mustang_5l
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- I'm a Fish!
Well here it is... Finally my report on my Fundamentals class!
Day 1:
We made the trip to Victoria to attend our fundamentals class. Guy Shockey was our instructor and I attended the class with my buddy Randy and our friend Colten from Victoria. It was a real eye opener as on the first day we spent a solid 12hours in the books and theory. There were several points where I really thought that my brain was going to explode. Guy kept the lecturing light as we all had a good base knowledge coming in. We discussed the many different types of deco and the premise behind the rule of 120. We spent lots of time on dissimilar tank calculations and tank factors. The rule of 1/3s, ½s and all usable gas calculations where done and their reasoning discussed. We ended the day with the swim and breathe hold in the pool and worked on some fining skills. All together we started at 8am and got to bed around 1130pm. Sleeping was not an issue.
Day 2:
The day started off in the class room going over the simple things again. Dan at Beyond Deep Diving in Victoria joined us and candidly gave us some pointers. Guy went through our gear and we removed clutter and re-positioned webbing and the harnesses. All this DIR stuff was finally starting to make sense. We made our way out to Madrona Point for the in water session of our dives. A course was laid out for us. Our goal was to descend the line in formation and stop at 20ft and 30ft for 1 minute then come to rest at approximately 40ft along the box/training area that was laid out. We did our first GUE EDGE and I was starting to feel nervous. Im use to just suiting up and then diving in. The reasoning behind this was made clear as we made our way through the checks. I managed to do the first 2 stops and then proceeded down upon the training area. Hovering in one place without moving is hard. I swear a Dungeness crab and lingcod where playing tug of war with our line, because it couldnt have been us moving could it? Cave line is an extremely fickle bitch; she will search you out and try to kill you at any time. Yes I found this out the hard way. I got a little too close to the upline and got hooked up while attempting to maintain neutral buoyancy and hold my stop. Quick thinking by my teammates had me unhooked in no time. Just goes to show how a good team can really accomplish problems in tense situations. Fining techniques seemed to be there however buoyancy and trim where my difficulties. Finding out that you have been diving over weighted for the last 5 years is a real shock to the system. I had way too much gas in my wing and my suit so on the ascent I blew the safety stops... you could literally feel the suit and wing expand at 20 ft like poof! Im the Michelin man! I removed my 11lb v-weight for the first dive and swapped it out for my 6 pounder for the second dive. We did more fining practice and techniques and we were to finish the last dive by again doing a safety stop at 20ft and again at 10ft. Like before, Poof, Michelin man. I had an absolute horrid day. You could see it on my face and in my demeanour. I was disappointed in my performance, my skills and I was really hard on myself. How could something so simple be so difficult to achieve. You really begin to respect the effort that these divers put into their technique. Buoyancy and trim where the things I needed most work on. After a quick debrief we made our way back to the hotel to digest what we had accomplished this day. Keep your freaking head up and stuck in between your valves!
Day 3:
A new day, new attitude and well rested. We met at the Dive shop at 9am in the morning to dissect the video on the skills we had practiced yesterday. Im not even going to get into that... Wow, the camera really does show you how bad you really are. My legs looked like I was sitting on a chair while diving. My trim was beyond the acceptable 30 degrees obviously. Buoyancy and trim was my mantra for the upcoming dives. I could now see what needed to be fixed. I had lots of trouble locating my dump valve pull cord with my gloves on. I was unable to rhythmically vent the BC well with my dry gloves as the pull cord kept slipping out of my fingers and it was difficult to locate. I was given some tips on how to find the cord and pull it back and away from my body to maximize its ability to dump gas. You could also see in the video that I had tons of gas in my wing. This was a mitigating factor in my uncontrolled ascent yesterday. We then moved on to different drills. We were joined in the water this date by Mark Gottfried who assisted in the demonstration of the in water S-drill with Guy. We started with the S-drill and then moved into the valve drill. I had no trouble completing these two tasks. Just have to remember to do a modified valve drill and cleanup afterwards. We were all able to complete these skills fine on land but in the water it was a different beast. I dont know if it was just nerves or a simple brain fart but some of the simplest tasks I had almost completely forgotten by the time it was my turn to demonstrate. It must have been brain overload. A few minor suggestions on land for using the primary light and deployment tactics and we were ready to hit the water again. Trim and buoyancy, trim and buoyancy... We muddled through more and more of the techniques all the while Dave was filming the whole thing. Finally we were at the end of the dive and we were about to ascend the line. Guy motions to me to have an out of gas emergency. No sooner than did I make the motion that I was out of gas did my team member jam his primary regulator my way. I was breathing his gas fine and clipped off my primary regulator to my harness. The other team member took charge of the deco stops and timing. We stopped at 30ft and 20ft, all good. We got to about 15ft and I could feel that I was going to lose it again. Poof! Michelin man. I lost the grip on my rear vent and I managed to spit out my partners regulator before dragging him up too and went to my backup on my neck. I blew it again. Well I guess my Bare dump valve just doesnt like to vent. Not to mention that the vent is obviously poorly placed on the arm lending to difficulty in venting while horizontal. I can see the dollar signs starting to add up... hehehe! Again, this was a difficult day working on all that we have learned over the last 2 days and putting it into action.
Day 4:
We started off at the dive shop again and filled our tanks for the day. There was more video reviewing, which all together started looking a bit better. Trim and buoyancy still could use some drastic work. Undoing 5 years of improper technique is difficult to fix. We went over the drills again and practiced deploying an SMB on land. We discussed backup light deployment and what to do when the primary light goes out. We also discussed unconscious diver rescue techniques. You could really begin to see how having the proper equipment for the diving and having the same equipment as your partner really play a huge role in the team concept. Off to the water again. We hopped into the water and proceeded to bang off the skills we had just practiced. No sooner did we start then my primary light took a poop. Guess I should have charged it last night! Oops! Lesson learned... Deploying the backup light was not an issue, stowing it with those small rubber bands and my large dry gloves proved to be a challenge. It got done and to everyones amazement rubber bands do stretch to 10 times their original size! My trim was much better with the undergarment change from yesterday. It was much easier to get into form and I was very close to 20 degrees now. Buoyancy is fine under 20ft now however still doing the rocket man at 15 ft. The suit does not want to vent gas nor is it easy to do while holding trim with the valve placed in the worst place imaginable. I still got the batwing thing happening with my drysuit but the improvement is noticeable and I got lots of high fives for the change. Im keeping my head up better now and more aware of the surroundings. We moved on to mask-less swimming and touch contact. I really enjoyed this, no issues here! Then back to fining techniques. We moved in a coordinated group pattern looking nothing like we did on the first day. We found our way to the ascent line and where presented with another out of gas emergency. We were also tasked with deploying another smb and following that one to the surface. All was going great until I hit 15ft again. Poof... Luckily I was the one doing the smb so the others were able to complete their gas sharing ascent together. Task loading at its finest! Im thinking Im still a tad bit heavy. Now it was back to the shop for some more video review, critique and the final exam. The exam was simple and we flew through that quickly then we were each given our results of the course and shared our personal opinions. Voila! Fini!
Thoughts:
I would highly recommend this class to anyone. It was a real eye opener and really made you think. There are many great things about this type of diving and the quality instruction that is given. It is not taken lightly. There is no room for error in the real world scenarios. Drilling over and over will ingrain the motions to become second nature and natural. Simple things done precisely. We left with a great foundation of skills and knowledge to build upon. I certainly cannot wait to dive with more like minded DIR divers from around the world and locally. The GUE primer would have made the classes easier as I feel that I could have easily used another 2 days to prepare for the final dive. Grabbing my rear dump valve was a huge issue for me... finding it and holding onto it with the dry gloves felt almost impossible. I now have the gas in my wing to a manageable level thanks to all the changes we made. Finally the drysuit from hell... I know what my next purchase will be
. My teammates where awesome and Guy Shockey was a great instructor. I cant wait to take tech 1 with him in the not so distant future. He certainly made the class challenging and made us all think with our heads. Kudos to him for offering for us to come and join him on some tune up dives at our convenience too.
I have purposely only expressed my personal experiences in this class because it is my story to tell. If you want to know how the others did you need to ask them personally. I feel that everyone gave it their all and did very well in the class. We all had a great experience together.
Some tidbits of information I find helpful now... Always dive the same size tanks! & dont forget... Rule # 6
John
Day 1:
We made the trip to Victoria to attend our fundamentals class. Guy Shockey was our instructor and I attended the class with my buddy Randy and our friend Colten from Victoria. It was a real eye opener as on the first day we spent a solid 12hours in the books and theory. There were several points where I really thought that my brain was going to explode. Guy kept the lecturing light as we all had a good base knowledge coming in. We discussed the many different types of deco and the premise behind the rule of 120. We spent lots of time on dissimilar tank calculations and tank factors. The rule of 1/3s, ½s and all usable gas calculations where done and their reasoning discussed. We ended the day with the swim and breathe hold in the pool and worked on some fining skills. All together we started at 8am and got to bed around 1130pm. Sleeping was not an issue.
Day 2:
The day started off in the class room going over the simple things again. Dan at Beyond Deep Diving in Victoria joined us and candidly gave us some pointers. Guy went through our gear and we removed clutter and re-positioned webbing and the harnesses. All this DIR stuff was finally starting to make sense. We made our way out to Madrona Point for the in water session of our dives. A course was laid out for us. Our goal was to descend the line in formation and stop at 20ft and 30ft for 1 minute then come to rest at approximately 40ft along the box/training area that was laid out. We did our first GUE EDGE and I was starting to feel nervous. Im use to just suiting up and then diving in. The reasoning behind this was made clear as we made our way through the checks. I managed to do the first 2 stops and then proceeded down upon the training area. Hovering in one place without moving is hard. I swear a Dungeness crab and lingcod where playing tug of war with our line, because it couldnt have been us moving could it? Cave line is an extremely fickle bitch; she will search you out and try to kill you at any time. Yes I found this out the hard way. I got a little too close to the upline and got hooked up while attempting to maintain neutral buoyancy and hold my stop. Quick thinking by my teammates had me unhooked in no time. Just goes to show how a good team can really accomplish problems in tense situations. Fining techniques seemed to be there however buoyancy and trim where my difficulties. Finding out that you have been diving over weighted for the last 5 years is a real shock to the system. I had way too much gas in my wing and my suit so on the ascent I blew the safety stops... you could literally feel the suit and wing expand at 20 ft like poof! Im the Michelin man! I removed my 11lb v-weight for the first dive and swapped it out for my 6 pounder for the second dive. We did more fining practice and techniques and we were to finish the last dive by again doing a safety stop at 20ft and again at 10ft. Like before, Poof, Michelin man. I had an absolute horrid day. You could see it on my face and in my demeanour. I was disappointed in my performance, my skills and I was really hard on myself. How could something so simple be so difficult to achieve. You really begin to respect the effort that these divers put into their technique. Buoyancy and trim where the things I needed most work on. After a quick debrief we made our way back to the hotel to digest what we had accomplished this day. Keep your freaking head up and stuck in between your valves!
Day 3:
A new day, new attitude and well rested. We met at the Dive shop at 9am in the morning to dissect the video on the skills we had practiced yesterday. Im not even going to get into that... Wow, the camera really does show you how bad you really are. My legs looked like I was sitting on a chair while diving. My trim was beyond the acceptable 30 degrees obviously. Buoyancy and trim was my mantra for the upcoming dives. I could now see what needed to be fixed. I had lots of trouble locating my dump valve pull cord with my gloves on. I was unable to rhythmically vent the BC well with my dry gloves as the pull cord kept slipping out of my fingers and it was difficult to locate. I was given some tips on how to find the cord and pull it back and away from my body to maximize its ability to dump gas. You could also see in the video that I had tons of gas in my wing. This was a mitigating factor in my uncontrolled ascent yesterday. We then moved on to different drills. We were joined in the water this date by Mark Gottfried who assisted in the demonstration of the in water S-drill with Guy. We started with the S-drill and then moved into the valve drill. I had no trouble completing these two tasks. Just have to remember to do a modified valve drill and cleanup afterwards. We were all able to complete these skills fine on land but in the water it was a different beast. I dont know if it was just nerves or a simple brain fart but some of the simplest tasks I had almost completely forgotten by the time it was my turn to demonstrate. It must have been brain overload. A few minor suggestions on land for using the primary light and deployment tactics and we were ready to hit the water again. Trim and buoyancy, trim and buoyancy... We muddled through more and more of the techniques all the while Dave was filming the whole thing. Finally we were at the end of the dive and we were about to ascend the line. Guy motions to me to have an out of gas emergency. No sooner than did I make the motion that I was out of gas did my team member jam his primary regulator my way. I was breathing his gas fine and clipped off my primary regulator to my harness. The other team member took charge of the deco stops and timing. We stopped at 30ft and 20ft, all good. We got to about 15ft and I could feel that I was going to lose it again. Poof! Michelin man. I lost the grip on my rear vent and I managed to spit out my partners regulator before dragging him up too and went to my backup on my neck. I blew it again. Well I guess my Bare dump valve just doesnt like to vent. Not to mention that the vent is obviously poorly placed on the arm lending to difficulty in venting while horizontal. I can see the dollar signs starting to add up... hehehe! Again, this was a difficult day working on all that we have learned over the last 2 days and putting it into action.
Day 4:
We started off at the dive shop again and filled our tanks for the day. There was more video reviewing, which all together started looking a bit better. Trim and buoyancy still could use some drastic work. Undoing 5 years of improper technique is difficult to fix. We went over the drills again and practiced deploying an SMB on land. We discussed backup light deployment and what to do when the primary light goes out. We also discussed unconscious diver rescue techniques. You could really begin to see how having the proper equipment for the diving and having the same equipment as your partner really play a huge role in the team concept. Off to the water again. We hopped into the water and proceeded to bang off the skills we had just practiced. No sooner did we start then my primary light took a poop. Guess I should have charged it last night! Oops! Lesson learned... Deploying the backup light was not an issue, stowing it with those small rubber bands and my large dry gloves proved to be a challenge. It got done and to everyones amazement rubber bands do stretch to 10 times their original size! My trim was much better with the undergarment change from yesterday. It was much easier to get into form and I was very close to 20 degrees now. Buoyancy is fine under 20ft now however still doing the rocket man at 15 ft. The suit does not want to vent gas nor is it easy to do while holding trim with the valve placed in the worst place imaginable. I still got the batwing thing happening with my drysuit but the improvement is noticeable and I got lots of high fives for the change. Im keeping my head up better now and more aware of the surroundings. We moved on to mask-less swimming and touch contact. I really enjoyed this, no issues here! Then back to fining techniques. We moved in a coordinated group pattern looking nothing like we did on the first day. We found our way to the ascent line and where presented with another out of gas emergency. We were also tasked with deploying another smb and following that one to the surface. All was going great until I hit 15ft again. Poof... Luckily I was the one doing the smb so the others were able to complete their gas sharing ascent together. Task loading at its finest! Im thinking Im still a tad bit heavy. Now it was back to the shop for some more video review, critique and the final exam. The exam was simple and we flew through that quickly then we were each given our results of the course and shared our personal opinions. Voila! Fini!
Thoughts:
I would highly recommend this class to anyone. It was a real eye opener and really made you think. There are many great things about this type of diving and the quality instruction that is given. It is not taken lightly. There is no room for error in the real world scenarios. Drilling over and over will ingrain the motions to become second nature and natural. Simple things done precisely. We left with a great foundation of skills and knowledge to build upon. I certainly cannot wait to dive with more like minded DIR divers from around the world and locally. The GUE primer would have made the classes easier as I feel that I could have easily used another 2 days to prepare for the final dive. Grabbing my rear dump valve was a huge issue for me... finding it and holding onto it with the dry gloves felt almost impossible. I now have the gas in my wing to a manageable level thanks to all the changes we made. Finally the drysuit from hell... I know what my next purchase will be
I have purposely only expressed my personal experiences in this class because it is my story to tell. If you want to know how the others did you need to ask them personally. I feel that everyone gave it their all and did very well in the class. We all had a great experience together.
Some tidbits of information I find helpful now... Always dive the same size tanks! & dont forget... Rule # 6
John
I am sure your class was worth while, Guy puts on a great class. Lots to learn at this point, and I guarantee your efforts will pay off. Hope to see you out locally soon.
