Display MoreThere's nothing to learn here. It doesn't matter if Nate was exhausted, dehydrated, had a bad sinus day, was his first dive of the day or last.
Every single day we dive and more specifically every single breath up we make an assessment of how we feel and dive accordingly. This is why sometimes my bottomtime is 20 seconds in 40 feet and soemtimes it is 35+ seconds in 80 feet. All the speculation makes me sick. Nate was bigger than this kind of talk. What happened is Nate saw a fish, he wanted it, and spent too long for that given dive to get it. He got the fish, but it took a little too much to get it. He wasn't wrapped in shooting line when they pulled him up and he wasn't caught on the bottom, he just failed to make surface and stay there.
I am sorry and I guess its healthy and normal for people to look for reason and something to take away from such a tragedy. You want to know what the lesson is? Don't stay under water longer than you should.
I would trade anything to see this again, but as it is I am just grateful to have spent the majority of my time in the water with Nate.
Steven, dont we all know that rule already and feel that we will follow it as we know the consequences of not doing so? On land don't we all say that we know our bodies and our limits and have the experience to turn the dive when we should. That we will above all else follow the "don't stay under water longer than you should" rule. No fish is worth it etc etc. If so, I find myself trying to understand how can this still happen? If I am one fish away from forgetting, ignoring, or not feeling what is often my only line of defense against this happening I feel like there are adjustments to be made.
That rule has until now given me what I thought was legitimate confidence in diving how I dive. What happened has left me wondering if my confidence is hubris, and if my hubris is causing me to do things with confidence I shouldn't. The answer for me has already been yes, and I have already learned. Maybe everyone else is going to just keep diving how they were. But for me this was a wake up call.