Another good year for diving, tho’ like every diver every year, I wish I had dived more in it! Particular highlights in no particular order were:
Looking forward to next year already, plans afoot for GUE Tech 1, and places booked at TEKcamp (which is going biennial, alternating with EuroTEK), and hopefully lots of just diving! Also perhaps getting involved in some Project Baseline initiatives.
Since achieving only a recreational pass at GUE Fundamentals in April I have been meeting up with people from the GUE UK Facebook group over the summer at Vobster for skills’n’drills (and thrills and spills!) with a view to upgrading to a technical pass. Looking back over the logs, this amounted to 14 dives and 585 minutes in the water practicing, in addition to all the other diving I was doing which would have generally helped with in-water comfort. Finally a couple of us felt we were ready so we booked a day with GUE instructor James Sanderson aka Badger.
The format of the day was to spend the morning as a coaching session, with video feedback in the surface interval, then the actual evaluation in the afternoon. I am glad we did it this way rather than jumping straight into the evaluation as I had a couple of things to brush up; my backkick had gotten a bit sloppy, and having just gotten back from the Red Sea I was quite unprepared to do mask-off drills in water of 12℃ and lost buoyancy control 😦 Fortunately I was able to knock both these problems on the head in time for the afternoon, where we took it in turns running a gas-sharing ascent from depth with stops every 3 metres, deploying a DSMB on the way, in addition to valve drills and simulated lost-mask exits, and dealing with a casualty on the surface (basically a repeat of the last dive of the full course). This went swimmingly and I achieved the technical pass I have been coveting 😀 Unfortunately it didn’t go so well for my teammate; he was having an off-day as usually his skills are better than mine. He just couldn’t get into trim, which meant neither valve drills nor backkick would work. I will help him practice more and it will come in due course.
A few videos that helped me to prepare were this DSMB deployment, this s-drill and this valve drill. And remember: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. My advice for anyone who stumbles across this who is also trying for an upgrade, is first just to practice getting into the trim position and remaining still, not doing anything. When you can do this for a minute, start adding in simple skills, like 1 and 2 of the Basic 5, and flow check. Work your way up to the full 5 and a valve drill, and finally DSMB deployment. All the while try to maintain team awareness. Don’t worry about any skills before you have “the platform”, you will just waste valuable practice time.
This all took place at Stoney Cove, the first time I had been there, and hopefully the last. Compared to Vobster I was somewhat underwhelmed:
Basically if you go there, be completely self-sufficient as if you were diving in the middle of nowhere, because you might as well be. Other than that it was a very successful day, it was good to meet Badger, and I look forward to diving with him some more. Plans are now afoot for Tech 1…
Where to begin talking about TEKCamp? It really is an experience like no other – mentoring and coaching from some of the world’s truly pioneering divers, eager to pass on their knowledge and experience to divers even more eager to soak it up. I had booked B and myself onto the 9-dive package, which was incredible value for money, tho’ we didn’t actually dive together during the week, we both got loads out of it. I’ll run through a quick summary of the dives and talks according to my notes, but really, no-one can be told about TEKCamp, you have to experience it for yourself.
| Day | Session | With | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dive 1 | Rich Walker | A warmup dive, 90 minutes on the 6m platform with teammates Clare and Ben and safety diver Dave H, who we had met while doing Fundies in Malta and stayed in touch with. Propulsion, v- and s-drills, DSMB deployment, etc. |
| 1 | Talk 1 | Mark Powell | The author of Deco For Divers on various myths that surround deco diving. I asked him why Staying Alive hadn’t been called Disco for Divers 😉 |
| 1 | Talk 2 | Garry Dallas | “Sidemount Bob” on his exploration of caves in Mexico, sponsored by Apeks |
| 1 | Dive 2 | John Kendall | Practicing ascents, up and down in 1m increments from the entrance to the tunnel. Teammate Toni and safety diver Greg. |
| 1 | Talk 3 | Paul Toomer | Diving Bikini Atoll, where a fleet of warships left over from WW2 were sunk for early nuclear weapons trials. A fascinating talk about penetrating the aircraft carrier Saratoga and the treats to be found therein. £8k for the trip. Hmm… |
| 2 | Dive 1 | Mike Potts | Trydive on a Sentinel. The first thing to know is that failure at the beginning of Sanctum is actually perfectly survivable on a Sentinel, you just switch the BOV to OC, no need for trying buddy breathing in a FFM! I achieved neutral buoyancy easily enough, the benefit of GUE training, but I wasn’t comfortable, the tightness at the end of a breath running minimum loop volume, the bulk of the loop cutting off peripheral vision. I still see a Sentinel in my future, but it will take some getting used to. Teammate Giles, safety diver Tom. |
| 2 | Talk 1 | Kieran Hatton | Scapa Flow “in depth” |
| 2 | Talk 2 | Graham Blackmore | Cave diving in the Philippines and China |
| 2 | Dive 2 | Rich Walker | Stage handling and lost deco gas procedures. Teammate Heather, safety diver Greg |
| 2 | Talk 3 | Martin Robson | A mind blowing tale of deep cave exploration in Russia, the Blue Lake project. Soon to be a book but not available yet for pre-order on Amazon. He suffered a spine bend and spent 9 days in the pot being looked after personally by an Admiral in the Russian Navy! |
| 3 | Dive 1 | Ian France | Equipment failures, rescue and lost-line drills, teammates Paul and Luke (who “died” so many times it became a running joke for the rest of TEKcamp 🙂 ), safety diver Xavier. Absolutely fascinating to watch myself on the video later attempting to locate the line with a blackout mask on – what you think you are doing is often very different from what you actually do! I am looking forward to joining Ian for some mine diving after I have done C1. |
| 3 | Talk 1 | Mark Powell | A lecture on dive computers, in summary 10 years ago they weren’t very good, nowadays they’re a lot better! |
| 3 | Talk 2 | Adam Wood | Filming sharks and wrecks off the North Carolina coast with the BBC |
| 3 | Dive 2 | Paul Toomer | A dive simply entitled Brown Hawk Down based on a particularly hairy dive Paul and safety diver Alex had done on the Black Hawk. Paul mentioned in the briefing “I don’t think we’re going to have too much by way of reliable equipment on this dive” 🙂 Blackout masks, line following, stage handling, shutdowns, air-sharing all followed. At one point I had 3 stages clipped on and a spool and DSMB in each hand! A 60 minute dive that seemed like 6 minutes. Awesome fun 🙂 |
| 3 | Talk 3 | Dr Duncan Price | A visit to Wookey Hole for a guided tour and to hear a talk from the man who has dived furthest in there. |
| 4 | Dive 1 | Graham Blackmore | Trydive on Suex DPVs, excellent fun, I think GUE have successfully sold me another course, whenever I get round to it (C1 being a priority for me). Teammate Stewart, safety diver Dave H. |
| 4 | Talk 1 | John Kendall | JK talking about the St George cave survey in France |
| 4 | Talk 2 | Martin Robson | Cave survey techniques |
| 4 | Dive 2 | Martin Robson | The “practical” session from talk 2, a team of 5 of us surveyed the crushing works, depths, distances, bearings of various features to produce a 3D map. We did one pass to lay a line between the points we wanted to survey, then another pass, at each of the tie-offs, recording depth and bearing to the next, then following the line a metre at a time to record distance. It was eye-opening just how much time such a simple mission took, surveying for real is a massive undertaking for a team of divers! |
| 4 | Talk 3 | Rich Walker | Croatian wrecks. Another trip to plan… 🙂 |
| 5 | Dive 1 | Rich Walker | A simple mission to retrieve a spool and a reel, tied off “somewhere” past the aircraft. It started very well, we planned exactly what we would do – I would lead on the way in, to the end of the spool, then we would turn and I would be lineman reeling in, and Heather would lead us to the end of the reel, then we would would turn, she would be linegirl, and I would lead us out. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, and we all died 🙂 Teammates Heather and Andy, safety diver Alex. |
| 5 | Talk 1 | Gareth Lock | Learning from others, primarily the military aviation community, on safety, the creation of a “just culture” in which people can talk about accidents and mistakes without fear or stigma. |
| 5 | Talk 2 | Roz Lunn | A sales pitch for Eurotek. Don’t know if I’ll have the opportunity this year but it looks good. |
| 5 | Talk 3 | Ian France | A talk on the UK Mine and Cave team. I am really excited about joining these guys when I am ready |
| 5 | Talk 4 | Kieran Hatton | Wrecks of Norway |
All in all an incredible, action packed week in which I learnt alot and met a bunch of cool new people to dive with 🙂 I cannot wait for next year’s…
This was my first time back in the water since breaking my leg and my ankle last year. B and I drove down to Vobster the evening before and stayed in our usual place, the Oakhill Inn. I can report that I can basically dive again, but the lack of mobility in my right ankle seems to have slowed down my frog kick somewhat. We got in two leisurely dives:
| Dive | Max/Avg Depth | Temp | Runtime | Consumption | SAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18m / 10m | 7℃ | 21 mins | 50bar/ 1200ℓ† | 28ℓ/min |
| 2 | 12m / 8.8m | 6℃ | 31 mins | 60bar/ 1440ℓ† | 24ℓ/min |
I have put on about a stone in weight with my forced few months of inactivity, and that is on top of thinking before that I could stand to lose a stone 
The lack of fitness really shows in the SAC, my usual benchmark is 20ℓ/min
I made a lot of kit changes too, all the changes I had planned to make over the winter, in one go. Most of these come out of ART but also in preparation for Fundies next month.
On ART with the neoprene suit, twinset and 6mm backplate I felt overweighted however with the membrane suit and the 3mm backplate (and no additional weights) I definitely felt underweighted, the undersuit presumably making all of the difference. So I can assume that my buoyancy works out the same for an equivalent level of thermal protection, which means I will go back to the 6mm (remains to be seen how this works out for traveling). OR in warmer water, with the lighter undersuit, the 3mm backplate might be perfect, hmm. There is plenty of flexibility in the membrane suit compared to the neoprene, but I need to re-learn the finer points of buoyancy control in it. The drygloves are very nice, but fiddly to get on and off, and I am wondering how much I dare trim off the neck seal to get it perfect. It’s quick change, and I have a spare, in case! All in all it was a successful mission and infinitely better than showing up to Fundies in completely unfamiliar kit. But there is still a long way to go before I am happy.
†Twinset
‡Bought at the Vobster shop on the day.
I booked onto the Advanced Recreational Trimix (ART) course at Vobster Quay on the spur of the moment, but I have been looking to add skills in this range to my repertoire for a little while now, as a lot of UK diving involves wrecks in the 30-40m range, and I’d like to be able to stay long enough – safely – to have a proper nose around. I had considered PADI’s Tec40 → Tec45 → Tmx45 route, as I am deeply into the PADI system already, but I couldn’t find anywhere to teach it straight through, and besides there are a couple of major shortcomings to that path: it limits you to 20% He, and you have to do the “deep air” Tec50 to progress, after which you can do Tmx50 but there’s no point, as you could then go onto Trimix 65 anyway. The latter looks like a good course, but I specifically wanted to avoid deep air in cold, low-vis UK waters. Another option was TDI’s Advanced Nitrox + Helitrox but that again comes with the 20% He limit. IANTD express their limits not in terms of percentages but in terms of equivalent narcotic depth, which to me indicates that they get the point of Trimix at this level of training. Finally there was BSAC’s Sports Mixed Gas. That was a total non-starter. My last experience of BSAC training meant that it would take a long, and completely unpredictable, amount of time to make happen, including the prereqs such as the buoyancy workshop. Months between a theory session and the associated practical seems the norm for them. In PADI you pay your money, in BSAC you pay your dues (and your money). And to be brutally honest, you would not want to learn real deco from people who think the BSAC88 tables† are safe!
On Day 1 I drove to Vobster from home in Hertfordshire, setting off at about 6am and arriving at about 8:30am where I met our instructor for the week Tim Clements. The first thing I did was buy a twinset, which was promptly filled for me with EANx32, all gas included in the price of the course. Not having any prior experience with manifolds, I didn’t notice at the time how stiff the valves were. Then it was upstairs to meet the rest of the team. There were a total of 6 of us, two re-sitting the written exam, one who was feeling ill so only doing the theory, 2 other “full” students such as myself, instructor Tim and instructor intern Jay of Diving Matrix. The first morning was taken up with gas planning, including accelerated deco and on backgas in case of lost deco gas. That afternoon we got in the water and practiced stage handling, such as dropping and picking up whilst on the move. That was actually the longest dive I had ever done at 1¼ hours, tho’ we spent most of it on the 6m platform. It was then that the stiffness of the valves became apparent – while I could reach them, I simply couldn’t turn them underwater and in gloves. That was incredibly frustrating and at the end of the dive I wondered if I would be able to continue with the course. Martin to the rescue, cleaning the old Crystolube out and replacing it with Tribolube. The difference was like night and day, after that the shutdown drill was a joy to do! We also practiced OOA drills, including no-mask no-reg swims.
Day 2 was all diving, more shutdown drills, more OOA practice, more stage handling including exchanging stages with a buddy while neutrally buoyant. Fun! Like air-to-air refueling for divers 🙂 Then we practiced team communication, DSMB deployment and team ascents. After this dive we got out for a debrief, then Dive 3 was exactly the same but this time with more finesse. It was this dive that decided if our in-water skills were up to diving real Trimix at NDAC. Tim is using video feedback like John Kendall of GUE, which is a powerful tool for training. Saturday was all theory, OTUs, the CNS clock, physiology and deco theory, diving at altitude, philosophy and psychology of technical diving, more gas planning, repetitive diving with the IANTD tables, END and best mix and more besides!
On Sunday we were up in Chepstow for the deep dives. Dive 4 was 20 mins @ 40 metres on 28/25 with deco on EANx50, which was amazing. Clear as a bell at that depth, no fuzziness or looming apprehension from narcosis, noticeably less work-of-breathing (WOB). The scenery left a little to be desired being just a rock face (tho’ beautifully illuminated by my Light Monkey) but still I thought it was an excellent dive. Dive 5 was planned for 15 mins @ 30 metres, by this time I was down to about 100 bar in my twinset, so I led this dive, turning it when I hit 70 and it worked out that we returned to the bottom of the shot almost bang on 15 minutes, then another accelerated deco. I had done the exam the night before at the hotel, so I handed that in, and was rewarded with Jay holding up a slate at the first stop saying “Welcome to the Darkside” 🙂 That was a total runtime of 307 minutes over 3 days of diving. Not bad!
I learnt an awful lot in these 4 days, it is an intensive course, but very rewarding, and I am eager to put these new skills into practice and really bed them in. I thought before I begun that afterwards I would be chomping at the bit to do Normoxic, but actually ART has given me a lot of new capabilities, plenty for getting on with. I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone looking to take their first steps into Tech, and Tim as an instructor. This qualifies me to a maximum depth of 48m‡ (for which best mix for END max 24m would be 24/30, tho’ I would probably go for the GUE standard gas 21/35) and 15 minutes of accelerated deco on EANx50 or higher. There is a lot in the UK in that range.
† A table has to assume that you do your entire bottom time at your max depth, whereas a computer can give you credit for time spent shallower, which means it can give you a longer no-stop time and a shorter deco. That is one of the main reasons computers became popular. But the BSAC88s give you less deco than the computer, and unlike algos like Bühlmann and VPM that are published, BSAC refuse to divulge the research, if any, behind theirs. That might have been OK in the 80s when you weren’t considered bent unless you were convulsing and foaming at the mouth on the dive deck, but the world has moved on since then, the 88s should be abolished.
‡ If it was just depth I was after, I could have crossed over my DM to BSAC Dive Leader and gone to 50m on a single on air…
I am just back from a week in the West Country with B. Our plan was to get in a couple of dives in the mornings at Vobster practicing with our new wings (hers Halcyon, mine Light Monkey on an Agir backplate) and visit National Trust sites in the afternoons, making good use of this year’s membership before it expires at the end of the month. I’d like to say again what a well run operation Vobster is, and a very different experience in the week from the frenzy of weekends, very chilled out. Martin and Amy made us feel very welcome and gave us lots of advice. And I highly recommend a visit to Stourhead House, the grounds are spectacular.
While there we also took the GUE Primer with John Kendall. This was among the best training I have ever done, almost as transformative as learning to dive in the first place! Before getting into any agency wars, as a DM let me say that PADI does things a certain way because that makes perfect sense for the type of diving the average PADI-trained diver does – relatively shallow dives in warm clear water for 1 or maybe 2 weeks a year, in rented equipment, at a price that competes with any other sort of holiday. It worked well enough for me when that was me. However the GUE way is to “start with the end in mind” – you might not want to be a DPV-propelled rebreather-breathing deco-stopping cave explorer, but the system scales with you from basic open water all the way there with no unlearning and retraining required, e.g. everyone starts with a backplate and wing, a long hose (primary donate), skills neutrally buoyant, non-silting kicks, etc. In the PADI system, this kind of equipment isn’t introduced until Tec 45, or frog kick not until Cavern Diver, both of which are optional courses. Another example would be drysuits – most holiday divers will never, ever wear one, so Drysuit Diver is an optional course in the PADI system.
We started with an introduction to the GUE organization and moved onto equipment configuration and Rule 6, we were both most of the way there, but there was still plenty of sighing and head-shaking, much to the amusement of Martin who had set up much of it for us 🙂 For all the changes John made to our kit, there was a good, logical reason for them. The really mindblowing bit, and what sold me on GUE is when a minor adjustment to my shoulder D-rings made clipping and unclipping effortless! They really have thought of everything!
Eventually we got into the water, and for the 3 dives over 2 days, all we did was work on buoyancy and trim and 3 kicks (frog, modified flutter and back). This was all videoed by Steph (thanks Steph!), acting as GUE-equivalent of DM, and practicing her own Documentation Diver skills. John had warned us that his feedback would be brutally honest, but it was always constructive and it was incredibly valuable to get the insight of someone who has trained many students and has a way to correct common problems (e.g. “sharking”) efficiently. I spend a lot of time with people who have “demonstration quality” skills, indeed I am such a person myself and have a card to prove it, but the gap between me and the GUE divers was, err, gaping. I definitely want what they have. I think both B and I learnt a great deal, and made a quantum leap in in-water skills in even that short time, even if only in terms of knowing what we can aspire to, and we have a lot to think about and practice. Roll on Fundamentals! And I need to think about a way to subtly feed this back into PADI training…
Only fly in the ointment was discovering when I came to get a Nitrox fill that my new “yes it’s oxygen clean” tank from Mike’s a) is missing the sticker that says so and b) isn’t as new as I thought. So I will need to be having a word with them about that.
This weekend was busy not just for one or two groups as usual but for the entire dive centre, with 30 students doing OWR, OWC, AOW, EFR and Rescue courses. Fortunately the weather smiled on us and most of the students could be in wetsuits, which we have plenty of! We took basically every piece of kit from the stores to Wraysbury on the Saturday in 3 vans, with more people coming by car. All LSD people were instructed that we would need to provide all of our own kit this weekend including tanks and weights, which I didn’t mind at all as it meant I could breathe Nitrox on the deep dives 🙂
I was with the group doing AOW, with instructor AD, DM GL, 4 students and fellow DMT DB. As usual we did one day at Wraysbury (PPB and Drysuit 1 and 2) and one day at Vobster (Deep, Wreck and Navigation). Also this weekend I got signed off for Search & Recovery and Discover Local Diving, both at Vobster. The former I did in a buddy pair with DB, locating (search patterns) and raising a 12kg weight belt using a lift bag, managing a controlled ascent by bleeding air from the dump valve. I had hoped to do the latter on the aircraft at Vobster, which I know quite well by now, but instead did it in an unfamiliar part of the lake based on a verbal briefing from AD of “show them X, Y and Z”. The statistics for that dive showed that my SAC was a bit up with the task loading of navigating and also shepherding the students. The lesson learnt here is to allow a margin in gas planning (over and above reserves like 50 bar/rule-of-thirds) for dives with a “mission”. I think with a bit more experience I will get guiding back down to my usual 20ℓ/min.
| Dive | Max/Avg Depth | Min Temp | Time | Consumption | SAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (DLD) | 22.3m / 14.6m | 7℃ | 28 mins | 136bar/ 1632ℓ | 23ℓ/min |
GL brought up the rear and once again it was very clear (no pun intended) how valuable powerful lights are in lo-vis conditions even if it’s not actually dark; even tho’ I couldn’t see him and possibly at times the second buddy pair of students couldn’t see me, everyone could easily see both the lights casting beams in the particulates. I tried a slightly DIR-style configuration with a compass on my left and the Uwatec bottom timer on my right wrist and as usual my Light Monkey on a Goodman handle on my left hand – this made the compass awkward to use, I think both on right wrist would have been easier. Hmm.
Still outstanding on my DM are:
Just the last lap to go, and then I’m done!
No DMT activity this weekend (well I’m sure there was, I just didn’t sign up for it), because I had planned to go to Vobster with my girlfriend for just some diving, something I hadn’t done in a while! She wanted to try out her brand new drysuit, I wanted to explore some features without a gaggle of students in tow and we both wanted to refresh some of the OHE skills we had picked up doing the Cavern Diver course in Mexico last January. Unfortunately we arrived later than I had planned and only had time for two dives, but still it was an excellent daytrip.
| Dive | Max/Avg Depth | Min Temp | Time | Consumption | SAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (Aircraft) | 13.1m/ 9.8m | 13℃ | 40 mins | 120bar/ 1440ℓ | 18ℓ/min |
| 2 (Tunnel) | 21.3m/ 12.2m | 10℃ | 19 mins | 74bar/ 888ℓ | 21ℓ/min |
Higher SAC on the colder, deeper dive that involved an OHE, still close enough to my benchmark of 20L/min. Only kit change was the addition of an old-model Uwatec digital depth gauge, bought on eBay. I had been concerned about having replaced my traditional console with a Suunto Cobra, if it suffered a failure I would be without not only contents gauge, but depth and time (and less importantly, temperature and max depth, but still), so I wanted a backup. Very nice piece of kit, clear display and easy to use. Only problem was it didn’t sit properly on my wrist and adjusting it in the water made my drysuit leak a little. My drysuit has a retainer for wrist instruments, but only on the left. I’ll probably upgrade it to the current version when the non-replaceable (!) battery runs out, with a bungee mount rather than a buckle strap.
Back to DMT next weekend…
Another extremely busy weekend, with instructor ES, DM GL, myself and 4 AOW students, 3 of whom were also doing the Drysuit Spec, and 1 student doing an OW Completion. We were at Wraysbury one day for Buoyancy, Drysuit and Navigation, and Vobster the next, for Deep and Wreck adventure dives, and the optional second drysuit dive to complete the certification, 6 dives in total of which I did 5. Not much to say about this one, it all went like clockwork, the sun was shining and all the students had their acts generally together, their own transport and most of their own equipment, so the logistics were very easy. It was strange how empty the van looked compared to how it usually is! We stopped off for icecream on the way back from Vobster and were still in the pub an hour before the team who had been teaching an OW Referral!
We did the deep dive on the Jacquin II in the middle of the quarry, and the wreck dive on the aircraft again. Even in good vis, it was very apparent how useful powerful lights are for signalling. On the deep dive I used 80bar from a 12L tank in 22mins at an average depth of 12.2metres, giving a SAC of 19.6L/min. I am reasonably confident now in using 20L/min as the basis for gas calculations. It will be even more conservative in warm water gear. No kit changes this week, as while it was warm on the surface, I still expected it to be cold below the thermocline. The OW student was in a 4mm steamer with a 4mm shortie over the top, and did feel the cold at even 10m depth. On the DMT sign-offs front, I completed the 800m swim scoring a 4, and completed the surveying for my mapping project, which I will submit in a few days. Fellow DMT SB and I keep trying to get a few hours in the pool at LSD to practice our skills circuit, which I plan to video on my little Canon S95 with an UW housing for feedback, but slots are few and far between, and we both have busy lives too! So we shall have to see.
A very intense weekend comprising one day at Wraysbury and one further afield at Vobster Quay, my first time at the latter (as I have mainly dived in the sea). I was very impressed by Vobster, it is much better equipped and run than many “real” dive operations. The group comprised instructor AD, DM GL, 5 students and two DMTs, myself and JK, who just had a few things to get signed off for his DM. AOW as taught by LSD includes PPB, navigation, drysuit, deep and wreck, the latter two done at Vobster where it goes down to below the OW limit of 18m, 5 dives in total, of which I did 4. The surface of Wraysbury had warmed up as far as 9°C, but below the thermocline at Vobster it was still 4-5°C.  My repaired drysuit wrist seal held and apart from a bit of dampness from perspiration, I was nice and warm and dry.
Altho’ we started early on Saturday, it took us a while to get into the water due to logistical difficulties: with several other courses running, and the students needing to borrow almost all their equipment, it took a lot of time for people to try things on and get comfortable, at least as comfortable as you can in a borrowed drysuit, which is very unlikely to be a perfect  fit. We were really pushed for time, exiting the water last at Wraysbury. I am not sure what we could have done differently to make that quicker. That is one thing that is very different about the UK from where I did my training up to Rescue Diver in Egypt – in a hot climate, there is no issue with popping in and out of the water, whereas in cold conditions, we need to shuffle things around to minimize the transitions, even when doing pool work.
Sunday was an even earlier start but proceeded smoothly, we met at 5:30am at LSD, loaded up the van with the previous day’s kit and set off, arriving at Vobster just before the gates opened, and parking in a reserved spot very close to the water. I did surface support for the first dive and went in for the second, the wreck dive on the aircraft, buddied with one of the students, who had hoovered through 160 bar in an instant on the first dive. I watched her and her gauges like a hawk, but there were no issues this time, due no doubt to my reassuring presence! I used 114 bar from a 12L tank in 34 mins at an average depth of 8.8m giving a SAC of 21L/min, which was slightly better than last time. I still need to do more work to improve it, especially with the maneuvering and task loading of monitoring student divers. One student did not complete this time; she was unhappy on the – to be fair – very cold and dark deep dive, and sat out the wreck dive. It’s good that we are training students with the self-confidence to call a dive, even having spent the money, traveled a long way, and potentially peer pressure to do it (not that there was any of that this time, that I could see).
The conventional wisdom is to only change, or introduce one new piece of kit per dive, but I bent that slightly this weekend, with mixed results.
Hmm, 4/5 of those changes involve replacing Scubapro with something else. Certainly not my intent, there’s nothing actually wrong with any of it and I am still a fan of the brand, just that I am diverging a little from the style of diving of their head of product development…
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