...

Am I correct that PADI is not requiring seperate bailout on their Recreational CCR class?

[From foggy memory] PADI CCR OW Diver does not require a bailout in favor of a BOV to onboard dil.
[From equally foggy memory] I believe PADI CCR AOW Diver requires both a BOV to onboard dil, and offboard bailout.

I need to keep a library of PADI books at the office.

Based on reviewing the court filing online, I noticed the named defendents do not include the scrubber company. Based only on who's on the list of defendants, I'm wondering if Wes tox'd. Perhaps the handsets were showing a breathing gas/PO2 he was not actually breathing (either from lack of calibration, or perhaps current limited sensors) and he was breathing a crazy high PO2 for a long time - maybe even the whole dive. There's some mention about water intrusion in the linked article, so I'm again thinking this could easily be a situation where the threat matrix is telling the solenoid to supply excessive oxygen because the cells are reading low.

I'm sure someone knows what happened. BTW - Was Wes trained up on the O2ptima?