Two Divers Never Came Back Up | HMS Scylla Tragedy

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That was the point I'd kind of accepted I was going to die. On the 3rd of September 2021,
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three experienced divers descended onto the wreck of HMS Silla off the coast of
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Cornwall. They entered the wreck, penetrating deep into the engine room on deck 3.
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But inside the silty, confusing corridors of the artificial reef,
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something went wrong. After 10 minutes, we kind of got an actual issue now and we need to start
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figuring it out properly. Two of those divers tragically never
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made it out. The third diver, Adam Dent, managed to escape by the narrowest of
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margins. Forced to remove his equipment and squeeze through a tight gap as his air
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ran out. Today, for the first time, Adam sits
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down with me to break down exactly what happened in the dark, the decisions that
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saved his life, and the warning he wants every diver to hear. This is his story.
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That is a horrendous thing to happen to anybody, Adam, and I'm really grateful
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that you are here today to tell me and everybody else about, you know, this. So
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I started off in an evening dive and three of us known each other quite a few
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years at this point. Planned to go do some penetration on the cylinder. Nothing specific in terms of
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what we was going to do. Just we was going to go look around and go inside it. Mark and me were both inside mount.
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Andy was in twin set and them two were in dry suits and I was in a wet suit.
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And you were the kind of senior staff from the from the dive center. Really, weren't you? pretty much all instructors, Mark being a dive master,
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but we'd worked a fair fair bit and we was all confident in each other's abilities. Like I trusted them. I knew I
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could leave them to do their own thing and it not be a problem. So yeah, so went out on the evening dive, got to got
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to the cellar after the like half an hour boat ride. Got in, went down the line as usual and first 10 minutes,
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pretty uneventful. uh went in level two, had a look around and then at the end of
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level two went down the stairs into level three and after that another few
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minutes looking around. Then we went inside the bulkhead for level inside level three. So that's when we went
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inside the I think it was the engine room it ended up being but didn't know that at the time. And so I went in
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there. Um Andy at the front, then Mark, then me went in few corners, basically
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got to a dead end, turned around, and then as I'm going the way that I think
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is the exit, wherever that be, it just wasn't there. Like
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whether I'd taken a wrong turn or whatever down the line, it just it wasn't there. So that was a problem I
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was facing at that point. 10 minutes of like us all looking around together. It's pretty pretty uneventful.
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I was kind of a little bit in denial in terms of yeah, it's not going to be a
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problem. We'll have a joke about it when we get back up on top like tell the other people like you know just be like
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oh if we do a really stupid thing like and that was that was pretty much it. But after 10 minutes, that was kind of
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when it dawned on me. I was like, "Okay, we kind of got an actual issue now and we need to actually like start figuring
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it out properly." I mean, I guess with people who haven't dived the siller, it's probably worth making the point, isn't it, that the
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siller is has been sunk for divers. So, there is big cutouts, the vast majority
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of it, and therefore people routinely go into it Yeah. in the expectation they're just going to
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come around the corner and find one of these massive cutouts. And and I guess that's where you were.
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I'll be honest, I wouldn't really say that because I I was very much aware at level one and two. Fantastic. Fantastic
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wreck. It's pretty much that you can't get lost essentially. And if you do get lost, you will always find a cut out
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somewhere in there. And I was aware of level three. Like I'd
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never been in there personally before, but I don't know. I guess for me it was
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complacency. I thought, you know, I was pretty experienced. I was pretty young at the time kind of a thing of well like
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at that age you do think you're invincible really and I didn't really appreciate how that situation could
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evolve like I obviously I'm aware I was aware of it but if you'd have said to me before before that dive or like before
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that day like oh you'd get in that situation I'd be like no you're an idiot
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like I would never do that like and I think it's very Easy to fall into that trap of thinking it will happen to me.
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Yeah, for c absolute certain. So, so you're in the wreck. In the wreck.
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You've been in there for 10 minutes. You've kind of got this dawning realization that you don't know how to
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get out. Yeah. Probably look around for about 5 more minutes. Came to a hole in the
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ceiling literally head size. Poked my head through and I could see one of the
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big cutouts mentioned in level two. Obviously very
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demoralizing seeing an exit and not being able to actually get to it like
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but you I just kind of put you put out your mind cuz there's no physical way that I could squeeze through that like
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not a chance. So I had to go back down and think okay we got to find somewhere else cuz that
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is not an option. Are you still with the other two at this point? Yeah at that point it was all sort after that is when I separated from them.
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Okay. Uh that was a a conscious choice to do that because in my head I was like, well, we're
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already lost. I can't get any more lost. Might as well have everyone like I
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regardless of what them two was doing. I thought if I can look as well, it's another pair of eyes like going
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somewhere else rather than just following each other. So that's when I made the decision. I went the opposite way. had a look around
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searching for quite a while. Didn't really find anything new that could use, but it made me feel better actively
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pursuing an exit rather than just kind of being a I don't know how you describe
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passive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was being the head of my own
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rescue rather than relying on anyone else. I guess in control of your own destiny
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such as it was. Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah. So, probably another 10 minutes of
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looking around like doing that by myself. I came back across them. Um,
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they clearly hadn't found an exit either, seeing as they were still in there with me. Um, I did have a reel on
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me. So, my my thinking was that like if I did find an exit, I could tie on and
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then go back in and try and find them if the situation allowed. Obviously, that again didn't happen, but
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that was that was the thinking behind behind it. Yeah. So, carried on carried on um after after
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I came across them and I just carried on searching. They went their way and that was that was the last time that I saw
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them. Probably another 10 minutes after that. I' I'd love to
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tell you what happened in between the 10 minutes, but it's really hard. It just kind of merges into one. Like it's just
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looking it's just metal metal metal metal. Yeah. And there's not really much in between.
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So it kind of it does blend a lot. There are like little bits that like stick out to me. up. So, searching and then I come
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across uh I don't know what you call them in ships, you just a trap door or
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trap door. Yeah. Kind of thing. Um went down into that and that just led to a I
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assume was a old cargo room. Okay. That had kind been emptied when the cellar was gutted out and stuff. So, it
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was just an empty room full of silt, but I knew no one else had been in there because it was completely undisturbed.
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So I was like, "Okay, I'm the first one in here." Looked around cuz when you're going around the outside of the silla,
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you can There are there are cutouts on level three. Not not very many and four, I assume.
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Yeah, there's not very many, but I dived it enough to know there were some. Yeah. So I was like, "Okay, well, I'll take my
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chance." And and literally like anything at that point was
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an option, you know. went in there there's absolutely nothing which was again like it's it was quite
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hard to kind of put your hope in something didn't work out
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and I think that was a point where in my head I'd kind of accepted I was going to
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die like I was I was I I was very I was moniing my hair the entire time and like I think at that
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point what oh the 70minute dive I probably was like
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40 minutes into watch it very very conscious in my air of course
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and that was a point where I was like yeah Jesus I mean that is a that is an awful
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to to have that kind of realization you know and what were you 20 21
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24 at the time only 24 at the time yeah but I mean still incredibly young really um yeah
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that is a horrendous thing for anybody to have to and again like like I said like I'd
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accepted that yeah I probably I like I'd accepted like going through the stages
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what was it stages of grief like I was in denial then acceptance
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and although I accepted it I still wanted to
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carry on like I I thought to myself I mean I've got two options here I can either
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sit somewhere nice and just run out of air or I can carry on searching and one of
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them options is going to at least give me a chance. Yeah. Um regardless of how slim I felt it was at
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the time. I was like when I do run out of air when I run out of air and it
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comes to that that point in the dive, I'd rather go out knowing I tried
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everything like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. you
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want to go out kicking and screaming rather than passively. And yeah, now we got to get there.
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So, when I was in that room as well, I I hadn't landed into that room either cuz
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I was like, well, I'm already lost. But trying to get back out of that room cuz
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because of how the bubbles had gone onto the roof, it was like reflecting a lot. So, it actually made it quite hard to
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find that exit as well, which sucked. But after like a minute, I found it.
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came out of that one and at that point it was like a full brown out within the
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actual compartment was in beforehand. I've I've got my umbilical kill in one
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hand and I'm literally just touch feeling along. I can only see what my hand is touching with the torch.
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So So the impact of you and the other people has just kicked up the so badly. It was Yeah, it was so small in there
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like no matter how careful he was, it was going to happen. Like
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wasn't to do with like bad technique or people being like panicking or anything like that. It was just the sheer fact of
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like three human beings being in that tight of a space. Yeah, it it was going to happen. And anyway,
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so that was crawling along and I didn't have any gloves on at the time and it absolutely
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shredded my hands which was very much not really thinking about at the time
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but what first dive it came in it was a weird like reminder kind of like for a
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week afterwards. See, I'm like feeling along, feeling along. And that was
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probably So I came out the room and I did that for like 10 minutes of just pure touch trying to find anything. I
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was again looking at my hair, watching it go down and down and down. At this at this point, I had probably like 20 bar
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in each cylinder. Um, and I I was constantly trying to fight my body with
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the adrenaline. because your body wants to breathe it quickly. My heart like trying to keep my like
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it was like there was a battle between my brain and my body cuz I was so aware of it but obviously the physiological
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reaction was going to happen regardless. So I I was just trying to stay so
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mindful of it because the minute with task loading I I'd look I concentrated
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on anything for a split second I I but as soon as I went back to concentrating
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on my breathing I'd be like and then you have to catch yourself
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really really slow deep breath in ultra ultra slow deep breath out and that yeah
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it it was hard it was hard to like Yeah, keep your composers. But like I was so aware that like if I didn't keep the
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comp my composers, that's when I would die. Like cuz time time was buying me
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the ability to look more like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So constantly fighting that like
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the mental battle in your head and just trying to carry on doing that. So yeah,
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at a certain point SPGs were read the air that's left in the cylinder. So I
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knew, right, I've got a couple of breaths left in here. And with side
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mount, you change every roughly 20 bar. So I was like, okay, switch over to my
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left one. And just didn't look at it cuz I didn't want to know how much was left in there.
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So my my thinking was, okay, I'll keep breathing off this one until it goes,
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switch back to this one for the remaining few breaths that are in there. And then once that's gone, I'll breathe
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my wing and just get CO2 hit and pass out rather than drown cuz I I didn't
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really fancy that to be honest. It was it was a weird thing in my mind as well where I I said about like you
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know wanting to look at myself rather than you know being with everyone else.
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There's also like a thought back like a thought in the back of my mind that I didn't really want to be with anyone if
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I drown. Like I kind of wanted to be on my own which is weird but
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I don't know like I just I just didn't want to share that experience almost. I I I just
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rather deal with it by myself rather than obviously like if you run out of
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air then makes it a question of like you have to share their air and then are you
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taking away their time that they could have potentially done something else with.
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Okay. So I was like okay I'm just going to deal with this on my own and I'll be fine.
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Interesting you know the kind of thoughts that go through your head when you're in this situation. I mean, it
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seems like you you approached it in an incredibly rational way, which which is
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kind of, you know, odd. Uh, not odd, but but kind of maybe not odd, maybe that's the wrong word. Maybe kind of, I don't
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know, unusual. I'm not sure everybody would have respect reacted in that way. I agree. I think one of my I'll talk
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about afterwards, but like one of my friends like said like, you know, like
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you did everything for you, correct? because you're still here.
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Like if I if I hadn't have thought rationally about it, then well, we probably wouldn't be having this
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conversation for Yeah. It'll go through your head when you've got 40 minutes by yourself
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underwater in a wreck. Yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah, so
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that Yeah. So I'd switched over to the other one and was like carrying on. And
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so did you have a particular strategy at this point? Were you just continuing to feel against the wall? Yeah, pretty much. If I was feeling
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against the wall, I remember I was I was on the left hand side of the wall heading down and I don't really know
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where I was inside. I was just like, I'm just going to keep feeling until I find maybe like some
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somewhere like I I didn't have a particular plan to what I was looking
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for. Just looking for anything. Yeah. And at that point, all the the silt
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around me is like just refracting. So, it just looks like a whole lot of brown around me, apart from what I can see in
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my hand. But for whatever reason, I noticed like a like a essentially a black blob above me. Okay.
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So, I looked up and I was like, "What's that?" So, I sh my torch and where
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essentially what it was was a like a manhole cover sized hole that had been cut out but with two bars put across it.
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Okay. And I think that was either to deter people going in or it was like
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an access point used for gutting out the silla and then that was welded up and being like okay that's just that's just
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there. It was just something I don't think it was part of the original ship. Okay. And I looked at it and I was like that's
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weird. So I went up to it poke my head through and then it was an extremely
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similar cut out that I of level two that I had seen earlier. Whether it's the
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same one or not, I have absolutely no idea. But they all look exactly the same
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regardless. And with it being at the point it was, I
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was like, "Well, I've literally got nothing left to lose." So, I uncip my cylinders,
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push pushed both of them up, and then just started climbing through it as best
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I could. Um, I mean, you're quite, you know, you don't mind me saying, you're quite a, you know, well-built lad and, uh, I I've
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seen similar things on the sill and they're not particularly wide, so I can only imagine what it was like
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trying to get through. Yeah, it was. As I was going through as well, I'd forgot to take like just
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obviously stress of it like clearly, but like I I still had my necklace on. Okay. Um, the necklace of the regulator. of my
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other regulator was still around my neck and I'd forgotten to take it off to obviously
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get get a smaller profile and as I was going through that got caught and I was like what what am I getting stuck on and
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it took me like it felt like ages but it probably like 2 seconds to be like okay that's fine I'll just go back down take
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it off go back through but it felt an absolute eternity got got to waist
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height managed to get like there and then like push out. At that point, I was
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like, "Okay, I'm out. I still need to get to the surface cuz I
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do not have any clue how long I've got left here." So, I I as quickly as I could, didn't bother restrapping them to
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me. The only thing I did was plug the um inflation cylinder into my wing. That
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was the only thing that I did. Scooped them up and just made for the exit as fast as I could. And then once I got
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clear enough from the wreck, just fully inflated. I was like, "You you could
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like one of my old instructors who was teaching me like my open water and stuff, she always said, you can you can
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fix Ben, you can't fix dead." So I was like, I've been at that point, I've been at 20 m constantly flat for 73 minutes.
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And I was like, I I don't I don't care about getting a bend. Like way better chance. So, fully inflated, shot up.
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Just trying to make sure I'm breathing out as much as possible. Like while I'm going up, like breathing out, breathing
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out, like the smallest little breath in, breathing out, breathing out. Got to the surface
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and then immediately like looking for the the boat cuz I knew we was past the
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1 hour limit. So, like they would have known something was wrong. So, look
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looking for that. Looking for the boat. saw it. Obviously trying to hold the cylinders in one hand, waving with the
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other to try and get like distress must have been less than 10 seconds
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easy. But it again felt like an eternity like trying to get their attention. It
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just felt like I don't know just like they just wouldn't see me. Obviously that not the truth but like in the
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moment that is Yeah. So, so tell me what what what does it
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feel like that moment when you hit the surface for the f when you hit the surface and you've got yourself out and
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you know I guess at this point you know you're going to live. Honestly, I my brain wasn't thinking at
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that point still. It was still purely going on reactions like it I didn't feel
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any relief. I didn't feel like
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it was it was still so in like fight or flight mode that it so you just the adrenaline still going.
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You're just in that sequence of things rather than think things are just happening to me. It's not like at that point it was also
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felt very much out of my control like everything as soon as the lift I had the
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other divers that were there in the day obviously I wasn't diving with us they they didn't know what had happened
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either so as soon as I get on the boat people like taking my kit off me like getting me sat down like
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like do you know what I mean and like I mean I remember coming up the lift and then like trying to shout to them like
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what had happened like oh they're still down Uh um and then like the skipper put in the
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mday call and and like everything else like that. I don't obviously I don't know what happened on the boat beforehand as well.
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Yeah. But from yeah from that like from my point of view like immediately got on
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there told him what happened and then that was kind of when like everything kind of just
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it wasn't down to me anymore. Like you kind of handed responsibility over. Yeah. And then we was was
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I think we was looking for the bubbles. We found the bubbles. Okay. Um that went on for about 10 more
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minutes. Um it was it was just like circling around the bubbles and waiting for the
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lifeguard to come. But obviously the lifeguard like Yeah. It was just like they they they knew it was a missing person, but I think the
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doll had been told that this diver as well, but I don't think they was aware either. What what can the lifeguard do?
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You know what I mean? Like yeah, the life they're in there like Yeah, the lifeboat doesn't have the capacity or the training or whatever. I
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mean, was there any suggestion anybody on the boat was going to go back in? Um, someone actually did go back in to
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try try and look for them, but I I Well, yeah, they didn't they couldn't find them. And they
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was also was like that was after a dive, so there's limited on air. There wasn't wreck trained whatsoever.
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There was very little unfortunately they would have been able to do. Yeah.
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But I think at least they tried like you know I I think that made everyone feel like they was at least trying to
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contribute to something. Yeah. Um Yeah. Wow. Okay.
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And then I mean I guess on the boat you go through this process of kind of like
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hope that that they're going to pop up and kind of realization. Yeah. watching the Wubbles and just kind
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of hoping like there's a surface and like they managed to find somewhere out some somewhere like me.
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Yeah. And then seeing that not happen was pretty like I
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don't know how to describe it to be honest. Yeah. I mean I don't think anybody's vocabulary is is kind of equipped to
24:34
deal with you know those those kind of things but I can I can imagine that it would kind of
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it would all of a sudden get very very somber on the boat. Yeah. And I guess, you know, I think it's useful
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to know what happens in these situations. So, you put somebody else back in who went down with whatever 70
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or 80 bar or however much they had left to to have a look. They obviously couldn't find anything. Came up
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um with the lifeboat arrive shortly afterwards. Yeah. One of the medics jumped on board
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um cuz they knew that probably well I didn't have end up having any DCS
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symptoms. Yeah. Thankfully. Um, had you missed any stops? Well, my computer was screaming at me on
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the way up. So, but for a rapid ascent or for missco or both? Both. I was well into deco at that
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point. I can't really remember how much, but I I was very much in there. And yeah, rapid ascent as well. So,
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yeah, they they got me on oxygen. Um, the lifeguard medic.
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Yeah. Came on board, went back with us into the harbor. Um, I you went through the
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entire like six liter cylinder on the way back in. I felt fine like as in
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physically like I wasn't having any like joint pains or nausea or any of the usual symptoms you'd imagine having. So
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that was at least one good thing that I was like, "Okay, like maybe I'm not too
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too bad." Um got there, police were there, some of the other people,
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government agencies were there. It was a bit of a blur to be honest. Just people talking at me, you know, like
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um got taken into the dive center. The police took a extremely quick statement from me like as in just kind of
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I was diving. Two people are there that Yeah. um got driven to DDRC which is the
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chamber up in Darford. They was basically did an assessment on
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me and said look it's up to you if you if you want to go back home monitor
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symptoms and if you feel anything come back in or we can just put you in the chamber for good measure and do that.
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And I was like yeah put me in the chamber. Okay. Yeah. Um, I'd rather not take any risk with it. Like regardless of whether
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I felt okay or not, I'd rather No. Yeah. You know, so I went in there, did a
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two-hour profile, dry dive, just 18 18 m on helium and oxygen, coming back up,
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the usual um kind of stuff you'd imagine with a dry chamber. And yeah, and then got sent home. And
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yeah. What's that like when you get home? It's a bit unreal to be honest. like
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everything just kind of I don't know it's really hard to describe but
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yeah it was it was like just things happening to me.
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I wasn't I I just kind of I was just still being in shock at this point. I
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would have thought I don't know if shock would be the right word but it was more just like I'd say disbelief more than anything else. And
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like everyone was doing everything for me. So like I got driven. I got given
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some food got put to bed essentially like
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and then yeah it just kind of just stuff was happening to me and I was just along for the ride.
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So it kind of was on like an out of body type. Yeah. Kind of you just you still I think just processing in your head like
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Yeah. Um yeah. Wow. Okay. And you know, I guess what
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happened, you know, what what where kind of where did things go from there, you know?
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It's give me a second. I'm just going to collect my thought thoughts on it.
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But yeah, it was it was really strange. Oh, man. I can imagine. I've I've been in not the same, but I've been involved in similar things where you have all
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this stuff happening, then all of a sudden stuff stops happening. Yeah. And it's like
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Yeah. Yeah. It's really weird. Guess I did. Yeah.
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So, from there, I was I don't I can't It's really hard to try and think back specifically to what happened cuz again,
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like if it was quite a drawn out period between unfortunately recovering the bodies.
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Yeah. Um that took a while. When did you when were you aware that they were dead? When did you know they
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were dead? How so? Sorry. Like so, so obviously you know I guess
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you were in the wreck. You thought you were going to die. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you were
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survivor but and you must have had the hope that the guys were going to be able to come out and everything but at some
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point you must have realized that that hope had finished. Well when bubble stopped that's when that's when I knew like
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I'd love I'd love to imagine that like you know Yeah. It it was hard to like you got
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that hurt but also the re like the realistic side of it like
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Yeah. Yeah. Okay man that is a that is a that's a tough
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thing to to to have to go through for for anybody. Um
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so so I guess if we I mean I know this is a difficult thing to do but the
30:07
looking at that incident and what happened to you know if you were to say to some people out there who are
30:13
watching this you know these are the things that I wish I'd done or I wish I'd known before that dive and if I was
30:19
doing it again these are the things that I would maybe do a bit differently you know what are those things
30:25
I would just say complacency like it It can happen to literally anyone. Um, no
30:30
matter how experienced you think you are, like the minute you
30:36
relax or don't take everything quite seriously, maybe you should, that's when things start going wrong. Like people
30:43
know the Swiss cheese model. like a million. Like just cuz on the last dive
30:48
you did something stupid and nothing bad happened doesn't mean the next dive or 10 dives or 100 dives after that you do
30:55
a similar thing and like all the holes lined up and then something happens.
31:01
I'd also say like just keeping fit is like a genuine thing for divers that I think is quite underemphasized. Okay.
31:08
Like the only reason I could have a good amount of air consumption was cuz I kept
31:13
myself fit. like if I was any less fit than I was, then I don't think that I
31:19
would have played into how things turned out um and just staying calm when [ __ ] does
31:27
hit the fan. Like it it really is important and it can be you you go you aggress your level
31:32
of training. You never you never rise to the event. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that's a really
31:38
it's a really interesting point. I think you know nothing is ever improved really by panicking is it? So and I think you
31:45
know listening to your story something that comes away from me is is you know you seem to have been even though you
31:50
were in this horrendous situation you seem to have continued to act rationally and you were making decisions that that
31:57
were going to try and help you. You know it you know and obviously it worked out really well for you and we don't know
32:03
what the other guys were doing but it does seem that that is something that helped you. I mean, the big thing that
32:09
people will obviously focus on in this incident is, you know, do you think you should have lined in and lined out?
32:15
Yeah, absolutely. Like, but it's so easy to say that now. Oh, for certain. I mean, I've I've I've
32:20
been inside the cellar in I've not been in the in in that deck, but I have been in other bits of the cellar and you
32:26
know, it is there are parts where you can line out and there's parts where you need to, there's parts where you don't
32:32
need to. So, yeah. So easy to go. I mean, I said to myself afterwards when I was like
32:38
thinking about it after it happened, I was like, why why didn't I? Yeah. Like, and that's always something I'll
32:44
like play in my mind like if I done that, it probably wouldn't have happened. Yeah.
32:49
But there's a million one things that I could say if I did this, if I did that,
32:55
and I've just I've tried to accept the situation for what it was. Um,
33:02
like post incident it was I I had quite a lot of survivors guilt I would say.
33:08
Okay. It was it was quite hard to deal with. I'd say that like for a week I really beat myself up for it.
33:13
Okay. Like it was pretty hard. I had some pretty horrendous thoughts to be honest. I was like why did I get to
33:22
get to survive when they didn't? Yeah. Yeah. No. as my understanding is that's a really common thing and you
33:28
know it's completely rational obviously but it is you know it's also totally natural I think um
33:36
I mean one of the family members Mark's wife like she sent me a message afterwards and that actually helped loads
33:41
okay um she said you know like they wouldn't want you beating yourself up like it's
33:46
just they did they did they loved doing what they did you know and I don't hopefully don't think they would have
33:52
any regrets But yeah, she she took like when she sent me that message, she took
33:57
a massive weight off my shoulders like cuz yeah, I I very much did blow myself.
34:03
Yeah. No, that's a a really selfless thing for her to do, I think. And it must have been quite difficult for her
34:09
as well. Um but nice and, you know, good for you that she did. So, yeah.
34:14
Yes. I think it's really important as well to mention like I had a really good support network. like I had a lot of friends and
34:20
like the entire kind of diving community at the time kind of like really came
34:26
showed up for me. Um yeah, like there like three very
34:31
specific people I'd like to like say thank you to which is like Addy, Sam, and Beth. Like they were just there for
34:37
me in like a massive crisis. They just let me talk and like you know they asked
34:43
like questions and stuff like that but they kind of let me process it at my own
34:48
speed which I think really really helped cuz I think without that I probably would have had massive like a lot of
34:54
PTSD. Okay. like and I was I was looking into it kind of afterwards like trying to
35:01
understand like what causes PTSD and what doesn't and I think there's some
35:07
study that said like you know the more that people talk by open with it the less likely you are to develop it like
35:14
it can still happen obviously not saying if you get PTSD then you've done something wrong but it
35:22
being able to express that to people who know diving didn't have to like explain
35:27
everything to them. They already kind of had a base understanding that I could I could just talk about the situation and it was just there to listen.
35:34
Yeah. Okay. And that massively helped with me. Okay. For sure. Yeah. No. Well,
35:40
it is good that you have those support networks around you. And for for people who don't necessarily know who those three people you just
35:47
uh you know well and you know well done to all of them, you know, they'll they'll probably you know, they may listen to this. they may, you know,
35:53
hopefully they'll appreciate how much of a difference that that you they they made to you. And I guess, you know, I
35:59
think one of the uh so so let's look at kit as well. You know, I'm not a side man diver. I've always been a little bit
36:05
rude about cyan divers if I'm honest. But it strikes strikes me that this is one of the, you know, an example of
36:12
where that is a super Yeah. Like like you said with the the milling one things I could have changed.
36:18
I think if I wasn't in a wet suit, I wouldn't have been able to squeeze through that gap for sure. Okay. Like I I had quite a few tears in my wet
36:24
suit and I was like with an undersuit on and a dry suit, I I'd reckon I'd have
36:29
been able to fit. Okay. Um the fact that I was in a side mount, I could push it through quite easily.
36:34
Massive like benefit to that. like it. In fact, I had an umbilical with me and
36:41
it wasn't going to die like after a lot of high intensity use like it.
36:47
Yeah. Yeah. The milling one things for sure. It's interesting. So, um yeah, those
36:53
kind of things are, you know, I guess things that you start to think about uh later on. So, moving forward now though,
37:01
you know, a lot of people I think would have given up diving at this point. Um,
37:07
but you you still dive, don't you? Yeah, when I can. Like, it's not too often these days because I'm quite busy
37:12
with work, but yeah, I still I still love it. I still do it as much as I can.
37:18
I kind of view it like diving isn't what killed them. Like, it sure was diving
37:26
when it happened, but it was a lot of other factors. It's like I guess if you
37:31
witnessed in a car crash like hopefully you won't give up driving necessarily. Like
37:37
yeah, I don't know. I don't know if that's right to explain it, but I guess that's how I kind of view it really. Um and I
37:45
don't think they necessarily want me to give up diving like just do you know what I mean? Like
37:50
Yeah. No, I I get that. Um have you gone back and dived the sill? Would you dive?
37:56
I haven't. I would. Okay. But I haven't I just haven't had a chance yet. Okay. Um I think that would be a a weird dive,
38:03
but maybe cathartic like
38:08
um I don't know. I mean, different people respond to things in different ways, don't they? You seem really rational and logical and, you know, not
38:16
necessarily as emotional maybe as some people would be. So, I don't know. It's kind of interesting. I I guess is there
38:24
uh anything else that you think is worth kind of you know you'd either like to tell people or something. In fact, I
38:31
tell you what, I've got one thing that I think is worth mentioning, which is that I didn't know you at the time of the incident, but I um had the opportunity
38:40
to read the um letter that you wrote or the account that you wrote shortly
38:45
afterwards. And um I I got somebody showed me that to me at the time and
38:50
actually I'm sure that isn't why you did it, but it does seem to me like a really
38:56
useful thing to do to actually Yeah. So one of my friends, he actually told me like write it as soon as you
39:03
can. Yeah. Because you'll either start mis misremembering your brain will fill in the blanks and
39:10
the longer that you wait, the less you can kind of rely on the information your brain's telling you. So I think it is
39:16
very like it's really beneficial like if something anything like that dramatic
39:22
does happen to you like you can like write it down kind of like the next day when it happens
39:30
whenever just kind of as soon as possible because your brain will play tricks on you 100%. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I have the same
39:38
thing with things that you know happened to me. It's difficult to remember. So really good advice and really, you know,
39:44
impressive that you did that. Complete aside, would you mind if I publish it?
39:49
Yeah, sure. Okay, cool. Adam, I'd just like to say thank you on behalf of everybody who is who is going
39:56
to listen to this because it's been absolutely um incredible and horrifying and useful
40:07
as well I think to hear your kind to hear what happened to you and the takeaways that you've had from it and all those kind of things. I got to say I
40:13
was dubious about doing this, but then I thought to myself like if it saves even like one person or like stops one
40:20
accident happening then it's worth it in it. Yeah, I think that's a really important point is that people don't talk about
40:26
stuff that happens to them. Maybe they know and a small number of people know actually the community benefits if
40:33
people share this. So, you know, I can't imagine it's a particularly easy thing for you to do. So, I would just like to
40:39
thank you for for coming on here and doing that. Thank you very much. No worries.

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