:Gledder\’s diving blog…

The organisation had clearly paid off (as had booking the gig on the same weekend as the dive show) as we were able to secure three parking spaces in a row and also accomodate a lot of our divers on the bottom car park.

Luxury - leaving after breakfast for Stoney at a weekend - if I could do this every time I’d go there more often.

Howard, Diving Dude from YD, was there for his YBOD Mod 1 and was neatly pinned in by And, Ian and Bob - out numbered but not out gunned - Howard can give as good as he gets :o) Next to turn up was Mark Chase… who I was to fit for a harness.

It didn’t take long for it to look like a bit of a meet was underway… :o)

I had a really good dive with Mark and Bob, and then jumped in with Al on the scooters for a go round the shelf. Still finding it difficult - my arm is being pulled out of its socket and my wrist is being dislocated - it must get easier.

Final dive of the day was great. Al lead off with Alun, and Little Pete in tow, I brought up the rear with Howard (Radcliffe) who jumped in with us at the last minute. I had a really chilled dive apart from the fact that my wrist is still sore from the scooter dive. Howard is clearly a very skilled diver and I watch his use of light signals and his navigation through the tighter bits of the Stanegarth with interest. man

Saturday night found us in lectures given by Andy Carroll (who showed videos of recent DIR UK dives) Rich Walker (who covered the standard kit config) and Andy Kerslake who set out how DIR started in the UK.

A fun evening, made even better by the realisation when we got back to Willowmead that the clocks going back meant an extra hour in bed :o)

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Friday found me on my way to Stoney via Egham where I was to meet Daniel, a GUE Tech 1 diver from Brazil.

Royal Holloway is a beautiful college. I’ve been for a dinner there before in the painted hall, and the grand building is just like I remembered it. Daniel is easily spotted, with a huge divebag slung over his shoulder. I’m lending him some twins today.

We meet up with Jonathan (Tonytheteal from YD) and jump in for a swim. This is Daniel’s first UK dive and he feels a bit uncomfortable in fabers and has to sort out a few kit issues. We hang around at six meters until everyone looks comfortable and then I take us over to the Stanegarth, back to the helicopter and on a gentle swim back along the shelf again to let teh guys settle down.

Jonathan is practicing for his DIR F resit on Saturday so after Daniel leaves us we drop back down to run through the basic skills. All goes well and Jonathan is clearly well set for Saturday.

Over to the pub afterwards for a drink and meet up with Phill (Divingniknaks) to pick up kit for the following day. Then I drop Daniel at his hotel and go to Willowmead (best B & B near Stoney) to get washed up for dinner.

Al and I had arranged to meet Andy Carrol and Eleanor his girlfriend for dinner, they are staying in the same hotel as Daniel so I find an Indian resturant nearby and we go there. Entering the resturant we find Jonathan, Andy B (who passed tech 1 the day before :o) and Gary. Bob turns up later and we have a fun evening talking…diving of course :o)

From left to right:a
Andy B, Al, Daniel, Gary, And, Eleanor, Jonathan, me and Bob

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Saturday found me at Vobster with Frank and five students for a Twin F course.

This course had a different flavour to last weeks. As the students are looking solely for redundancy, rather then extending their depth or decompression liabilities, this week’s course was tailored to be less about and introduction to technical diving and more of a twinset trydive - letting those in the group who were unsure what size sets to buy try a few different ones.

It was quite a tiring day, five lots of gear to set up, five harnesses to fit etc. Five students would have been too many in the water in one go so Frank and I made four dives so each group could dive twice. They did really well, frog kicking like naturals and holding horrizontal trim whilst swimming. I think they had fun.

After dive 2 we could hear something bubbling away in my kit on the surface. Not seeing anything, I carried on but asked Frank to bubble check me at the start of the next dive… Nothing.

We carried on and I then heard it again - the noise was definately coming from my wing inflate. The last time this happened (on an old inflator) touching the inflator button briefly stopped it - so I did.

Big mistake!!!

It jammed on and before I could disconnect it I was on my way up. I managed to get it off eventually but by this time was near the surface and didn’t want to drop back down without any inflation. It took a while but I eventually got the inflator on again and dropped back down to Frank and the students who were in the process of surfacing. We all returned to the platform and fearful of it happening again I disconnected the wing inflator. Good job it didn’t happen the day before at 50 metres!

It had been a long day with 7 ascents and descents and frankly, whilst it had been fun - I’d had enough. A Gin and Tonic at the pub accompanied by chocolate was prescribed by Frank - perfect :o)

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Al and I went to the NADC today to dive with Frank as the first dive of our TDI trimix course.

The course preparation started the night before on the phone where it took us 2 hours to complete the TDI dive plan as per course requirements. Calculating OTUs and CNS percentages for every stage of the dive, trying to find space for deep stops on a sheet where deco starts at 21 metres, working out plans for longer and deeper and lost deco gas as well.

This took 2 hours!!! No wonder people who plan dives like this normally buy VR3s!

As an experiment we worked out CNS percentages and OTUs the GUE way as well - to compare. We were at most 0.3 of one percentage out - in a more conservative direction - yet calculating it our way took seconds explaining how our dive planning can take place on the boat :o)

The decision to do TDI trimix on top of tech 1 came from our reluctance to dive beyond the depth certification of Tech 1 rather than any disagreement on the practices of the GUE cert. Andy Kerslake has always explained the cert as being less depth dependant, more limited by one deco gas. However, Fraser and I found, when our cards arrived, that our dives in the Red Sea which were comfortable one deco gas dives well within gas planning constraints, were outside our certification by quite a long way (max depth 56 metres compared with a 48 metre cert).

As dives go it was uneventful - for me and Al ;o) The same high winds which had prevented us from going to Plymouth were blowing the surface of the lake into small crests and Al started to wonder aloud whether he would get seasick from the way that the pontoon was moving.

The dive plan was 51 metres for 20 minutes (bottom time) with a total run time of 65 minutes. Al and I were told that we could not fly the deco and the plan would have to be adhered to come what may.

We jumped in, bubble checked at 6m and then went down facing the shot. At about 20 metres the vis went so we crossed to the shot, Al leading, and I lit the back of his hand to maintain communication.

At 40 metre vis improved dramatically and we left the shot again. Hitting 50 metres we each checked gas, did a flow check and moved off.

The swim round was uneventful. Frank pointed out the gnomes which were a little above us and then, at minute 17, he thumbed it. Deco was completed as per schedule (which meant we did quite a bit more than needed). I shot the bag from 21 after an uneventful switch and Al ran us up - Frank joining the team at this point.

At 18 metres both Al and I decided at the same time that Frank was too far away to monitor him safely and swam towards him. We all laughed as he jumped and pretended to be scared and run away from the two DIR divers coming purposfully at him!

At the 9 metre stop Frank indicated that his computer had failed completely. I wear a back up watch which has depth and dive time so passed it to him.

At six metres Frank pointed out a deco bar and suggested we might like to hang on to it. Al and I rejected this suggestion and stayed put - I think Frank may have got confused by our signals at this point…. “Broken, what’s broken?” ;o)

On surfacing we found that Frank had a mare of a dive. His argon inflation had failed leaving him shrink wrapped on the bottom, his computer had failed - leaving him without reference to depth or time. To add insult to injury, his 21 metre stage reg had been trying to drown him with every breath as well.

I asked him whether this combination was why he had thumbed the dive 8 minutes early. He said he hadn’t - he’d thumbed it 2 minutes early based on Al’s gauge. We explained that our deco schedule had been worked out on bottom time - not total dive time - another difference between the agencies.

Al and I were both very pleased that Frank had the confidence in us to ride our deco schedule, without independent reference to depth or time.

All in all a fun day. Frank and Al got on well which was nice given that I probably dive more with them now than anyone else.

The course will continue at Stoney next weekend…

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I was due to be diving the Totnes Castle tomorrow with Deep Blue Diving out of Plymouth yet the weather looks absolutely foul and we’ve canned it.

Hey ho - off to the NADC we go…

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Saturday started bright and early travelling down in convoy to vobster with Steve who was to do Twinset Fundamentals with Zak.

Twin F is a great course - perfect for people who are thinkng about moving to twins and want advice on what kit to buy to suit them and the way that they will want to dive (for this reason alone it can pay for itself again and again). For those who have already bought kit it is helpful in assisting them to set it up correctly and shows people how their diving can be improved.

I was very, very nervous about DMing for Zak - the last time I went in the water with him was my own Twin F course and I had an absolute mare. This was about 250 dives ago for me but the nerves were very raw indeed and needless to say I hardly slept for thinking for all the things that I could fcuk up!

Well I did - straight away! So nervous about losing students in very poor vis I span round in the water and lost my bearings - leading them straight into the blue rather than along the bottom to the crushing works. A flashing light from Zak and a thumbs up led to the group surfacing - and Zak pissing himself laughing. “DIR - Doing it Roundabout”

Oh boy :o( - well in the scheme of things it could have been worse… just! and at least it got it over with quickly :o)

I managed to take the group to the crushing works on the second attempt - not that you would have realised it given vis was not much more than half a meter when we got there. We then headed off to the platforms where the group tried out shutdowns and had a first go at frog kicking.

Second dive we went straight to the platforms and the group had another go at shutdowns - and made a bit more progress. I led each of them round the platform in turn demonstrating frog kicking and they really made quite a lot of progress. Air sharing also much better and I think each student was able to take away the feeling that they had both improved and, perhaps more importantly, been shown what they had to work on to become more accomplished, safer divers in future.

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Grrrrr… The opinions of a few divers who were out in Egypt when I was (on a different boat) are really making me cross.

It’s one thing deciding to dive to 60 meters on a single tank of air, but quite another having a public p1ssing contest about it - justifying if not seeking to glorify their actions in a way which will act as peer pressure on other, less experienced divers to follow in their footsteps is irresponsible behaviour.

Deep air is, arguably, divable at this depth and the warmer waters and good vis of the Red Sea certainly make it easier than at home - perhaps encouraging a false sense of security. But doing it with no redundancy is not big and it’s not clever.

Having a buddy is not redundancy in this context. Regardless of narcosis and the delayed reaction times we would expect to see from someone diving air at these depths, the minimum gas required to get 2 divers up from 60 meters in an emergency is 210 bar in a single 12 - so it is clear that there was absolutely no gas planning on their part. With a decompression overhead, on a 60 meter dive, if one o ring had gone, or one regulator had freeflowed using the buddy system on a single tank would have resulted in two bent (if not dead) divers.

I’m staggered that otherwise responsible divers have been carried away by an agency point scoring match to put themselves in a position where they could end up bent or dead. I don’t want to be in a position where I can say I told you so, I want everyone to come back safe.

So why say it here - rather than to the divers directly? Well in part it is cowardice, I so don’t want another ruck. It’s also part apathy, they know all the arguments, their own agencies do not support such behaviour, so why should I care - if they are that hell bent on behaving like this, what business is it of mine?

But most importantly of all, there is simply no point. Some people are so anti DIR that they will put themselves out to try to prove it wrong - however misguided this is. There is no agency in the world which advocates diving air on a single cylinder to 60 meters - yet it turns into a DIR ruck.

So why did they do it. Simple, like many divers before them, because they wanted to do the dive, had no choice as to how to do it, but decided to go anyway with what they had. They survived. Good. But that fact proves nothing.

Clare - dived and enjoyed the Elphinstone Arch - on trimix.

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Met with Neil and Justin for a bit of skills preparation for their trimix course.

It was a fun day out, nice to see others coping with task loading and skills for a change - I didn’t even take a stage on the first two dives :o)

Back there tomorrow to DM for Frank with Howard (Diving Dude from YD). Talked to Howard on the way home today - should be a fun day tomorrow - I can tease him about being a puddle jumper now!

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So Al and I went to Stoney to finish my divemaster course guided dive programme and to meet Adam from Capernwray who was bringing my new toy - a Gavin Scooter.

This little, very expensive, luxury is what will make diving in quarries over the winter interesting (as much as you can) as learning to use it to the standard necessary to take it in the ocean on a deco dive is such that it will take me some time. It will be fun learning though :o)

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This is cut straight from Al’s blog as he wrote the report - well said Al - I couldn’t say better myself so haven’t!

“Clare had organised a trip on Wey Cheiftan this weekend but unfortunately due to the weather being rubbish on Saturday this ended up being cancelled. On the off chance the three of us booked onto a dive on the Salsette using Breakwater dive center.

The Salsette was 5842-ton P&O express mail liner sunk by torpedo in 1917. She was described as “one of the most beautiful straight-stemmed steamers ever built”.

Got up at the B&B this morning and the weather was good enough, forecast according to Breakwater was 4-6. First minor drama of the day was Clare was missing her stage bottle. One quick hire from Underwater Explorers and we were all sorted. Nothing like being able to hire a properly rigged stage

We were on Goose with Andy skippering us and he kindly helped us load all the gear on board. Only 5 divers on the boat in total. We chatted to the two other guys and found out they were YD readers now and again. We set out and once past the Bill the weather was quite lumpy. I ended up having to hang onto my twinset as everytime the boat slammed down it got bounced around. Waves broke over the boat and I was very glad to be wearing my drysuit.

Got to the site and we kitted up and dropped in. We paused at 6m to do a bubble check and mod-s and then carried on down the shot. I was in position 1, Fraser 2 and Clare 3. I reached the bottom of the shot, flow checked, marked time and checked gas pressure. We set off towards the bow. Vis was about 3-5m so we got some idea of the scale, but given the size of the wreck it was a bit tricky. We went into one of the open holds and given the vis had to carefully make our way out. We kept going and reached the bow. Once there we avoided some line and made a U-turn. I passed a chunk of wreckage on the sea bed and then out of the gloom the massive bow of the wreck appeared. I had at least 5m vis and could easily make out the size of the structure. We carried on back the way we came and after spotting some enormous dinner plate sized crabs one of us hit minimum gas so we started the ascent.

Deco went to plan and we finished the dive at 70 minutes. Thoroughly enjoyed the dive, given the size of the wreck I reckon you’d need a couple of dives to see all of it. Definitely one to dive again.

The ride back was interesting with lots of white wave tops which wasn’t much fun, but worth it for the dive. This was my first mix dive after completing Tech-1 so it was nice to put it into practise.”

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