DIR Diving Blog

I was doing some reading today of the old TechDiver list and came across the following post. It’s somewhat old but I thought it was a good comparison.

From: “Scott and/or Julie Gudmundsen” 
Subject: Re: deep air death at 40 fathom grotto
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 16:06:47 -0700

Okay, this isn’t about drinking and driving, BUT…

I have no idea how many hundreds of people that I’ve arrested for D.U.I. who’ve said, “But I wasn’t hurting anybody!”, or “I would’ve gotten home okay!”. Sure, they probably/statistically would have. They have in the past probably dozens or even a hundred times. But impairment does begin with the first drink, markedly with the third or fourth. The problem is judgment and primarily reaction time. After two to four drinks, you simply can’t react quickly when that bonehead pulls in front of you at the ntersection, or burns the red light. Because of your slow reaction time you’re suddenly involved in an accident that you perhaps were not instigating, or were not at fault, but simply could have avoided if you had been sober. Bingo, you’re screwed because you were the one who was drinking.

And of course it takes no rocket scientist to know that the drinker himself is absolutely the worst judge of whether he is “Good to go” or not.

Deep air is just the same. You’ll get away with it probably dozens or even a hundred times. But perhaps you didn’t get enough sleep that night, or through no fault of your own, you blow an 0-ring, or have any number of little problems that could crop up, then on top of that you get hung up or entangled. The little problem that you could take care of even under the influence, turns into a life-or-death struggle because you couldn’t react quickly or appropriately when the second problem appeared. Now your really screwed. Instead of just getting in an accident, you die cause you’re
underwater.

Why stack the odds against yourself when it’s not necessary? Deep air is STUPID. Drinking and driving is STUPID. Get over it. Nobody has to do stupid things forever… unless they can’t learn because of a disability, or unless they are just STUPID. : )

Doesn’t take a brick to fall on my head.

Scott Gudmundsen

The last day of the course and we were off to the dive centre slightly later today. Same procedure kitting up and we were off to the wreck of the Northfield. The wreck was similar depth to the one from the day before maybe a little shallower. We were better organised today and went down the shotline, bubble checked, modfied s and then the descent in a better formation than the day before. We reached the wreck and found 1m of vis and lots of lines running out from the shot. I noted the time and worked out at what time we should be leaving the bottom We moved off and the vis was lousy. We saw very little of the wreck due to the vis and Andy had to delploy a scout so he’d have some source of light! While we made our way round someone else swam into me. Not a huge amount of fun. We ended up ending the dive earlier than planned and re-calculated deco. The ascent went fine and we surfaced to be picked up.

Numerous lessons learnt. Bubble checks must include inflator hoses, argon bottles and SPG’s. We missed a small leak on Frasers drysuit inflator. We still need to improve on the the tidyness of our gear. My light cord while tucked wasn’t neat enough. I also got picked up on the way I using my drysuit dump being too dramatic and needs to involve less of a roll. Our signals were better but still need to be clearer.

After the dive we de-kitted and went off for a debrief in a cafe. This took some time but it really did come down to us analysing how we’d worked as a team and individuals.

The overall verdict? We passed! The most difficult course I think I’ve had to do in my life let alone diving. It required more effort, practise, time, money and dedication than I care to add up. Totally worth it my diving has had to move to a different level, and when you are doing serious dives that needs to be the case.

If you’re gonna do the dives it’s best to do it right.

Day-6 of our course and we’re up early to get to Teign Diving Centre. Due to Fraser’s work commitments we ended up organising our trip at short notice and Teign Diving had come up trumps and organised a boat for us.

Once at the dive centre we parked directly opposite and kitted up. They had quite a good system where you put your gear outside the centre and they loaded it onto trolleys and took it down to the boat. All the divers then formed a chain and passed the kit onto the boat.

We left harbour to find the sea nice and flat and with a blue sky above us. The first dive was the Rota which was a wreck starting at 36m with the seabed at 45+. While kitting up on the boat I had my first equipment drama of the day as my LP hose on my argon bottle wouldn’t stop hissing. Andy suggested feathering the valve so we carried on. We descended down the shot in 3m vis and had the next kit issue at about 9m. Clare’s argon bottle started bubbling badly. When rolling off the harboat I looks like the first stage got dislodged and when it first got used it decided to throw a fit. Once sorted we carry on down the line and reach the wreck. Vis remains at 2-3m and isn’t too bad. I have my second kit problem at this point and my goodman handle is loose and makes holding the torch difficult. We tour round the wreck, and it’s covered in life as you might expect from a ship torpedo in WW1. We spot lots of monofilament on the wreck round by the bridge and have to carefully move round it. We head round the stern and find the prop missing and turn direction. At 25 minutes we thumb the dive. The ascent goes well, as usual we divide up the responsibilities, one person runs the bag, someone else times deco etc. Andy swims round us like a shark and finds some areas we need to tidy, light cords not properly tucked, long hoses not clipped off, boltsnaps hanging out of pockets and tidies us up. We reach the surface and debrief back on the boat.

Big lesson learnt was the need to be meticulous on the little details. We’d a tendency to rush which was actually counter productive. We need to be on time but we need to be tidy. At the level we are diving you might think it OTT but GUE train you in such a way that you don’t have to adapt or re-learn if you go further. With more bottles, scooters etc one of the minor hazards could become a real problem. Our communication has improved but also still needs work. We are a little too reliant on knowing each other and need to work on our standard signals so they are clearer.

After we get back we head off to the pool for the swim test with 300m timed swim and 20m odd underwater required. We pass that and then spend some time backwards finning in swimming kit. Fraser’s not managed this before and is well chuffed when he can do it! After the three of us have finished pratting about it’s out and off for a meal.

In between the diving we chat to Andy about all sorts of topics. Saturday we spent a lot of time discussing deco. One of the bonuses about splitting up the course was we could read through the notes, run some profiles through deco planner and then come back with questions.

I’m hovering at 32m next to a underwater cliff face. Visibility was easily 10m+ and the three HID lights our team are using cut through the gloom clearly. At that point a rush of bubbles starts from my left shoulder. I switch my light to my right hand while flashing it quickly at Clare and Fraser and reach back to shutdown my left post. Once it’s off I signal to Fraser and ask him to have a look at it. He swims in and after trying it informs me it’s broken. We re-order team position in the water and carry on the dive as one post failure in a team of three still leaves us with redundancy. Seconds later my right post starts bubbling. Realising I’m now in trouble I signal OOG and Clare donates the long hose. I shut the post down and Fraser then checks it and informs me it’s also broken. A hand then reaches down and taps my mask. With a sigh I hand my mask off to the gloved hand above me, leaving me blind and with a dead weight on my back!

That tech-1 is hard you know! This was the first dive of our day at the NDC on friday. We’d arranged to finish our GUE Tech-1 course with Andy Kerslake last weekend and had some dramas in a quarry followed by some deep dives planned in Teignmouth.

After I’d lost both posts and my mask my team took over. One of them clipped off my light. The other took my hand and starting signalling up. We have 3 simple signals – up, down and level off. I breathe in deeply and we start to move up. With my eyes shut I’m reliant on the feedback from the person giving me hand signals. I could also get some feedback from the feel of the expanding gas in my drysuit and wing. At 21m my team deployed my stage reg, turned on the valve and handed me the reg. I switched over remembering to clip off my long hose (muscle memory letting me do it blind).

The stops are all fairly swift and we reach the surface. I flip the right post back on to inflate my wing and my first question was – so how did we do? Some slightly glum faces great me as we had a bit of bouncing on some of the stops. We run pretty much to time but were a little scrapy. We ask Andy’s opinion and he gives us some advice on what we need to do.

So it’s back in after a 20 minute surface interval (and yes you can do that if you know how the deco works) and were back down to 33m odd. This time round the sequence is slightly different and Fraser goes OOG. I donate the long hose and just while we are sorting that out Clare loses her mask. I grab hold of Clare and get hold of her hand so I can signal and provide feedback. I glance at Fraser and he’s already indicated thumbs up. We are off at 10m/min up to the gas switch. As Frasers OOG he switches first returning my long hose. I hand Clare over to him while I switch and Fraser then hands Clare back while he preps her stage. Clare switches and we start timing deco. I alter my attention between my own buoyancy, guiding Clare and keeping an eye on Fraser. Fraser lauches the SMB and we are perfectly on schedule. We reach the last 6 metres and gradually do the final part of the ascent. At 1m we pause just checking our ascent is controlled and finally reach the surface. Fraser is grinning as we sit on the surface and reckons the ascent was spot on – controlled, smooth and organised.

We all troop out of the water and hop in the van up to the car park to de-kit. We find Mark Powell there who’s stopped to say hello and it’s a case of packing the cars for the next part of the trip down to Teignmouth for the 2 experience dives.

Having an absolute mare trying to sort mix fills out for some dives planned next weekend. The NDC isn’t currently doing mix fills so I’m struggling to find somewhere else to do the fills.

Had a day at Vobster on saturday. They were having a divers car boot which was interesting, definitely worth trying to flog some stuff in future.

Dive 1 was with Daz, Dave and Neil. We set off and headed down the tunnel and round the crushing works. Vis was quite good although we did run into a crowd of silt kickers who turned the vis in the crushing works to shite. They were literally at 45 degrees and flutter kicking away, with no regard to the vis. I do wonder if they actually have any sense as to what they are doing! We set off round the walls next to the crushing works and ascended up to the ledge. I did a valve drill near the platforms and we carried on to the entrance point and exited. I used a bottom stage of 32% for the dive.

Dive 2 and we went off to the deep plane section where I hit 26m. We moved onto the boat and then the wheelhouse. I did another valve drill on the wheelhouse and while Daz was watching me Dave and Neil swam off. From the wheelhouse we moved past the crushing works and ventured near the other plane sections. Vis was really bad literally 30cm. We found the quarry wall and then came back to the entrance at 8m where the vis was much better. Took a full stage for the dive but didn’t use it.

Dive 3 and we were joined by Phill from Divingniknaks. Our aim was to do a full tour of the quarry starting with the plane. While descending down the shotline Phill had ear trouble and aborted. Back on the surface for a chat and we then descended down the slope to the blockhouse. We moved onto the boat, wheelhouse, crushing works. I stayed in position number 3 while Daz was number 1 and Phill number 2. This worked quite well thanks to light signals. Again took my stage for the dive and used it briefly on the ascent as it was 50%

Had a very good day out and just built up the time in the water.

List of websites I find quite useful:

Forums
Yorkshire Divers a UK forum good DIR community
The Deco Stop a USA forum

Suppliers of DIR gear
Diving Nik Naks very cost effective and really good supplier
DIR Direct online part of Underwater Explorers, Halcyon reseller
Halcyon DIR equipment manufacturer

Info
WKPP the birthplace of DIR diving

Good dive footage from Mexico. Worth a look.

Having spent most of August in the Ocean myself and Clare decided we needed to rinse the kit fully so decided both the kit and the wallets would enjoy a day inland.

We turned up at Vobster and met up with Daz, Neil and Steve who were all there as well.

Myself and Clare set off on dive 1 and decided we needed to do a little work on some of the tech-1 skills. We started off with a usual S-drill and valve drill before moving off to start laying some line. We took turns running out the line and placing tie offs and broke it up with some random s-drills. Admittedly we missed having a GUE instructor wrapping us up in line at every opportunity so it wasn’t too challenging . We then moved a little deeper and at that point a large pike mugged me for my mask and we began an ascent with a blind diver. As practised Clare guided me up with the appropriate signals. We surfaced on schedule and our worst mistake was we dropped 0.4m deeper than planned on the 9m stop.

Second dive and myself and Clare were joined by fellow DIR diver Daz (well he looks the part, we just need to get him to put the torch in the left hand). We went off down towards the tunnel and discovered that the water had turned to soup! We found some clear water in the crushing works and peered at the graffiti on the walls before moving off past the plane sections. We found Neil and Steve at this point and said hello. We were just swimming past a rock face when two other divers just descended right into us. I guess finding 3 twinsetted divers all with matching lightsabres (18W Salvo’s) surrounding you is a bit disconcerting as they certainly looked suprised. We moved off to the boat and wheelhouse. Temperature certainly dropped below 15m and we found 8 degree water .

Third dive and our DIR team moved off to find some clear vis past the crushing works. We managed to find it and saw some stunning scenery of the rock face and large boulders. Even a quarry can be scenic and a chilled out dive. Personally I enjoy diving itself and the feeling of being weightless is always great.

Overall an excellent day out, thanks to Clare, Daz, Neil and Steve.

BTW – calling Daz DIR seemed to really upset him. It was quite funny though he took Frasers place in the team quite well and I think by the end of the third dive he seemed to have started looking very horizontal.