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Old 03-20-2019, 02:07 AM   #91
popgun pete
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

Just thinking aloud here, but say you had a vest that was triggered once armed by releasing your gun. That might achieve a return to surface when you had lost motor control. When the lights go out you are going to drop your gun and the system could then send you to the surface. It would only work while you were under pressure and that means you are under the water say at a depth of 3 meters and greater. It would need an override for times when you deliberately release your gun otherwise you would be going up and down like a yo-yo.

The Chinese are now producing a snorkelling depth meter watch that is an equivalent to the Casio SNK-100 of many years ago. Those cost 299 bucks each, but I bought 3 of them for that price when they were discontinued and gave one to my buddy and used the other two myself after the first one scrambled its brains. Now this new watch only costs 80 bucks, so here is a pressure measuring system at low cost that could be integrated (the chip and sensor that is) into some sort of safety vest.


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/262573659676

Last edited by popgun pete; 03-20-2019 at 06:02 AM. Reason: added sensor
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Old 03-20-2019, 02:20 PM   #92
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

We don't want another tragedy like this one, but we also need to think of his wife and young child who no longer has a father, as Jon (Behslayer) expressed earlier in this thread. Those who are left behind need to be in our thoughts, and actions. It is a terrible time when a life is so unexpectedly cut short and one searches for answers.
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Old 03-26-2019, 03:12 PM   #93
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

Very sad. Hopefully we can learn from this and someone's life will be saved as a result of this tragedy.

I don't know if this is the proper thread to discuss this, but there was another death due to a downcurrent in indonesia I remember reading about years ago on this forum.

My question is, how do you predict where down currents will be and avoid them? Is there something about the bottom structure and the current/tide that has to happen for the down currents to form?
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Old 03-28-2019, 12:55 PM   #94
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

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Originally Posted by TheMackDaddy View Post
Very sad. Hopefully we can learn from this and someone's life will be saved as a result of this tragedy.

I don't know if this is the proper thread to discuss this, but there was another death due to a downcurrent in indonesia I remember reading about years ago on this forum.

My question is, how do you predict where down currents will be and avoid them? Is there something about the bottom structure and the current/tide that has to happen for the down currents to form?
Large changes in elevation of reef structures and narrow passages where water builds up with tide changes and cannot easily pass through create these currents and eddies which can be exacerbated by wind direction and waves that build water up against some obstruction then are equalized as water shifts in large stream flows, which can be up or down depending on the underwater topography. I have been caught in an upwelling while on scuba and finding myself going up for no apparent reason from about 50 feet down had to blow my buoyancy shell (Scubapro Scubasystem) and stop going up too quickly or I was in trouble. As air would not dump that fast and was expanding with the pressure change I had to flare my limbs to increase drag and slow my uncontrolled ascent. I later found out that this was a known phenomena in the area, so these things don't come out of nowhere and the locals are the ones who know. I think Seal probably knew about the currents, but was prepared to take a risk and figured he could back out if things got too bad. Another possibility is he was taken by a big shark, these things can just grab you and swim away with you underwater before devouring you and no one will be the wiser until maybe months later wetsuit fragments wash up on some coast. One bit of gear that will not travel far is the weight belt and if that is found it could provide some answers, but equally it may lay beyond safe diving range. I remember many years ago a young diver went down for one last shot before the boat departed and he never came back up, so his companions searched for him and they only found his weight belt some considerable distance away and his gun. The signs were he had ran into a big shark as adjudged by the damage to his weight belt. No trace of him was every found, including his other dive gear.
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Old 04-13-2019, 11:05 PM   #95
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

Has there been an official inquest under a judicial process? In most countries all those involved would be questioned and a coroner would report on the findings after an extensive investigation as all factors were weighed and considered and a verdict given, people are just not allowed to disappear without record. I conducted a search, but could not find anything, however it may be in a different language and the search engines will then not find it easily.
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Old 04-14-2019, 03:19 PM   #96
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

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Has there been an official inquest under a judicial process? In most countries all those involved would be questioned and a coroner would report on the findings after an extensive investigation as all factors were weighed and considered and a verdict given, people are just not allowed to disappear without record. I conducted a search, but could not find anything, however it may be in a different language and the search engines will then not find it easily.


It could be helpful to the community if we would understand what happened to him. However I believe that any kind of publication regarding his disappearance should be with consent of his family in regards to respecting their privacy.
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Old 04-14-2019, 03:59 PM   #97
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

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It could be helpful to the community if we would understand what happened to him. However I believe that any kind of publication regarding his disappearance should be with consent of his family in regards to respecting their privacy.
The purpose of such coroner's reports is to establish that deaths are accidental and not results of foul play or negligence on the part of some possibly contributing factor such as an organization's operating methods and practices. Although not the situation here, if say Kosta was on a charter vessel conducting dive trips the people running the trip would be put through the hoops to completely elucidate exactly what happened and they may face legal repercussions. The aim of such investigations is to try and eliminate repeats by understanding and disseminating the information to the public.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroner
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Old 04-15-2019, 11:53 PM   #98
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Re: Our friend has passed. Kostadin SEAL

Pete, you were out of the loop at the time and I see you struggling with this now as we all did at time. The best condolence I can give you is that with time, this will not hurt as much. I still think of Kosta all the time. These days when I think of him my Deep sadness is tempered more with remembering him in a good light. Many times I used to have a burning question about design or manufacture and there was really only one person who I felt I could ask. I miss those talks with Kosta. I'm sad for his family. But there was a time when this just happened that I felt like I could feel his soul wandering. It brought me dark, deep, sadness. Now I feel better. This might sound like a very egocentric point of view. I don't mean it this way. I mean it in a Balinese way. Siskala and Niskala. The seen and unseen worlds. I think he is at peace. I feel that.

Regarding an official inquiry etc.. there is no new news. Unless one day he is recovered this will remain a mystery, like others who have dissapeared in the currents of Indonesia. Sometimes we find the body. I don't think anymore of Kosta's body. It is no longer valid. I think of Kosta, Roy, and Dashiel the same way I think of Alan, Nick, and Mario's little brother. Over time finding the body, knowing more of the story, means less. They are all in the same place.

Since Kosta's death I have learned so much about diving. Moving to Hawaii, being exposed to the Deeper, Clear, Still water diving we practice here, diving daily with Instructors who train on the line several times per week. I have a lot more knowledge about Deeper diving, weighting, and Shallow water Blackout/samba.. I don't think Kosta was taken by a Shark. Not that it couldn't possibly happen.. but what I believe happened was that Kosta drowned. He may have made it to the surface, and then blacked out, he may have lost motor control on his way up and then sank back down. The #1 reason why Kosta is not here with us today is that he and his dive partner were not practicing Strict Buddy diving.
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