Category Archives: research

Decompressing with the US Navy

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At last year’s RF4, Dr. David Doolette dropped a few remarks about how Bühlmann with gradient factors might not be the be-all and end-all of decompression models when it comes to very deep and long technical and cave dives. He encouraged divers to look into the US Navy’s Thalmann algorithm.

Here’s my piece for GUE’s InDepth magazine explaining what this is all about – an interesting variation on traditional Haldanean models that has been around since the 1980s, more or less ignored by the civilian dive community. Buckle up for some theory!

Carbon Dioxide, part one: Basics

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Carbon dioxide buildup is a common contributor to diving emergencies. In this first part of a three-part series for Alert Diver (EU), I’m sharing a personal experience and take a brief look at the metabolism of carbon dioxide in the human body.

Part two will focus on how the carbon dioxide metabolism is affected by diving, and what makes hypercapnia – excess CO2 in the bloodstream – so dangerous.

Part three will focus on countermeasures – skills and procedures to keep our CO2 load in check.

Stay safe and stay tuned!

Interview with a Lab Rat

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My latest piece for Global Underwater Explorers magazine InDepth is an interview with Mike Winters, a US military veteran with a habit of volunteering for hyperbaric chamber experiments. As a consequence of this habit, he has more experience with, umm, let’s call it physiologically challenging breathing gas compositions than pretty much anybody else. He is also a great storyteller.

Special thanks are owed to my friend Dr. Rachel Lance for the introduction.

The Mirage of Mount Stupid: Diving and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

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The Dunning-Kruger effect isn’t real! Or is it? My latest piece for Alert Diver is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek deep dive into the intricacies, popular reception, and criticism of the Internet’s most popular psychology study and how it pertains, or doesn’t, to diving.
Read here: https://alertdiver.eu/en_US/articles/the-mirage-of-mount-stupid-diving-and-the-dunning-kruger-effect

Caffeine has played a key role in the creation of this article. If you like what you read (or feel that it needs more caffeine), please consider adding fuel to the fire: https://bmc.link/timblmk

Notes from Rebreather Forum 4

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I had the pleasure and the honor to cover RF4 for DAN Europe last month. It was an amazing experience meeting the Who’s Who of technical diving, hyperbaric science, and diving technology. I certainly learned a lot, met some really cool people who do great things, and took home a whole list of ideas for new articles.

Here are three blog posts I wrote to summarize what went on on each of the three main days of the conference.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Thanks are due to Michael Menduno and his team for their fantastic work organizing the event, and to DAN Europe for putting me in charge of reporting. Stay safe and happy reading!

When Easy Doesn’t Do It – a deep dive into bailout rebreathers

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The work for my first article for GUE’s InDepth magazine put me in touch with some absolute legends of cave exploration, past and present. This piece is a bit on the technical side, but if you have half as much fun reading it as I had during the research and writing, then I’m happy. I’m sure pretty damn proud of it.
https://gue.com/blog/dual-rebreathers-in-extended-range-cave-diving/