Dutch Springs recap, Anesthesia impact on global warming, and a lot going on

Online   May 08, 2019

Scuba Shack Weekly – Volume 2, Number 19

We are back from our first trip to Dutch Springs for the 2019 dive season. We got to Dutch around noon on Friday and we set up our base of operations for the weekend. Phil, Ray, Karta and I got in a nice dive around the platforms and dialing in for the rest of the weekend. Visibility at the platforms was about 20+ feet with water temperature at about 48 degrees.

We started bright and early on Saturday with our Advanced Open Water and Dry Suit classes. Ian, Dave and Mugar joined us rounding out our dive team at eight. When we went deep below 60 feet the visibility opened up a little more to around 35+ feet but the temperature dropped to about 43 degrees which kept our dive time a little shorter.

The dive team met up at Copperhead Grille for our traditional Kentucky Derby dinner and watched all the controversy. Even with the rain on Sunday we still had a lot of fun and are already planning for our July drive and dive.

Joel and Peter also completed another weekend open water class with four more students starting on their diving adventure. Monty will be back at Dutch Springs this weekend for IDC preparations with Ron, Alex and Lizzy. We also have a Nitrox class this Saturday. A lot going on at Scuba Shack these days.

I will be recording another episode of Scuba Shack Radio this weekend. Tune in to catch my review on the two undergarments that I tested at Dutch Springs (Thermalution Yellow and Fourth Element X-Core).

I came across an interesting article from NPR that discussed how anesthesia can impact global warming. Apparently, there are two common types of anesthesia used – sevoflurane and desflurane. They both work pretty much the same but desflurane is a whole lot more impactful on the environment. It traps 20 times more heat than sevoflurane and lasts 14 years in the atmosphere while sevoflurane lasts 1 year. Interesting fact is that using desflurane is like running 12 army Humvees for the duration of the operations while sevoflurane is equivalent to ½ Humvee. Sevoflurane is also cheaper. Interesting reading.

By the way, you will find a photo of our Scuba Shack trip to Cozumel in the latest edition of Dive Training Magazine. +

Thanks for tuning in,

Jeff