OK, folks, you knew this, but: 24 hours is a Long Time underwater.

It's even a long time to watch someone else stay underwater.

Anyway...he made it, climbing the ladder out of the deep end
under his own power at 0900 this morning with an LP125 on his
back and a big "It's over!" smile on his face to an applauding
crowd of about 25 people and press.

Equipment problems were mercifully few and we had plenty of
spares.  We had a suspected bad HP seat causing a slow freeflow,
another misbehaving  reg that fixed itself, a bad O-ring, and a
BC problem.  All equipment  problems except the first were with
safety divers' gear.

The biggest problem was his hands.  They were waterlogged.  When
I say "waterlogged," I don't mean there were some ridges on the
pads of his  fingertips.  They were waterlogged and swollen and
beginning to be painful at about the 20 hour mark.  The *backs*
of his hands were waterlogged from fingertip to wrist.  He held
them out of the water for nearly two hours while we rubbed in
ointment and massaged them near the  end of the dive.  Anyone
else doing this should strongly consider dry  gloves or a coating
of A&D ointment or Vaseline, renewed every several  hours, under
3mm wet suit gloves.  (Now, several hours later, his hands
have returned to normal.)  One of the safety divers gave us too
much information, telling us that his hands looked like those on
bodies he's  recovered...

The pool was at or around 90F for most of the 24 hours, cooling a
few degrees to about 88-87 after 16 hours or so.  A warm water
hose under his diving skin proved sufficient to keep him warm
without him having to  put on a suit.  He ate and drank 4-5 72oz
CamelBaks' worth of water, several power bars, some chocolate
pudding in squeeze tubes, and the  large-size peppermint LifeSavers.

By the way, CamelBaks don't work the same underwater.  You have
to squeeze them once they're about half-empty to keep the
opposite side of  the bladder from being sucked against the
tubing and blocking the flow,  and it's hard to empty them
completely.

We made several slates, which were a real hit with young children
and adults alike, and kept him busy for much of the time.

I think he got more sleep than I did.  I took a 2-hour nap.  He
caught a  total of probably 3 hours in 30-45 minute spurts, with
someone *right* next to him monitoring breathing and tank
pressure continuously.

The support and advice of the local LDS (Marsh Scuba in
Poughkeepsie, NY--thanks, Andy!), friends, family, his fire
company, his employer,  DAN, this NG, and a prominent WKPP diver
were all essential.  Also essential was the FFM loaned from a
local public safety dive team (the attached comm and base unit
were an unexpected godsend).

We'll see how the media does this up, but I think he handled the
press well (for a 17-year-old, very well), even afterward.

Did I mention that his hands were *really* waterlogged?