Beneath the Sea 2010

I had the opportunity to attend Beneath the Sea 2010 (BTS) this weekend for the first time.  I was actually quite surprised at how big of event it was and the volume of attendees!  Friday night was kind of sparsely attended but Saturday as the day wore on, it was absolutely packed.

It was fun catching up with some old friends and acquaintances - Tom Mount, Joe Radomski, Steve Lewis, Ted Greene, Mark Nix, Corey Mearns.  I was fortunate to get a free pass from Dona at South Pacific Island Travel, so even better, it didn't cost me anything!  Seeing all of the cool travel locations, I've got the itch to get out on a dive trip!

Didn't really see anything that was earth shattering new, but there was lots of cool stuff to check out.  The new Silent Submersion Magnus scooter looks pretty cool!  The speed controls on the handle are way cool!

The North Eastern diving community is certainly a hardy bunch.  It was interesting to note that the average age of attendee appeared to be in the late 40s.  There were very few young people there.  I'm not exactly sure what that tells us - Does it mean that young people are not be attracted to diving or that they just can't afford it?  I don't know the answer to this, but I intend to do a little more research into it!

It must be in the genes!

My two year old granddaughter is hard at work studying for her upcoming cave course!  Her father is in the middle of finishing up his Full Cave course, so I'm sure she comes by her fascination honestly!

Next up will be Intro to CCR diving!

Ice Diving with Dive Addicts at Deer Creek Reservoir

This past Saturday, we spent the better part of the day ice diving at Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah.  With air temperature of around 23 degrees fahrenheit and water temperature at approximately 36 degrees, this kind of diving is really only for the hardiest divers!  In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn't actually dive, but was there to provide surface support and snap a few pictures!  (too stikin' cold for me!)

The four divers were Josh Thornton, Michael Thornton, Mike Nygard and Rich Cherian.  We left Dive Addicts about 8:15 AM and got up to Deer Creek about 9:00 AM.  It took us about 45 mins. to cut the hole in the ice and then we had to struggle a little bit to get the triangular piece of ice pushed underneath one side so that we could get the divers in the water.

  

We split the divers into two teams so we always had 3 surface support while there were two divers in the water.  One of the surface support was always geared up and ready to splash if there was a problem that required his help.  Both divers were tethered together with a climbing rope that was anchored to 3 points of the triangular opening using ice climbing screws and carabineers.

The set up for the dive is the hard part.  Hauling out all of the gear on sleds, marking the spot, drilling three holes in the ice with an ice auger, cutting the ice with a chain saw and then finishing off with a lumberjack hand saw with lead weights on the end that sticks in the water, moving the ice slab out of the way, anchoring the ropes, gearing up the divers, helping them into the water took approximately 3 1/2 hours before the first dive even started!

The dive profiles were approximately 110 feet deep for 29 mins.  At an altitude of approximately 6500 feet,  under the ice, this is a fairly serious dive!

Teaching an Advanced Trimix Class

I just started teaching an Advanced Trimix Class this week to a group of 4 tech diving students.  These 4 are all students who have taken previous classes from me so it is fun to watch them progress and develop as  technical divers.

I really enjoy teaching Advanced Trimix because it is the highest level of open water training and as such the students must be prepared virtually on every level for extreme diving, including physically, mentally, and emotionally.  These types of dives are very demanding and as such, the training is equally demanding.  

We spent the first night in the classroom talking about what would be required in the class, and beginning our academic discussions.  In this particular class, the academic sessions are typically more discussion than lecture, because the students usually have a firm grasp of the basic academics and now we spend more time discussing various alternative view points and procedures.  The classes are usually quite stimulating.  

Fortunately, these 4 students are local, so we can take some time spread over a few weeks to really dig into the academics as well as the practical - the diving.  Our first dive will be a shallow dive at the Homestead Crater where we will do an assessment of their current skill level as well as string together some more involved complex multiple failure drills.  It is usually a somewhat stressful time for the students due to the volume of skills and drills, but ends up being a lot of fun and makes for memorable discussions afterwards!  

Trimming out my Hammerhead

I spent a couple of hours in the pool today tweaking my Hammerhead CCR setup so that I was happier with my trim for cave diving.  I have just recently started using the Golemgear sidemount bungee in conjunction with the GG buttplate.  I have been using the buttplate for years, but have always used Dive Rite bungees.  The GG bungees are a little different and cause the tanks to ride a little farther down my body.  

I really like where the tanks ride now, but it causes my trim to be a little butt heavy, so thus the time I spent in the pool today.  I think I have about got it where I need it now, but I won't know for sure until I try it with a wetsuit and then a drysuit.  

I like the GG bungees because the tanks don't clutter up my chest like the ones I was previously using.  I have to reach a little farther for the bailout regs, gauges and valve knobs, but it is way more comfortable!  I really do like it.  I'm sure once I get the trim dialed in, I will be completely happy!  (that is until I find another new option! )  Seems like there is always something to tweak when it comes to diving CCR, but I think that is half of the fun - messing around with this stuff!

Fun Times at the Crater Yesterday

Josh, Michael and I went up to the Crater yesterday to do some practicing on our CCR Trimix team procedures.  We spent a couple of hours doing drills and working through various scenarios.  Even though all of this stuff should be 2nd nature, it is always useful to practice it within the confines of the actual team that will be diving together.

Obviously, all of us know the procedures as well as the fundamentals and reasoning behind the procedures, but it is helpful to work on making the execution as smooth as possible within the actual team.  Doing deep Trimix dives require excellent coordination between team members, and attention to detail.  We have been practicing not only emergency procedures for when something goes wrong, but also simple things like communication skills, situational awareness, team planning and specific goal oriented tasks.

Of course as a father and  sons team, we are obviously close and used to diving together frequently, but honing these types of drills, skills and procedures helps us all to be better divers and more specifically function much better as a team!  When you are doing big dives, everyone has to be on the same exact page or unfortunate things can happen!

On the lighter side, after we got finished with our drills and practicing, we buzzed around on a Salvo scooter which was a lot of fun.  Josh decided to give it a go while free diving and buzzed a PADI OW class that was going on much to the delight of the students and aggravation of their instructor!

Deep Air

This is a reprint of a post I made on Deco Stop recently.  The past few days there have been a couple of different arguments going on on the dive forums concerning how deep people should be diving before they squirt a little Helium in their mix.  


I love these "Deep Air" discussions because they usually end up being quite entertaining!

My own experience with deep air requires me to look at each and every diving scenario and make a "hopefully educated" decision as to what is appropriate for the environment and mission in which I will find myself.

Obviously, warm, clear, calm, open water environments are much more forgiving than cold, limited viz, overhead environments. I would suggest that each diver needs to use his own judgement based on experience to gage what is appropriate for himself or the team. Until said diver has sufficient experience to make educated decisions about what is appropriate, dogmatic lines drawn in the sand (END limits) are necessary to keep young divers alive until they learn how to make appropriate decisions.

I really, really, really hate hard fast rules with this stuff, because I consider most of them to be impractical, but I do understand why some instructors approach this in such a dogmatic way with students. It helps keep them alive! What I don't understand is why any student would just accept a rule as the "gospel truth" without having a very good understanding of why it is the rule and then having verified it based upon personal experience. I'm not suggesting that we go out and do something stupid just to verify, but there are lot's of different philosophies out there and sometimes DIR or whatever doesn't necessarily trump DIL (Done it Longer!)

Learn why rules are being suggested and then through personal study and experience, gradually figure out what is appropriate for you and your team in various scenarios. Anything less, is just blindly following something that may or may not be appropriate.

Just my $.02

Regards,
Randy