For those who don't know about the effects of diving I'll explain. Due to the increasing pressure at depth, the volume of air decreases. Consequently, any volume of air increases in volume as divers rise towards the surface.

y friend 'Phil' was diving on a wreck and found a very nice porthole that he intended to recover. He tried to lift the metal porthole but it was too heavy. Phil was wearing a dry suit during the dive that allows users to inject air to prevent effects of pressure on the body. Phil had a fantastic idea......... if he filled his dry suit full of air he could use it like a lifting bag (the equipment used to lift items of the sea bed). As Phil injects the air, his suit got bigger but finally the air escaped out the neck seal.

So Phil decided that he turned upside down he fill his dry suit full of air and it wouldn’t escape. At this point I must tell you that Phil’s dry suit was an older model which had latex socks rather than boots attached at the feet.

Phil’s plan worked the air didn’t escape and he started to rise to the surface, feet first. Now the science comes in to effect. For every 10 meters, Phil rose towards the surface the volume of air doubled.

I was at in the boat keeping watch when I saw two huge black balloons break the surface. Moments later, I saw a hand splashing at the surface and then a divers knife rise out the sea and stab the black balloons. The latex socks on Phil’s dry suit had expanded as the volume of air increased. As Phil moved towards the surface the greater the volume of air, and faster he surfaced. Because he was upside down, he could not release the air.

When he reached the surface, he could not turn himself the right way up because of the huge amount of buoyancy in his feet. His only option was to burst the latex socks. Unfortunately, Phil thought his find so valuable he didn’t let go of the porthole. When the air was released, Phil sank rapidly to the bottom again.

Not only did Phil risk the ‘Bends’ he also risked drowning because of not letting go of the porthole and because his dry suit filled with water. Fortunately, he was wearing a buoyancy jacket that he used to back to the surface.

Well worth and honourable mention I think.

Submitted on 11/04/2003

Submitted by: ike
Reference: Personal Account

Copyright © 2003 DarwinAwards.com

Greg said:
Neutral: Personal Account
At least worth of look in the slush pile. The image of this guy floating with big baloon feet is priceless...

Loren said:
Neutral: Personal Account
I think the guy, being a diver should have known what to expect. So I recon he was stupid enough to maybe get a personal account.

Charles said:
Neutral: Personal Account
While I'm not a diver, I sort of have to think that the rapid ascent would have caused a bad case of the bends. I think that the re-descent would have stabilized matters, and if he came back up in a more controlled manner he would likely not be suffering... but with integrity of his drysuit breached, well... Yeah, I have to think of this as a clear case of stupidity.

Jack said:
Maybe Toss: Other
Not being a diver, I'm not really qualified to comment on this. But I would have thought that Phil would have gotten the bends either from his rapid ascent, the consequent descent and the following ascent. Comments from divers?

Daniel said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Well told, and why didn't he use his BC in the first place?

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