Safety Culture

At the Rebreather Forum 3 conference held in Florida in May 2012, a number of presentations were made which advocated the use of checklists as a means to prevent diving incidents from occurring, or at least reducing the likelihood of occurrence.

In August 2012, I wrote an article which discussed just culture and what this meant in the context of recreational and technical scuba diving, and using this concept, how we can improve diving safety.

Being swept along on this technical diving thing, has been a long, somewhat twisted, but definitely entertaining journey. If you and I had met when the whole affair started, we could not possibly have envisioned how directly and pervasively, what were then radical activities, like cave diving, trimix diving and rebreather diving, would influence the mainstream dive community.

The Royal Mail Ship, Empress of Ireland, was an ocean-going luxury liner on her way to Liverpool from Quebec City when she sank in the Saint Lawrence River, 14 minutes after colliding with a Norwegian collier in the early morning fog of 29 May 1914. She had 1,477 people on board—passengers and crew—and the accident claimed the lives of 1,012, more than 800 of them passengers.

Why rebreather divers, even more so than open circuit divers, need to be in control and focused when they ascend.

Mask clearing and deployment of the Surface Marker Buoy. What's the connection between these two unrelated skills, you may be excused for thinking. They are both giving many students problems during training, that's what. In both cases it's all about getting it right from the beginning.

From the Basic Nitrox levels through to advanced Trimix, we base our calculations of dive profiles on a specific partial pressure of oxygen—pO₂.

Managing and controlling the pO₂ lies at the foundation of any level of technical diving as it enables us to perform longer, deeper and safer dives compared to diving air. But there are also a few points to watch.

A long time ago, I sat in hoosha (Bedouin tent) after a deep air dive in the Blue Hole (Dahab, South Sinai, Red Sea). My good friend and dive buddy had less than an hour ago peeled me of the wall near the bottom of the Blue Hole. I had succumbed to deep water blackout, caused by a high degree of stupidity, wrong kit and inadequate training.

Except if you spent a few years in a catholic church or a few hours enjoying the movie with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, the seven deadly sins are often considered a notion of the past.