OZTeK '09
Almost three weeks after I touched down in Sydney, my mind has come to grips with what was 'The OzTek Experience' (and my body has detoxed from the alcohol intake!) and now feel I can share it with you all. Pete Mesley (www.petemesley.com) and I arrived around 9am on Friday 20th and then parted to check into our accommodation. Pete was staying at Aaron's Hotel and I'd booked into a backpackers in Darling Harbour.
The morning of the conference I boarded a train to Redfurn - where the conference venue was located. It proved a little difficult to find so I just followed a few random people who looked like they might be around for a conference and BINGO, they were. I queued up to get my media pass 8) and headed on in.
I was first greeted by Jamie and Mel (formerly of DiveHQ Greenlane), then I saw JJ from Dive! Tutukaka, Dave Moran (Dive New Zealand Magazine) and slowly more and more kiwis appeared on the scene, and it was great to see so many familiar faces.
There were about four presentations running simultaeneosly at any one time so there was a choice to be made every 60 mins or 45 mins as to which one you thought you'd like the most and at times this choice was very difficult. The first one I went to was one by Steve Trewavas on GUE's current and ongoing cave diving project in China. These guys - co-ordinating with the Chinese Authorities and cave diving associations were basically mapping unchartered u/w caves which were often extremely remote (there were photos of them carrying twin tanks down vertical cliff faces :shock: Fascinating work and they have made some very good contacts (and friends) in the process.
The second presentation I attended was Freediving Physiology by Grant Graves. I sat next to Dr Simon Mitchell and behind Ant Williams and many topics were discussed in the hour given including the Bends, Embolism, Narcosis, Hypoxia and Risk Management. Interestingly the talk also discussed how the body naturally readies itself for emmersion. Often refered to as 'Face Emersion' because if you submerge your face your body begins to prepare you for it. Ant said the smell of neoprene also causes his heart rate to slow!
After Grant's presentation, I was starving (still on kiwi time) so I grabbed some lunch. Next up was Getting Deeper into Diving by Rick Stanton. Rick is a pommy diver who is "An explorer who dives" He is big into caving and some caves just happen to be underwater. His talk was on learning curves gained whilst caving in France.
After lunch was Simon's talk on Patent Foramen Ovale and what it really means for divers. I have a genuine and growing interest in diving physiology and was very much looking forward to this one. Simon discussed current thinking on PFO and the risks associated with diving. He said the risks depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:
- The amount of diving you do
- Size of the hole
- 'Shunting'
To the common question "Should all divers be screened for PFO?" Simon said we have to ask ourselves what would we do / change if we discovered we had one? Bearing in mind, it may or may not be the cause of any decompression hits we may have had. Would we modify our diving or cease to dive? Would we have the operation to close the hole (which carries its own set of risks)? And if not, then why be screened? Exceptional presentation and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet heard Simon talk on this subject. If you have any questions about this subject, I can put you in touch with Simon.
For the next hour, I did some mingling with Dave Moran of Dive New Zealand and Paul Trainor from KISS showed me the breather models and explained how they worked. There was so much information for my brain to take in, I could feel it bulging out of my skull!
After a bit of chatting and relaxing I headed into Leigh Bishop's presentation on Deep Ocean Liner Wrecks which covered an expedition to dive liners off the coast Ireland and some very amusing video footage.
To finish off day one, I headed upstairs to a talk on Missing Diver Search Techniques with Trevor Jackson. This was very cool and we learned about some new skills being taught to boat crews in Queensland. Basically, they had made these tall buoys with reflective material on them and while the boat is stationary they would drop them at selected intervals. Then they would travel along them to get an idea of the direction and speed of the drift. They tell all their divers that should they surface and not find the boat they should stay put. Cool aye!
Well by this point I was pretty tired but it was only the beginning of the night. We headed back on a courtesy bus to the hotel where most were staying (Aarons) and decided to have a drink in the bar. No sooner had we ordered a drink we were told we were off to Chinatown (presumably by the hungrier members of the team!) so we marched off down the road. There were about 12 of us and we managed to find a table outside one of the restaurants (the whole district was jam-packed!). I sat next to Richie Kohler and opposite Pete Mesley and Leigh Bishop. It was great getting the chance to talk to Richie at length about his life and diving. Embarrassingly, I had to admit I had never read Shadow Divers nor seen much of the Deep Sea Detectives (one episode) but he didn't seem to mind! We all headed back to the bar and resumed chatting and then a couple of the lads decided they were going to case out the night life at 1am so left us apparently it wasn't all that good. The rest of us were just enjoying the atmosphere in the bar and each others company.
The next morning everyone was up, bright as a button ready for the day's events. I had decided on another Simon Mitchell presentation for my first: Emergency Management of DCS in the field and he talked about everything from general diving first aid to in water decompression. The room was packed and I think they had to turn some people away! Another great thing about Simon's presentations is he colours them with stunning photos of the Poor Knights Islands!!
Next up was Pete Mesley also Leigh Bishop. A fantastic pictorial presentation about their trip. It was great to see Pete talking about his passion.
Deep Stops: Deep Trouble by Andrew Fock was next. This was a bit above and beyond my understanding of technical diving but it basically covered current thinking around deep stops and who was / wasn't practising it and why. Andrew Fock is a Hyperbaric Physician based in Melbourne.
Yay! Next was Titanic's Last Secrets by Richie Kohler. Very well versed presentation on his expedition with John Chatterton. Amazing photos. Imagine seeing this wreck with your own eyes. Man! Just unbelievable!!! Get the book people!!
At that point I high-tailed it out of there so I could get back to my hostel and get changed ready for the gala dinner. But before that, we were to go to the IMAX theatre to watch a 3D hour-long movie called 'Under the Sea 3D' Stunning cinematography it was just like going diving in the tropics. The only thing missing for me (obviously not for Pete and his breather) was the sound of my bubbles. There was one amazing scene with Sea Snakes in 3D. See it if you can it would be awesome for non divers to get that perspective!
After the film had concluded, we headed to the gala dinner venue and it was very flash! Champagne was offered on arrival as I learnt I was on table one with Pete, Carl and Leigh and about seven others. We were treated to starters, main and desert and bottomless wine glasses!!! The evening was littered with prizegivings for various achievements in diving but the highlight of the evening was a ÁÅocumentary parody of The Deep Sea Detectives by Leigh and Carl. It was shot at Stoney Cove and Carl wore what looked like a condom on his head to look bald like Richie and they even did their accents! I really hope they put it on YouTube so I can show you all. After it was all over and they kicked us all out we headed to the bar where we stayed 6am!!!!! (I'm quite proud of that myself!! Was like being at uni again!!!). I managed to have various drunk but interesting conversations with Andrew Fock, Rick Stanton and a handful of others. What a night.
Guys, OZTeK was amazing. It exceeded my expectations by a long way. It was about the people at the forefront of technical diving. It was inspiring to hear them speak and humbling to get to know them afterwards.
Thanks to Pete Mesley for convincing me to go, organiser David Strike (aka Strikey), the fantastic speakers and every lovely person I met at the weekend. I will DEFINITELY be there at the next one and if you're in our part of the world, you should too!
Pete and Strikey
Dr Simon Mitchell
The motley crew!
Richie Kohler doing his Titanic item
Moi, Petal Moran and Mr Mes
The PADI boys
Carl Spencer, Richie and Pete
Pete and Leigh Bishop
Richie and I.
Almost three weeks after I touched down in Sydney, my mind has come to grips with what was 'The OzTek Experience' (and my body has detoxed from the alcohol intake!) and now feel I can share it with you all. Pete Mesley (www.petemesley.com) and I arrived around 9am on Friday 20th and then parted to check into our accommodation. Pete was staying at Aaron's Hotel and I'd booked into a backpackers in Darling Harbour.
The morning of the conference I boarded a train to Redfurn - where the conference venue was located. It proved a little difficult to find so I just followed a few random people who looked like they might be around for a conference and BINGO, they were. I queued up to get my media pass 8) and headed on in.
I was first greeted by Jamie and Mel (formerly of DiveHQ Greenlane), then I saw JJ from Dive! Tutukaka, Dave Moran (Dive New Zealand Magazine) and slowly more and more kiwis appeared on the scene, and it was great to see so many familiar faces.
There were about four presentations running simultaeneosly at any one time so there was a choice to be made every 60 mins or 45 mins as to which one you thought you'd like the most and at times this choice was very difficult. The first one I went to was one by Steve Trewavas on GUE's current and ongoing cave diving project in China. These guys - co-ordinating with the Chinese Authorities and cave diving associations were basically mapping unchartered u/w caves which were often extremely remote (there were photos of them carrying twin tanks down vertical cliff faces :shock: Fascinating work and they have made some very good contacts (and friends) in the process.
The second presentation I attended was Freediving Physiology by Grant Graves. I sat next to Dr Simon Mitchell and behind Ant Williams and many topics were discussed in the hour given including the Bends, Embolism, Narcosis, Hypoxia and Risk Management. Interestingly the talk also discussed how the body naturally readies itself for emmersion. Often refered to as 'Face Emersion' because if you submerge your face your body begins to prepare you for it. Ant said the smell of neoprene also causes his heart rate to slow!
After Grant's presentation, I was starving (still on kiwi time) so I grabbed some lunch. Next up was Getting Deeper into Diving by Rick Stanton. Rick is a pommy diver who is "An explorer who dives" He is big into caving and some caves just happen to be underwater. His talk was on learning curves gained whilst caving in France.
After lunch was Simon's talk on Patent Foramen Ovale and what it really means for divers. I have a genuine and growing interest in diving physiology and was very much looking forward to this one. Simon discussed current thinking on PFO and the risks associated with diving. He said the risks depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:
- The amount of diving you do
- Size of the hole
- 'Shunting'
To the common question "Should all divers be screened for PFO?" Simon said we have to ask ourselves what would we do / change if we discovered we had one? Bearing in mind, it may or may not be the cause of any decompression hits we may have had. Would we modify our diving or cease to dive? Would we have the operation to close the hole (which carries its own set of risks)? And if not, then why be screened? Exceptional presentation and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet heard Simon talk on this subject. If you have any questions about this subject, I can put you in touch with Simon.
For the next hour, I did some mingling with Dave Moran of Dive New Zealand and Paul Trainor from KISS showed me the breather models and explained how they worked. There was so much information for my brain to take in, I could feel it bulging out of my skull!
After a bit of chatting and relaxing I headed into Leigh Bishop's presentation on Deep Ocean Liner Wrecks which covered an expedition to dive liners off the coast Ireland and some very amusing video footage.
To finish off day one, I headed upstairs to a talk on Missing Diver Search Techniques with Trevor Jackson. This was very cool and we learned about some new skills being taught to boat crews in Queensland. Basically, they had made these tall buoys with reflective material on them and while the boat is stationary they would drop them at selected intervals. Then they would travel along them to get an idea of the direction and speed of the drift. They tell all their divers that should they surface and not find the boat they should stay put. Cool aye!
Well by this point I was pretty tired but it was only the beginning of the night. We headed back on a courtesy bus to the hotel where most were staying (Aarons) and decided to have a drink in the bar. No sooner had we ordered a drink we were told we were off to Chinatown (presumably by the hungrier members of the team!) so we marched off down the road. There were about 12 of us and we managed to find a table outside one of the restaurants (the whole district was jam-packed!). I sat next to Richie Kohler and opposite Pete Mesley and Leigh Bishop. It was great getting the chance to talk to Richie at length about his life and diving. Embarrassingly, I had to admit I had never read Shadow Divers nor seen much of the Deep Sea Detectives (one episode) but he didn't seem to mind! We all headed back to the bar and resumed chatting and then a couple of the lads decided they were going to case out the night life at 1am so left us apparently it wasn't all that good. The rest of us were just enjoying the atmosphere in the bar and each others company.
The next morning everyone was up, bright as a button ready for the day's events. I had decided on another Simon Mitchell presentation for my first: Emergency Management of DCS in the field and he talked about everything from general diving first aid to in water decompression. The room was packed and I think they had to turn some people away! Another great thing about Simon's presentations is he colours them with stunning photos of the Poor Knights Islands!!
Next up was Pete Mesley also Leigh Bishop. A fantastic pictorial presentation about their trip. It was great to see Pete talking about his passion.
Deep Stops: Deep Trouble by Andrew Fock was next. This was a bit above and beyond my understanding of technical diving but it basically covered current thinking around deep stops and who was / wasn't practising it and why. Andrew Fock is a Hyperbaric Physician based in Melbourne.
Yay! Next was Titanic's Last Secrets by Richie Kohler. Very well versed presentation on his expedition with John Chatterton. Amazing photos. Imagine seeing this wreck with your own eyes. Man! Just unbelievable!!! Get the book people!!
At that point I high-tailed it out of there so I could get back to my hostel and get changed ready for the gala dinner. But before that, we were to go to the IMAX theatre to watch a 3D hour-long movie called 'Under the Sea 3D' Stunning cinematography it was just like going diving in the tropics. The only thing missing for me (obviously not for Pete and his breather) was the sound of my bubbles. There was one amazing scene with Sea Snakes in 3D. See it if you can it would be awesome for non divers to get that perspective!
After the film had concluded, we headed to the gala dinner venue and it was very flash! Champagne was offered on arrival as I learnt I was on table one with Pete, Carl and Leigh and about seven others. We were treated to starters, main and desert and bottomless wine glasses!!! The evening was littered with prizegivings for various achievements in diving but the highlight of the evening was a ÁÅocumentary parody of The Deep Sea Detectives by Leigh and Carl. It was shot at Stoney Cove and Carl wore what looked like a condom on his head to look bald like Richie and they even did their accents! I really hope they put it on YouTube so I can show you all. After it was all over and they kicked us all out we headed to the bar where we stayed 6am!!!!! (I'm quite proud of that myself!! Was like being at uni again!!!). I managed to have various drunk but interesting conversations with Andrew Fock, Rick Stanton and a handful of others. What a night.
Guys, OZTeK was amazing. It exceeded my expectations by a long way. It was about the people at the forefront of technical diving. It was inspiring to hear them speak and humbling to get to know them afterwards.
Thanks to Pete Mesley for convincing me to go, organiser David Strike (aka Strikey), the fantastic speakers and every lovely person I met at the weekend. I will DEFINITELY be there at the next one and if you're in our part of the world, you should too!
Pete and Strikey
Dr Simon Mitchell
The motley crew!
Richie Kohler doing his Titanic item
Moi, Petal Moran and Mr Mes
The PADI boys
Carl Spencer, Richie and Pete
Pete and Leigh Bishop
Richie and I.
