cfenton
Contributor
On March 24-26 I joined a three diver team consisting of Kim Anderson, Guy Shockey and myself in a GUE DPV1 course taught by Dan MacKay. DPV1 is a recreational diving course meant to be a divers first introduction to scooters. The team might have been a little over qualified given that we are all GUE Tech2 and Cave 1 certified and have collectively done hundreds of scooter dives already. We had all hoped that Dan might put on a DPV1+ type course for us, which he did not. Turned out okay though as we all learned some new skills and more importantly unlearned some old ones...
Day 1
We met at Guys house in Duncan, BC for the morning lectures. We had all already read the new GUE DPV manual. I believe we were the first students to use this manual, and aside from a few typos that Dan has now fixed, it was a well put together. It is very good to see that GUE has begun providing some quality, practical materials for their courses, as in my opinion this has been the one thing lacking in the past. The power point presentation reviewed what we had read in the manual. One of the great parts about a GUE course is the opportunity to ask questions, and gain insights, tips and tricks from such highly skilled and experienced divers. This course was no different.
We broke for lunch and met at Maple Bay, the local mud flat, for our first dive. After properly weighting and trimming our scooters we descended to 30 shot a SMB and did the usual valve and s-drills. Embarrassingly this didnt go as well as should be expected. We were expected to hold the scooters in the temporary position between our legs for the drills, which apparently was enough to throw us off. Next, Guy laid 400 of line while swimming and we took note of how much time and gas it took each of us to swim the line twice (800). This was followed by the same exercise on the scooters. After this we went through the four DPV turning techniques. On the surface we debriefed and calculated our swimming vs. scootering SCRs.
Day 2
For day two we met at a coffee shop in Parksville, BC for another morning of lectures. We met in Parksville because it was a central location but also because we hoped to show Dan a little of what BC diving has to offer. As usual we checked our batteries voltage, ran through GUE EDGE, and descended to 30 to do a valve and s-drill again. Thankfully this went much better as the new technique for temporarily stowing the scooter was starting to feel somewhat normal. In the past we had temporarily stowed out scooters by nose clipping them to a d-ring, which is admittedly a laze way to do things. The only downside to the technique that Dan had us using was that it greatly reduced our abilities to back kick and keep position in the water at least initially. Next we laid 100 of line at 30 and went through the three DPV positions operational, temporary and stowed. After this we ran the line there and back on the scooters practicing flow checks on the trigger. It was around this time that things got interesting - a big Sea Lion came in and took a particular liking to Guy. Trying to ignore the acrobatic 1000lbs mammal amongst us we practiced crash avoidance technique, runaway DPV, and dead scooter tow. The Sea Lion watched the entire time. He must have figured out that the line held some significance for us, because he kept swooping in and lightly nibbling on it. We finished the dive with a descent to 3 ATA and a 10 min scooter ride to better measure our SCR. The highlight of this part of the dive was the huge Giant Pacific Octopus we found. Back on the surface we debriefed and headed home to complete our knowledge reviews.
Day 3
Im not going to lie I was pretty happy that the lectures had already been completed and we got straight in water. Back at Maple Bay we checked batteries, did GUE EDGE, and descended. First we did stationary OOG drills. Then we moved on to moving OOG drills, where the key was to quickly get the teams attention, get the OOG diver a reg, properly stow the scooters, and ascend. We finished the day up with towing a diver with a dead DPV which as Dan pointed out can be really simple or incredibly frustrating. The key here is that the diver being towed keep himself neutrally, or slightly positively buoyant. The trouble is it can be tough for the towed diver to know if they are dragging the towing diver down. A debrief on the surface, a small written exam, and we were done.
Thoughts on the Course
This was the first time I entered a GUE course with zero stress I signed up for it because I thought it would be a fun way to spend three days and it is a perquisite for the technical diving DPV2. Ultimately I was surprised by how much I got out of the course. I was equally surprised by how rusty some of my fundamental skills had gotten. Ive never taken a GUE course that wasnt a humbling experience, which is why I continue to train with GUE. This is an excellent course for anyone who is entering the world of DPV diving and I would highly recommend it. A thank you to Dan MacKay for teaching us, and Guy Shockey for bending over backwards to help with logistics.
Day 4
Okay so this was NOT part of the DPV course. The next day Kim and I, met Dan and Alan Johnson (who had joined us from the mainland) to search for the remains of a B-24 bomber that crashed during a training run in 1944. The Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia (UASBC) had already searched the area of the crash down to 80 and located some wreckage. Our plan was to use two scooter teams to search in the 100-160 range. A good chance to put some of our new found DPV skills into practice.
Sansum Narrows is subjected to very strong tidal currents, and we had picked this day well before DPV1 was scheduled in order to get the best slack tide possible. We located the land crash site by searching for a patch of forest that was younger than the rest. We found burnt out tree stumps and small pieces of aircraft aluminum indicating we had the right spot. We geared up and got in the water at slack, descended down to 160 as one team, and then split into two (one team heading east and the other west, as per the plan) to slowing snake our way up the stepped slope to 100. Unfortunately the herring had just spawned and as a result the visibility was only ~10. Adding to the difficulty, the rocks were absolutely covered in life due too the high current nature of the site. We had an excellent dive...but found no sign of the B24. It reminded me of what my mentor at the UASBC once told me: in all my wreck hunting, I have become very accomplished at proving where things aren't. Next time.
Day 1
We met at Guys house in Duncan, BC for the morning lectures. We had all already read the new GUE DPV manual. I believe we were the first students to use this manual, and aside from a few typos that Dan has now fixed, it was a well put together. It is very good to see that GUE has begun providing some quality, practical materials for their courses, as in my opinion this has been the one thing lacking in the past. The power point presentation reviewed what we had read in the manual. One of the great parts about a GUE course is the opportunity to ask questions, and gain insights, tips and tricks from such highly skilled and experienced divers. This course was no different.
We broke for lunch and met at Maple Bay, the local mud flat, for our first dive. After properly weighting and trimming our scooters we descended to 30 shot a SMB and did the usual valve and s-drills. Embarrassingly this didnt go as well as should be expected. We were expected to hold the scooters in the temporary position between our legs for the drills, which apparently was enough to throw us off. Next, Guy laid 400 of line while swimming and we took note of how much time and gas it took each of us to swim the line twice (800). This was followed by the same exercise on the scooters. After this we went through the four DPV turning techniques. On the surface we debriefed and calculated our swimming vs. scootering SCRs.
Day 2
For day two we met at a coffee shop in Parksville, BC for another morning of lectures. We met in Parksville because it was a central location but also because we hoped to show Dan a little of what BC diving has to offer. As usual we checked our batteries voltage, ran through GUE EDGE, and descended to 30 to do a valve and s-drill again. Thankfully this went much better as the new technique for temporarily stowing the scooter was starting to feel somewhat normal. In the past we had temporarily stowed out scooters by nose clipping them to a d-ring, which is admittedly a laze way to do things. The only downside to the technique that Dan had us using was that it greatly reduced our abilities to back kick and keep position in the water at least initially. Next we laid 100 of line at 30 and went through the three DPV positions operational, temporary and stowed. After this we ran the line there and back on the scooters practicing flow checks on the trigger. It was around this time that things got interesting - a big Sea Lion came in and took a particular liking to Guy. Trying to ignore the acrobatic 1000lbs mammal amongst us we practiced crash avoidance technique, runaway DPV, and dead scooter tow. The Sea Lion watched the entire time. He must have figured out that the line held some significance for us, because he kept swooping in and lightly nibbling on it. We finished the dive with a descent to 3 ATA and a 10 min scooter ride to better measure our SCR. The highlight of this part of the dive was the huge Giant Pacific Octopus we found. Back on the surface we debriefed and headed home to complete our knowledge reviews.
Day 3
Im not going to lie I was pretty happy that the lectures had already been completed and we got straight in water. Back at Maple Bay we checked batteries, did GUE EDGE, and descended. First we did stationary OOG drills. Then we moved on to moving OOG drills, where the key was to quickly get the teams attention, get the OOG diver a reg, properly stow the scooters, and ascend. We finished the day up with towing a diver with a dead DPV which as Dan pointed out can be really simple or incredibly frustrating. The key here is that the diver being towed keep himself neutrally, or slightly positively buoyant. The trouble is it can be tough for the towed diver to know if they are dragging the towing diver down. A debrief on the surface, a small written exam, and we were done.
Thoughts on the Course
This was the first time I entered a GUE course with zero stress I signed up for it because I thought it would be a fun way to spend three days and it is a perquisite for the technical diving DPV2. Ultimately I was surprised by how much I got out of the course. I was equally surprised by how rusty some of my fundamental skills had gotten. Ive never taken a GUE course that wasnt a humbling experience, which is why I continue to train with GUE. This is an excellent course for anyone who is entering the world of DPV diving and I would highly recommend it. A thank you to Dan MacKay for teaching us, and Guy Shockey for bending over backwards to help with logistics.
Day 4
Okay so this was NOT part of the DPV course. The next day Kim and I, met Dan and Alan Johnson (who had joined us from the mainland) to search for the remains of a B-24 bomber that crashed during a training run in 1944. The Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia (UASBC) had already searched the area of the crash down to 80 and located some wreckage. Our plan was to use two scooter teams to search in the 100-160 range. A good chance to put some of our new found DPV skills into practice.
Sansum Narrows is subjected to very strong tidal currents, and we had picked this day well before DPV1 was scheduled in order to get the best slack tide possible. We located the land crash site by searching for a patch of forest that was younger than the rest. We found burnt out tree stumps and small pieces of aircraft aluminum indicating we had the right spot. We geared up and got in the water at slack, descended down to 160 as one team, and then split into two (one team heading east and the other west, as per the plan) to slowing snake our way up the stepped slope to 100. Unfortunately the herring had just spawned and as a result the visibility was only ~10. Adding to the difficulty, the rocks were absolutely covered in life due too the high current nature of the site. We had an excellent dive...but found no sign of the B24. It reminded me of what my mentor at the UASBC once told me: in all my wreck hunting, I have become very accomplished at proving where things aren't. Next time.
