Of all the talking heads I've seen Edd is the real deal. He's been involved in both recovery operations and successful cave rescues(something very rare).

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I keep seeing news accounts saying the "Thai Navy SEAL's are getting them out" but aren't the actual special divers doing this mostly from Australia?

5 Thai SEALs, and I believe 13 foreign divers.

I venture it's the foreign divers doing most of the specialized work. No doubt the Thai military is critical with their logistics / personnel support.

Fox News

Thai soccer coach, 25-year-old former Buddhist monk, hailed 'hero' for keeping boys alive

Before he became the beloved assistant coach of the Wild Boars soccer team, Ekapol Chantawong spent years studying as a Buddhist monk.

The 25-year-old, affectionately known as “Ake,” has been trapped with the team of 12 boys — ranging 11 to 16 years of age — in northern Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave since June 23, when they went exploring after a practice game. The team was stuck without food for more than a week until rescuers discovered them alive.

So far, at least eight boys have been rescued from the cave in a complicated mission.

Ekapol has already cheated death once before; when he was just 10 years old, his parents and brother were killed by a disease that ravaged his village, only sparing him, The Australian reported.

He lived with extended family members for a short time after his family’s deaths, but he was “sad and lonely” so he was sent to a Buddhist temple for training to be a monk, his aunt, Umporn Sriwichai, told The Australian.

He spent 10 years at the temple and still occasionally visits to meditate, family members said. It’s that training that could be helping him keep the team alive as they’ve remained trapped in the cave.

“He could meditate up to an hour,” Tham Chanthawong, another aunt, told The Associated Press. “It’s definitely helped him and probably helps the boys to stay calm.”


Police had said they were going to look into potential charges against Ekapol, but parents have credited the coach with keeping their children safe in the cave.

The Wild Boors senior coach said Ekapol “loves the boys more than he loves himself.”

Last week, the team was able to write letters to their loved ones, and Ekapol apologized to families of the children in his care.

“I promise I will care for the kids as best as possible. I want to say thanks for all the support and I want to apologize to the parents,” he wrote.

“Coach Ake is very dedicated to the team,” said Noppadon Kanthawong, whose 13-year-old son plays on the Wild Boars but decided to skip the cave trip. “He would be there at the field waiting for kids to show up after school. It is a great way to keep healthy, away from screens and have friends. I can tell that they are very close to each other.”


“When he comes out, we have to heal his heart,” Pornchai Kamluang, mother of one of the trapped boys, said, adding, “I would never blame [the coach]."

A close friend of some of the players praised Ekapol as the “real hero” throughout the ordeal.

“I love Ake, he’s the one I trust, he’s the one who takes care of all the kids,” friend Auttaporn Khamheng told local media. “To survive, they are all heroes, but the biggest hero is the coach. I’m sure he has done everything for all the kids in the cave.”

Ekapol had recently been given more responsibility with the team. He was the one with the team on June 23 because head coach Nopparat Kathawong reportedly had an appointment.

The members of the Wild Boars are a team on and off the soccer field, traveling to competitions, cycling mountain roads and swimming in waterfalls together.

Officials said it wasn't the first time some of the soccer players had been inside the cave.

"The kids have been in the cave before, but they didn't think that going in at this time would be that dangerous," Chote Narin, an officer at Mae Sai district police station, told The Associated Press.

Coach Ekapol's Facebook page is packed with photos and video of him and what appear to be members of his team practicing, cycling the area's mountain roads and inner tubing on a river.

THAI SOCCER TEAM PENS LETTERS TO FAMILIES

A post from December 2016 reads, “Special training before the competition. Tham Luang Nang Non.” Attached are 10 photos from inside the cave of boys in soccer uniforms smiling and posing for photos, lit by the beam of a flashlight.

The constant excursions, however, had become an issue for Thinnakorn Boonpiam, whose 13-year-old son, Mongkol, was with the team in the cave. He said his son would regularly come home as late as 9 p.m., sometimes joining his coach and teammates on adventures that included swimming and riding their bicycles into Myanmar.

Link

So much for the story line about little snowflakes who didn’t know how to swim.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
Most likely the bottles are straight air. There is no depth/pressure problem, so there would be no need to use O2 for decompressing. Straight oxygen could be a fire hazard, but if the O2 level where the kids are has dropped to 15% as reported, bringing in oxygen would be helpful. However when swimming out, there is no need for 02.

Bottles in images are labeled basic Nitrox from what I see, though I don't know about the smaller one on the guy on the center right.

Looks like they are labeled the small tank on the left as "AIR". Who knows what is in the other tanks. Could be a Nitrox mix. No need for it depth wise from what I understand but if O2 levels are low it could be beneficial. A high O2 concentration in the tank means your exhaust breath will contain more O2.

I wonder if the extra tank on that diver is their idea of redundancy.

Using Nitrox they can spend more time underwater (bottom time) than if they used air. Makes sense given the situation and difficulty in coming up/out to replace your bottle. Keep in mind Nitrox comes in mixes, which is dependent on the depths that you're going to spending most of your time. There's two common mixes however, special blends can be balanced if you know the exact depths.

The small pony bottle labeled air, is likely so the diver can switch gas when Nitrox becomes toxic. The diver is going through one section where Nitrox works best, but comes to another section where Nitrox would become toxic but the air is able to keep him going, then switch back when he ascends to a separate section. This is part of the complication to cave diving and this ordeal in particular.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
The small bottle labeled air, is likely so the diver can switch gas when Nitrox becomes toxic. The diver is going through one section where Nitrox works best, but comes to another section where Nitrox would become toxic but the air is able to keep him going, then switch back when he ascends to a separate section. This is part of the complication to cave diving and this ordeal in particular.

A completely ignorant question:

At what depths is Nitrox toxic? I thought the water depth in this particular case is 0-20'. Would divers really be switching tanks in that small of variation of depth?

quote:

Originally posted by DrDan:

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
The small bottle labeled air, is likely so the diver can switch gas when Nitrox becomes toxic. The diver is going through one section where Nitrox works best, but comes to another section where Nitrox would become toxic but the air is able to keep him going, then switch back when he ascends to a separate section. This is part of the complication to cave diving and this ordeal in particular.

A completely ignorant question:

At what depths is Nitrox toxic? I thought the water depth in this particular case is 0-20'. Would divers really be switching tanks in that small of variation of depth?

Deeper depths or, depths that are beyond the limits of that particular blend; Nitrox allows for longer bottom times, less deco stops and less surface intervals, the time spent at the surface to get all the nitrogen out of your system. Nitrox has a higher amount of o2, it's enriched, if you go too deep than you get oxygen toxicity, OXTOX. There's a lot of unknowns regarding specific information for this situation, to include the water depths of each chamber relative to it's altitude to sea level, whats the deepest underwater section. With the amount of logistic and people involved, they may be utilizing custom gas blends for the Nitrox. Dive computers are a huge help when it comes to the calculations necessary for each individual diver. Just speculating, that small air bottle may simply be a back-up or, a hand-off bottle that the kids will use.

The amount of dive medical specialists there is probably pretty impressive. There will be a lot of medical and professional articles, reviews and reports published about this long after it's over.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:

quote:

Originally posted by c1steve:
Most likely the bottles are straight air. There is no depth/pressure problem, so there would be no need to use O2 for decompressing. Straight oxygen could be a fire hazard, but if the O2 level where the kids are has dropped to 15% as reported, bringing in oxygen would be helpful. However when swimming out, there is no need for 02.

Bottles in images are labeled basic Nitrox from what I see, though I don't know about the smaller one on the guy on the center right.

Looks like they are labeled the small tank on the left as "AIR". Who knows what is in the other tanks. Could be a Nitrox mix. No need for it depth wise from what I understand but if O2 levels are low it could be beneficial. A high O2 concentration in the tank means your exhaust breath will contain more O2.

I wonder if the extra tank on that diver is their idea of redundancy.

Using Nitrox they can spend more time underwater (bottom time) than if they used air. Makes sense given the situation and difficulty in coming up/out to replace your bottle. Keep in mind Nitrox comes in mixes, which is dependent on the depths that you're going to spending most of your time. There's two common mixes however, special blends can be balanced if you know the exact depths.

The small pony bottle labeled air, is likely so the diver can switch gas when Nitrox becomes toxic. The diver is going through one section where Nitrox works best, but comes to another section where Nitrox would become toxic but the air is able to keep him going, then switch back when he ascends to a separate section. This is part of the complication to cave diving and this ordeal in particular.

I know there was the talk of one section dropping to 90' but never saw any confirmation. Likely most is fairly shallow. I don't see any tox issue with standard Nitrox blends. Even if they pushed it to the max rec limit of 40% your looking at a PPO of 1.49. Sure it's past what most people will tell you to dive for safety it's not pushing the real safety limit of 1.6. Even then I can't remember ever hearing of a tox hit from using recreational mixes, under 40%. It's always a diver grabbing a reg and mistaking 100% or 80% O2 for something else and breathing that at depth. I don't see time being a factor in any rec mixes in these dives although I will admit I don't know the true profiles they are diving.

I am sure they are not swapping mixes for the kids. Just way to complicated. Also, your back gas should all be the same. Way to easy to breath the wrong mix when you can not physically see which tank a reg is connected to.

ok, I might have missed this somewhere

I'm glad they're being rescued but I have to ask myself why in the hell a boys soccer team was in a cave two miles from the entrance with no caving gear...three days before monsoon season was set to begin

it makes no sense to me at all how or why this ever happened

The coach of the year took them there to vandalize the cave with their names as part of the team “Initiation Ceremony”, according to a news story I read early on in the drama.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24: I don't see time being a factor in any rec mixes in these dives although I will admit I don't know the true profiles they are diving.

I am sure they are not swapping mixes for the kids. Just way to complicated. Also, your back gas should all be the same. Way to easy to breath the wrong mix when you can not physically see which tank a reg is connected to.

That's the crux of all of this, for those with any familiarity, all discussion is speculation. We don't know the exact challenges because the activity requires exacting steps.

Swapping gas with the kids is too complicated and would only add to their anxiety and fears. Gas switching is done, you don't see it much with rec divers, more so on the cave/technical/commercial end of the spectrum.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by comet24: I don't see time being a factor in any rec mixes in these dives although I will admit I don't know the true profiles they are diving.

I am sure they are not swapping mixes for the kids. Just way to complicated. Also, your back gas should all be the same. Way to easy to breath the wrong mix when you can not physically see which tank a reg is connected to.

That's the crux of all of this, for those with any familiarity, all discussion is speculation. We don't know the exact challenges because the activity requires exacting steps.

Swapping gas with the kids is too complicated and would only add to their anxiety and fears. Gas switching is done, you don't see it much with rec divers, more so on the cave/technical/commercial end of the spectrum.

It will be interesting to see a real interview with one of the main divers after this is all over and hear exactly what the conditions where and how they overcame them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: comet24,

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
After seeing the topography of the area, it looks like an outflow bore could be drilled to prevent future tragedy.

Or how about a sign: “Caution. This cave is subject to rapid and unexpected flooding that can trap you without warning. If that happens, you may not be as lucky as the last group.”

It was reported that the kids and the coach went in there for some sort of bonding experience for the team. The caves are a local attraction and most of them have been there before. There is a warning sign by the caves, IIRC, saying not to go in the caves from July 1st to the end of November because heavy rainfall might cause a flood and trap you in there. They went in on June 23rd, thinking that they would be "safe" but it flooded and they got stuck there. I believe the original way that they had walked in had collapsed.



-Tom

9th and 10th boys are out.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
9th and 10th boys are out.

I'm kind of watching this peripherally and just through this thread. If I'm understanding it then, there are two kids plus the coach left now? And I'd heard one diver lost his life. Is that correct?

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
9th and 10th boys are out.

I'm kind of watching this peripherally and just through this thread. If I'm understanding it then, there are two kids plus the coach left now? And I'd heard one diver lost his life. Is that correct?

Thanks!

Correct. Except, boy No. 11 is now free. Just one more lad and the coach.

I hope all make it but couldn't resist as the Debbil made me do this.
In my best (I think it was Abe Vigoda) Godfather type voice, "Take the boy, leave the coach!"

CBS News reporting all 13 are now out of the cave.

What a great outcome that very well could have been very tragic!

Fantastic!

British divers who found the soccer team

Volanthen (left) and Stanton (right)

https://www.straitstimes.com/a...-past-rescue-efforts

Mr Richard Stanton and Mr John Volanthen, who have day jobs as a fireman and Internet engineer, respectively, negotiated a long and winding path through flooded caverns to find the 12 young boys and their coach nine days after they went missing.

Mr Volanthen, an Internet engineer in Bristol in the south-west of the country, and Mr Stanton, a fireman from Coventry in central England