True, but the need for decompression chambers and special equipment and skills was negated by the 529 minute ascent. That achieved the same effect of coming out, going to a chamber, and sitting there for 529 minutes. That was the point that I wanted to make with that paragraph, that there are ways of doing the same thing without needing massive pieces of equipment like a DECO chamber.

Will players want to do that (or logistically be able to)? Not likely without handwaving of passage of time from the GM. Maybe a good time for a diving skill check and a panic check in whatever respective system you use for your game, then move on to the next scene.

Another thing, physical preparation for diving doesn't require a lot, especially ascending and descending along reference lines. Running is sufficient for most diving as that will affect your breathing and your endurance. Flutter kicks are used to improve your kick cycles. Nothing else is really needed.

Things to remember for diving:

Lung Capacity, the better and more effecient your breathing is and body is in conditioning the longer your air will last and the more control over your breathing you will have.

Legs, how in chape they are? When I don't dive for months or years or when I was having surgeries every year or so <like now> I could expect some severe cramps in the legs while diving. I work through them, but over the years they are felt more and more when I do dive. These can be dangerous and can eve put a person out of action.

HYDRATION!!! If diving with compressed air, it is dry air, and your mouth will become dry, you will be doing some serious exercise and because you are in a water enviroment you won't feel it as much as say a desert, but you will become dehydrated.

And down right fatigue; again diving is some massivily intense work, and it will wear you out. Fighting to swim, fighting to breathe and fighting and taking a bashing from the currents and waves. And the cold. This will all sap your strength.

Cold; even in a wetsuite it does take its toll. And without gloves, a hood or a wetsuite it will be felt more, and it can cause hypothermia. As well as making you number and feeling more fatigued.

Not wearing gloves? You will get some nasty slashes, handling gear or buckles can even cause some slashes to your fingers if you have been underwater for sometime. And CORAL <can't say it enough> or muscle shells. I sliced the hell out of my hands a few months ago simply pulling up a line on my boat that had falled into the water a few weeks prior. Muscles had started growing and as I pulled the line in, it ran through my hand and sliced the thumb and part of the palm. They are hard and they can be sharp. Same goes for barnacles.

Those are some additional dangers and worries to consider.

I love Hawaii. Water temperature 71 degrees at 103 feet. We had guys diving in board shorts and t-shirts.

Not a world record, but topical.

Freediving disciplines
 

Some disciplines of free diving:
* Static apnea is a competition discipline which is just what it's name implies. Holding ones breath for as long as possible under water motionless ( the world record is over 10 minutes).
* Constant Weight Involves swimming vertically down a shot line to achieve a maximum depth and returning to to surface with the same amount of Weight that one has used to get down.
* Free immersion is similar but no fins are allowed.
* NO LIMITS is perhaps the most spectacular. Fans of the Movie the Big Blue will be familiar with the images of breath hold divers plummeting into the depths hanging on to a metal sledge The world record currently stands at over 150 meters!!
* Dynamic apnea is a horizontal distance attempt.

Some more or less useless info
 

Diving minutes


Depth m: Equipment: Cost: Comment:
0-5
Nothing / goggles
Free
Most people that can swim can do this. Alignment not critical


5 - 10
mask/fins/snorkel
$50 - 175
Must align pressure, some training required


0 - 18
Tank/regulator/octo/guages/compass/buoyancy compensator/mask/snorkel/fins/knife/suit/weights
$350 - 3000
Basic training required to avoid pressure sickness, like PADI OWD or similar. Suit can be anything from nothing to heavy drysuit. If dry suit, then more weights and more training is needed


0 - 30
Like above + torch/diving computer/gloves
$650 -
Colder water deeper down, lower visibillity. If longer dives at depth exeeding 25m, safety stops should be practiced. Requires more training


- 75
Like above + 2xtanks mix gas/dry suit/extra tank for suit/pony bottle/
$
Insulating gas for suit, extra tank with breathing mix (one down, one up), breathing gas is mix - Nitrox, Heliox or Tri-mix. Below 66 metres Oxygen is toxic, diving below this depth requires comprehensive training. Requires decompression


- 75
Like above / rebreather/
$4000 -
Requires separate training for the rebreather. Requires decompression


75- 200
Surface supplied diving/hardtop/
$10000 -
Professional/military diving. Must have team at surface, support vehicle


50- 500
Saturation diving
$50000 -
Professional diving. Saturation diving allows divers to live and work at depths lower than 50 m for weeks at a time. Requires hyperbaric chamber/diving bell, and living and working chambers. Usual 'travel rate' is 15 m per day, so to be desaturated from 150 m takes 10 days.


below 500m
Liquid breathing
$ ???
Experimental diving technique, requiring extensive education, and massive support teams. Diver breathes oxygen enriched liquids. Requires mechanical ventilator to aid the diver in ventilating the lungs at a great enough rate to expell CO2

good work W.
 

this was exactly what I was looking for ;)

Can't wait till the end of May.....underwater firefights at 100m below the surface with - the russian underwater gun perhaps? (SPP1)
http://thebigbookofwar.50megs.com/DO...pecial%20Guns/

I did send you this two weeks ago...

I prefer posting this here than on one of my many email addresses......:D

(I usually don't pay attention to the hordes of mail I get every day...)