DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2025 ISSUE 410

EDITOR’S COMMENTS JOHN LIPPMAN’S RESEARCH. COMPRESSED GAS FATALITIES I magine that you had died on a diving accident. Wouldn’t it be great if you could wind back the clock just for the brief moment and nip that tiny decision or mistake in the bud and get another chance at life? Exactly the way we did as children playing ‘wars.’

So many fatalities in diving arise from making the absolute tiniest of mistakes! As we all know, things have a nasty habit of compounding rapidly and a tiny mistake can have the absolute worst outcomes. I have taught more than one thousand divers over two hundred full scuba courses over many years so I have seen a lot of what could go wrong. On the other hand, a good dive instructor absolutely never has to experience anything near the more serious diving accidents. They are extremely vigilant, have systems in place to minimize problems and are able to watch their students carefully at all times. Any and all problems are nipped in the bud and managed well before they escalate. If your diving instructor is having to perform full blown rescues, they have let a small problem go too far and beyond the point of no return. They need to reassess their management and teaching methods. On one occasion, I replaced the mouthpiece on one of my spare regulators and clamped the cable tie down. Months later, after it sat in my spare, save a dive kit for ages, I lent it to a friend who was very inexperienced. He must have done some ‘gorilla breathing’ and clenched his jaw on the mouthpiece so hard that the mouthpiece and regulator became separated at fifteen metres about twenty-five minutes into the dive. The cable tie had been ripped off with force. (He was a black belt in karate.) I saw him with a mouthpiece in place but the regulator had fallen out. He breathed in a mouthful of water. Luckily, we were employing the buddy system and I was aware that he hadn’t dived in a while so I had hold of his SPG as a precaution. Here is an example if a tiny mistake and its consequences.

I had maintained a direct physical contact without making him feel cramped for space for the entire dive. I spotted his problem instantly the reg fell from his mouth and gave him the Octopus immediately before assisting him to the surface. He was distressed but ok. This little anecdote serves to illustrate how a tiny, tiny thing can have the potential to be fatal. Some ‘What if’’s could be: If I was five metres away? When I was teaching diving intensively, I never, never ever chided a student for making a mistake. Instead, I always told the group on the post dive brief that this was a ‘solid gold’ opportunity to learn how to improve diving safety. I used to actually thank the student for creating a brilliant learning opportunity for all of us to learn from. A good diving instructor must be positive, supportive and above all teach their dive students as best as possible. Sadly, I have experienced dive instructors who take sinister pleasure in embarrassing learner divers in front of the entire class for making a tiny mistake and using comments like “You Fail!” When a dive instructor gets angry with a student on day two of a scuba course, she needs to get out of the sport and hang up her flippers. These people suffer from burn out and need to go climb a mountain or get another job. Sadly, this sort of unprofessional conduct is not uncommon. Let’s look into John Lippmann’s excellent research into diving fatalities so that we can learn from him extensive work. Naturally, I am going to over-simplify John’s detailed research due to the limitations of space and time. However, it is fertile ground to gain so much benefit especially if it has been a while since you refreshed your skills. That includes almost ALL divers.

18

DIVE LOG Australasia #410 - February ‘25

www.divelog.net.au