Can someone....

give me a synopsis of what a good wreck survey course would entail?

jbd once bubbled...
give me a synopsis of what a good wreck survey course would entail?

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Do you mean how to "map" a wreck? Resulting in drawings of all the structures and artefacts? If this is what you mean check out the various Marine Archeology courses that are available throught the USA. I have a list of some of them (I just can't find it right now) -- if you're interested drop me a line.

If you mean something else... just what?

what I mean. I know that most of the agencies offer two flavors of wreck diving. One is non penetration(survey) and the other involves penetration.

Its my understanding that one of our well known members doesn't teach the non penetration course due to lack of content or merit. So I'm wondering what would anyone get out of a non penentration wreck course?

Is there any real difference between diving a wreck without going into it and diving a coral reef for which we don't deem extra training important?

jbd once bubbled...
Is there any real difference between diving a wreck without going into it and diving a coral reef for which we don't deem extra training important?

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The main difference is the entanglement hazard. Wrecks attract fish, which attract fishermen. Even artifical reefs, so called "diver-safe" wrecks, are usually covered in fishing line and sometimes even nets. Entanglement hards are very real on any wreck.

Would I take a "wreck survey" course? Nah, sounds like another distinctive specialty money maker. Take the regular wreck course. The penetration training is minimal there too.

Tom

The wreck survey/ Wreck Penetration course I took this year were taught together so it is hard to say where one ended and the other started. However, the wreck survey course was intended, as I understand it, to teach how to veiw a wreck, understand the layout, how to figure out which was the bow and which was the stern (hard to do on many of our scattered wrecks) and to get a basic understanding of ships, their layouts and equipment. Research a wreck was also covered as well as some of the more popular wrecks off the Jersey coast and Truk.

The wreck penetration class covered just that. It was how to find your way around inside a wreck, how to use a penetration reel, how to move without silting up a wreck etc. My understanding is with Naui you can't do wreck penetration class without survey, although our instructor teaches them together.

I hope that is what you were looking for.

Ty

Entanglement is a huge one. Other differences are needing to be extremely aware of your surroundings, as you can easily find yourself underneath wreckage. Debris fields can be extremely disorienting, and you can't trust your compass due to the amount of metal in the area.

It would seem, as WreckWriter points out, that it would be common sense that wrecks would present entanglement hazards. Do we need clases for common sense? While I have only been diving at one coral reef I considered entanglement as a potential hazard. While I didn't find much fishing line it was none the less there.

From the responses it sounds like the the two courses should be taught as one.

tchil01--did you do any mapping or sketching of the wreck site in the survey portion of the class? If not, would you consider that to be something worth adding to the course you took?

jbd once bubbled...
From the responses it sounds like the the two courses should be taught as one.

tchil01--did you do any mapping or sketching of the wreck site in the survey portion of the class? If not, would you consider that to be something worth adding to the course you took?

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The two courses are basicly taught as one, except some people only take the survey course. There were 3 or 4 people in our class who had no interest in wreck penetration but wanted to learn more about wrecks so they only took the survey class.

As for sketching, yes, it was a requirement. We did a total of 6 dives for this course, two at Dutch Springs and four in the ocean. The external survey requirement was to sketch the whole wreck. You didn't have to be an artist, but it had to be reconizable. The instructor also gave us things to look for.. like was the prop still attached, which way was the rudder pointing and how many portholes were there. It really made you look at the wreck and try to understand it.

On the penetration dives we had to do a sketch of where we entered, where we went, and were we exited. We were told that with external survey you could penetrate a wreck as long as you could see the exit without having to turn arond to get out. With penetration you could go anywhere. I guess it's kind of like the difference between Cavern and Cave diving.

Ty

for your comments. I like the idea that the instructor really required you to look at the wreck in some detail and be able to draw a recognizable sketch of the site.

I did PADI wreck and it was a combination of survey and penetration, although the course materials were pretty light on penetration (they taught reel, lights, etc., but overall the tone was to discourage penetration).

We did lecture and then 4 dives. The first two dives were survey and navigation with the sketching and pointing out hazards, entanglements, possible entry points, etc. The second two dives were using the reel, propulsion, silting, etc. and the last dive was actual penetration. The course material wasn't anything that I hadn't read or done before, but the instructor makes the difference...mine was a pretty seasoned wreck diver who showed me a lot of stuff that wasn't in the manual.

A lot of it is common sense, but a good instructor can show you some things that may come in handy some day. It is EASY to get entangled or disoriented on NE wrecks...I got hooked last weekend and my buddy got me out.