Oxygen is the most basic life support system our bodies employ, and yet also has the capacity to cause great harm. Keller (1946) has called oxygen “The Princess of Gases. She is beautiful but has to be handled with special care”. We cannot live without it, but in prolonged breathing exposures or in deep depths … Read more
I don’t want to participate in any sport in which my species is not at the top of the food chain. — Ken Fonte Stress in diving is probably the central problem in the accidents and resulting injuries and fatalities that occur to divers . . . — Art Bachrach and Glen Egstrom STRESS Many … Read more
Learning life’s lessons the hard way looms large in my legend. (Along with an avowed affinity for alliteration…) But one thing’s for sure, I rarely make the same mistake twice. Well, there was that night in St. Barts back in 1978 when Jimmy Buffett told me that three Quaaludes and a couple of Heinekens would … Read more
“Thump!” “I felt the impact on my back, but I wasn’t sure which part of me was hit. I felt myself being carried through the water like a helpless ragdoll. I remember hoping I wasn’t losing too much blood although after the initial impact I felt no pain. It turned into a dreamlike sequence, an … Read more
Occasionally, a boat crew witnesses some diver doing so incredibly stupid that, rather than dismiss it as a one-off event, it’s simpler to write it into the boat’s policy or procedures. Like the liveaboard I worked on once; we had a rule that divers, equipped with tanks in place, should step down the ladder at … Read more
