Record Depth on Rebreathers Set

[Mr T.]

22nd August 2003

Rebreather divers claim record for deepest dive
Three German divers are claiming a depth record after a 224.5m dive in the Red Sea using Inspiration closed circuit rebreathers.

Chris Ullmann, Manfred FŸhrmann and Volker Clausen believe that they have completed the deepest rebreather dive ever undertaken after reportedly descending to 224.5m and spending 6 hours in decompression on their return.

The dive was carried out on 21 August at Safaga in the Egyptian Red Sea, with support divers provided by local dive shop Orca Divers.

The team used mixed gas on Inspiration closed circuit rebreathers, VR3 computers and carried a variety of open circuit bail out cylinders. Support divers were stationed from 100m upwards, and the final and longest section of their decompression was carried out inside an oxygen filled underwater habitat at 6m.

All three divers are reported to be safe and well on their return to the surface.

Meanwhile the planned 333m dive by Leigh Cunningham and Mark Andrews at Sharm has been postponed for an unknown period. Sponsors of the dive told Divernet that medical checks on the divers needed to be completed.

[Adrian Kelland]

I wonder what they saw down there. Not a lot methinks.

I'm not sure if I find this awe inspiring, or pointless. If the aim was just for the record, to me this is pointless. If part of training/planning for a particular site, then fairplay to them.

Adrian

[Mark Davies]

<font color='#000080'>Adrian, you do have a point. I don't see the need to take the extra risks to dive deeper unless there was a good reason to do it. For me there is still plenty to see and do at 30m or less.

But these dives to record depths are pushing the envelope and have a genuine research value. It is teaching us how we can do it, so that in the future when we have a good reason to need to do it, we'll know that we can.

I doubt I'll ever go that far, and probably won't benefit at all from the efforts of these divers, but I'd say good luck to them and well done!

[steve-k]

<font color='#000080'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]I doubt I'll ever go that far, and probably won't benefit at all from the efforts of these divers, but I'd say good luck to them and well done!

at 220 m i fookin hope not

it would take more than i have in my to acheave these depths

these guys are so far away from our levle its scary

[parahandy]

6 HOURS &nbsp;Decompression who's idea of fun is that???
Depth just for the sake of it a bit pointless I think?

Don't think they would be hanging about 6 hrs in UK waters. not unless they wanted their extremities thawing out with a blowlamp.

[Pierre Farrugia]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hello,

Lately here in Malta there was Starfish enterprise diving HMS Russel at 115m. A diver who I know dived with them and told that their level or experise is phenomenal and compared to us are on an other planet. They were doing 30min bottom times at these depths, all using Inspirations. Nothing comes free and these type of divers must prepare themselves during years to achieve these results and reading about their profiles maybe we can learn something.

Also about 10 years or so before going to 80 to 100m on mix was something only crazy divers (or pioneers) &nbsp;can do, now many divers can dive these depths with adequet training, equipment, build up dives and experience.

Regards

Pierre malta

[RobK]

Some reports coming out now that things didn't go smoothly.

This mail was posted to a couple of other lists...

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]
&gt;
&gt;Speaking about the Equipment:
&gt;They had massive failures
&gt;Manfred Führmann: &quot;Das war extrem knapp, das hing an einem ganz dünnen
&gt;seidenen Faden.&quot; Seine Probleme begannen schon beim Hinuntertauchen bei
&gt;etwa 210 Metern, als seine Instrumente kurzfristig total ausfielen.
&gt;
&gt;Means: It was a very close call, they had a total failure of instruments at
&gt;210m.
&gt;
&gt;&quot;Dennoch schloss er zu den anderen beiden auf die Rekordtiefe auf, da er
&gt;die Kamera führte, die den bildlichen Rekord-Beweis erbringen sollte. &quot;
&gt;Still he continued, because he was there to film the whole thing as a witness.
&gt;
&gt;&quot;Bei Clausen setzten die Instrumente beim Wiederaufstieg in etwa 220 Meter
&gt;Tiefe aus und waren auch nicht mehr in Gang zu bekommen.&quot;
&gt;The other diver, Volker Clausen also had a total failure of his instruments
&gt;below 220m and could not recover themn.
&gt;
&gt;&quot; Mit Hilfe seiner eigenen Notfall-Atemluft und der seiner Gefährten gelang
&gt;es ihm, mit den beiden anderen auf 90 Meter aufzutauchen, wo er in das
&gt;Sichtfeld der ersten Sicherungstaucher gelangte. So konnte die Notfallkette
&gt;in Gang kommen, die dank der Erfahrung und Besonnenheit aller reibungslos
&gt;funktionierte.&quot;
&gt;With Help of the bailout of the others they made it to 90m where they were
&gt;in sight of the first support divers and the emergency chain was triggered.
&gt;
&gt;
&gt;&quot;Ein Supporttaucher brachte ihm innerhalb von drei Minuten ein Ersatzgerät
&gt;mit geschlossenem Kreislauf in die Tiefe. Clausen später: &quot;Ich kann mich
&gt;nicht erinnern, aber ich glaube, ich habe da schon kurz gedacht - das ist
&gt;es jetzt.&quot;
&gt;A support-diver brought them a complete spare CCR and Clausen already
&gt;thought: &quot; That´s it&quot;
&gt;
&gt;&quot;Auch beim dritten Rekordtaucher Chris Ullmann versagte die Technik - &quot;zum
&gt;Glück aber erst auf einer Tiefe von etwa 50 Metern&quot;, wie er später sagte.
&gt;Auch Ullmann musste für ein paar Meter des Aufstiegs auf seine
&gt;Notfall-Flaschen zurückgreifen - auch ihm brachten Sicherungstaucher ein
&gt;neues Gerät.&quot;
&gt;Also the unit of the third diver failed, and he had to bail out until
&gt;another spare-unit was brought down.
&gt;
&gt;&quot; Alle drei meinten nach dem Tauchgang, dass sie es dem Glück, ihrer
&gt;Erfahrung aus tausenden Tauchgängen und der perfekten Vorausplanung und der
&gt;Professionalität ihrer Crew zu verdanken haben, dass keiner der drei zu
&gt;Schaden kam. &quot;
&gt;All 3 of them realized afterwards and told that they had luck, and due to
&gt;their experience and good planning and the help of the crew nobody got hurt.
&gt;

Also it's not the deepest ever rebreather dive it's the deepest Inspiration Dive.

HTH
Rob.

[Dominic]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]But these dives to record depths are pushing the envelope and have a genuine research value.

But they're not - commercial divers regularly go to these depths and beyond - 600 meters is, IIRC, not unheard of.

There's plenty of research data available without all these people strapping on a dozen cylinders and hurtling into the abyss in pursuit of a new world record. Especially when they're pushing scuba limits (Hey, 300 meters, aren't I cool?) as opposed to human limits (Hey, 700 meters, aren't I cool?)

[Mark Davies]

<font color='#000080'>Well yes, Dom. I appreciate that it's not the deepest human dive, but that was not necessarily the point.

It was the deepest dive for the equipment they were using. By pushing that equipment beyond it's known limits I am sure that many useful lessons were learned. From the post above, it is clear that they had problems and by analyzing these the equipment and techniques can be improved for the rest of us.

While it is given to few of us to drive a car at 210 mph, over the last 15 years we have all benefited from Formula 1 technology which has filtered into the everyday family car (ABS, traction control etc). It is only by efforts to stretch the envelope of limitation that these advances are made.

Now, I don't doubt that their main motivation was just to be able to say, &quot;Hey, I've been to X meters!&quot; but I'd still say that benefit can be derived from it, so that it is not a pointless exercise.

Who knows, it may be one more step towards the 200m recreational dive of the future.

[Digger]

200m recreational dive I think would be puching it a bit! Maybe 100m recreational dives, but not 2. Ever. It's just not fun diving, and would never be like the kind of recreational dives we see at the moment.