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
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE There have been numerous articles written on the subjects of inert gas narcosis and attendant depth limitations. Many have re-hashed old formulas relating the preposterous “Martini’s Law” etc. and sanctimonious admonitions against any sport diving below 130 fsw. The authors of these materials are motivated by the best of intentions: diving safety. … Read more
My mother always insisted that we children waited an hour before swimming after eating in case we got the cramp. As a diver, I often ate a hearty meal immediately before diving without, I believed, ill effect. Cramp, though uncomfortable, doesn’t cause a diver to drown. During my long career as a diving journalist, I … Read more
At DEMA one year, I met an elderly Frenchman based in Bonaire who exhibited paintings of all manner of wrecks that lay there. When questioned about them, it seemed that most lay well beyond one-hundred feet deep. When I asked him if he used trimix for these dives he retorted as only a Frenchman can, … Read more
“Genie”, who passed away on February 25th 2015 at the age of 92, was a star so bright in my life that I feel cast into darkness. But my sadness is tempered by my good fortune of having her as a friend and mentor for 25 years – you should be so lucky. Genie guided … Read more
