(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.
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Submitted by: Mari Moren
Reference: Norwegian Diving Association Bulletin, NRK Radio
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