26 ms·

The Blue Hole in the Red Sea is the deadliest dive site in the world

323 points by pmcpinto 5y ago

achow 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo Interview with Tarek Omar (the diver rescuer in the article) and location shot. Much better than reading the article.
- epaga 5y ago
  Though I'm sure it's a fascinating interview, I thought the article was really well-written and helpful. I really enjoyed the pace of it all.
  - chha 5y ago
    You might also like this story about a dive in Boesmansgat: Raising the Dead[0] [0] - https://www.outsideonline.com/1922711/raising-dead https://www.outsideonline.com/1922711/raising-dead
    - t0mas88 5y ago
      Thanks for sharing, it's a long read but very well written and worth the time.
    - alexhutcheson 5y ago
      You might also like this one about a dive in Norway: The cave divers who went back for their friends[0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300
    - jiscariot 5y ago
      My dream is to see Werner Herzog do a film about this.
- Aromasin 5y ago
  The interview section is quite short; much shorter than that in the article. The documentary is fascinating regardless however.
- echelon 5y ago
  The article was fantastic. It brought everything to life in a way video essays can't. Video crushes your imagination. It's factual, and leaves little mystery. Well-written narratives are full sensory waking dreams that you populate with sights and sounds, something you can inhabit.
  - nottorp 5y ago
    How did you read it? It asked me for a subscription or an account or something. Instaclose. Subject seemed interesting enough that I came to the comments to get alternative links, which have been provided, thank you posters.
    - ce4 5y ago
      It just asked to choose between adsupported and subscription model. You can switch off js if you dont want to see it.
      - nottorp 5y ago
        I don't try to bypass walls. If they don't want my eyeballs I won't bother them. Ofc, I suppose Germans who actually read it for the local info could be a lot more interested than me.
- threatripper 5y ago
  Go to 30:00 and just look at it. It's literally luring people in.
  - iJohnDoe 5y ago
    Thanks, very helpful.
- lobstrosity420 5y ago
  Thanks for the link, but I much prefer the article to those American style documentaries, with the scary sound effects and endless repetition to build "suspense". Interview is at the 8:50 mark for those curious.
- smnscu 5y ago
  Also this -- professional diver discussing the video recorded by someone who dove there unprepared and died https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4aK2O1X_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4aK2O1X_M
- iJohnDoe 5y ago
  Wow, just watching it gives me anxiety. Makes perfect sense what is happening and why divers can easily die there. Thanks for the link.
roland35 5y ago
Summary: The Blue hole is a natural sinkhole off the coast of Egypt. It is very accessible, there are many beginners, and there are many unscrupulous dive guides which lead to diver depths. Some basic diving rules which when broken lead to deaths: - Not diving with a partner - Diving below the depth you should be - Diving after partying the night before - Rising back up too quickly
- danparsonson 5y ago
  Yeah exactly - any diving is dangerous if a diver behaves in the ways described in this article, it's not the site that's the problem per se. Just the depth that makes it easy for things to get worse when they go wrong I guess.
- shellfishgene 5y ago
  I think one big part of it is that tunnnel that leads out of the hole to the open ocean. Tunnels and arches to dive through magically attract divers, also for taking picures. The tunnel's ceiling is at 52-56 meters, which is exactly the depth that compressed air divers think they can risk diving to. The bottom of the tunnel however is at around 100 m, and nitrogen narcosis sometimes causes inexperienced divers to reach it...
  - Syzygies 5y ago
    > nitrogen narcosis sometimes causes inexperienced divers to reach it For those of us who (don't) remember the 60's, experience can take many forms. I remember reaching a depth of 100' in scuba training, and being asked to do arithmetic at a whiteboard. "Um, ask me how I wrote my thesis..."
edwardsdl 5y ago
Narcosis is nothing to trifle with. After a particularly bad experience at 150ft on air, I understand why some agencies advocate for a maximum equivalent narcotic depth* of 100ft. *For the non-divers out there, it’s possible substitute a less narcotic gas - typically helium but not always - for a portion of the narcotic gas in a mixture. Equivalent narcotic depth (END) is a way to equate a mixture’s narcotic effect to that of air at a given depth.
- rob74 5y ago
  ** 150 ft ~= 45 m; 100 ft ~= 30 m (for the other non-Imperials out here ;) )
- diveanon 5y ago
  Once you start getting to technical depths you operate under the assumption that you are alone, even when diving with a buddy. I know some french federation divers who will tape their hands to their hand power inflator to avoid confusion when experience narcosis at depth. At first I thought it was a goofy idea, but after experiencing debilitating narcosis at 60m I had second thoughts about it.
  - nradov 5y ago
    No you really don't. I do a lot of technical diving and depend on my buddies for safety. The key is to select reliable buddies who have been properly trained. And taping your hand to your power inflator is just too stupid for words. Put some helium in the mix.
- nradov 5y ago
  Military and commercial divers have done some experiments with hydrogen to reduce narcosis without using helium. But the fire risk makes it way too dangerous for civilian sport diving. Neon might also reduce narcosis but it's more expensive and the work of breathing is higher.
perilunar 5y ago
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) Map: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Blue+Hole/@28.5722712,34.5372984,235m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Blue+Hole/@28.5722712,3...
- brazzy 5y ago
  Here's some good diagrams that show the shape of the hole: https://web.archive.org/web/20080321024116/http://www.blueholeproject.com/maps.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080321024116/http://www.blueho...
  - twic 5y ago
    Those diagrams are very helpful, thanks. This drawing also helped me understand it: http://maltatechnicaldiving.blogspot.com/2009/07/dive-site-of-blue-hole-in-dahab.html http://maltatechnicaldiving.blogspot.com/2009/07/dive-site-o...
  - derbOac 5y ago
    The article was very well-written but it would have been significantly improved by diagrams like that.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  Sigh...the wikipedia article has a picture of various memorials family members of deceased divers built at the Blue Hole. The most prominent one reads "Don't let fear stand in the way of your dreams"...isn't that exactly the wrong message? The guy whose quote that is died when he was 23 years old. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Blue_hole_memorial.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Blue_hol...
gonzo41 5y ago
That was a sad read. Essentially the hole in the earth version of mount Everest.
Saig6 5y ago
A dive instructor I meet in Thailand in told me about this location. According to him it was common to be too narced (nitrogen narcosis) to make rational decisions when going under the arch at 52m, leading to fatal mistakes (like going even deeper).
agent008t 5y ago
Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I'd say is alpine hiking): 1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more 'fine', you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of. 2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go on a particular dive. They barely check your papers or equipment, if at all. 3. You often don't really know what exactly you are getting into until you are in the middle of it. And then it can be too late to bail. Is it safer to abandon a group and attempt to go back and potentially get lost, or go into an environment that looks more dangerous than you expected? I am a PADI open water diver, but only dive a few times a year, so not too experienced. One time I signed up for a shipwreck dive at an all-inclusive resort. I am usually quite careful, and naively thought it would be fine - we just dive down, go around the wreck and come back up. I rented all equipment, and had to pay extra for a wetsuit - the 'default' was to just go in my swimming trunks. Turned out, on the dive we ended up going inside the wreck through a very narrow passage under it, going through narrow dark corridors surrounded by rusted metal. Touch anything and you get scratched (which I did). Your cables or tank can easily get caught (which it briefly did for me - and since I was the last one in the group it was quite scary seeing the group getting away from me as I tried to catch up). The current around the wreck was quite strong. Somehow the dive was planned such that there was very little allowance for extra air. I ended up using more air than I suppose was normal, and there would not have been enough to make a normal ascent. I ended up having to use the dive instructor's alt supply for some of the return swim and switch to my own for the safety stop, otherwise I would've run out. It is one thing to practice it, and another to actually have to do it on what was supposed to be a relaxing 'touristy' dive. On another occasion, a dive instructor took me and my partner (who was on an introductory dive - she doesn't have a license) into a cave, which is also more dangerous than I would've preferred. These experiences - combined with the general experience of wasting the whole day on a rocky boat breathing diesel fumes for an hour or so of diving - make me reluctant to dive again, unless the sight is particularly picturesque.
- nspattak 5y ago
  Not a diver myself but my best friend is (he is also an instructor as well as cave/shipwreck diver and he has also worked for a dive center with a lot of tourists). I remember him telling me that diving in shipwrecks(or caves) requires additional certification, so I assume that those who have only the first/second star were not allowed to join (especially in a trip by an all-inclusive resort). What you describe sounds like a terrible and irresponsible trip to me.
xwdv 5y ago
I remember several years ago I watched the video on YouTube where Yuri sank to the bottom of the Blue Hole and drowned in a drunken narcotic state. Pretty much confirmed I never want to bother with scuba diving. ROVs seem cooler anyway and can go way deeper.
- hyperbovine 5y ago
  This type of dive is extremely atypical in terms of risk, and also reward. It appeals to a certain kind of person interested in technical diving and/or bragging rights. As far as seeing pretty fish or coral, there is no point in going this deep since it's dark. 99% of divers are staying above 30m, where things are a lot safer and more interesting.
  - danparsonson 5y ago
    Indeed; nitrogen narcosis is almost non-existent within the 18m standard open water limit, and even down to 30m is unusual. Just find a reputable dive company taking you around a reef and it's really very safe.
dTal 5y ago
Idle speculation, perhaps a diver could answer - could it be that the reef forms a kind of natural solar pond, leading to an unusual osmotic (and therefore density) gradient? Thus resulting in divers suddenly dropping like a stone when they hit a certain depth? The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.
- oggeline 5y ago
  All your buoyancy comes from non rigid devices (vest, suit). As you go deeper those devices compress and you lose buoyancy causing a feedback loop. Compounded with loss of vertical references, you can quickly sink to the depth where the air you breathe will become toxic. At that point you don’t have the mental capacity to save yourself.
- manarth 5y ago
  As a diver descends, they have to add air to their BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) to maintain neutral buoyancy (and release air when they ascend). Without that compensation step, as a diver descends their buoyancy becomes increasingly negative. Add a level of narcosis for descending below 40m, mix in some excitement/stress, and some equipment configuration issues (e.g. too much weight), and the task-loading can cause some people to forget/skip routine techniques such as adding air to maintain neutral buoyancy.
- netflixandkill 5y ago
  More likely that the target depth is down near 50m, which is well into the narcosis range for surface gas mixes. Particularly for inexperienced divers it is very easy to not realize what is happening and become too stupid to save yourself. Higher salinity may exacerbate that but not by too much.
  - bonzini 5y ago
    > become too stupid to save yourself. You probably weren't too smart to begin with to go to 50m on compressed air, and without a seafloor at that.
baybal2 5y ago
The website has an interesting line of code: > return console.log("Messaging without detection successfully executed.")
- nieve 5y ago
  For predictable irony points that's coming from a component provided by SourcePoint who claim to be a "privacy compliance platform for digital marketing, with the tools to protect consumer privacy, manage compliance, and optimize revenue."
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
ketamine__ 5y ago
Site blocks Brave.
the_dripper 5y ago
I found this terrifying, but incredibly captivating!
forcer 5y ago
I have been to that site twice , first time about 20 years ago as part of the diving course. I remember one of the exercises was to go to higher depth and do math exercises to prove that our thinking was not impaired due to the depth. For sure that site was not branded as deadliest in the world, but already back then dive masters told us about people who lost their lives there.
thathndude 5y ago
What a great story teller! I can’t put my finger on it, but the cadence and length was just spot on.
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
We have something like that, off the coast of Long Island. It’s the wreck of the San Diego; a WWI battleship that sank at the close of the war. It’s upside-down, with a hole in the hull, and rests in about 40 meters of water (120 feet or so). What makes it dangerous, is that it’s filled with silt, and it only takes an errant kick of the flipper to fill a room with zero-visibility mud. People panic, and panic at 120 feet means the oxygen goes fast. They nickname it “The wreck that eats divers.” https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/san-diego-cruiser-6.html https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology...
- diveanon 5y ago
  Entering a wreck at 40m without a guide line is asking to die. I have over 10k dives and the closest I came to death was when I was guiding on the liberty wreck in bali when a small earthquake shook the wreck, I was barely 3 meter into the wreck that I had dived hundreds of times and couldn't find my way out. Fortunately my buddy was outside the wreck at the time and used his banger to guide me out. Point is, shit happens, so you better plan for it.
  - kubanczyk 5y ago
    > 10k Gulp... That puts it in perspective. It's exceptional to dive a hundred times on a wreck in Bali and write about it on HN - and do both in the same live. Respect!
    - diveanon 5y ago
      Thanks :) You do about 1k dives per year if you are working in diving. I have loads of respect for some of the recreational divers I have met with hundreds of dives, that is a lot of money and time to invest in a hobby.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
    Mad respect. I don't dive, anymore, but I think I only had about 30 or so in my log book. What compounds it, is that we have an environment of "Macho Knuckleheads" around here. They will do things like dive the SD alone, and skip the decomp.
diveanon 5y ago
This site is notorious in the professional diving community. There is nothing particularly dangerous about it except the huge numbers of greedy dive centers who take inexperienced divers there. To all novice divers reading this, dive within your limits and you have nothing to worry about. Do not listen to dive guides/instructors who encourage you to dive deeper than you are certified or in wrecks / caves without the proper training. Diving is a calculated risk like most extreme "sports", and when you ignore those risks you endanger yourself and anyone else diving with you. Don't expect your guide to care more about your life than you do.
ChrisBland 5y ago
I'm an avid diver; got certified as soon as I turned 12 years old and have had some great adventures and life lessons diving and continuing my training and education. After many many conversations and encounters on dive boats with others (some seasoned, most tourist / rec divers) - I believe that 90% of the industry sees diving akin to a roller coaster ride instead of Skydiving. The risks with scuba are there for you to see and the situation can get deadly very quickly, but most people don't see the inherit risk or shrug it off. I've watched countless divers who are renting their bc/reg/tank/computer not even go through the most basic safety checks prior to diving. They simply trust the operator and jump in. This is not a "batteries included" sport. It is that lack of preparedness that leads to fatal accidents, people who don't respect the sport for what it is and the dangers that come with it. If you don't plan your dives, understand the dive profile, then you are going to panic of make a stupid decision when you shouldn't. When I was younger, technical dives; cave and deep, where my two favorite things to do, the amount of planning it took to pull off the dives was enjoyable and I enjoyed pushing myself in to those situations and the focus it required. Now that I have kids, I won't do those dives anymore b/c I understand that when you plan them, there is a greater than 0 chance that you don't come back and its not worth it to me to take that chance.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  “not even go through the most basic safety checks prior to diving” From my experience the dive operators in tourist spots often don’t want you to touch anything. Kind of makes sense because most tourists like myself only have a very vague recollection of the procedure.
  - Starwatcher2001 5y ago
    If you really have only a vague recollection of basic safety checks you shouldn't be diving - seriously.
    - topynate 5y ago
      In Israel a short refresher course is mandatory if you haven't dived for six months. IMO any reputable company should require the same.
kubanczyk 5y ago
https://archive.is/20210427092706/https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-blue-hole-in-the-red-sea-is-the-deadliest-dive-site-in-the-world-a-844099.html https://archive.is/20210427092706/https://www.spiegel.de/int...
m1keil 5y ago
Here's a good look of the famous arch crossed by a freediver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXQbucZUDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXQbucZUDA A real shame that this diving site is known for all of these avoidable deaths.
stevespang 5y ago
I dive for a living, servicing pumps on the bottom of the lake often in black water, no vis in black water, lights are typically useless as the particles in the water reflect back, like a dense fog, I always dive alone. Have dived the Blue Hole in Belize, which the dive masters only allow descent to 140 feet max. I find it interesting that so many Russians are high risk takers who meet their end in the article.
JoeAltmaier 5y ago
Lots of things are dangerous. Motorcyclists I know each have a row of busted helmets in a closet. Ski long enough and you'll break something. Bicyclists die on the road every day (in America) and few give it a second thought. I wonder how diving compares to other off-track sporting activities. Does it have a worse record?
- MarkMarine 5y ago
  I don't know stats, but checking out the passings section of scuba board does indicate it's a fair number of people. The thing that is different about diving from bicycling or skiing is you really don't need to be physically fit to dive. It's relaxing and easy, people dive into their 70s and 80s so there are a lot of heart attacks of older people that get chocked up to diving and may just be natural causes.
kubanczyk 5y ago
In truth, diving done right is procedures, procedures, procedures. That's why many novices and professionals suck at it. It needs boring personalities, or these that can handle boredom. I don't have to remember about the danger, I don't even have to respect the danger: if I actually go through all the steps and all the procedures, the risk is minimal. "If there was zero adrenaline, it was a dive done properly." I've once taken an intro flight on a light aircraft. After I observed my instructor doing all his pre-flight procedures, I reflected "umm, you know, it's actually much less than I do for a simple dive." He thought for a moment, but found an interesting reply: "I'm not an expert, but I think, if we take a number of dives or flights, we have more diving-related deaths than light-aircraft-related." (He was talking about Poland though - i.e. cold water dives.)
- akiselev 5y ago
  As long as you're not flying an experimental aircraft, general aviation is naturally safer than diving. Since GA planes are aerodynamically stable and can glide, pilots (usually) have a lot more time to calm down and think through their options before the situation becomes really dangerous. Most emergencies can be resolved by identifying a flat field or calling an emergency at the nearest airport (which the FAA is encouraging pilots to do more often). Not to mention, getting a pilots license is about 10 hours of "how to fly a plane" and 30+ hours of "how to deal with emergencies" including the instructor cutting off engine power mid flight. There's a procedure for just about every situation and the most important ones are practically muscle memory by the time one receives a pilots license.
ddls 5y ago
I'm an experienced diver (PADI dive-master, ACUC instructor, IANTD gas-blender and normoxic trimix diver, TDI hypoxic trimix diver and dive-master) with several thousands of dives of which many at 100m+ (330 feet) depths. I lived in Dahab where for 16 months I assisted training technical diving instructors in the blue hole and at other less touristy dive sites around there. The blue hole is in not a particularly dangerous dive site, but its popularity attracts the most cocksure types trying to prove something. The main attraction at the blue hole is the arch. It's a 40 meter archway who's apex is at 56 meters and leads from the cylindrical blue hole out into "the blue", where depths are insane and theres nothing but water anywhere you look. It's very beautiful, especially while the sun is rising, as it faces East. 56 meters is not particularly deep, but it's deep enough for any beginner and even most advanced divers to get seriously narced (drunk on nitrogen). It's also _just about_ deep enough for the partial pressure of oxygen to reach a critical point where oxygen becomes toxic. When it does, your muscles try to burn off the excess oxygen and you temporarily lose control of them, they shake, so your chin and cheeks start to twitch and you can easily drop your regulator. When the twitching is over, you involuntarily take a deep breath... If you're an experienced diver, know your narcosis limits, know your oxygen toxicity limits, know your air consumption, havn't had a drink the night before, and are physically fit, maybe you can pull it off without trimix. Otherwise, it's an absolute beginner's dive with the right gas blend.
- ghostpepper 5y ago
  There's a short documentary about it on youtube where (IIRC) they claim most of the fatalities are people who try to swim through the arch on a single standard aluminum 80 tank.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Apofis 5y ago
  Question: Why are divers injecting this trimix?
  - detaro 5y ago
NotPavlovsDog 5y ago
I've dived the Blue Hole, recreational depths. I felt an evil presence there and had nightmares about the Hole 2 nights after, with some kind of blue energy trying to consume me. I am not a superstitious person, and have dived multiple deep technical dives with bad visibility, below 0 Celsius sea water (poor dive computer) on sites with munitions, chemical contamination and war graves with body remains. This is the only time I felt that there was a large predatory presence watching me and all around me. Was offered to do the Arch, have the needed experience and clearances. Did not do, will not do ever. The memorials and history of the place did not affect me in any way, I've worked rescue, dealt with dead bodies and attended many a funeral. I've participated in autopsies as part of my training. The blue hole was a strange enough experience that it stands out of all of my many dives.
- Anther 5y ago
  Dread is quite the feeling. Almost quite impossible to describe.
DamnInteresting 5y ago
Perhaps worth adding (2012) to the title. It is evergreen, still relevant, but worth noting that it is almost 10 years old.
Karawebnetwork 5y ago
"A notable death was that of Yuri Lipski, a 22-year-old Russian-Israeli diving instructor on 28 April 2000 at a depth of 115 metres after an uncontrolled descent. Lipski's body was recovered the following day by Tarek Omar, one of the world's foremost deep-water divers, at the request of Lipski's mother. Omar says: Two days after we recovered his remains and gave [his mother] his belongings and equipment, she came to me asking that I help her disassemble them so she can pack them. The camera should have been damaged or even broken altogether because I had found it at a depth of 115 metres, and it is only designed to sustain 75 metres; but, to my surprise, the camera was still working. We played it and his mother was there. I regret that his mother will have this forever... If I had known the footage existed I’d have flooded it. I think the thing that really upset and saddened me about it was that his mom has it now – she has the footage of her own son drowning." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea)
lbrindze 5y ago
It turns out almost all the organizations follow the same training standards set out by the WRSTC (World Recreational Scuba Training Council). The big exception is CMAS which past level 2 no longer is comparable to the WRSTC program tracks since it allows for decompression diving on air down to 40m (level 2) and 56m (level 3). This means even with an advanced or master diver certificate from PADI, (NAUI, SDI, SSI, etc...) the tables you learn to use do not go beyond decompression limits (requiring mandated decompression stops on your ascent) since they stop at 30m. It used to be 40m but I believe the standard has become more conservative since I was last teaching. NAUI does have supplemental training that goes beyond WRSTC standards but a lot of that has to do with the science and ecology of the underwater world more generally. All open water level certs (usually the most basic level cert) expects students to be fully autonomous (with their buddies) by the end of the course. If you sign up for an open water dive in southern. California for example, it is rarely a guided experience and most people form groups of 2-3 on the boat and go and enjoy the water, coming back within an 1-1.5 hours. Almost everywhere else I have worked, it is expected (by the guests...) that all dives in open water are lead by a certified dive master and not self lead in small groups. I personally think this is a result of the way the standards and incentives work for dive operators to encourage that dependency on their outfit and keep the money flowing in. Generally recreational diving is very safe but even working as an instructor for a few years at a few different outfits, there is always a handful of fatalities. I really like the comparison to Skydiving someone else made, except its a much more subtle danger since you dont actually need to be in top physical shape to do this activity (even though it is required by the certification agencies). The only other thing I find interesting is all the certification agencies are for the INSTRUCTORS (hence the I in PADI, NAUI, SSI...). These orgs are outfits that enable recreational scuba operators to have a standardized set of empirically derived safety limits to protect the instructor and shop liability (not the student's). More often than not, especially in far flung, remote diving destinations, caution is thrown to the wind and people do not always follow the prescribed standards. Source: OWSI (Open water scuba instructor) with multiple agencies as well as CMAS level 3 diver
dmingod666 5y ago
This documentary investigates specifically why the people are dying there. Very well made. https://youtu.be/hYuMN206Jzo https://youtu.be/hYuMN206Jzo
sharadov 5y ago
What a noble soul.. "He brings up the bodies because he wants to help, says Omar. "It isn't about money for me. I don't ask for anything. I just charge the cost of the gas."
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
(2012) argh
gentleman11 5y ago
Can’t read without clicking the “I agree to tracking” full page pop up.
dtrain2017 5y ago
I did my first dives in Dahab, Egypt including at the Blue Hole. This location was my first experience with narcosis; but, it was planned. Myself, my father, and our instructor dove down to 45m and he handed me a whiteboard to write on. He asked me very basic questions like how to spell your name and I remember really having to think hard to answer. In general, if you are diving to see fish, it's rare to go past 20-30m (the minimum depth to exp. narcosis). The visibility is worse the deeper you go and typically if there is a reef at 30m there is also one at 15m where your oxygen will last longer, less cold, etc... I don't think diving needs to be dangerous to be enjoyed. It's about seeing an entirely new world and the moving in the medium of water. The people who've perished at the Blue Hole are taking an extraordinary amount of risk - diving solo, descending to 150m - for 'achievement' purposes and I understand Omar's frustration.
acjohnson55 5y ago
I've dived the Sinai's Blue Hole, so it's wild to see this on HN. It was an intense experience. Our dive instructors warned us of how deadly the site was, and the various hazards. But the dive itself was unique compared to other deep dives I've done. I would describe it like parachuting, slow motion, into the bluest blue. By the second, the sunlight got dimmer and the blue got bluer. It was disorienting if you looked in any direction besides the crater wall. At about 25m down, I looked up and realized we were too deep to reach the surface quickly. That triggered my panic reaction. I started hyperventilating into my regulator, and had the urge to spit it out. But knowing that would be literal suicide, I managed to override it. I felt like given a few minutes, there was a strong chance of getting my panic under control, but I thought, "why take the chance?" Also, the dive plan was to continue to go deeper, and if part of my panic was due to nitrogen narcosis, it was only going to get worse. It wasn't worth it for a recreational dive. So I gestured the "up" signal to one of the instructors, and she immediately worked with me to do a controlled ascent. I spent the rest of the time doing a shallow dive along the crater wall, which was much more relaxing.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Smart person, and it takes courage to not go (down) with the crowd. The people who don't come back up are the ones who lack your good judgment, I expect.
- nradov 5y ago
  Part of your panic and narcosis was likely due to CO2 accumulation. As you go deeper and the work of breathing increases it becomes harder to clear the CO2. CO2 has a higher narcotic potential than N2.
  - acjohnson55 5y ago
    Interesting! I don't remember learning about CO2 intoxication
ddls 5y ago
It should be pointed out that the record depth in the area is not Tarek Omar's 203 meters as the article mentions, it's Nuno Gomes' 318 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_(diver) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_(diver)). This, with all due respect to Omar who is indeed an incredible diver. Also, the article speaks of mermaids so I'll just add on a lighter note that for a long while there was a toy mermaid tied to the over-hang mid way through the arch.
fl0ralsx 5y ago
Crazy!
734129837261 5y ago
I like skydiving and scuba diving. And in both cases I always prepare like a madman. The activity itself comes with plenty of risks, and I'm just there to enjoy it by reducing the risks best I can. That means the blue hole can go screw itself. I'll stick to a maximum depth of 25 meters or so and my goal is to see shipwrecks (from a distance) and pretty fishies. As for skydiving, I want a good view, no wind, a maximum of one tiny cloud, and a dropzone with good packers and craft beer. There are plenty of people out there BASE jumping or deep-sea diving. There are plenty of them recording their own deaths. I plan to not be part of those people.

323 points by pmcpinto 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuMN206Jzo Interview with Tarek Omar (the diver rescuer in the article) and location shot. Much better than reading the article.

epaga 5y ago
Though I'm sure it's a fascinating interview, I thought the article was really well-written and helpful. I really enjoyed the pace of it all.
- chha 5y ago
  You might also like this story about a dive in Boesmansgat: Raising the Dead[0] [0] - https://www.outsideonline.com/1922711/raising-dead https://www.outsideonline.com/1922711/raising-dead
  - t0mas88 5y ago
    Thanks for sharing, it's a long read but very well written and worth the time.
  - alexhutcheson 5y ago
    You might also like this one about a dive in Norway: The cave divers who went back for their friends[0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300
  - jiscariot 5y ago
    My dream is to see Werner Herzog do a film about this.
Aromasin 5y ago
The interview section is quite short; much shorter than that in the article. The documentary is fascinating regardless however.
echelon 5y ago
The article was fantastic. It brought everything to life in a way video essays can't. Video crushes your imagination. It's factual, and leaves little mystery. Well-written narratives are full sensory waking dreams that you populate with sights and sounds, something you can inhabit.
- nottorp 5y ago
  How did you read it? It asked me for a subscription or an account or something. Instaclose. Subject seemed interesting enough that I came to the comments to get alternative links, which have been provided, thank you posters.
  - ce4 5y ago
    It just asked to choose between adsupported and subscription model. You can switch off js if you dont want to see it.
    - nottorp 5y ago
      I don't try to bypass walls. If they don't want my eyeballs I won't bother them. Ofc, I suppose Germans who actually read it for the local info could be a lot more interested than me.
threatripper 5y ago
Go to 30:00 and just look at it. It's literally luring people in.
- iJohnDoe 5y ago
  Thanks, very helpful.
lobstrosity420 5y ago
Thanks for the link, but I much prefer the article to those American style documentaries, with the scary sound effects and endless repetition to build "suspense". Interview is at the 8:50 mark for those curious.
smnscu 5y ago
Also this -- professional diver discussing the video recorded by someone who dove there unprepared and died https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4aK2O1X_M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4aK2O1X_M
iJohnDoe 5y ago
Wow, just watching it gives me anxiety. Makes perfect sense what is happening and why divers can easily die there. Thanks for the link.

roland35 5y ago

Summary: The Blue hole is a natural sinkhole off the coast of Egypt. It is very accessible, there are many beginners, and there are many unscrupulous dive guides which lead to diver depths. Some basic diving rules which when broken lead to deaths: - Not diving with a partner - Diving below the depth you should be - Diving after partying the night before - Rising back up too quickly

danparsonson 5y ago
Yeah exactly - any diving is dangerous if a diver behaves in the ways described in this article, it's not the site that's the problem per se. Just the depth that makes it easy for things to get worse when they go wrong I guess.
shellfishgene 5y ago
I think one big part of it is that tunnnel that leads out of the hole to the open ocean. Tunnels and arches to dive through magically attract divers, also for taking picures. The tunnel's ceiling is at 52-56 meters, which is exactly the depth that compressed air divers think they can risk diving to. The bottom of the tunnel however is at around 100 m, and nitrogen narcosis sometimes causes inexperienced divers to reach it...
- Syzygies 5y ago
  > nitrogen narcosis sometimes causes inexperienced divers to reach it For those of us who (don't) remember the 60's, experience can take many forms. I remember reaching a depth of 100' in scuba training, and being asked to do arithmetic at a whiteboard. "Um, ask me how I wrote my thesis..."

edwardsdl 5y ago

Narcosis is nothing to trifle with. After a particularly bad experience at 150ft on air, I understand why some agencies advocate for a maximum equivalent narcotic depth* of 100ft. *For the non-divers out there, it’s possible substitute a less narcotic gas - typically helium but not always - for a portion of the narcotic gas in a mixture. Equivalent narcotic depth (END) is a way to equate a mixture’s narcotic effect to that of air at a given depth.

rob74 5y ago
** 150 ft ~= 45 m; 100 ft ~= 30 m (for the other non-Imperials out here ;) )
diveanon 5y ago
Once you start getting to technical depths you operate under the assumption that you are alone, even when diving with a buddy. I know some french federation divers who will tape their hands to their hand power inflator to avoid confusion when experience narcosis at depth. At first I thought it was a goofy idea, but after experiencing debilitating narcosis at 60m I had second thoughts about it.
- nradov 5y ago
  No you really don't. I do a lot of technical diving and depend on my buddies for safety. The key is to select reliable buddies who have been properly trained. And taping your hand to your power inflator is just too stupid for words. Put some helium in the mix.
nradov 5y ago
Military and commercial divers have done some experiments with hydrogen to reduce narcosis without using helium. But the fire risk makes it way too dangerous for civilian sport diving. Neon might also reduce narcosis but it's more expensive and the work of breathing is higher.

perilunar 5y ago

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) Map: https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Blue+Hole/@28.5722712,34.5372984,235m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Blue+Hole/@28.5722712,3...

brazzy 5y ago
Here's some good diagrams that show the shape of the hole: https://web.archive.org/web/20080321024116/http://www.blueholeproject.com/maps.html https://web.archive.org/web/20080321024116/http://www.blueho...
- twic 5y ago
  Those diagrams are very helpful, thanks. This drawing also helped me understand it: http://maltatechnicaldiving.blogspot.com/2009/07/dive-site-of-blue-hole-in-dahab.html http://maltatechnicaldiving.blogspot.com/2009/07/dive-site-o...
- derbOac 5y ago
  The article was very well-written but it would have been significantly improved by diagrams like that.
oh_sigh 5y ago
Sigh...the wikipedia article has a picture of various memorials family members of deceased divers built at the Blue Hole. The most prominent one reads "Don't let fear stand in the way of your dreams"...isn't that exactly the wrong message? The guy whose quote that is died when he was 23 years old. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Blue_hole_memorial.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Blue_hol...

gonzo41 5y ago

That was a sad read. Essentially the hole in the earth version of mount Everest.

Saig6 5y ago

A dive instructor I meet in Thailand in told me about this location. According to him it was common to be too narced (nitrogen narcosis) to make rational decisions when going under the arch at 52m, leading to fatal mistakes (like going even deeper).

agent008t 5y ago

Diving seems like one of the recreational activities where it is easy to end up doing something much riskier than you intended (another I'd say is alpine hiking): 1. Being able to easily sign up for a dive at an all-inclusive resort makes it seem more 'fine', you get a false sense of security that you will be taken care of. 2. Dive shops tend to be fairly relaxed with checking if someone is properly qualified to go on a particular dive. They barely check your papers or equipment, if at all. 3. You often don't really know what exactly you are getting into until you are in the middle of it. And then it can be too late to bail. Is it safer to abandon a group and attempt to go back and potentially get lost, or go into an environment that looks more dangerous than you expected? I am a PADI open water diver, but only dive a few times a year, so not too experienced. One time I signed up for a shipwreck dive at an all-inclusive resort. I am usually quite careful, and naively thought it would be fine - we just dive down, go around the wreck and come back up. I rented all equipment, and had to pay extra for a wetsuit - the 'default' was to just go in my swimming trunks. Turned out, on the dive we ended up going inside the wreck through a very narrow passage under it, going through narrow dark corridors surrounded by rusted metal. Touch anything and you get scratched (which I did). Your cables or tank can easily get caught (which it briefly did for me - and since I was the last one in the group it was quite scary seeing the group getting away from me as I tried to catch up). The current around the wreck was quite strong. Somehow the dive was planned such that there was very little allowance for extra air. I ended up using more air than I suppose was normal, and there would not have been enough to make a normal ascent. I ended up having to use the dive instructor's alt supply for some of the return swim and switch to my own for the safety stop, otherwise I would've run out. It is one thing to practice it, and another to actually have to do it on what was supposed to be a relaxing 'touristy' dive. On another occasion, a dive instructor took me and my partner (who was on an introductory dive - she doesn't have a license) into a cave, which is also more dangerous than I would've preferred. These experiences - combined with the general experience of wasting the whole day on a rocky boat breathing diesel fumes for an hour or so of diving - make me reluctant to dive again, unless the sight is particularly picturesque.

nspattak 5y ago
Not a diver myself but my best friend is (he is also an instructor as well as cave/shipwreck diver and he has also worked for a dive center with a lot of tourists). I remember him telling me that diving in shipwrecks(or caves) requires additional certification, so I assume that those who have only the first/second star were not allowed to join (especially in a trip by an all-inclusive resort). What you describe sounds like a terrible and irresponsible trip to me.

xwdv 5y ago

I remember several years ago I watched the video on YouTube where Yuri sank to the bottom of the Blue Hole and drowned in a drunken narcotic state. Pretty much confirmed I never want to bother with scuba diving. ROVs seem cooler anyway and can go way deeper.

hyperbovine 5y ago
This type of dive is extremely atypical in terms of risk, and also reward. It appeals to a certain kind of person interested in technical diving and/or bragging rights. As far as seeing pretty fish or coral, there is no point in going this deep since it's dark. 99% of divers are staying above 30m, where things are a lot safer and more interesting.
- danparsonson 5y ago
  Indeed; nitrogen narcosis is almost non-existent within the 18m standard open water limit, and even down to 30m is unusual. Just find a reputable dive company taking you around a reef and it's really very safe.

dTal 5y ago

Idle speculation, perhaps a diver could answer - could it be that the reef forms a kind of natural solar pond, leading to an unusual osmotic (and therefore density) gradient? Thus resulting in divers suddenly dropping like a stone when they hit a certain depth? The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.

oggeline 5y ago
All your buoyancy comes from non rigid devices (vest, suit). As you go deeper those devices compress and you lose buoyancy causing a feedback loop. Compounded with loss of vertical references, you can quickly sink to the depth where the air you breathe will become toxic. At that point you don’t have the mental capacity to save yourself.
manarth 5y ago
As a diver descends, they have to add air to their BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) to maintain neutral buoyancy (and release air when they ascend). Without that compensation step, as a diver descends their buoyancy becomes increasingly negative. Add a level of narcosis for descending below 40m, mix in some excitement/stress, and some equipment configuration issues (e.g. too much weight), and the task-loading can cause some people to forget/skip routine techniques such as adding air to maintain neutral buoyancy.
netflixandkill 5y ago
More likely that the target depth is down near 50m, which is well into the narcosis range for surface gas mixes. Particularly for inexperienced divers it is very easy to not realize what is happening and become too stupid to save yourself. Higher salinity may exacerbate that but not by too much.
- bonzini 5y ago
  > become too stupid to save yourself. You probably weren't too smart to begin with to go to 50m on compressed air, and without a seafloor at that.

baybal2 5y ago

The website has an interesting line of code: > return console.log("Messaging without detection successfully executed.")

nieve 5y ago
For predictable irony points that's coming from a component provided by SourcePoint who claim to be a "privacy compliance platform for digital marketing, with the tools to protect consumer privacy, manage compliance, and optimize revenue."
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

ketamine__ 5y ago

Site blocks Brave.

the_dripper 5y ago

I found this terrifying, but incredibly captivating!

forcer 5y ago

I have been to that site twice , first time about 20 years ago as part of the diving course. I remember one of the exercises was to go to higher depth and do math exercises to prove that our thinking was not impaired due to the depth. For sure that site was not branded as deadliest in the world, but already back then dive masters told us about people who lost their lives there.

thathndude 5y ago

What a great story teller! I can’t put my finger on it, but the cadence and length was just spot on.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

We have something like that, off the coast of Long Island. It’s the wreck of the San Diego; a WWI battleship that sank at the close of the war. It’s upside-down, with a hole in the hull, and rests in about 40 meters of water (120 feet or so). What makes it dangerous, is that it’s filled with silt, and it only takes an errant kick of the flipper to fill a room with zero-visibility mud. People panic, and panic at 120 feet means the oxygen goes fast. They nickname it “The wreck that eats divers.” https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology/sites-and-projects/ship-wrecksites/san-diego-cruiser-6.html https://www.history.navy.mil/research/underwater-archaeology...

diveanon 5y ago
Entering a wreck at 40m without a guide line is asking to die. I have over 10k dives and the closest I came to death was when I was guiding on the liberty wreck in bali when a small earthquake shook the wreck, I was barely 3 meter into the wreck that I had dived hundreds of times and couldn't find my way out. Fortunately my buddy was outside the wreck at the time and used his banger to guide me out. Point is, shit happens, so you better plan for it.
- kubanczyk 5y ago
  > 10k Gulp... That puts it in perspective. It's exceptional to dive a hundred times on a wreck in Bali and write about it on HN - and do both in the same live. Respect!
  - diveanon 5y ago
    Thanks :) You do about 1k dives per year if you are working in diving. I have loads of respect for some of the recreational divers I have met with hundreds of dives, that is a lot of money and time to invest in a hobby.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  Mad respect. I don't dive, anymore, but I think I only had about 30 or so in my log book. What compounds it, is that we have an environment of "Macho Knuckleheads" around here. They will do things like dive the SD alone, and skip the decomp.

diveanon 5y ago

This site is notorious in the professional diving community. There is nothing particularly dangerous about it except the huge numbers of greedy dive centers who take inexperienced divers there. To all novice divers reading this, dive within your limits and you have nothing to worry about. Do not listen to dive guides/instructors who encourage you to dive deeper than you are certified or in wrecks / caves without the proper training. Diving is a calculated risk like most extreme "sports", and when you ignore those risks you endanger yourself and anyone else diving with you. Don't expect your guide to care more about your life than you do.

ChrisBland 5y ago

I'm an avid diver; got certified as soon as I turned 12 years old and have had some great adventures and life lessons diving and continuing my training and education. After many many conversations and encounters on dive boats with others (some seasoned, most tourist / rec divers) - I believe that 90% of the industry sees diving akin to a roller coaster ride instead of Skydiving. The risks with scuba are there for you to see and the situation can get deadly very quickly, but most people don't see the inherit risk or shrug it off. I've watched countless divers who are renting their bc/reg/tank/computer not even go through the most basic safety checks prior to diving. They simply trust the operator and jump in. This is not a "batteries included" sport. It is that lack of preparedness that leads to fatal accidents, people who don't respect the sport for what it is and the dangers that come with it. If you don't plan your dives, understand the dive profile, then you are going to panic of make a stupid decision when you shouldn't. When I was younger, technical dives; cave and deep, where my two favorite things to do, the amount of planning it took to pull off the dives was enjoyable and I enjoyed pushing myself in to those situations and the focus it required. Now that I have kids, I won't do those dives anymore b/c I understand that when you plan them, there is a greater than 0 chance that you don't come back and its not worth it to me to take that chance.

spaetzleesser 5y ago
“not even go through the most basic safety checks prior to diving” From my experience the dive operators in tourist spots often don’t want you to touch anything. Kind of makes sense because most tourists like myself only have a very vague recollection of the procedure.
- Starwatcher2001 5y ago
  If you really have only a vague recollection of basic safety checks you shouldn't be diving - seriously.
  - topynate 5y ago
    In Israel a short refresher course is mandatory if you haven't dived for six months. IMO any reputable company should require the same.

kubanczyk 5y ago

https://archive.is/20210427092706/https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-blue-hole-in-the-red-sea-is-the-deadliest-dive-site-in-the-world-a-844099.html https://archive.is/20210427092706/https://www.spiegel.de/int...

m1keil 5y ago

Here's a good look of the famous arch crossed by a freediver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXQbucZUDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrXQbucZUDA A real shame that this diving site is known for all of these avoidable deaths.

stevespang 5y ago

I dive for a living, servicing pumps on the bottom of the lake often in black water, no vis in black water, lights are typically useless as the particles in the water reflect back, like a dense fog, I always dive alone. Have dived the Blue Hole in Belize, which the dive masters only allow descent to 140 feet max. I find it interesting that so many Russians are high risk takers who meet their end in the article.

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

Lots of things are dangerous. Motorcyclists I know each have a row of busted helmets in a closet. Ski long enough and you'll break something. Bicyclists die on the road every day (in America) and few give it a second thought. I wonder how diving compares to other off-track sporting activities. Does it have a worse record?

MarkMarine 5y ago
I don't know stats, but checking out the passings section of scuba board does indicate it's a fair number of people. The thing that is different about diving from bicycling or skiing is you really don't need to be physically fit to dive. It's relaxing and easy, people dive into their 70s and 80s so there are a lot of heart attacks of older people that get chocked up to diving and may just be natural causes.

kubanczyk 5y ago

In truth, diving done right is procedures, procedures, procedures. That's why many novices and professionals suck at it. It needs boring personalities, or these that can handle boredom. I don't have to remember about the danger, I don't even have to respect the danger: if I actually go through all the steps and all the procedures, the risk is minimal. "If there was zero adrenaline, it was a dive done properly." I've once taken an intro flight on a light aircraft. After I observed my instructor doing all his pre-flight procedures, I reflected "umm, you know, it's actually much less than I do for a simple dive." He thought for a moment, but found an interesting reply: "I'm not an expert, but I think, if we take a number of dives or flights, we have more diving-related deaths than light-aircraft-related." (He was talking about Poland though - i.e. cold water dives.)

akiselev 5y ago
As long as you're not flying an experimental aircraft, general aviation is naturally safer than diving. Since GA planes are aerodynamically stable and can glide, pilots (usually) have a lot more time to calm down and think through their options before the situation becomes really dangerous. Most emergencies can be resolved by identifying a flat field or calling an emergency at the nearest airport (which the FAA is encouraging pilots to do more often). Not to mention, getting a pilots license is about 10 hours of "how to fly a plane" and 30+ hours of "how to deal with emergencies" including the instructor cutting off engine power mid flight. There's a procedure for just about every situation and the most important ones are practically muscle memory by the time one receives a pilots license.

ddls 5y ago

I'm an experienced diver (PADI dive-master, ACUC instructor, IANTD gas-blender and normoxic trimix diver, TDI hypoxic trimix diver and dive-master) with several thousands of dives of which many at 100m+ (330 feet) depths. I lived in Dahab where for 16 months I assisted training technical diving instructors in the blue hole and at other less touristy dive sites around there. The blue hole is in not a particularly dangerous dive site, but its popularity attracts the most cocksure types trying to prove something. The main attraction at the blue hole is the arch. It's a 40 meter archway who's apex is at 56 meters and leads from the cylindrical blue hole out into "the blue", where depths are insane and theres nothing but water anywhere you look. It's very beautiful, especially while the sun is rising, as it faces East. 56 meters is not particularly deep, but it's deep enough for any beginner and even most advanced divers to get seriously narced (drunk on nitrogen). It's also _just about_ deep enough for the partial pressure of oxygen to reach a critical point where oxygen becomes toxic. When it does, your muscles try to burn off the excess oxygen and you temporarily lose control of them, they shake, so your chin and cheeks start to twitch and you can easily drop your regulator. When the twitching is over, you involuntarily take a deep breath... If you're an experienced diver, know your narcosis limits, know your oxygen toxicity limits, know your air consumption, havn't had a drink the night before, and are physically fit, maybe you can pull it off without trimix. Otherwise, it's an absolute beginner's dive with the right gas blend.

ghostpepper 5y ago
There's a short documentary about it on youtube where (IIRC) they claim most of the fatalities are people who try to swim through the arch on a single standard aluminum 80 tank.
deleted 5y ago
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Apofis 5y ago
Question: Why are divers injecting this trimix?
- detaro 5y ago

NotPavlovsDog 5y ago

I've dived the Blue Hole, recreational depths. I felt an evil presence there and had nightmares about the Hole 2 nights after, with some kind of blue energy trying to consume me. I am not a superstitious person, and have dived multiple deep technical dives with bad visibility, below 0 Celsius sea water (poor dive computer) on sites with munitions, chemical contamination and war graves with body remains. This is the only time I felt that there was a large predatory presence watching me and all around me. Was offered to do the Arch, have the needed experience and clearances. Did not do, will not do ever. The memorials and history of the place did not affect me in any way, I've worked rescue, dealt with dead bodies and attended many a funeral. I've participated in autopsies as part of my training. The blue hole was a strange enough experience that it stands out of all of my many dives.

Anther 5y ago
Dread is quite the feeling. Almost quite impossible to describe.

DamnInteresting 5y ago

Perhaps worth adding (2012) to the title. It is evergreen, still relevant, but worth noting that it is almost 10 years old.

Karawebnetwork 5y ago

"A notable death was that of Yuri Lipski, a 22-year-old Russian-Israeli diving instructor on 28 April 2000 at a depth of 115 metres after an uncontrolled descent. Lipski's body was recovered the following day by Tarek Omar, one of the world's foremost deep-water divers, at the request of Lipski's mother. Omar says: Two days after we recovered his remains and gave [his mother] his belongings and equipment, she came to me asking that I help her disassemble them so she can pack them. The camera should have been damaged or even broken altogether because I had found it at a depth of 115 metres, and it is only designed to sustain 75 metres; but, to my surprise, the camera was still working. We played it and his mother was there. I regret that his mother will have this forever... If I had known the footage existed I’d have flooded it. I think the thing that really upset and saddened me about it was that his mom has it now – she has the footage of her own son drowning." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Red_Sea)

lbrindze 5y ago

It turns out almost all the organizations follow the same training standards set out by the WRSTC (World Recreational Scuba Training Council). The big exception is CMAS which past level 2 no longer is comparable to the WRSTC program tracks since it allows for decompression diving on air down to 40m (level 2) and 56m (level 3). This means even with an advanced or master diver certificate from PADI, (NAUI, SDI, SSI, etc...) the tables you learn to use do not go beyond decompression limits (requiring mandated decompression stops on your ascent) since they stop at 30m. It used to be 40m but I believe the standard has become more conservative since I was last teaching. NAUI does have supplemental training that goes beyond WRSTC standards but a lot of that has to do with the science and ecology of the underwater world more generally. All open water level certs (usually the most basic level cert) expects students to be fully autonomous (with their buddies) by the end of the course. If you sign up for an open water dive in southern. California for example, it is rarely a guided experience and most people form groups of 2-3 on the boat and go and enjoy the water, coming back within an 1-1.5 hours. Almost everywhere else I have worked, it is expected (by the guests...) that all dives in open water are lead by a certified dive master and not self lead in small groups. I personally think this is a result of the way the standards and incentives work for dive operators to encourage that dependency on their outfit and keep the money flowing in. Generally recreational diving is very safe but even working as an instructor for a few years at a few different outfits, there is always a handful of fatalities. I really like the comparison to Skydiving someone else made, except its a much more subtle danger since you dont actually need to be in top physical shape to do this activity (even though it is required by the certification agencies). The only other thing I find interesting is all the certification agencies are for the INSTRUCTORS (hence the I in PADI, NAUI, SSI...). These orgs are outfits that enable recreational scuba operators to have a standardized set of empirically derived safety limits to protect the instructor and shop liability (not the student's). More often than not, especially in far flung, remote diving destinations, caution is thrown to the wind and people do not always follow the prescribed standards. Source: OWSI (Open water scuba instructor) with multiple agencies as well as CMAS level 3 diver

dmingod666 5y ago

This documentary investigates specifically why the people are dying there. Very well made. https://youtu.be/hYuMN206Jzo https://youtu.be/hYuMN206Jzo

sharadov 5y ago

What a noble soul.. "He brings up the bodies because he wants to help, says Omar. "It isn't about money for me. I don't ask for anything. I just charge the cost of the gas."

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

(2012) argh

gentleman11 5y ago

Can’t read without clicking the “I agree to tracking” full page pop up.

dtrain2017 5y ago

I did my first dives in Dahab, Egypt including at the Blue Hole. This location was my first experience with narcosis; but, it was planned. Myself, my father, and our instructor dove down to 45m and he handed me a whiteboard to write on. He asked me very basic questions like how to spell your name and I remember really having to think hard to answer. In general, if you are diving to see fish, it's rare to go past 20-30m (the minimum depth to exp. narcosis). The visibility is worse the deeper you go and typically if there is a reef at 30m there is also one at 15m where your oxygen will last longer, less cold, etc... I don't think diving needs to be dangerous to be enjoyed. It's about seeing an entirely new world and the moving in the medium of water. The people who've perished at the Blue Hole are taking an extraordinary amount of risk - diving solo, descending to 150m - for 'achievement' purposes and I understand Omar's frustration.

acjohnson55 5y ago

I've dived the Sinai's Blue Hole, so it's wild to see this on HN. It was an intense experience. Our dive instructors warned us of how deadly the site was, and the various hazards. But the dive itself was unique compared to other deep dives I've done. I would describe it like parachuting, slow motion, into the bluest blue. By the second, the sunlight got dimmer and the blue got bluer. It was disorienting if you looked in any direction besides the crater wall. At about 25m down, I looked up and realized we were too deep to reach the surface quickly. That triggered my panic reaction. I started hyperventilating into my regulator, and had the urge to spit it out. But knowing that would be literal suicide, I managed to override it. I felt like given a few minutes, there was a strong chance of getting my panic under control, but I thought, "why take the chance?" Also, the dive plan was to continue to go deeper, and if part of my panic was due to nitrogen narcosis, it was only going to get worse. It wasn't worth it for a recreational dive. So I gestured the "up" signal to one of the instructors, and she immediately worked with me to do a controlled ascent. I spent the rest of the time doing a shallow dive along the crater wall, which was much more relaxing.

wolverine876 5y ago
Smart person, and it takes courage to not go (down) with the crowd. The people who don't come back up are the ones who lack your good judgment, I expect.
nradov 5y ago
Part of your panic and narcosis was likely due to CO2 accumulation. As you go deeper and the work of breathing increases it becomes harder to clear the CO2. CO2 has a higher narcotic potential than N2.
- acjohnson55 5y ago
  Interesting! I don't remember learning about CO2 intoxication

ddls 5y ago

It should be pointed out that the record depth in the area is not Tarek Omar's 203 meters as the article mentions, it's Nuno Gomes' 318 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_(diver) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuno_Gomes_(diver)). This, with all due respect to Omar who is indeed an incredible diver. Also, the article speaks of mermaids so I'll just add on a lighter note that for a long while there was a toy mermaid tied to the over-hang mid way through the arch.

fl0ralsx 5y ago

Crazy!

734129837261 5y ago

I like skydiving and scuba diving. And in both cases I always prepare like a madman. The activity itself comes with plenty of risks, and I'm just there to enjoy it by reducing the risks best I can. That means the blue hole can go screw itself. I'll stick to a maximum depth of 25 meters or so and my goal is to see shipwrecks (from a distance) and pretty fishies. As for skydiving, I want a good view, no wind, a maximum of one tiny cloud, and a dropzone with good packers and craft beer. There are plenty of people out there BASE jumping or deep-sea diving. There are plenty of them recording their own deaths. I plan to not be part of those people.