Posted by Wayne on February 06, 2001 at 18:04:10:
So there I was, minding my own business at the boat show when the wife called me over to see a toy. It was a device to be towed behind a boat with a diver hanging on. It could be steered left, right, up and down. They had a video of a free diver having a fun time at about 10 kts. I remarked to my family that I would be afraid of the potential for ear injury with the video showing a diver bouncing from 0 - 15 fsw while hanging on for dear life with both hands. The family nodded.
Then a fellow near my wife said "The ears or nothing to worry about, it's the bends that you would have to worry about!" I politely suggested that he might have meant an embolism, but that was not a risk in free diving -- fool that I am to try to asssit this fellow in his error. He then told me "I am a REAL DIVER and DIVERS know you can get the bends in 3 feet of water!"
All this talk of deadly solo and nitrox activities, lack of computers, and the like and we missed the BIG ONE. BENT in 3 feet. Of course, I suppose nobody gets DCS at depth, it is a surface condition...
Wayne