I know my limits ...water to the knee and then I turn around and come out

A sad fact is he went to local dive experts in this area, and he was told several times they would not take him down to the arch. They all told him he did not have enough experience or the correct equipment for this dive. They offered to help him get the training he needed, but he was too impatient to wait. It's sad and needless, he would have survived and taken the advice of the dive experts in the area.

For anyone new to diving or who doesn't know, Yuri dove to 115+ meters (375 feet). Narcosis on regular air really starts to set in at about 30 meters (98 feet) and starts to significantly impede cognitive and motor function at about 40 meters (130 feet). This dude dove nearly 3 times the max depth for regular air.

Listening to him struggle and whimper while trying to breathe and then hitting the bottom, looking at his wrist and realizing that he wasn't going to make it out made me cry. I can only imagine how his mother felt watching this video. Regardless of his choice to go against professional advice and severe warnings against doing the dive, I still have sympathy for the fact that a mother lost her son and this is the last glimpse of him she ever got. Sometimes people make choices that lead to their death, but I don't think that lessens the sorrow and empathy we should have for others' losses.

bottom line: don’t dive if multiple (certified!) people tell you NO. yuri’s death was 100% preventable. rest in peace

The strangest aspect of this video has always been the fact that there's no obvious breaking point where you can see things transition from 'normal' to 'dangerous.' Everything seems perfectly fine, there are divers around him one minute... then before you even realize what's happening, he's all alone struggling to breathe while sinking deeper into the black abyss. I think most people expect to see the point where the diver notices something is wrong... and it just isn't there. Quite eerie to watch.

21 years later and this still haunts me. I will always ask myself what happened at the beginning. 2min in , he’s still at the surface. Then a bewildering uncontrollable descent. Such a tragedy. I’d never hit that site as a rescue diver. I know my limits.

Tbh at that depth, with the knowledge that you’re going to drown shortly and staring down into the bottomless drop below.. it’s better that he was narced out of his mind. I couldn’t imagine being fully lucid in that moment. Much better to be confused and not fully knowing what’s happening then to go through that cognitive and aware. Rest In Peace Yuri.

I went here as a teenager with my family to just snorkel. Absolutely stunning, went out in a jeep with three German men all in their late 20s wanting to dive. We were told over and over that you could see the arch but it's much deeper than you think and there's no way in hell you'd reach it without proper equiptment. They have a signs all over saying that it's deadly and you should just stick to depth unless you're very well trained. I remember clear as day that the three men went out just before lunch, deciding to do the dive first and then relax and swim after. They all went down and its probably barely 7 or 8 minutes later when one of the guys come up effing and blinding that one of his mates decided to go further. Everyone got this look, it was just chilling. The other guy stayed in the water at his max depth. There were guys in the full equipment ready to go in and hopefully get him when the other two men popped up out of the water, the friend holding the idiot by the back of his tank. Immediately people were screaming at him, and the dude was clearly off, crying and panicking and his face was grey. The guy dumped all of his weights and luckily got back to his mate before he got too incoherent, and that saved him. He was close. No one went in the water after that. I rarely dive but seeing that made me terrified of deep and blank ocean and I couldn't ever go back.

What’s really sad is the fact that he was told by several instructors that he’d need two weeks of training and the right equipment and he still did it anyway 🤦🏼‍♀️

The Blue Hole is no joke. As an Egyptian, I have been to the Blue Hole 3 times at least when in Dahab. Every time I see the plaques with the names of divers who died there, it is very chilling for me. May they rest in peace.

Seeing him sinking to the bottom like a stone, hearing him breathe, seeing him struggle and then - nothing... This gave me such anxiety, as this must have been horrible for him. Perhaps he was not fully aware of what was going to happen, because he was so narced, but at some point in the beginning he must have noticed that something was very wrong...

God the sound of his breathing gives me goosebumps.

It’s interesting that near the end of the video, I can hear the attempt at BCD inflation but there was none during the entire decent. Also, as a caver, a CCR diver, and a former dive shop owner, I do not have any desire to dive The Arch. It seems like such a random and arbitrary thing to. All the dangers and for what? If it’s an arch you want to see, there are lots that are much shallower. As someone who has the skills to dive deep, I rather dive shallow and then go drink beer with my friends.

This is quite possibly the most distressing event I've ever researched. Somethig about the fact that he was simply trying to have a bit of fun and died in the dark, alone, and extremely intoxicated with no way out really gets to me. Rest in peace, Yuri.

Tarek Omar was the man who retrieved Yuri's body and sadly enough was one of the instructors that told Yuri he needed 2 weeks training because he wasn't ready or equipped for the dive and not to do it. And the next day has to go and get him. As of 2012 he'd received more than 20 bodies from the hole but he said he stopped counting so doesn't know the real number. I'm sure it's in the comments somewhere but haven't seen it yet.

The fact that his mom has the video of his death makes me terribly sad. Regardless of people saying he was arrogant and reckless he was still a human being and someone’s son. Terribly tragedy made even worse by the fact it was captured on video for his mom to see. RIP Yuri.

He never tried to remove his weight belt. He was found with it still on And his ascent balloon completely failed And the bottom of this hole is a very very steep incline. He landed and basically slid all the way down

Rec instructor and Tech DIR diver here... On minute 13:00 exactly, a thin piece of string, twisted around its own axis, fly for a second in front of the camera (use slow motion). Considering it maintains its shape constant, it is not cordino, bungee, or some kind of fabric but metal. The only piece of metal with that shape, used in a recreational equipment set up, is the spring within the "overpressure relief valves". Every model of BCD jacket may differ about quantity and position for this valves, but there is always one on the top left shoulder and another one on your lower back next to your kidney, either left or right. This valves are screwd to the BCD as plastic soda bottle caps are. That spring lets the valve open when there is too much gas in your BCD so it dosent explode, as a balloon would, if you blow too much air in it. I'm not going to go into detail on the possible reasons this valves malfunction or even pop out, but the fact is that if a critical malfunction happends to the one on your left shoulder you loose all the air you poor in your BCD as it is next to the intake flow. The position for this valve is on the back part of the shoulder and for some people it might not be easily accesible, hence the design includes a little string to manually open it in a more confortable way. But trust me, you are either flexible, or you are going to have a hard time reaching it to try to screw that in if it came out. Needless to say, that fixing this as falling to the deepest and darkest of abysms, narc out of your mind, is beyond anything you can expect of a recreational diver. But the fact is that when he gets to the bottom, and start trying to desperately fix whatever got him there, he reaps off this valve as i could only think you would if you consider it the source of the problem. Another interesting fact is the descent. What is the squeaky sound? lungs or second stage membrane? why he doesnt seem to strugle and panicking? he doesnt release the camera and help himself to swim up as is the most basic human reaction? Narcosis works in strange ways... it would make you do stupid things as with a lot of alcohol but without speech and movement disabilities to warn you. Nonetheless at 100m still seems to be aware enough of the camera and try to film his computer. Who knows what he was trying to leave behind for us to witness and what where his thoughts. Rest in peace brother. May your suffering be of reflection for all those who every day decide to go under water beyond their knowledge and capabilities.

My diving skills are limited to the shallow end of the kiddie pool. That has kept me alive for 45 years. Very informative walk thru. Thank you! 👍

I get a headache when i dive all the way down to the bottom of a 9ft pool, I can’t even imagine how horrific this would be.

I nearly filmed my own death back in august with a mask mounted GoPro. Me and a buddy were doing a fast paced long distance drift dive. With a bottom made up of rocks that’s pretty much featureless we often navigate by time drifting. The current was faster than usual and so we ended up drifting into an extremely hazardous wreck. I KNEW I was in trouble as soon as I saw the wreck in the distance. My partner wasnt phased and asked my air. I informed him I was past the agreed return point but he gave the order to stay “for just a little”. Well we go up and over the wreck and duck in behind it. This wreck normally provides cover but it’s recently broken up. So instead of relative “safety” I ended up stationary against the current. Desperately low on air at this point I start looking for my exit and at the point I made my attempt to escape. During the attempt my head mounted GoPro was ripped off my head blinding me, and then the currently forced its way into my regulator causing me to take in water. After taking in a little air and BARELY keeping control and not drowning. I went into panic mode. I lost control and made a run for it. But luckily I knew exactly which way to run and I made a mad dash to shore. I never regained control, I never got my mask clear again (I made my return pretty much blind and off memory) I surfaced with virtually no air after my safety stop. As crazy as it sounds in the moment when I felt this was the end I thought of this video and was horrified at the prospect I just filmed my own death like Yuri. For reference I had 12 years of diving experience at this site and my dive partner 40+. Bad things can happen on even “normal” dives. I couldn’t imagine the outcome of that dive if he or I were unfamiliar with the site

Terrifying, but seeing you educate people on how to not suffer the same fate is comforting. Thanks for that.

im just an open water (padi) diver and the deepest I've ever gone was 30m for a wreck. The way the colors fade, its hard imagining even wanting to be that far down, but I really appreciated how you talked about this. This was hard but I think helpful to watch

Losing air is one of my biggest fears. I’ve both nearly drowned and nearly strangled to death before and it was absolutely horrific. I can’t imagine the feeling of losing air combined with the confusion and panic of being isolated in the ocean. Truly tragic.

When I took my very first dive certification class years ago, one of the first things my instructor said, and repeated throughout my training was "know your limits and respect your limits" The saddest part of this for me is that it could have soooo easily been avoided.

When he asked the dive expert to take him, and the expert refused, Yuri should have really thought twice. I can't believe Yuri was an instructor and didn't understand that he was literally diving to his death.

I still feel bad for Yuri, despite him ignoring the many warnings he was given. He probably knew he was dead when he touched the bottom and saw his depth. I mean the speed at which he sank to his death so quickly after beginning his dive is chilling. It almost looks like he went into a trance, enjoying the calm of the water to suddenly wake up in the dark alone under the pressure of the deep, dying. RIP Yuri ❤️

How terrifying. I could feel a lump building in my throat as I watched him walk around on the floor of the arc in the darkness. Imagining that feeling of not being able to escape, being so deep down away from everyone else, that's horrible. Please rest in peace Yuri

Of course this is the natural progression of watching Mr. Ballen. I seek out the actual footage. Condolences to this man and his family. Kudos on the respectful reaction.

I have a habit of putting myself in other people's shoes a lot of the time, which isn't a bad thing until I watch things such as this. I can only imagine the absolute terror this man experienced as he sank toward the ocean floor and it makes me want to shed a tear. I just hope that after all the pain he felt that his last moments were painless and was able to come to terms with his fate. Rest in peace Yuri.

awe, you worried your dog at 18:10 when you mimicked Yuri's labored breathing. Your dog came over to check on you. 💕

Im a diver, and I watched his video at least 20x. And every time I feel the pain and fear like I knew him. So so sorry for what happened. May he rest in peace

When I first saw this video it legitimately traumatised me. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I am glad that his tragedy is being used as a warning and opportunity for education. I agree, it is a dangerous dive site that is far too easy to access.

I wouldn't feel bad at all to discover the video. His mother not only wanted it but knows exactly how her son died. There is some closure in that believe it or not. She knows exactly what happened and how. There is no guess work, there is no worrying about what happened. She is now somewhat at peace about this death. RIP Yuri.

I dove the Blue Hole to 180 ft once on regular air. What I still don't understand is he had to have known immediately that he was in a full descent. Normally when in descent, you'd add additional air to your BCD to create neutral buoyancy. He never did this...unless there was a malfunction with his BCD. When that happens you have to drop your weight, camera gear, etc. but I think full panic set in on this guy and sadly he lost his life. Terrible tragedy.

Two things I will not do “recreationally” without training 1. Spelunking 2. Spelunking underwater

We dove it recreationally just a few weeks ago. The guides are great but you have to be a good diver. We did not exceed limits, which is key. We had a guide, a plan, and watched out for one another. It is a beautiful site. It was a beautiful dive. Our visibility was not the best that day, but it was a wonderful experience. Be smart and stay within your limits.

The blue hole is actually a safe diving site, relatively, according to most experienced divers like Tarek Omar. It's just that a lot of people visit it with hopes of crossing the Arch, and they have limited time in the country, so they rush it, and as in Yuri's case, being a diving instructor or having enough dives under your belt gives you a dose of overconfidence that can be lethal. He actually had a diving partner, I think when you said 'there are still divers within sight' or something like that while fast forwarding, there was one diver, and that was his partner, who by the way was definitely an irresponsible diver from around who agreed to partner up with him under the circumstances. He lost sight of him, and started dropping. I think one divemaster from an agency(H2O, I believe) there harshly named the top reason for death in the Blue Hole as 'stupidity', and as harsh as that sounds, as a new diver myself, I think it will keep ringing with me as I learn, to never be overconfident, never be stupid. The first time I watched this and read the story, it broke my heart that his mother would have that footage of him, and I'm certain she'll watch it again, she won't be able to help it. And empathizing with how it would feel to be at the bottom, all alone just gets you, though I hope being so narked made it painless for him.

This was the first video i ever found from you guys after it was linked on a tumblr post. So glad i watched it and checked out your other videos, theyre all incredibly informative and have helped me get over my fear of diving to a degree. The podcast has also been great for commuting to and from work, and its given me something new to bond with my brother over. Thank you guys so much for putting all this amazing content out there!

Imagine dying alone in pitch black deep sea just horrible my condolences to the family that’s harsh

Btw toward the end when he was moving around a bunch, he was holding on to the floor resisting the drag, since he was being dragged out of the bottom of the arch into a 3000 feet drop off

As a noob diver with only two short dives behind me, I watch these videos to learn that it's not all fun and games and if I want to continue (and I really do) I need to educate myself as much as possible. Thank you for this channel!

When You mimicked struggling to breathe,your dog came over to make sure you were ok, that was so cute😌

I’m sure by not flooding the camera the guy who recovered it saved lives.

It's shocking how similar diving deep and climbing high are. Pushing limits, getting to the bottom/top with nothing left to get back, narcosis/hypoxia and the confusion and poor decision making it brings. So many sad stories from the depths and the peaks.

From what I've read about it, he was attempting a "bounce dive" in which you see how quick you can descend and make it back up... Yuri and some of his diving circle would always try and one up each other.

It is good to see footage like this. It grounds our perspective and helps us realize our own mortality when performing dangerous feats like this.

I can understand why his mum wanted the footage. I would too. Not knowing would be even worse.

I sometimes get panic attacks just sitting around at my house. Yeah, don’t think I’ll be trying diving.

I dove for a few years and the deepest I ever reached was 135 feet. What I noticed most was how loud the air was when inhaling. Down that deep (4.5 atm), the air is four times denser (and using it four times as fast). Hearing the loud hiss in this video told me he was getting pretty deep... and it's dark. I kept a close watch on both my air and depth, and only was there for maybe a minute. For me, all the interesting stuff to see is less than 50 feet (where there's better color), but I'm no pro.

I'm not a diver myself, but I am glad this video is respectfully being used as a way to educate and warn other divers from meeting the same painful death. My condolence to Yuri, his mother, and his family.

The malfunction was that he tried to use the BC for lift before releasing his weights, so it was counterproductive. He couldn’t lift because his weights were holding him down. So I would definitely say he was either very confused, very panicked, or both.

Had a mates neighbour who was a dive master, and it was so interesting to talk 2 him. He was in charge of the gasses and the divers in the bell. To hear him speak about the training, experience and skills needed to dive those depths was insane. I'm srry this man died but, never go against professional advice ever.

I've never ever watched a diving video I know absolutely nothing about it but I swear I could listen to you talk about it all day long! 😂 You just have a very calm tone!

Thank you for breaking down the video! I appreciate your input!

10:11 Dog appears when dog senses person is feeling intensity and anxiety. Dogs are amazing. Your dog is good.

You can feel the pressure on your chest in a backyard pool, I couldn't imagine the pressure at over 300 feet

I keep hearing you say you don't know what you don't know these videos are going to save lives in the future 💕 May God continue to bless you and Gus these videos are priceless thanks for sharing ❤️☮️

I remember seeing this footage a year or so back before I took my cert. Much like other posters before ; the struggle and his last breaths broke my heart. Stay safe down there people.

Don’t trust water, respect it. A single tank?! That was a death sentence from the very beginning. There is a reason that sunlight does not reach that far, it’s not meant for human life. I feel like my mom would have done the same. At least to figure out how here baby, that she brought into this world, left this world.

Even to a layman, this was incredibly informative. Thank you for this analysis

Thanks for covering this

I really appreciate the way you handle difficult topics like this sad story. You educate and help people understand how easy it is to make fatal mistakes when going past their limit. You seem like a kind soul and I love watching your videos. I am not a diver and never want to dive outside of aquariums (I love fish) but I still find your content informative and inspiring

That was so hard to watch, his breathing was scary.

Found this in my recommendations and I am now subscribed. My parents always recount with horror their recreational diving experience in Thailand with a group and an instructor, how they were guided into some cave systems and the current threw them all against the walls and dragged them along... thank God they are still here today and no one died that day.

Thank u for making this vids and commentaries, very educational👍 RIP Yuri!

Thanks for all the helpful info! Always good input!

You can see the empathy on Woody's face. Great video dude. Thoughts go out to the family of Yuri

it’s so fucking hard to just even watch. i couldn’t imagine having to go through this. rip yuri.

Man I love you this is so respectful, informative, insightful like amazing work here wow

I’m an open water diver, although I haven’t dove in 25 years. I was told that N2 narcosis happens at a specific depth for each person. My dive master used to get narced at 80’. When we were doing our advanced open water and had to go to 120’ she, our diver master, would quickly swim through 80’ to get to a deeper depth avoiding the narcosis. You mention that he was narced at his depth, which makes sense to me. Being at 330+ feet is just nuts for a rec diver on air. Hell with mixed gas I would not even attempt that depth. He had no business being anywhere below 60’. Very sad story.

God the sounds he made while descending as it got harder and harder to breathe are disturbing. Condolences to the mom.

Thank you for taking the time to explain what was happening as it was happening... This was so sad and hard to watch. Feel bad for the guy who told him twice, it's too dangerous, then had to retrieve this body. Just stupid on the part of anyone who tries to do this ill equipt and without all the proper training...rest in peace.

I used to use unbalanced OMS oxygen service regulators for deco. Listening to that WOB reminded me of using those on hangs deeper than 100 feet. YIKES! Another great vid guys! Thanks for the work you put into making these.

I live vicariously through your stories, and reactions to others stories. I will say I don’t dive. I’d be a little afraid although it’s beautiful to watch. It’s amazing hearing these stories and to understand what should be done to take precaution and such. I love how you’re very stern about the rules of diving. I wish some were more cautious. Rest In Peace to those who’ve passed. I did enjoy the reaction video though!

This video was terrifying the first time that I saw it, but watching a professional react to it made me completely scared stiff

You know I've had severe respiratory infections before where breathing was impaired and the feeling of struggling is terrifying. Compound that with the complete darkness and disorientation of being at the bottom of the ocean. This breaks my heart. I just wonder if it was an accident or just carelessness.

Sad and needlessly tragic. Great commentary Woody!

All the insights really added perspective - about the labored breathing, the speed you could see he was descending at, the possible halocline and therefore the improper weighting… wow.

What was the saddest part was this was entirely preventable. And now this mans mother had to watch him die.

Thank you for breaking down this scenario! I love it when you guys analyze videos like this. Your expert insight is so valuable.

The sound he lets out after looking at his computer and seeing the depth chills me. It's almost like a muffled "scream"

Thank you for making this video. An important video

I am so glad I have found this channel, the last couple days I have randomly become obsessed with free diving videos and scuba videos. It's very reassuring to hear an experienced diver give their take on these videos, as it stops me speculating. Keep up the good work and for goodness sake don't get yourself killed!

This is the second time I’ve watched this video. The first time I didn’t understand a lot of your comments. Since then I’ve watched a lot of your videos and because of all the technical information you provide, I understand everything you’re talking about this time. I appreciate you sharing the wealth. Non-diver from Aus.

Not sure why I am watching hours worth of this channel when I have never been diving or even had any interest.. but here we are algorithm

I’m glad I found Dive Talk had reacted to this- I watched this video in its entirety, & had NO IDEA what anything was, or WHAT was happening!!! I’m very glad Woody didn’t edit out the fatality at the end like we are children.

If you look into his death, Mr ballen explains it very well, he wanted to dive the blue hole and the arch b4 he went back home but wasn't experienced enough and and the class to do it was going take to long and he asked many many instructors to help him and teach him but no one would in one day so he went alone, and had massive weight problems and was on regular air and missed the arch opening and just sank

This was a sad, but very educational video. I hope that good can come out of this by educating future divers of this location, thus saving many other lives in the process through avoidance and adequate precautions taken

Wow. I am just now seeing this video. I felt his panic. Bless him.. Rip. Heartbreaking.

Thank you for this.

Yay thank you so much for fulfilling my request and doing this reaction video! You guys are awesome! :-D

I've never been diving but this was very informative and easy to follow. Thank you for posting.

Thanks for the explanation - I saw this video recently and had no idea of the context

I know nothing about diving, barely know how to swim, have had seizures and have barely gone swimming since my last one. I knew the story of Yuri Lipski and a few minutes into your video you gained yourself a subscriber. The way you explained this was so simple, but very interesting and captivating!!

I am so glad to see actual professional divers react to these sort of videos. Subscribed :)

I'm also glad the film was not destroyed as this video is highly educational for divers especially to that dive. God bless.

My brother is a diver. Certified for sea and fresh water. But I know, if something happened, he would want his dive partner to bring him to the surface for his family. But he knows his limits. He would never dive beyond what he knows he can do. Thank you for sharing this video. Dive Safe. From a former Paramedic in Ontario, Canada, Jenn. 💖 🇨🇦

WOODY I FOR REAL LOVE WHEN YOU COMMENT ON VIDEOS!!! Your input is so informative!❤❤