Deeper

Cave diver Dr Richard “Harry” Harris' wants to go deeper and further into New Zealand’s Pearse Resurgence, a deep, dark, cold, hard-to-access and perplexing cave that has become his obsession. His radical plan to use hydrogen for breathing will solve two big problems brought on by diving at depth, high pressure neurological syndrome (HPNS) and the difficulty of getting enough air because gases increase in density. This could be a game-changer for divers. But hydrogen is most commonly known for causing the ill-fated Hindenburg explosion. This trip to the Pearse is by far the most dangerous dive Harry has ever attempted. Equipment problems plague the test dives, worrying the whole team. Still, it is an unexpected blow when Harry’s long-standing dive buddy Craig Challen pulls out 15 hours before the scheduled hydrogen dive. Craig and Harry have been dive buddies for nearly two decades, and it was Craig that was by Harry’s side when he administered the anaesthetic that helped save 12 young soccer players and their coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Harry did not expect all of the boys to be safely delivered to their families, but no other solution seemed viable. As the world now knows, it was successful. Now his choice to be a human guinea pig at the Pearse may mean he doesn’t make it back to his own family. Will he dive solo? Morning comes and he suits up, only to resurface in 23 minutes with a faulty handset. The three-week expedition involving nine divers has been in vain. Harry is devastated. But Craig rallies, his “attitudinal problems are resolved,” he jokes. “If he (Harry) should explode, I’ll pick up as many pieces as I can to bring them back home”. The next day the pair descend 200 metres in 18 minutes. The moment when Harry switches to hydrogen is nail-biting. He takes a few cautious sips. He’s alive! No lung complications! Thirty metres later his tremors are gone. Success! The temptation to push deeper is tantalising but they have more than 12 hours of decompression ahead of them and have made promises about going no further. They begin the long ascent. Ambiguous signals from an elementary buzzer system that links the divers to the outside world, reach the nervous above-water team 37 minutes into the dive. Dive physician and supervisor Dr Simon Mitchell is concerned and sends help. Harry and Craig are located in a decompression habitat, but quick action is necessary to get Craig out of trouble. In the next habitat, safer and closer to the surface, euphoria erupts. Harry has done what no other cave diver ever has. “Those are achievements that any diver would be immensely proud of,” says Mitchell. “The question is whether it will be enough for Harry.” “If I could wave a magic wand and stop him from doing this, I probably would. Are we just pushing our luck?”