Posts made by JDelage

I bought the Pandora multitool from Korea a cple weeks back. I have had the opportunity to use it to set up & then reconfig my regulator and I recommend it. Much better than the Scubapro multitool

Yes, the Maldivian guide survived. The other guide didn't make it out, but he was found right outside the cave system - with a completely empty tank.

The update is that the bodies have been found in the 3rd cave by the team of Finnish cave diving specialist that was flown in by DAN. They will attempt recovery in the next couple days. Those guides use rebreathers & trimix, they know what they're doing. Dive lasted 4hrs apparently!

There's a 40+ page on Scubaboard. Asked Claude to summarize it:

ESTABLISHED FACTS

The victims: Five Italian nationals died on May 14, 2026, in Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, near Alimatha Island. They were Monica Montefalcone (associate professor of marine ecology, University of Genoa), her daughter Giorgia Sommacal (biomedical engineering student), Muriel Oddenino (research fellow), Federico Gualtieri (recent marine biology graduate), and Gianluca Benedetti (diving instructor and liveaboard operations manager).

The vessel: They were aboard the MY Duke of York, a luxury liveaboard. Roughly 25 Italian nationals were on board total; 20 others were safe. The Duke of York provides air and nitrox and supports rebreather divers.

The dive: The group entered the water in the morning and went to a cave system at approximately 50–62 meters depth. The cave has three large chambers connected by narrow passages. A distress call was received at 1:45 PM. Benedetti's body was recovered first (found near the mouth of the cave / in the second chamber, reports vary). The remaining four bodies were believed to be deeper inside.

A sixth diver — a female University of Genoa student — decided at the last moment not to enter the water. She is assisting the investigation.

A Maldivian guide was also on the dive and survived (surfaced separately).

The University of Genoa confirmed the researchers were in the Maldives for scientific fieldwork but stated this specific cave dive was "undertaken privately" and was not part of the official research mission.

The Italian tour operator (Albatros Top Boat) denied authorizing or knowing about the deep dive. Their lawyer stated Albatros only marketed the cruise, didn't own the vessel, and didn't employ the crew.

Recovery diver death: Maldivian MNDF Sgt-Major Mohamed Mahudhee died of decompression sickness on May 16 during recovery operations, bringing total deaths to six. He was buried with military honors.

Regulatory facts: Maldivian law limits recreational diving to 30 meters. Tech diving requires advance approval. A yellow weather alert was active in Vaavu Atoll on the day of the dive.

Recovery operations: Maldivian authorities suspended operations after Mahudhee's death. DAN Europe coordinated deployment of three Finnish cave/tech recovery divers (Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund, Patrik Grönqvist), who arrived in the Maldives and planned their first dive for Monday, May 19. Italian tech specialists were also brought in. The Duke of York's operating license was suspended indefinitely.

Both Italy and the Maldives opened investigations.

THREAD CONSENSUS (broad agreement among posters)

The divers were massively under-equipped for the dive. Multiple sources (boat crew confirmation relayed via Facebook, Italian press) indicated single AL80 tanks on air. The guide reportedly brought one extra AL80 of nitrox for deco. The thread overwhelmingly agrees this is woefully inadequate for a 50–60m cave penetration. A proper dive at this profile would require doubles or sidemount, trimix (not air), redundant gas, a continuous guideline, three lights per diver, and full cave certification.

This was not a recreational dive gone wrong — it was a deliberate deep cave entry. Early speculation about downcurrents sweeping rec divers into a cave gave way to consensus that the group intentionally targeted this cave. The dive site is known locally.

Italian/CMAS dive culture played a role. Multiple posters noted that Italian (FIPSAS) and broader CMAS-tradition training historically normalized deep air diving (50–60m on air) in ways that PADI/SSI/GUE cultures do not. Several CMAS branches train to 50–60m on air with deco obligations as "recreational" diving. The thread broadly agrees this cultural norm likely influenced the group's risk assessment.

The depth and overhead environment on air made narcosis an extreme hazard. At 50–60m on air, nitrogen narcosis is severe. In an overhead environment with no direct access to the surface, narcosis-related impairment can cascade rapidly through a group.

The "cascade" or "domino" failure mode. Broad agreement that multi-fatality incidents usually involve one diver getting into trouble, then others dying attempting rescue — especially when everyone is impaired by narcosis and burning through limited gas at depth.

Certifications don't equal competence for this dive. Thread consensus is that while several of the divers were experienced (thousands of dives, instructor-level certs, scientific diving credentials), none of this is equivalent to proper cave diving and advanced trimix certification. Only three of five had any tech certification. Federico Gualtieri (23) held only Advanced Diver / Scientific Research Diver certs.

The recovery operation was botched initially. Strong agreement that the Maldivian military should not have risked lives (and lost one) rushing to recover bodies in an extremely dangerous cave without proper cave-recovery expertise, before the Finnish/Italian specialists arrived.

NOT CONSENSUS (actively debated or disputed)

Contaminated gas as a contributing cause. Some posters argued that five simultaneous deaths is statistically unusual even in a catastrophic cave scenario and suggested CO contamination of the fills could explain all five going down at once. Others pushed back, saying the equipment and profile alone are sufficient explanation and that contamination is pure speculation without evidence.

Siphon / Venturi effect pulling divers in. A widely shared Facebook post from a local guide with ~9,000 dives proposed that tidal currents could create a siphon effect pulling divers into the cave. This generated significant debate. A poster with a PhD in fluid dynamics argued the physics were being misapplied — a Venturi effect as described would push water out of the cave, not suck people in. Others countered that tidal flow direction depends on timing. No resolution.

Whether the dive was "planned" vs. "impromptu." Some posters (including a firsthand Facebook account from someone who'd dived with the group previously) insisted this was a planned science-related deep dive with special permissions. The university's denial, the tour operator's denial, and the apparent rec-level equipment strongly suggest otherwise. The husband of Prof. Montefalcone defended the group's experience and planning. Thread opinion is split between "they planned an ill-equipped bounce dive to see the cave mouth and got in over their heads" and "they deliberately intended a full cave penetration while knowing the risks."

Whether downcurrents played a role. Early in the thread, some speculated the divers might have been swept down to depth by Maldives-characteristic downcurrents. This is now a minority view given evidence they targeted the cave, but hasn't been completely ruled out as a contributing factor (e.g., currents inside the cave system complicating exit).

How much blame falls on the boat / guide / operator. Some posters argue the Duke of York crew and Maldivian guide should have prevented the dive or refused to support it. Others note the divers were experienced adults who made their own decisions, and the guide did survive (implying he may have turned back appropriately). The tour operator's liability is debated given their claim they only marketed the trip.

Whether ScubaBoard-style speculation is helpful or harmful. A recurring meta-debate: several experienced posters (including instructors and cave divers) argued the thread was generating irresponsible speculation from armchair divers. Others countered that analyzing incidents is how the community learns. One poster advocated for a standardized rubric for accident analysis rather than freeform speculation.

Horrible story out of the Maldives...

I downloaded both Subsurface and the Shearwater app. Subsurface is well reviewed, and it was written by Linus Torvalds, who knows how to program... Most of the bad reviews for the Shearwater app seem related to importing older data, which doesn't apply to me.

The new iPhones are very water resistant. Short of a catastrophic failure, I think we're pretty safe.

I had a proper camera rig (not SLR) a while back and it was a huge pain in the ass, and my pictures sucked. Divevolk is the right compromise for me. I've been very happy with (a small subset of) the videos I took with it.

Laurent Ferrier is lovely indeed. Their new Sport Traveller is my grail sport watch:

I'm an air hog. In the Philippines they ended up systematically giving me a large stainless tank. I've got good cardio, VO2 max, etc, so it must be purely a trim & technique thing. The fact that I drag my Divevolk + light must contribute a bit too...

What do you fine people use to log dives? I've been using paper dive books, but I just upgraded & updated my computer to a Shearwater Teric, so maybe I should go digital. What do you think?

Going to Roatan in a month and a half. My son will get certified there while I do some dives, and we'll dive together the last couple of days. Should be fun. Lots of planning beforehand as he needs a full set of gear.

This is my new grail (dress) watch: Laurent Ferrier Classic Origin Beige. As they say, if I won the lottery, I wouldn't tell, but there would be signs...

De Bethune's are all gorgeous.

I like the idea but I'll note that my soft release button is on a hiking trail somewhere in the Dolomites. What is screwed can get unscrewed...

In the past, I've found the Czapek to be a bit disappointing, in that the face is bland compared to the back. Well, that's no longer the case thanks to their new release, the 10th Anniversary Time Jumper. It features a double digit time jump based on clear sapphire disks rotating over a blue colored plate. I think it's stunning. Not an everyday watch of course... (Also exists in gold.)

Leicas were my grail cameras, but they might be replaced in my heart by the new Hasselblad X2D II 100C. That 10 stop IBIS is amazing! I've seen examples of handheld shots that were 4 seconds!

(Of course the camera is over $7k, without lenses...)

@Jett129 said in Photograph and Camera talk:

@JDelage Really cool shots. Any insights into the settings you were experimenting with would be appreciated as I’m heading to Venice tomorrow.

Sorry, I missed that as I was traveling. I have a bunch of pics to review from our 5 days in Val Gardena, in the Dolomites. I've been using the recipes from Reggie Ballesteros, whose content on Youtube I found very useful. This is is B&W recipe. I found it super useful both in cities and the mountains, and I think it'd work well indoors too. This is other recipe, and is a color one. It works well indoors and for street photo, but I didn't like the colors in the mountain, esp. the skies.

A few pics from our current stay in Florence + side trip in Siena. I'm experimenting with a couple sets of custom settings (aka recipes), so although those are all straight out of the camera, they were processed by the camera differently.

Omega semi vintage GMT with brick road bracelet.

I'm not sure it's fair to say Rolex manipulates anything. There's a situation where demand > supply. The normal way to resolve that would be to raise prices until supply = demand. Would it be better? Maybe, but it wouldn't change anything for me. They could use a lottery system, or a priority list, etc, but that would require undermining their dealers, which is a big ask of a manufacturer.