WR1

TO GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE

Pascal BERNABÉ

Tuesday, July 5th, 2005 Propriano, Corsica. 8AM

I have been waiting for this moment for years.  I am comfortably sitting on the barge. Under my fins, which are already in the water, the sea is 400 meters deep. The waters of Valinco are calm. This is unexpected! So often, we had to abandon this dive because of the wind!

At my feet, a large blue buoy is attached to a 350 meters long cord and carrying a 50kg ballast that plunges towards the abyss.... and which awaits me.

It is a pity that there is this feeling in my stomach, which does not disappear despite all the relaxation, quiet breathing and especially the good conditions. The team is busy around me.

Hubert, Francois, Tono, Christian, Sophie and Frank of RALF TECH woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning to prepare the equipment. I have already rigged-up my twin 18 litre tanks with another 7 litre tank of air needed to inflate my WR1 dry suit and the compact VBS double wings.

I have reduced the equipment to a minimum in order to reduce the risk of an error or confusion at the bottom. Only the quantities of gas were oversized.

At 9AM, my equipment made up of the 7 decompression tanks is ready. In company of Sophie, I stop at 6 meters for a final verification. Everything is fine. I purge my wing and sink into the depths.

At -70 meter, I suspend my tank filled with 18/50, and switch to a 6/72 mix. I am accelerating my descent.

 I am passing the -100m mark without paying too much attention to it. Later, I am passing the -150m tag.

At the time of my first mixed-gas dives in 1993, this depth seemed to almost inaccessible. But since 1996, during explorations of submerged caves and assisting Pipin and Audrey Ferreras, I have dived about fifteen times between -150 and -174 meters, often under difficult conditions and with tasks to be carried out like exploring, unrolling rope, filming and assisting. This has procured me with a certain psychological comfort at these depths, during the descent, but especially during the ascent and the decompression stops.

I have just passed the -200 meter mark for the third time since I started to dive deep. My first time was in the immense underwater cave of the fountain of Vaucluse in 1998 with more than -250 meters. The second time, I reached -231m in the sea off the Spanish coast with the help of the same team. Today, it appears to me as a mere formality since the objective is to go much deeper!

So far, no signs of HPNS!

The shotline cord slips quickly through my gloves. Too quickly! I need all my concentration to clear the ears, to pass the tanks to the large carabiner which belays me the cord, to inflate my RALF TECH WR1 dry suit, fortunately supplied with a high flow-rate...

I arrive at the last tank of 20 litres attached to the -250m label, but which is in fact at -265m because of the elasticity of the cord. It is marked with a cyalume stick, like all the deep tanks.

This is a difficult moment: I abandon my 20-litre travel-mix of 6/72 which I breathe since -70 meters and I start to breathe on the bottom mix. I am tying the tank to the cord, but I do too many things at the same time. The High Pressures Nervous Syndrome has set in and I experience light tremors and increased difficulty of concentrating.  Moreover the relay tank that I was supposed to attach slips on the cord and escapes me. My buddies will recover it later without understanding what has happened and not without a certain apprehension. As far as I am concerned, things are not improving with depth.

Oddly, I tremble less than at the Vaucluse fountain below -200 meters. Nor do I suffer from the obvious visual troubles (i.e. problems of distance) either. Maybe I notice an advanced tunnel effect: my field of vision seems restricted, with little peripheral vision. My APEKS regulators work marvellously well.

I hardly note the presence of the -300 meters label which should raise my attention.

A flashlight flickers, signalling to me the deep zone. I reach the mark of the -320m (located at more -330m because of the distortion of the cord) when a large deflagration occurs in my right ear, associated with of a violent pain in the same ear. One of the lamps, attached to the helmet, has imploded. All of a sudden, the stress that disappeared since I passed -70 meters returns. I am persuaded to have a large lesion of the tympanum.

The voyage will thus stop here for me, at - 330m... Not bad though...

I inflate my CUSTOM DIVERS wings and begin to ascent. The pain in the ear does not amplify. I avoid thinking what remains to be done, concentrating me only on the immediate tasks to complete.

At -265 meters, I am happy to recover my first safety tank and it is the occasion to do a first short halt. Then, the ascent continues, but more slowly. Here again, there is a big difference with the Vaucluse fountain where the HPNS had affected me earlier and had disappeared later, towards -70 meters. Today, I have the feeling that as of -220m, there remains little or no symptoms. At -215 meters, I stop for a second deep stop while I switch to the second decompression tank. From now on, I ascend to the next tank at -165 at an even slower rate. My ear hurts less than expected and I move on known ground. From -150m onwards, the ascent becomes extremely slow, especially as the tanks start to accumulate around me, on the cord and on my harness. When I arrive at -70 meters, I need to manage nine 20-litre relay cylinders.

At -65 meters, I switch to the second cord. There, I meet with François Brun, with whom I usually explore deep wrecks. Our last exploration only took place 3 weeks ago and for him, this is another occasion to practise. He uses a BUDDY Inspiration rebreather. He enquires about the news and brings some supplies. I let him know that I suffer from pain in the ear and some slight nausea. After a long moment spent in my company, he makes his own ascent and takes four cylinders with him.

Hubert Foucart meets me at -50m. He is an adept of what he calls ‘baroque’ dives e.g. deep dives in caves or assisting Pipin in the sea at -211 meters. He gives me water containing a medication against nausea. Denis is next to meet me breathing from a rebreather. He brings to me a vegetable soup that I drink in giant syringes. This salty food is a good alternative to the condensed milk, chestnut puree, compote, gel and water which I already absorbed. Then, he brings a rebreather to me who, unfortunately, will not function. The remainder of the ascent will thus be completed in open circuit, but without particular thermal problem, in spite of the strong percentages of helium.

From -30 meters onwards, I start to feel more and more the effects of the strong swell of the surface. My pain with the ear develops and soon, each movement of the cord becomes a calvary. Decompression turns into a torment. Towards -12 meters I start to feel sea sick. In the meantime the swell has become stronger. Frank, in charge of the surface cover, had remained on the boat and is now facing waves more than three meters high!

I start to become exhausted by the pain and nausea. The end of decompression is spent in the company of Christian, Pierre, Lolo, Théo, Francis and his wife Sylvaine who accompanies me to -3 meters and to surface that I reach after 8 hours and 47 minutes of diving.

There, I am being taken care of and rapidly evacuated to the land by my old pals Tono and Christian. I continue to breathe oxygen for half an hour whilst rehydrating abundantly.

The WR1 adventure is a total success. All our objectives were met and we all are in good health.

One question remains. Which record could I beat next?

I have already a little idea...

Text: Pascal Bernabé/Frank Huyghe

Technique of decompression

Several fundamental points:

The first very deep stops of 1 to 2 minutes were observed as of -265 meters. Starting from this depth, the ascent speed was progressively decreased to avoid serious type II (vestibular/neurological) accidents. The symptoms of these accidents can develop at depth in this type of diving, such as the accident that affected John Benett following his -308 meter dive:

Vertigo and vomiting as of -66 meters and during all decompression (9h37). It should be said that ascent rate of 30m/min were not uncommon.

Slow ascent speeds and the deep stops led to large gas consumptions. This implied using 20-litre cylinders at -265 meters, -215 meters, -165 meters (8/62), -145m, -115 meters (13/57), -95 meters, and -80 meters (18/50). Then other cylinders were deployed on a second line of about sixty meters length at -60m (20/50), -51m (25/50), -39 (25/50), -30 (38/33), -21 (50%O2), -15 (60%O2). Two umbilicals supplied oxygen at -6 meters.

The decompression mixes contained large proportions of helium, which is easier to eliminate during the final decompression stops. Nitrogen concentrations above 30% were avoided in the ascent up to -21m.

All the above have allowed for a relatively short decompression, in comparison to the 12h of my longest tables, which is also the time of decompression of Nuno Gomes, which had dived to -318m 3 weeks earlier in Dahab in the Red Sea.

I opted for this decompression because of the sea conditions, my pain in the ear and the nausea. I thought that a longer decompression would have exposed me too much to the risk of exhaustion.

The more so as the decompression of three hours after a -300m chamber dive of Keller in the Sixties, could reassure me! In 2004, Mark Elyatt had surfaced from -313m incursion after 6h and 36 minutes. I thus had some margin.

Physics and physicals!

To limit narcosis at depths below -40/-50 meters, helium is added to the gas mixture and its proportion increases with depth. But helium causes the body to loose heat and is responsible for the high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS).

To simplify, this syndrome is worsened by helium beyond -150/-180 meters and by the fast descend rates typical of these dives.

For helium, many chamber dive experiments and some very deep technical dives have shown that the presence of a narcotic gas, generally nitrogen, masks the effect of the HPNS: tremors of the extremities, then spreading to all the body, visual troubles then difficulties of concentrating and reduction in the performances. But of course, the higher the nitrogen content, the higher is the likelihood of a narcotic effect, or even cumulate the effects of narcosis the HPNS.

It is thus a matter of dosage. Too much helium, too much HPNS, too much nitrogen, too much narcosis.

In practice, rather fast descents (10 to 30 meters per minute), in a chamber, and 13 to 18% nitrogen concentrations have appeared to suppress the effects of the HPNS noticeably, without causing narcosis. During ultra-deep technical dives, the equivalent air depth of the gas mixes, at the bottom, ranged between -70 and -100 meters.

To me, an equivalent air depth of approximately -60 meters maximum, associated to an oxygen partial pressure of 1.4 to 1.5bars, seemed reasonable.

This did not prevent me suffering of the symptoms of HPNS from -260 meters onwards. In any case, this mixture undoubtedly decreased the impact of the HPNS and made me avoided a dangerous narcosis.

According to chamber experiments, descent rates of one m/min or less have notably improved performances. But it seems useless to reduce the speed from 30/40 m/min to 10 m/min. On the contrary, it is possible that the HPNS has even more time to settle in. Also, this practice would considerably increase the decompression stops, which are already very long.

Dive profile to -330m

Descent:

0-6m : O2 pur (umbilical)

6-70m : trimix 18/50(O2/helium) 20 l tank abandoned at -70m

70-265m : heliair 6/72 20l abandoned at -265m

265-330m : heliair  4/80 twin 18l (back)+ two 20l stage tanks

Ascent :

-265m : 20l heliair 6/72

-215m : 20l heliair 6/72

-165m : 20l heliair 8/62

-145m : 20l heliair 8/62

-115m : 20l trimix 13/57

-80m : 20l trimix 18/50

-70m : 20l trimix 18/50

60m line : 18 to 20l tanks

-60m : trimix 20/50

-51m : trimix 25/50

-39m : trimix 25/50

-30m : trimix 38/33 (+ 1 tank extra)

+1 additional rebreather

20m line : 18l tanks

-21m : nitrox 50%O2

-15m : nitrox 60%O2

-6m: 2 umbilical  pure O2

+1  Voyager (Aquatek) rebreather  (additional safety)

The equipment

Given the commitment of this dive, it is quite simply vital that the equipment is simple, very solid and performing! One’s life relies on it.

RALF TECH provided the majority of the equipment.

The WR1 (World One Record) series products have been designed for this dive.

The O'THREE "WR1” dry suit in pre-compressed 2mm neoprene, manufactured by UK based O-Three, is of an incredible flexibility and robustness. It is very functional with its large pockets which avoided me having bits of equipment dangling from everywhere. I did not suffer from cold after 8h47 of diving.

The limited edition CUSTOM DIVERS "VBS" double wings is also assembled in the United Kingdom and is cherished by English Technical divers. It is also distributed by RALF TECH. The "VBS" is very compact (2 times 27 to 30 litres) and very resistant. It gave me whole satisfaction even at the bottom.

The "WR1" watch is manufactured in a limited series and tested in a hyperbare chamber at 400m. I really took it with me to -330m and gave it gave me whole satisfaction. It thus became the deepest diving watch in the world!

Gloves, fins, dry bags and boxes to store equipment also gave entire satisfaction, as well as various other pieces of small equipment.

APEKS

All the regulators used to breathe at the bottom were Apeks ATX 100, with really impressive performances at -330m. They procured the feeling that I was breathing at -20m! I used these regulators in all confidence, since they had already been tried successfully by a Norwegian at -225m and especially by John Benett at -308 meters. It is also the most widely used regulator by the technical and cave divers in the worst conditions.

The team

The team comprises 16 people in total, divers or sailors, who supported this project (and others like wreck and cave diving) and nurtured it from the beginning. Everyone has his/her own speciality whilst remaining polyvalent.

The team has helped the preparations and has experienced cancellations and had doubts, since my -231m dive in 2003. Without them, nothing could have been done, nor undoubtedly without the patience of their families. I will never thank them enough for their kindness, their effectiveness and their dedication.

I couldn’t dream of a better team.

The dream team

François Brun, renowned shipwreck explorer

Christian Deit, raid specialist in raids, caving, canyoning, diving

Hubert Foucart, cave and deep shipwreck explorer

Sophie Kerboeuf, accomplished diver, who prepared me my small dishes

Patrick Tonolini, rebreather and cave diver, expert in gas blending.

Denis Bignand, rebreather diver, owner of the “ U Levante “ diving club in Corsica

HPNS : High Pressure Nervous Syndrome