Top Stories of 2024

by Michael Menduno. Lead image: Bob Beckner (left) with CCR bailout and Gary Donahue (right) about 104m/330 ffw deep with 2km + penetration at an undisclosed location. Photo courtesy of Kirill Egorov.

🎶 Predive Clicklist: HELIUM – MIKEY VAX (LYRIC VIDEO) 🎶🎶

Happy New Year Divers and Dive Pros,

To ring in the new year, we’re bringing you what we feel were the top stories of 2024. While not all of these features were published last year, they nevertheless remained high on the 2024 most-read list! The topics will not surprise you! 

January marks our sixth year of publishing InDEPTH. In 2024, we published 150 stories, which included six round table interviews (THE TALKS), and conducted six user surveys, and shared17 depth full podcast/YouTube episodes from around the community. We also added a global Dive Center Directory for exceptional technical dive centers!

Rebreathers remain an important focus of the tech community, along with decompression theory, protocols and dealing with decompression illness. We explore the future of diving and diving medicine viewed through the lens of the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research and examine an intriguing new application for trimix: deep tunneling, anyone? In addition, we take a deep dive into the helium market, and what we can expect going forward. Note, according to the experts at gasworld, Helium Shortage 4.0 is over!! 🥳 

 We interview top explorers, sound the alarm on deep sea mining, and uncover the truth behind the first highly-publicized rebreather fatality that shut down the US Navy’s Sealab lll in 1969 (Hint: it wasn’t the rebreather!). Lastly, taking a lesson from our freediving colleagues, we convinced two yoga instructors turned tekkie to put us through the paces in, “Yoga for Tech Divers.” Downward dogfish anyone? Namasté. 🙏 

I would like to thank our loyal readers and subscribers for your interest and support. We want to be your go-to knowledge base for serious diving content, and we will continue to provide you with relevant high quality, stories on geeky topics near and dear to your heart! I also want to thank our many contributors from the global tech community, whose work and labors of love are represented here and elsewhere in InDEPTH. Your valuable contributions help keep us relevant. 

Finally, I would like to recognize and give credit to our illustrious sponsors, who help make InDEPTH possible! Please join me in giving kudos to; Area 9, Buddy Dive Resort, DAN, DAN Europe, Dive Rite,  Extreme Exposure, Fathom Dive Systems, Garmin,  Halcyon Dive Systems,  History of Diving Museum, IANTD, Lombardi Undersea Research, Visit Malta, Ocean Plan, Orca Torch, O’Three, Scuba Force, Shearwater Research, SUEX, and XDEEP. Thank you all! We also want to recognize and thank our pioneering dive center partners! Readers, please support these depth full diving brands!

We have some exciting stories planned for you in the coming year, so get your checklists ready and be prepared to DIVE IN!

Safe Diving,

Michael Menduno/M2

Editor-in-chief

PS: Humor is essential to life, and arguably, tech diving. Here was one of our 2024 favorites: The Dive Poet is in the House!

1. Counterlung Configurations and their Impact on Diver Safety & Performance

While there has been considerable recent interest in frontmounted and sidemount rebreathers, backmounted counter lungs (BMC) are the prevalent choice in the tech community. However, many tekkies don’t fully appreciate the functional differences between counterlung designs and how these can impact performance, and in particular, diver safety. Fortunately, military and tech CCR veteran Paul Haynes takes us for a deep dive into the workings of various counterlung designs, and discusses some of the hazards of BMC and possible remedies. 

2. Rebreather Training: Are We Certifying Ourselves into Extinction?

Unlike training to pilot aircraft, automobiles, or open circuit scuba gear, current rebreather training is brand and configuration specific. What’s more, according to the recently adopted ISO training standards, instructors must wear the same unit and configuration as their students. However, given the size of the market, veteran diving educator, scientific diver and rebreather graybeard, Jeffrey Bozanic argues this approach is a recipe for extinction. Instead, he proposes we need to take a ‘systems approach’ to training and develop minimum hardware standards.

3. Our Journey Into Bailout Rebreathers

Karst Underwater Research (KUR) exploration divers Bob Beckner, and KUR executive director Matt Vinzant discuss their journey and experience with bailout rebreathers including a discussion of various units, lessons learned, specifics on gas planning and added complexities, and how bailout breathers factor in KUR’s team diving operations. Is there a bailout rebreather in your future?

4. N=1: The Inside Story of the First-Ever Hydrogen CCR Dive

On Valentine’s Day, Dr. Richard Harris, aka ‘Dr. Harry,’ and the Wetmules made the first reported hydrogen (H2) rebreather dive to a depth of 230m/751 ft, in The Pearse Resurgence, New Zealand. The 13 hour dive, which was nearly two years in planning, was a field test to determine the efficacy of using hydrogen to improve safety and performance on über-deep tech dives. Harris’s dive was the deepest “bounce” dive in approximately 54 experimental H2 dives—the majority SAT dives—that have been conducted over the last 80 years by military, commercial and, yes, a group of technical divers. Now in this first published account, InDEPTH reporter Ashley Stewart details the inside story behind the dive, a dive that will arguably be remembered 100 years from now!

5. Has Rebreather Diving Gotten Safer?

The view among many industry insiders, Pre-RF4, was that rebreather diving has gotten safer—an improvement from the estimate that CCR divers were 5-10x more likely to die than their open circuit counterparts, which was put forth at RF3 (2012). Afterall, aren’t most people doing their pre-dive checklists? Based on the most comprehensive analysis to date conducted by DAN research director Frauke Tillmans, safety has not improved that much from RF3, as InDEPTH editor Ashley Stewart explains. The rebreather community clearly has more work to do!

RF 4: Accident Review: The Safety Situation presentation by Dr. Frauke Tillmans

InDEPTH: Rebreather Forum 4 Proceedings Are Available for Download

InDEPTH: Correcting the Rebreather Record (RF4)

6. Imagineering The Future of Diving

Whether it’s mixed gas technology, rebreathers, diver propulsion vehicles, or saturation diving, the US Navy has consistently led the way in extending our underwater envelope. The tip of the spear? It’s the Navy’s nearly 80-year-old brainy powerhouse, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), which is currently busy imagineering and funding the future of diving, as bioengineer Rachel Lance explains.

7. Dial In Your DCS Risk with the Thalmann Algorithm

As some tech divers have painfully discovered, there’s an escalating risk of decompression sickness (DCS) with Buhlmann algorithms as dives get progressively deeper and longer. The risk can easily get into double digits in tech ranges—30 minutes at 120 m/394 feet with conservative 50/85 gradient factors, will get you a 1-in-3 chance of going BENDSOPALOOZA, according to the US Navy. That’s why it adopted the Thalmann iso-risk decompression algorithm in 2008. It allows one to dial in their risk, although some tekkies don’t want to spend any more time hanging. Tech instructor and dive geek Tim Blömeke has the deets!

InDEPTH: They Helped Foment a Dive Computing Revolution: RIP Cochran Undersea Technology (1986-2020) By Carlos E. Lander

8. Is Animal Testing Still Needed in Diving Medicine? 

Historically, much of what we know about decompression and oxygen toxicity has been the result of animal research. Today however, animal rights activists want to shut down the practice claiming that it is unethical, cruel and ineffective. Diving journalist Mark Cowan reviews the history and efficacy of animal testing and speaks with the scientists at the front line, who argue that animal research is critical for developing treatments and preventions needed to protect divers and submariners who put themselves in harm’s way.

9. Deep Tunnel Workers Go Trimix

Deep tunnel boring workers are the modern equivalent of compressed air caisson workers—the poor souls who discovered the bends. Jump to modern day: During a job in Hong Kong, a tunneling contractor ran into a problem that required employees to work under pressure up to 5.5 bar (~atm) for hours. They turned to commercial decompression engineer and former tekkie JP Imbert to create special workplace tables. Imbert created novel tables with trimix that proved effective, enabling the humongous Tunnel Boring machine (TBM) to continue its $500k/day operation. Here Imbert, and cave instructor-cum-tunneling engineer Armin Sidali share their story.

10. The Helium Outlook

Increased helium prices and reduced availability resulting from recent global shortages, have created hard choices and challenged pocket books for tech divers and instructors. There are potentially positive developments on the horizon but the situation is nuanced, as InDEPTH’s Ashley Stewart explains after conducting a worldwide survey of instructors regarding local helium pricing and availability, and speaking to the helium market experts. What does the future portend? Get out your wallet, take a deep breath (of nitrox), and dive in!

InDEPTH: Helium Market Unveiled: Insights from 2024 Helium Super Summit

InDEPTH: The Future Of Helium Is Up In The Air

11. Über-deep with Cave Explorer Xavier Méniscus

Xavier Méniscus is one of a handful of elite cave explorers who consistently push sub-200 meter plus depths; he holds the record for the deepest cave dive. To accomplish these dives, the former French military and commercial diver utilizes three rebreathers, and is known to possess unusual physiological tolerances that have allowed him to exceed limits without adverse consequences. InDEPTH chief Michael Menduno reached out to Meniscus to discuss his penchant for exploration and his unique approach to cave diving.

InDEPTH: Le Grand Bleu Goes Underground by Cristian Pelligrini (2024)

12.The Looming Environmental Apocalypse: Deep Sea Mining 

Named one of the “environmental heroes” of the 20th Century by Time Magazine, Captain Paul Watson, recounts the origins of deep sea mining, and the threat that it now poses to undersea life. Watson warns that, “Deep sea mining will cause more destruction on the planet than the cutting down of the Amazonian and Indonesian rainforests.” Gulp! Read on.

13. SEALAB III (1969): The Divers’ Story

San Clemente, CA,—Sealab III, the US Navy’s third experimental saturation habitat, promised to extend depth capacity to 122 m/400 ft. That was until aquanaut Barry Cannon died shortly after the habitat was lowered to the seafloor. The program, which was already experiencing some major issues, was complicated considerably by Cannon’s tragic death and was shut down. A Navy Board of Inquiry later determined that Cannon, who was diving a semi-closed rebreather, died of CO₂ poisoning resulting from what was presumed to be an empty scrubber canister, making it one of the first highly publicized rebreather fatalities. Now 55-years later, ocean engineer-cum-forensic sleuth Kevin Hardy uncovers the truth in this thorough, suspenseful exposé. Turns out, it wasn’t the rebreather at all! 

14. Yoga for Tech Divers

As our freediving brethren discovered long ago, yoga offers many tangible benefits for divers, and tech divers are no exception. In fact, equipment-intensive tekkies may have even more to gain. Here instructors Tamara Adame and Maria Shagina explain what you need to know to get started. They also offer up a few examples of poses that can kickstart your yoga practice and/or help you relax pre or post-dive without having to visit a studio. Take a deep breath and dive in!

DIVE DEEPER

InDEPTH: The Top Stories of 2023

InDEPTH: The Top Stories of 2022

InDEPTH: Top Tech Stories of 2021

InDEPTH: Our Most Read Stories of 2020

InDEPTH: The Best of InDepth in 2019

DOWNLOADABLES

aquaCORPS #4 MIX

aquaCORPS #4 MIX was published in JAN92 just before the “Enriched Air Nitrox Workshop,” held prior to DEMA in Houston, Texas. The MIX issue focused on mixed gas technology. It was also the first issue of aquaCORPS that included the tagline, “The Journal for Technical Diving,” a moniker coined by founder and publisher Michael Menduno in 1991. Sponsored by DeeperBlue, Dive Rite, Fourth Element and Global Underwater Explorers

aquaCORPS #5 BENT

aquaCORPS #5 BENT was published in JAN93 in conjunction with the first technical diving conference, tek.93, held just before the annual DEMA show in Orlando, Florida. The issue focused on decompression illness (DCI) and presented the latest thinking on the theory, classification, treatment, and human factors associated with DCI. Sponsored by DAN Europe.

 aquaCORPS #6 COMPUTING 

aquaCORPS #6 COMPUTING was published in JUN93 following aquaCORPS’ first technical diving conference, dubbed tek.93, held in Orlando, Florida in January of that year. The issue focused on dive computing and included interviews with nitrox computer developers Randy Bohrer (Bridge), Kevin Gurr (ACE), Paul Heinmiller (Phoenix), an interview with Karl Huggins (EDGE), and a story about commercial decompression software developed by decompression engineer, JP Imbert. There was also a review by Dr. Bill Hamilton and John Crea, of four desktop decompression programs that had recently been launched in the tech diving market. Sponsored by Shearwater Research!

aquaCORPS #7 C2

aquaCORPS #7 C2 (Closed Circuit) was published in January 1994 just prior to the 1994 tek.Conference and DEMA show held in New Orleans, LA. The issue focused on rebreather technology, and we planned it as a primer in anticipation of aquaCORPS Rebreather Forum, scheduled to be held in Key West, FL that coming May. At the time, there was only a few dozen rebreather in the hands of sport divers. Sponsored by Divesoft