The Darwin Awards 

HOME
Darwin Awards
At-Risk Survivors
Slush Pile
1999 Personals
Bridge Bowling
Packing the Wardrobe
Disco Dork
Gangster Blues
Tide-ally Impaired
Bridge Bonzai
Jump Rope Blues
Levelled
Trephination
Industrious Brain Dead Private
Train Dodge!
Betrayal of Trussed
Quarry Story
Unkindest Cut of All
Flak Vest Test
Coke, the Real Thing
What a Gas!
Cleaning the Head
Diving Lessons
Polar Bear Lesson
North Pacific Deckpecker
The Iceman Exiteth
Withdrawing Money
Car Surfing
Fun with Forklifts
Cement Punching Bag
Jet Ski Jock
Wives With Chloroform
Leap of Faith
Helium and Oxygen Don't Mix
Elemental Mistake
Newton's Laws of Motion
Accident Waiting to Happen
Breaking the Law
Cat-Astrophe
Other Personal Years 
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 Vintage
 
~ Random Story ~
Email Alert!
NEW! Gift Shop
Rules  Search
Contact Darwin
Submit a Story
Philosophy Forum
Home

  


1999 Personal Accounts
The Darwin Awards salutes the spirit portrayed in the following personal accounts, submitted by loyal (and sometimes deceased) readers. Next
Prev
Random

 

Diving Lessons 
1999 Personal Account

(11 July 1999, Norway) This is the story of a guy teaching his friend about diving. It was a sunny day, excellent for a first dive. The "teacher" had taken a SCUBA course, had his own equipment, and had done a few dives. The student hadn't tried but was willing to learn from his good friend.

The only equipment they had was one complete diving set, which the "teaching" friend wore. The learner had only a wetsuit and weight belt, and no diving vest for flotation. They shared one tank of air, breathing from the same regulator.

After several underwater forays, they had 40 bar of air left on the tank. They jumped into the water and started their last dive, wanting to see how far down they could get. Safe procedures require that you finish a dive with at least 50 bar of air remaining.

40 bar will last for about 4 minutes if they didn't breathe hard, but inexperienced divers always breath hard. They reached 26 meters when they ran out of air. The "instructor" got to the surface using his diving vest, but was dead before he surfaced. The student was found at 26 meters with his weight belt on. Standard procedure is to release that belt when having trouble, to make it easier to surface.

So what did the student learn about diving? Probably that it is possible to drown when you get into trouble under water.

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2012

Submitted by: Mari Moren

Reference: Norwegian Diving Association Bulletin, NRK Radio
Awful? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Great?
Hate it! Love it!
Previous Directions Next

Advanced Search

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2022