bradells
Contributor
This is my take on my PADI Wreck course over the last weekend in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, BC.
Im intrigued by wrecks, and having dove a few off the coast on Vancouver Island, I wouldnt mind poking my head into them as well before they disintegrate into a bigger pile of rust. I also want to know if I can (mentally) eventually follow that rabbit down the hole that is a cave (way down the road),
On the last wreck charter I did (just before new years), I stayed outside shooting video, but quite a few of our boat teams entered the wrecks. It got me thinking, maybe I want to do that? I should get some knowledge in how, what and why to do it.
Enter Liz, who is moments away from becoming a GUE Instructor, let alone being a long time PADI Instructor, and a host of other 3 letter organizations. Ive had the pleasure of doing my drysuit course in the past with her, and always learn a lot about diving and my abilities (or lack of) while diving with her.
I scheduled some dives over christmas with some GUE team members who I/we thought might be on the course, but it ended up being someone else altogether.
Enter, Francois, who just recently completed Fundies a few weeks prior (who is also a full Trimix diver with another organization, and already has taken a PADI Wreck course, years ago, but wanted an updated fresh take).
The approach to the course was more of a continuation of the Fundies course, with emphasis on protocols, teamwork, and incorporating the new skills from this course to add onto our basic foundation skills in the continuation our diving careers.
We did have some appointed homework before the course, which was to read and complete the PADI reviews from the course book, as well as a few other homework questions based on the material. The course was 2-1/2 days long (2 days and an evening of instruction)
The first evening was spent going over the course material, handling/tying/line work, and more assigning of homework (roughly 2-3 hrs total)
The first full day of diving, we had the charter all to our selfs (All 4 of us, Instructor, 2 students, and a video diver). There are 3 artificial reef wrecks to choose from right by Departure Bay in Nanaimo, the RivTow Lion, HMCS Cape Breton and HMCS Saskatchewan.
Since we had the boat all to ourselves, we spent the day on the RivTow Lion. A surprisingly large Tug Boat in fairly shallow, sheltered water (its just inside the marina entrance). This made for a great platform for the first few dives to get acquainted with wreck diving by having long bottom times and little current to complete our dive tasks.
Our homework for the first night was mainly gas planning for our dives the next day. The first two dives, were more orientation dives, with no real penetration. So gas planning required us to figure out our Depths, MDL, and gas strategy.
With us using double 12L and double 16L (HP100/HP130) tanks, we had lots of gas available for 18-24m dives.
Our Dive 1 Goals were to identify some hazards of the dive site, some areas of interest, possible penetration points, and navigational features. Also, we were required to collect some data for calculating our personal SCR.
We spent 26 minutes swimming along the wreck, and being led through some swim throughs to get used to the propulsion, and positioning methods required to navigate inside wrecks, as well as collected our required data.
For the dive being planned for 24m, we turned based on calculated pressure, not MDL.
During the SI, we had a few debriefs about the dive, our team work, and what we need to work on, mainly in our Positioning, Buoyancy, Trim, Propulsion and communication.
We calculated our new MDL, gas requirements, Min Deco for our second dive.
Dive 2 Goals were to practice tying off, and running line on the outside of the wreck.
On the stern of the tugboat, there is a giant box that has a big cut out on both the Starboard and Port sides, as well has no ceiling. This was our place to run some line. After a go with running the line, there was quite a bit of disturbed silt, so we moved to another section of the ship for more line running.
We laid quite a number of lines, got entangled, and attempted (felt like) to fit through some cutouts.
This time we hit our MDL opposed to our Min Gas, and head back onto the boat.
Again, some more debriefs on the dive from Liz, and between us in our team. Load all the gear back into our vehicles, and onto some more shocking debriefs with the magical device from the video diver. You cant hide from the video.
Some more homework for the next day (more gas planning and working of some skills), and off we went to get our fills.
The second day of diving, the boat was full with 10 divers, and we were headed out to the bigger, and deeper wrecks.
We arrived a bit before the charter to go over the little bit of homework. A few questions about the gas planning, as the first day, we planned on using (total) 1/2 of our Usable Gas per dive, but ended with both of us having more than 100bar in our tanks at the end of the day (and we didnt hit MDL on the first dive).
Some more theory and knowledge and we calculated a new gas strategy to maximize bottom time and headed out to the Cape Breton.
The main goal for Dive 3 is to follow laid line through the wreck itself. There is a section of the wreck behind the wheelhouse called the skylights which goes into the engine room that is fairly popular with this wreck, as well as a helicopter platform on the stern.
Unfortunately, the midship line wasnt available, so we were left tied into the bow line. Meaning, we might not make it to the midship (and definitely not the stern) before we hit one of our turns (either gas or MDL), as we planned on a 30M dive of 30 Minutes.
We changed our plan, and found a small room that we followed a line through, and kept heading towards the skylights, and ended up with enough time and gas to head down inside. On the way back to the upline, we did a few more tie offs and hit our MDL and headed back for the boat.
I wont say our ascent on that dive was pretty, not even decent, but definitely not my worst
Again, more debriefing, more planning and the usual and we moved over to the Saskatchewan for the last dive of the course.
Dive 4 Goal: Plan and execute the dive by ourselves, and run some line!
We planned a 21m dive for our second dive, to run some line through the wheel house. Tied up to Mid Ship, we were right above it.
Francois ran the line through the wheel house, and we successfully completed our goal. Run line by our selves in a wreck.
Since we were midship with 2/3 of our gas supply remaining, we spent the rest of the dive working on some communication skills, propulsion and a bit of trim (well, personally learning how to slightly successfully not cartwheel when going through a hole head first in a heavy set of steel doubles).
We hit our MDL and headed up the line for the last time.
With our newly added knowledge with gas planning, we had 2 long dives, with lots of gas still in the tanks. If we did what we were planning on doing (the same strategy as the first day), we definitely wouldnt have gotten our two full dives.
One last quick debrief, and some celebratory beverages, we passed our course with some more skills to add to our arsenal (and to practice!)
With the 2 1/2hrs of dive time over 4 dives, I feel very confident in running line on wrecks that I have visited before, and more comfortable in our knowledge of gas planning and dive planning in general to accomplish such goals.
There are lots of places to expand a course with PADI, and with usual conditions where many wrecks can be found (cold, deep, dark water), the way our course was presented, and handled was about the best you could do for our local wrecks given the constraints of a few dives over a weekend. Emphasis on teamwork, basic dive skills with the newly added skills and preparations of penetrative wreck diving.
BRad
Im intrigued by wrecks, and having dove a few off the coast on Vancouver Island, I wouldnt mind poking my head into them as well before they disintegrate into a bigger pile of rust. I also want to know if I can (mentally) eventually follow that rabbit down the hole that is a cave (way down the road),
On the last wreck charter I did (just before new years), I stayed outside shooting video, but quite a few of our boat teams entered the wrecks. It got me thinking, maybe I want to do that? I should get some knowledge in how, what and why to do it.
Enter Liz, who is moments away from becoming a GUE Instructor, let alone being a long time PADI Instructor, and a host of other 3 letter organizations. Ive had the pleasure of doing my drysuit course in the past with her, and always learn a lot about diving and my abilities (or lack of) while diving with her.
I scheduled some dives over christmas with some GUE team members who I/we thought might be on the course, but it ended up being someone else altogether.
Enter, Francois, who just recently completed Fundies a few weeks prior (who is also a full Trimix diver with another organization, and already has taken a PADI Wreck course, years ago, but wanted an updated fresh take).
The approach to the course was more of a continuation of the Fundies course, with emphasis on protocols, teamwork, and incorporating the new skills from this course to add onto our basic foundation skills in the continuation our diving careers.
We did have some appointed homework before the course, which was to read and complete the PADI reviews from the course book, as well as a few other homework questions based on the material. The course was 2-1/2 days long (2 days and an evening of instruction)
The first evening was spent going over the course material, handling/tying/line work, and more assigning of homework (roughly 2-3 hrs total)
The first full day of diving, we had the charter all to our selfs (All 4 of us, Instructor, 2 students, and a video diver). There are 3 artificial reef wrecks to choose from right by Departure Bay in Nanaimo, the RivTow Lion, HMCS Cape Breton and HMCS Saskatchewan.
Since we had the boat all to ourselves, we spent the day on the RivTow Lion. A surprisingly large Tug Boat in fairly shallow, sheltered water (its just inside the marina entrance). This made for a great platform for the first few dives to get acquainted with wreck diving by having long bottom times and little current to complete our dive tasks.
Our homework for the first night was mainly gas planning for our dives the next day. The first two dives, were more orientation dives, with no real penetration. So gas planning required us to figure out our Depths, MDL, and gas strategy.
With us using double 12L and double 16L (HP100/HP130) tanks, we had lots of gas available for 18-24m dives.
Our Dive 1 Goals were to identify some hazards of the dive site, some areas of interest, possible penetration points, and navigational features. Also, we were required to collect some data for calculating our personal SCR.
We spent 26 minutes swimming along the wreck, and being led through some swim throughs to get used to the propulsion, and positioning methods required to navigate inside wrecks, as well as collected our required data.
For the dive being planned for 24m, we turned based on calculated pressure, not MDL.
During the SI, we had a few debriefs about the dive, our team work, and what we need to work on, mainly in our Positioning, Buoyancy, Trim, Propulsion and communication.
We calculated our new MDL, gas requirements, Min Deco for our second dive.
Dive 2 Goals were to practice tying off, and running line on the outside of the wreck.
On the stern of the tugboat, there is a giant box that has a big cut out on both the Starboard and Port sides, as well has no ceiling. This was our place to run some line. After a go with running the line, there was quite a bit of disturbed silt, so we moved to another section of the ship for more line running.
We laid quite a number of lines, got entangled, and attempted (felt like) to fit through some cutouts.
This time we hit our MDL opposed to our Min Gas, and head back onto the boat.
Again, some more debriefs on the dive from Liz, and between us in our team. Load all the gear back into our vehicles, and onto some more shocking debriefs with the magical device from the video diver. You cant hide from the video.
Some more homework for the next day (more gas planning and working of some skills), and off we went to get our fills.
The second day of diving, the boat was full with 10 divers, and we were headed out to the bigger, and deeper wrecks.
We arrived a bit before the charter to go over the little bit of homework. A few questions about the gas planning, as the first day, we planned on using (total) 1/2 of our Usable Gas per dive, but ended with both of us having more than 100bar in our tanks at the end of the day (and we didnt hit MDL on the first dive).
Some more theory and knowledge and we calculated a new gas strategy to maximize bottom time and headed out to the Cape Breton.
The main goal for Dive 3 is to follow laid line through the wreck itself. There is a section of the wreck behind the wheelhouse called the skylights which goes into the engine room that is fairly popular with this wreck, as well as a helicopter platform on the stern.
Unfortunately, the midship line wasnt available, so we were left tied into the bow line. Meaning, we might not make it to the midship (and definitely not the stern) before we hit one of our turns (either gas or MDL), as we planned on a 30M dive of 30 Minutes.
We changed our plan, and found a small room that we followed a line through, and kept heading towards the skylights, and ended up with enough time and gas to head down inside. On the way back to the upline, we did a few more tie offs and hit our MDL and headed back for the boat.
I wont say our ascent on that dive was pretty, not even decent, but definitely not my worst
Again, more debriefing, more planning and the usual and we moved over to the Saskatchewan for the last dive of the course.
Dive 4 Goal: Plan and execute the dive by ourselves, and run some line!
We planned a 21m dive for our second dive, to run some line through the wheel house. Tied up to Mid Ship, we were right above it.
Francois ran the line through the wheel house, and we successfully completed our goal. Run line by our selves in a wreck.
Since we were midship with 2/3 of our gas supply remaining, we spent the rest of the dive working on some communication skills, propulsion and a bit of trim (well, personally learning how to slightly successfully not cartwheel when going through a hole head first in a heavy set of steel doubles).
We hit our MDL and headed up the line for the last time.
With our newly added knowledge with gas planning, we had 2 long dives, with lots of gas still in the tanks. If we did what we were planning on doing (the same strategy as the first day), we definitely wouldnt have gotten our two full dives.
One last quick debrief, and some celebratory beverages, we passed our course with some more skills to add to our arsenal (and to practice!)
With the 2 1/2hrs of dive time over 4 dives, I feel very confident in running line on wrecks that I have visited before, and more comfortable in our knowledge of gas planning and dive planning in general to accomplish such goals.
There are lots of places to expand a course with PADI, and with usual conditions where many wrecks can be found (cold, deep, dark water), the way our course was presented, and handled was about the best you could do for our local wrecks given the constraints of a few dives over a weekend. Emphasis on teamwork, basic dive skills with the newly added skills and preparations of penetrative wreck diving.
BRad