wrybosome
Contributor
Hi all,
I took AOW last month with Jim Lapenta (Jimlap) in Pittsburgh and West Virgina, so I thought I'd write up a description of the course. I meant to get around to this earlier but things have been busy with work and family.
I went with Jim after reading many of his posts here and on TDS; they conveyed a sense of how interested he is in educational standards. In particular I was struck by a remark of his about how his class was not a guaranteed pass which appealed to me. I thought my OW was very well conducted but...not rigorous or intentionally difficult. So rather than the one hour drive to Dutch I drove the six hours out to Pittsburgh hoping to be challenged.
The classroom portion was conducted in Jim's living room and I was the only student, so we went back and forth all day with him answering my questions on everything from how to use a reel to how to plan dives. There were two major parts, the
'what is advanced diving' part and the 'what are the skills and how do
we do them on these dives' part.
'What is advanced Diving' framed it's answer as dives that pose additional risk from gas usage, N2 exposure, cold, currents, navigation, low vis, or require better than average buoyancy control. The morning was spent discussing different hazards of this sort and how to mitigate them.
The afternoon portion of the class consisted of going over in detail the skills that were going to be tested on the dives over the next two days. Jim answered my questions, and I had a lot of them, because I hadn't done most of these things before. Rather than list that here, I'll go over the dives we did.
I would say that there were two themes to the dives: buddy skills and task loading. Jim emphasized very close buddy contact at all times, much closer than I experienced in OW or in my recreational dives. The theory being, that if you're using the buddy system, make sure it will actually work.
Stage bottles are a great tool for creating task loading.
Day 1 - Mt Storm Lake, WV
Dive 1 - advanced skills dive
Shallow dive covering a mix of skills done while maintaining buoyancy
and trim with a visual reference (nearby platform). Mask removal/replacement/clearing. Reg removal/retrieval. Clipping into and out of a stage bottle. Breathing off of stage bottle. Observed shooting a bag from the platform.
Dive 2 - navigation dive
Using a platform as a base did a straight line and reciprocal course to
measure current. Used this to plan an accurate square pattern.
Performed the square pattern leaving stakes at two turn points.
Repeated square pattern to retrieve stakes. Performed a triangular
pattern with compass and natural reference points.
Dive 3 - night dive
Using lights as a signaling device. Followed a line without lights (reminded me of the times I went dry caving).
Day 2- Mt Storm Lake, WV
Dive 4 - Deep dive
Descended to a 50' platform and unclipped from stage bottle, securing it
to platform. Followed a line from the 50' down the wall to the 90'
platform. Secured a line to the 90' platform and descended to the lake
bottom at 107'. Followed the line back to the 90' platform and
performed some arithmetic problems as a measurement for narcosis.
Surprise OOA at 90' platform and shared air while ascending to the 50'
platform. Clipped into the stage bottles, opened their valves and ended
the air sharing. Breathed from the stage bottle for the remainder of
the dive. Did 1 min simulated deep stops at 50', 40', and 30'. 3 min @ 20' amd 1 @ 13'.
Dive 5 - Search and recovery
Performed a semicircular search pattern on a reel tied in to a cinder
block to locate a stake. Followed line back to cinder block. Used a
lift bag to make the block neutrally buoyant and swam it to another
platform at the same depth. Swam the block to the shore entry while
using the bag to keep it neutral.
Dive 6 - Buddy skills/assist dive
Returned cinder block to 25' while keeping it neutral. OOA and shared
air ascent. Unconscious diver rescue from 25'. Mask off 75' swims
between platforms as guide and guided (following line). Loss of
buoyancy assisted ascent.
Despite silting the crap out of the place on the deep dive, I passed. Am I an advanced diver? No, but I have a much better idea of what I don't know, what's hard for me, and how to work on it. Thanks Jim.
Did I mention it was 28 F (air temp) and snowed the whole time? Or that the lake was 75F? See the pics below.
Cheers,
Tim
I took AOW last month with Jim Lapenta (Jimlap) in Pittsburgh and West Virgina, so I thought I'd write up a description of the course. I meant to get around to this earlier but things have been busy with work and family.
I went with Jim after reading many of his posts here and on TDS; they conveyed a sense of how interested he is in educational standards. In particular I was struck by a remark of his about how his class was not a guaranteed pass which appealed to me. I thought my OW was very well conducted but...not rigorous or intentionally difficult. So rather than the one hour drive to Dutch I drove the six hours out to Pittsburgh hoping to be challenged.
The classroom portion was conducted in Jim's living room and I was the only student, so we went back and forth all day with him answering my questions on everything from how to use a reel to how to plan dives. There were two major parts, the
'what is advanced diving' part and the 'what are the skills and how do
we do them on these dives' part.
'What is advanced Diving' framed it's answer as dives that pose additional risk from gas usage, N2 exposure, cold, currents, navigation, low vis, or require better than average buoyancy control. The morning was spent discussing different hazards of this sort and how to mitigate them.
The afternoon portion of the class consisted of going over in detail the skills that were going to be tested on the dives over the next two days. Jim answered my questions, and I had a lot of them, because I hadn't done most of these things before. Rather than list that here, I'll go over the dives we did.
I would say that there were two themes to the dives: buddy skills and task loading. Jim emphasized very close buddy contact at all times, much closer than I experienced in OW or in my recreational dives. The theory being, that if you're using the buddy system, make sure it will actually work.
Stage bottles are a great tool for creating task loading.
Day 1 - Mt Storm Lake, WV
Dive 1 - advanced skills dive
Shallow dive covering a mix of skills done while maintaining buoyancy
and trim with a visual reference (nearby platform). Mask removal/replacement/clearing. Reg removal/retrieval. Clipping into and out of a stage bottle. Breathing off of stage bottle. Observed shooting a bag from the platform.
Dive 2 - navigation dive
Using a platform as a base did a straight line and reciprocal course to
measure current. Used this to plan an accurate square pattern.
Performed the square pattern leaving stakes at two turn points.
Repeated square pattern to retrieve stakes. Performed a triangular
pattern with compass and natural reference points.
Dive 3 - night dive
Using lights as a signaling device. Followed a line without lights (reminded me of the times I went dry caving).
Day 2- Mt Storm Lake, WV
Dive 4 - Deep dive
Descended to a 50' platform and unclipped from stage bottle, securing it
to platform. Followed a line from the 50' down the wall to the 90'
platform. Secured a line to the 90' platform and descended to the lake
bottom at 107'. Followed the line back to the 90' platform and
performed some arithmetic problems as a measurement for narcosis.
Surprise OOA at 90' platform and shared air while ascending to the 50'
platform. Clipped into the stage bottles, opened their valves and ended
the air sharing. Breathed from the stage bottle for the remainder of
the dive. Did 1 min simulated deep stops at 50', 40', and 30'. 3 min @ 20' amd 1 @ 13'.
Dive 5 - Search and recovery
Performed a semicircular search pattern on a reel tied in to a cinder
block to locate a stake. Followed line back to cinder block. Used a
lift bag to make the block neutrally buoyant and swam it to another
platform at the same depth. Swam the block to the shore entry while
using the bag to keep it neutral.
Dive 6 - Buddy skills/assist dive
Returned cinder block to 25' while keeping it neutral. OOA and shared
air ascent. Unconscious diver rescue from 25'. Mask off 75' swims
between platforms as guide and guided (following line). Loss of
buoyancy assisted ascent.
Despite silting the crap out of the place on the deep dive, I passed. Am I an advanced diver? No, but I have a much better idea of what I don't know, what's hard for me, and how to work on it. Thanks Jim.
Did I mention it was 28 F (air temp) and snowed the whole time? Or that the lake was 75F? See the pics below.
Cheers,
Tim
