Flooding a Kirby Morgan

Use a Milex gas guard – when only the best will do

Flooding a Kirby Morgan: Returning readers remember that I changed the neoprene neck dam in Kim’s KMH-16 for one that fit me when I harvested it after her suffocation (Or should that be drowning?) when she died from fluid in her lungs caused by breathing chlorine gas maliciously pumped into her helmet. [For more about that see my entry for November 17, 2009, Gassed and suffocated.] When she was found we think she had been on the bottom with pressurized chlorine gas in her helmet for more than three hours. The Divemaster said the neck dam would have had to be replaced anyway because chlorine gas reacts with neoprene to rapidly destroy it so the one Kim was using was no longer safe. The neck dam is the only thing in the helmet that is neoprene, though latex neck dams are an available option. Neoprene is warmer and usually lasts longer so I think neoprene is pretty standard.

I’m mentioning this because the Divemaster put the old chlorine impregnated neck dam in the trash when she replaced it with a new one in my size and certified Kim’s old helmet safe and ready to dive. And now there has been an incident with the failure of a KMH-16 neoprene neck dam. From what I understand it appears to have been caused by deterioration from a corrosive chemical. We think what happened was that a 17 y/o boy who was into diving as a hobby found the neck dam while dumpster diving the casino’s trash and took it home to replace one that had torn in a secondhand KMH he was diving. Security had caught him in the dumpsters several times and escorted him off the property so he was known to them. He was on the bottom of the 15 ft dive well of his parents pool with his girlfriend when his surface supplied air shut off. He should have been ok long enough to be able to get to the surface if the safety features of his helmet had been working properly, but the gas supply non-return valve failed (inspection showed later that there was grit holding the valve open.) and the helmet lost gas pressure and the resulting ‘squeeze’ put such a strain on the deteriorated neoprene of the neck dam that it tore and the helmet flooded. This happened very quickly, our Divemaster thinks it took less than a minute. The squeeze that occurred before the flooding compressed the stiff deteriorated neoprene of the neck sheath causing it to corrugate and crush the small bones and vertebra in his neck as the water pressure pushed the neck dam toward the top of the helmet. If he was still alive when the neck dam ruptured he drowned. He didn’t have time to unfasten his weighted dive boots and attempt an emergency ascent. The girl he was having dive-sex with at the time is safe. She was wearing a single hose regulator SCUBA set so wasn’t affected by the surface supply air failure, but she freaked out and is in therapy. We don’t know for sure that he was using the weakened neck dam from Kim’s helmet, but the coincidence is striking. In hindsight we probably should have slit the chlorine deteriorated neck dam to make it obviously unusable before throwing it in the trash. Dive fatalities usually occur from a series of equipment failures or mistakes rather than one major one. The failure of the non-return valve was major and probably was fatal, but the rupture of the neck dam from the stress of being pushed into the helmet immediately afterward sealed his fate. Life support gear like diving equipment should be inspected and have routine maintenance like lubrication and replacing gaskets and seals performed at least once a year or more frequently if used in harsh environments. The boy’s helmet hadn’t been properly maintained and certified as safe since the boy bought it several years ago.

Thanksgiving plans: I am having my friends over for dinner and to watch the parade and sports. I’ve invited Taryn, Cyndi, Anya, Shelly, Marie-Claude, Diané, Chris, Chuck, Pirate and Robin, Peter and Jacques and perhaps another man. Shelly and Marie-Claude need partners for holiday sex and I’m not sure who they will be yet. Perhaps Robin will be with Marie-Claude they make a lovely couple. I’ve talked with Jacques and emotionally he has moved on, to me I hope, and said he doesn’t mind Marie-Claude being in someone else’s bed and he seemed sincere when he said it, but if he is now interested in me as a recreational sex partner he couldn’t possibly have given me a different answer. Given how shabbily Shelly was treated by her new husband Rubberstud before he and a paramour disappeared off a cruise ship in the Caribbean she is taking a while to begin to put herself into the dating scene again. But as a young widow with emotional and physical needs she has recently been looking for a bed mate and I hope she or we can find her one by Thanksgiving. If it isn’t love by then infatuation or just raw lust will do. The girls are all bringing their Milex gas guards as there will be group dive-sex.

Barbers, beards and breasts: For long weekends or holidays with a lot of male guests I hire a barber, one who is an expert with a straight razor. It is very painful for a woman to have a lover caress her breasts with sandpaper beard stubble. That just tears up the sensitive tissue of a girl’s areolae horribly. So the easiest way around that is to have a barber on site who can give the men in the party a close shave twice or sometimes more each day. My women guests think that’s a marvelous idea!

Heather and Alison: I had a comment from a friend and returning reader about the women in my November 16, 2009 post ‘Brotherly love and incest’. Bryan thinks it doesn’t seem right that Heather wants her step-daughter, Alison, to become a Sub in the D/S subculture. I can understand his skepticism. However, in my experience sometimes you can't tell which way a person will swing Domme or Sub. I think Heather can go either way just as I can, depending on the situation. I think Heather wants Alison under her control so she can steer her away from her psychological need for sex with her father who is Heather’s new husband. Bringing Alison into the D/S as a sub will strengthen her grip on Alison's vulnerabilities. And, just because Alison is introduced into the D/S lifestyle as a Sub doesn’t necessarily mean that she will always be a Sub. I was introduced to BDSM as a Sub and accepted that as an entry position and learned the rules of the subculture from my master. The master who trains you has a huge influence on how a girl turns out and I’ve seen some gorgeous and talented girls broken by extremely sadistic masters who gave no praise or encouragement regardless of how well the girl performed. So Heather’s choice of Master for her step-daughter or who gets Alison if she is auctioned at a Sub-sale is crucial.

I’m hoping that Heather doesn’t decide to enter Alison in a Sub-auction. She doesn’t need the money and the likelihood of Alison being taken out of town by the winning bidder is pretty high as Vegas auctions have some of the highest quality female Subs available at auction in the U.S. If all she wants is just to steer Alison into the sub-culture she should be able to do that with a local master who wants a lovely new Sub to dominate and will give her a 2-year contract.