An unfortunate yet interesting video of a Sky News Diver having some trouble on a training dive. How it happened, and how to prevent it.

Worth a watch.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/diving/video/co2video.htm

The death of an experienced diver has highlighted the need for accurate and efficient gas analysis equipment for sport diving.

Anthony Ruperti, 38, from Wadhurst in East Sussex, was an experience diver who sadly died during a dive off Sharm el Sheikh in April 2008.  The accident happened during a deep mixed-gas dive.  It is thought that he became confused at a depth of approximately 60 metres and switched wrongly to a gas mixture which was too oxygen-rich.  He appeared to have lost consciousness as he embarked on a rapid uncontrolled ascent, despite the efforts of another diver to assist him.  Ruperti was unconscious when he broke the surface, and was confirmed dead on his return to shore.

Mark Lewis, of Analox Sensor Technology which supplies gas analysis for use in sport diving, said: “It’s vital that divers can be confident of the mix of gas they are using, and this accident makes it clear that an error can lead to confusion, which in this case appears to have caused the fatal mistake.  Analysis equipment is an important part of a diver’s kit, so that he or she can check their own supply and be confident that they are diving with the right mix.”

Analox Sensor Technology

+44 1642 711400

diving tank image by Marcin Wasilewski from Fotolia.com

Scuba divers are trained to safely dive with compressed air.

• Aluminum and steel comprise standard scuba tanks to hold compressed air. Manufacturers extensively test the material according to high safety standards for pressurized air. A properly maintained air tank poses minimal risk to a certified diver; scuba training includes securely handling a heavy tank and handling specialty mixes with higher levels of flammable oxygen. The physical heft and composition of an air tank always present dangers from accidental collision.

• Impact Injuries

  Divers should be able to carry a tank to enter the water. SInce the tank presents a formidable weight on a diver’s back, divers should be careful about walking with the tank, to avoid falling and injuring themselves with a heavy metal tank. Similarly, divers securely strap the tank to a buoyancy compensator device (BCD) to make sure the tank is at a comfortable height and doesn’t slip off. If a tank is positioned high on a person’s back, the diver may accidentally tilt his head back and injure his head on the tank valve (underwater or during a giant stride entry from a boat). If the tank is strapped loosely to the BCD, it may detach and hit the diver during entry (e.g., back roll). Upon exiting the water, a tired diver may be unsteady to carry the load. Many dive boat operators assist divers back to the boat or retrieve inflated BCDs with tanks on the water surface after a diver boards. Used tanks still present heavy loads with compressed air, and divers should avoid dropping the tanks on their feet, on others or on a hard surface when returning to the holding area.

• Contaminated Air

  Atmospheric air contains approximately 21 percent oxygen. While this amount doesn’t pose a risk in the environment, any amount of oxygen under pressure within a closed metal container will promote rust. Scuba tanks that aren’t properly maintained through regular internal visual inspections and hydrostatic testing and that are drained during a dive may leak trace amounts of water inside the tank. Water and oxygen will cause rust inside the metal tank. Similarly, properly maintaining air compressors will help avoid introducing oil during the filling process. Rust and foreign substances inside the tank contaminate the pressurized air for breathing and can induce sickness.

• Enriched Air

  Enriched air, called nitrox, contains a higher percentage of oxygen than atmospheric air, up to 40 percent. Common nitrox blends include EANx I and EANx II with 32 percent and 36 oercebt oxygen, respectively. Higher levels of oxygen enable divers to dive longer at depths; however, nitrox use requires specialty training (Enriched Air Diver) and specific dive tables. These dive tables limit the maximum depth for diving with nitrox to reduce the chance of oxygen toxicity. Check the air composition of the tank using an oxygen analyzer, label the tank with the percentage of oxygen and manually set the dive computer with the percentage of oxygen for proper dive calculations (dive computers have a default setting of 21 percent oxygen). Since enriched air blends use higher levels of oxygen, the tanks must be specifically treated and certified for pure oxygen use. Oxygen is flammable, so heat and flames are prohibited in the tank holding area.

Written by Regina Edwards, Demand Media

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/dangers-oxygen-tank-scuba-diving-13880.html

A new research team is investigating the accuracy of British diving incidents statistics and wants divers to participate in a survey.

The team, Cognitas, has focused on the work of the British Sub-Aqua Club and its annual Diving Incidents Report.

Cognitas suspects that, in many cases, divers who suffer incidents do not report them.

Possible reasons range from “apathy to fear of reprisals (commercial, personal or within a club) or that nothing will change, so ‘why bother?’”.

Too little data, it thinks, comes from divers directly, once contributions from the likes of recompression chambers, the Coastguard and the RNLI are taken into account.

It has been running an online questionnaire in order to establish why this is so. Divers are invited to contribute to this up to 29 July.

Cognitas will report on its findings by the end of August.

It plans then to design an “open reporting system” through which divers can report incidents in a “confidential manner”.

“Civil and military aviation communities already have such practices in place, and safety records have improved as a consequence,” it says.

Cognitas intends to design a system which will make it “easier to submit reports and access incident report data”, and which would give “more details” about incidents.

The research team consists of Gareth Lock, Ted Crosbie and Gareth Burrows, the first two having military backgrounds.

To find out more about them and the aims of Cognitas, go to www.cognitas.org.uk

MALAYSIA INTERNATIONAL DIVE EXPO
30 July – 1 August 2010 – Putra World Trade Centre will once again become the host of the highly acclaimed,
5th Malaysia International Dive Expo 2010 (MIDE 2010). The biggest dive expo for the scuba diving calendar in
Malaysia. MIDE 2010 stands as a trade, consumer and conservation exhibition which aims to generate a much
bigger crowd as it takes on the task to promote the dive industry in Malaysia and its region.

This is will be an exclusive show that will kick off in the month of July 2010. Join us with some leading exhibitors
to showcase their future plans and latest products. The planning of this year’s event has been remarkable with
major key speakers for the show who will chat with some of the leading exhibitors and the public about their
passion and experience on scuba diving and the aquatic life.

MIDE 2010 is expecting more than 10,000 visitors, with 250 booths being set up, with 150 exhibitors taking part
this year, and whether you are beginner, technical, commercial or recreational diver, there is something for
everyone to experience and to explore as well as an array of activities for visitors.

During MIDE, be sure not to miss exciting seminars and workshops for digital underwater photography by renowned
underwater photographers. A scuba pool will be set out at the main entrance of the venue for pool tryout, product
demonstration, testing the latest dive kits and other activities. Painting artists will be portraying their motifs and
abstract paintings during this 3 day event. Anyone interested in underwater images and amazing paintings will be
auctioned off, so be there to bid on your favorites.

Major brands of dive equipment will be showcased. Visitors can expect great bargains on products ranging from
Dive Equipment, Wetsuits, Packages for Dive Destinations and Diving Courses during this 3 day exhibition.
With all that said MIDE 2010 looks set to be the highlight of the diving year.

So mark your calendar not to miss out on this notable event of the year.

For further information on participation, please contact us or visit our website at
http://www.diveguide.com/malaysiadiveexpo.htm

ASIAEVENTS EXSIC SDN BHD
50-1, Jalan Kuchai Maju  6, Kuchai Business Park,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 603 7980 9902/ 7981 9909
Fax : 603 7980 4902
Email: info@mide.com.my

Are you attending?

Have you been to the show before?

Please drop me an email with any thoughts to ‘joshua.hockney@analox.biz’.

For: IANTD Management Limited, Vobster Quay, Upper Vobster, Mells, Somerset, BA3 5SA

http://www.iantd.uk.com

Email:  info@iantd.uk.com

Contact:  Martin Stanton (t) 0845 644 0635 (f) 0845 644 0636

Technical Training to enjoy a renaissance as IANTD UK changes ownership

Somerset, 25^th June 2010 – Following an 18 month hiatus, the UK franchise of IANTD (International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers) has been bought by the dream team behind the revitalised Vobster Quay – Martin and Amy Stanton.

“In the early 90’s when Kevin Gurr set up IANTD UK, it was the first technical diver training agency in Europe”, stated Martin Stanton, Director of IANTD UK.  “We’re therefore genuinely excited that the mantle is now passing to us.  We’d like to thank Kevin Evans and Simon Watton for caretaking the agency since 2008, and wish them well in future projects.  Now we’re in for a very exciting time because currently IANTD UK (www.iantd.uk.com) is in a very good position to grow and expand.  After all virtually every experienced diver and instructor in the UK has done an IANTD training course at some point in their career.

Whilst this announcement doesn’t immediately seem to be that important to ‘the diver in the sea’, it’s of more significance to the UK Dive Shops and Training Centres.  “From today we delighted to announce fulltime superior support ensuring same day despatch of materials, efficient processing of qualification cards and high Quality Assurance.

We know that at the end of the day a good course primarily comes down to the quality of the Instructor rather than the Agency.  A good way of demonstrating this is by looking at Mark Powell (TDI), Phill Short (IANTD) and Rich Walker (GUE) in the water – there’s not much to tell them apart.  So get a well trained experienced instructor and you gain so much more from your course.  Hence it’s very important to us that we focus on high Quality Assurance and Training, delivering from the top downwards.  Consequently we’re delighted to announce that Phill Short will be the new UK Training Director whose remit will include Standards of Training”.

“As an Instructor, Instructor Trainer and Instructor Trainer Trainer who has maintained loyalty to one Technical Agency throughout my career – IANTD – I’m honoured that Tom Mount and Joe Dituri have asked me to be involved with the new management team at IANTD UK”, stated Phill Short.  “I was very lucky to be introduced to the world of Technical Diving and the diving opportunities it could offer me by Kevin Gurr.  Over the years I’ve gained experience through teaching, and knowledge on further instructor courses and diving on many cave and wreck expeditions. I also consider myself fortunate that I’ve been trained and evaluated as a Cave Instructor by Tom Mount.

Being appointed UK Training Director and work alongside Martin Stanton is very exciting because it gives me the perfect opportunity to share some of the incredible things I’ve learnt over the last fifteen years.  I very much look forward to raising the quality training bar with my colleagues to help create safer and better educated divers at all levels”.

IANTD UK can be contacted by email on info@iantd.uk.com or telephone 0845 644 0635.

Notes to Editors:

Martin Stanton is a highly successful Businessman, having owned, managed and sold a number of multimillion pound businesses.  A proven self-starter, with management experience at the highest levels in a UK plc, Martin demonstrates commitment, leadership and strength in even the toughest of commercial environments. With a strong IT background, Martin has developed systems for some of the largest firms and institutions in the World.

Martin and his wife Amy, decided a number of years ago to combine their passion for diving with their business skills to develop a centre of excellence for diver training in the UK. The first step of this vision was realized when they acquired Vobster Quay, one of the UK’s premier diving facilities, and recently voted the UK’s favourite inland site by an online poll. Martin and Amy are extremely proud of Vobster Quay, and many would say rightly so.  Having spent the last two years developing Vobster Quay, Martin is now embarking on the next leg of this adventure by taking on the UK license for IANTD, the World’s Senior Technical Diving Agency.

In 1990 Phill Short completed his PADI Open Water Course in order to use SCUBA to pass short flooded sections of dry caves in Mendip and South Wales.  His passion at the time (which he maintains to this day) was dry caving and climbing.  Phill however was bitten by the diving bug, and he continued his diving education under the guidance of Course Director Steve Axtell.  In 1991 Phill qualified as a PADI Instructor and began teaching full time, working his way up to Master Instructor.  During this period Phill began developing his Technical Diving skills through training with Kevin Gurr and in 1993 was involved in forming one of the first Trimix wreck diving teams in the UK. He is now one of the UK’s foremost IANTD Instructor Trainers.

Having spent 3 years developing his Technical skills, Phil began to use them for cave diving, his true passion, on expeditions to Mallorca, France and Spain. At the same time, he began teaching technical diving full time for Phoenix Oceaneering.

Over the years, Phil has been involved in film projects for ITV, BBC and Channel 4 on the M1 submarine, the shipwrecks from the battle of Jutland and cave diving projects in Northern Spain and the UK. He recently trained the presenters and assisted with the filming of the BBC Oceans series. He has also taken part as a closed circuit rebreather diver in several shipwreck search projects in the Western Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.  He has also been leading a continuing cave exploration project in the Ural Mountains in Russia and digging underwater in his pet project (Swildon’s Hole) in the Mendips, England.

Phil has been diving professionally for 15 years and has logged over 5000 dives in caves and open water using both open and closed circuit equipment.

Only available online and delivered within the US.

Any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Fourth Element has teamed up with Mark Powell from Dive-Tech to bring you 2 weeks of technical diving off Weymouth / Portland Bill

http://www.fourthelement.com/adventures/expedition_weymouth_wreck_weeks.php

The English Channel around Weymouth and Portland is one of the best locations in the UK for wreck diving. Although many of the wrecks have been identified and regularly dived there are still many that are either unidentified or very rarely dived.

As well as the dives the weeks will also include a number of talks from experts on nautical history, ship design, decompression theory, rebreather design and others.

Week 1 : 19th – 23rd July 2010

The first technical week. We will be diving in the 35-45m range and looking at some of the more historically interesting or lesser dived wrecks. This week is aimed at those who are new to technical diving or have recently complete a technical diving course and are keen to put their skills into action. It will allow you to expand your technical diving experience, see how technical trips are run and give you an opportunity to meet other technical divers and potentially buddies. This trip costs £50 p/person p/day plus gas.

Week 2 : 16th – 20th Aug 2010

Advanced technical week. We will be diving in the 50-70m range and diving on some unknown or little explored wrecks. For experienced trimix divers this week gives you the opportunity to do some real exploratory trimix diving. The week will focus on unknown wrecks and will try to gather more information on these wrecks with a view to uncovering their identity. This trip costs £50 p/person p/day plus gas.

If you have any further questions about the wreck weeks please contact Mark Powell from Dive Tech either by Email: mark@dive-tech.co.uk or by phone: 07770 864327.

During the First and Second World Wars a huge range of merchant shipping as well as Naval ships were sunk in the area. Even during peacetime the sheer number of ships using the English Channel meant that there are literally hundreds of wrecks within a few hours of Weymouth and Portland. There are historic British and German submarines, British destroyers and battleships and cargo ships ranging from traditional sailing ships up to huge modern container ships. Although many of the wrecks have been identified and regularly dived there are still many that are either unidentified or very rarely dived.

More than just wreck diving…

This trip gives you the opportunity to visit some of these unknown or rarely dived wrecks. As well as the dives the weeks will also include a number of talks from experts on nautical history, ship design, decompression theory, rebreather design and others. This will help each diver to have a better understanding of what they are diving on and give them the ability to contribute to the detective story involved in identifying a wreck.

Weymouth and Portland is an ideal base for these trips as it is one of the main centres for UK diving. There is a wide selection of dive boats, many of which specialise in technical diving. There is also convenient access for fills including Nitrox and Trimix. Sofnalime for rebreather divers can also be arranged. There are also a number of dive shops catering for the technical diving.

Posted by Mark Powell

http://www.dive-tech.co.uk/

Analox Sensor Technology is introducing a new, portable carbon monoxide (CO) analyser which can help in the prevention of sport diving accidents.

The new CO Portable is sufficiently compact to fit easily into a dive bag, and is a vital piece of equipment to ensure that all dives are safe.

The analyser can measure CO levels from 1 to 100 ppm (parts per million).  Carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas, and breathed at depths a small concentration can affect the human body.

Patti Clarkson, of Analox Sensor Technology, said: “This analyzer was purpose built for scuba diving, and it will save lives.  By using the CO Portable, divers can be confident that they are diving safely.  Being portable, sports divers can keep it with their kit, take it with them whenever and wherever they choose to dive, and enjoy their sport in safety.”

The CO Portable is available to purchase online only and can only be shipped to addresses in the USA.

For the majority of the recreational diving world the answer to the question “What are you breathing?” is usually simply: it’s Air. However an increasing number of recreational divers are using alternative breathing mixtures.

If you are a recreational diver reading the Analox site then the chances are that you are familiar with Nitrox. As we know, Nitrox is any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. That means that Air, which is a mixture of 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen could be called Nitrox. In fact, if we wanted to be very pretentious, we could call it Normoxic Nitrox. Equally a mixture of 85% nitrogen and 15% oxygen would also be Nitrox, although it wouldn’t be much good for diving as the whole point of diving Nitrox is to reduce the amount of nitrogen rather than increase it. So on the whole, when we refer to Nitrox we usually mean a mixture with more oxygen (and hence less nitrogen) then normal air. This is also referred to as Enriched Air Nitrox or EANx where the ‘x’ represents the oxygen content of a specific mix. It’s not always as simple as that though. In some dive centres, especially on live-aboards, molecular filters are used to filter out nitrogen from the air in order to produce Nitrox. Although still Nitrox, this is sometimes called De-Nitrogenised Air or DNAx.

When we add helium into our breathing mix we can get a different set of gases. helium is introduced in deeper diving to reduce the amount of oxygen and nitrogen in order to reduce the risk of narcosis and oxygen toxicity. Commercial divers sometimes use a mixture of helium and oxygen which is known as Heliox. However, cost considerations mean that, outside of the commercial world, divers will usually use a combination of oxygen, nitrogen and helium, known as Trimix. In the same way that the general name Nitrox can be used to describe any mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, the term Trimix is used to describe any combination of oxygen, nitrogen and helium. Specific types of mixes are also given names as the characteristics of each are very different.

A Trimix which has between 18 and 21% oxygen is referred to as Normoxic Trimix. The term Normoxic refers to ‘normal’ levels of oxygen. In other words, a similar level of oxygen to normal Air. The helium content in Normoxic Trimix is likely to be between 25-45%. This type of Trimix is used to reduce narcosis in the 45-60m depth but does not change the oxygen levels significantly and so is limited to 60m by oxygen toxicity considerations.

For deeper dives the amount of oxygen in the mixture needs to be reduced and for this a Hypoxic mixture is used. Hypoxic means a reduced level of oxygen such that the mixture will not sustain consciousness at the surface. oxygen levels below 18% are usually considered Hypoxic for diving. The helium levels in a Hypoxic Trimix will be much higher as it is being used to reduce the amount of oxygen as well as being used to reduce the amount of nitrogen and so helium levels between 40-60% are common.

In recent years it has become increasingly popular to add helium to the breathing mix for dives between 30-45m. In this case it is possible to use a weak Normoxic Trimix but it is also possible to have a higher level of oxygen, just as if diving Nitrox, but with the addition of some helium. This would be called Hyperoxic Trimix, due to the higher than normal levels of oxygen, but this name is not commonly used in order to avoid confusion with Hypoxic Trimix. Hyper means high levels and Hypo means low levels. Any Trimix with a higher level of oxygen than air was originally called Helitrox when NAUI launched the first training course into its use and TDI has stuck with this name. Other training agencies have used the term Triox or Recreational Trimix to refer to the same thing. Helitrox will typically contain between 10-30% helium.

Irrespective of the breathing gases we use, or the names we give them, all agencies agree that it is essential that we analyse and correctly mark up ever cylinder before diving it.

Submitted by Mark Powell Dive-Tech