Class Report - GUE Rec3 with Beto Nava (w/ special guests)

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Hepcat62

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Redwood City, CA
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Yesterday marked the end of my GUE Rec3 course with Beto Nava (and special guests) in Monterey, CA. As I understand it, this was the first R3 class taught in the USA! The course was tremendously valuable, which is something I had to take on faith - there are basically ZERO Rec3 class reports on the internet. That's a problem I intend to rectify right now. :)

First thing first - for those of you who are unaware of or unfamiliar with the course, here's the GUE course description. It's an introduction to trimix and decompression diving, with Advanced Recreational profiles - pushing the purely-recreational limits just a bit - being the goal rather than full-on tech profiles. The maximum recommended depth/exposure is 130fsw for 15 minutes, with 120fsw for 20 minutes being the sweet spot. Deco is done on 32% to reduce the risk of o2 toxing during stops for divers with a bit less capacity than tech1 would require.

Being in the GUE recreational curriculum, it requires only a fundamentals recreational pass to enroll. You also need a minimum of 10 non-training dives in doubles, and you should be very comfortable in them. Required gear (aside from the fundies gear and doubles), includes one deco bottle (either AL40 or AL80) and reg, and an argon inflation setup. While not necessarily required, if you're diving a drysuit then I would highly recommend investing in a P-valve (or alternative solution to the same problem) and becoming comfortable with it prior to class if at all possible.

Now on to the report...

Day 1 - Fundies!

We spent day 1 at Breakwater, and there's really not a lot to say about it that you can't find in any fundies class report. The mission for the day was running through the skills from fundies while wearing the deco bottle. We didn't do any gas switches, but it was good practice getting used to the way the bottle can affect you, making notes on getting the placement adjusted, etc.

Day 2 - New Stuff

Day 2 was also spent at the Breakwater, and started to introduce the required skills involving the bottle. Gas switches were discussed and drilled, to and from back-gas. Beto also introduced us to the various valve failures we could experience on our doubles, and we worked through them on the surface and at the bottom. This is an area where Rec3 is significantly different from Tech1 - we had warning prior to experiencing failures on this day. We did a bit of ascent work, but the real progress on that front came on day 3.

Day 2 also brought us some lecture on gas planning, which expands on the lecture done in fundies to address some now relevant details. For example, figuring out how the deco bottle affects minimum gas. The emphasis is this course was also on calculating minimum gas based on your team's actual consumption rates as measured during the class dives, and see how the numbers shifted over time.

Day 3 - Midwater Capacity

Since it was a weekday, we spent day 3 at Point Lobos. The theme for day 3 was to find a bit more depth and really work on developing mid-water capacity in preparation for our experience dives the following weekend. Our maximum depth for the dives on day 3 was usually around 50ft, although we spent relatively little time there. The general plan for each dive was to do a nice, controlled descent and then go diving. At some point, "something" would happen, and the dive might be over. Sometimes a light would "fail" - these were always fixable in our case. Eventually, one of us would hear bubbles behind their head, and we'd have to respond appropriately. These failures were generally unfixable, to prompt us to call the dive and begin an ascent. Given the limited depth (~50fsw) the ascent plan was 30ft/min to 20ft, where we would do gas switches, shoot a bag, and finish up a 6 minute stop there. Following that stop, we would do a 6 minute ascent (either in increments of 3 feet, or by doing 6 minutes at 10ft).

"Squirrelly" was the word of the day. Once we got settled in at 20ft things were generally okay, but getting settled in the first place proved a challenge. It's amazing how much and how quickly teammates' depth variations start to resonate when trying to arrive cleanly at a stop. We made some good improvement over the course of the day, but cold and fatigue was definitely starting to take its toll.

Day 3.5 - Decompression

After the dives, we went back to Beto's place for debrief and lecture. Day 3's lecture was the one we'd been waiting anxiously for - deco. We talked about the history of decompression research, about the mechanics of on and off-gassing, and tied it all together with a discussion of how the use of helium can pay big dividends when coupled with an EAN deco gas, especially for planned multi-level profiles. We ran through a bunch of profiles in deco planner, which helped us get a sense for how different choices affect the profiles, as well as what profiles are reasonable for R3 graduates to take on.

In general, the theme for R3 is conservatism. R3 graduates exit the class with experience in conducting the kind of ascents necessary to safely dive profiles with mandatory deco. However, the level of performance required during the ascent (with respect to failures, etc.) is lower than tech 1, and so are the limits. Back gas is either EAN32, Tx30/30, or Tx21/35. Divers are limited to one deco bottle, filled with 32%. Maximum planned exposure limit is 130fsw for 15min, with a maximum of 15 minutes of planned decompression for any planned dive. In the event of lost deco gas, emphasis is placed on doing 200% stop time on backgas (rather than sharing the deco bottle, although reserves are planned) due to reduced expected capacity. Using an AL80 rather than an AL40 here was actually discussed heavily, because while all R3 profiles should be doable with an AL40 when dove as square profiles, doing an extended multi-level ascent on 32% is actually a great way to enjoy R3 profiles (so long as the maximum decompression obligation during the dive is within limits), and that will often require a larger bottle.

All of this translates to a really simple rule for R3 deco. 30fpm to 75% of max depth, 20fpm to gas switch at 70', 1's up to 20', 6min @ 20, and 6 up. When in doubt (due to lost deco gas, or exposure violations of < 10 minutes) double the 20' stop. If that ascent schedule doesn't comfortably cover the obligation in DecoPlanner than it's probably not a good dive to do at the R3 level.

The Week Between - SADNESS

I lost my teammate during the week between our weekend boat dives due to a sports injury that took him out of commission, and there was much sadness. He was sorely missed, and I hope he can finish the class this summer.

Day 4 - Ramping Up

This was the first day of boat diving for the class, and Susan Bird became my teammate for the boat dives, with Rob Lee jumping in to take over video duties. The plan for day 4 was to do two dives - first to 80' and then to 100', both on 30/30, with the intention of ramping up to a 120' dive on 21/35 the following day. We headed out into the bay on the Escapade, and found some "nice" surface chop, and pea soup visibility (especially in the shallows). I learned some lessons about live boat diving during dive 1, and fortunately was able to apply them on dive 2. During my descent, I had to get used to how much lighter having helium in the tanks made me feel. :) The sites themselves weren't particularly interesting, although we did find a few nice gorgonians and other critters. While 80' is generally shallower than I recognize narcosis, on the 100' dive I definitely felt a bit clearer-headed than normal, and found myself more able to relax at depth than usual. That was nice, although the momentary squeaky voice during gear checks is going to take some getting used to. :) Fortunately, both of our ascents went well! I held all of my stops comfortably, and on the second dive managed a decent bag shoot during my 1min stops up from 70 (although it took me 3 stops to do it). Rob Lee and Beto were there to bat all the jellyfish away from me while I managed the spool (Rob's jelly-jutsu is particularly strong). Beto said he was pleased with the improvements from the previous weekend, and that we were good to go on the 120' experience dive the next day.

Day 5 - Experience!

Day 5 saw us returning to the Escapade for our final dive (well, we planned two dives, but I called the second dive after the first due to stomach upset). Armed with mass quantities of 21/35, we headed to Kawika's Garden. I'd never dove that site before, and it was lovely, teeming with life. We passed through a really pretty school of rockfish on the way down the drop line. Tons of life and pretty structure on the bottom. We saw more gorgonians, a few really pretty nudibranchs, and some really big rockfish. After 20 minutes on the bottom (it was nice to have a totally clear head here), I called the dive and we began our ascent. Fortunately, this went even better than the day before (mostly)! I managed to do my bag shoot in 2 stops instead of 3, and all the stops were held comfortably (with only a bit of variation during the gas switch at 70). Unfortunately, the jelly's were back, but Rob and Beto were there again to swat away the nasties.

Tragedy

At the time I wasn't really affected by it, but at this point it seems inseparable from the class. On the way back to the harbor, we found out that a diver had an accident off a private boat. We started to run search patterns for their gear (which was expected to be floating on the surface), apparently to collect for evidence. I later found out that the diver in question was a NorCal forum regular, and someone who a lot of us had dived with in the past. The outcome for the diver is still uncertain. At one point during the search, a large pod of dolphins came up and swam alongside us. I'm not ordinarily one to get superstitious, but at this point I'm really hoping they were a good omen.

Conclusions

After the dive, Beto had me lead the debrief, and generally agreed with my assessments. I was told that I passed the course, and I've since been told that I now have a tech endorsement for my fundies certification. The interesting thing is, I care a lot less about that now than I did before the course. I feel way more confident in my ability to manipulate my valves than I did before. I have exponentially better midwater capacity than I did before the course. I've opened up some really cool new dives to do, especially locally on our boats and via scooter at Point Lobos. All that means that I now have a TON of diving to do before I feel like I need to take Tech1 to expand my horizons again, and my comfort and confidence level while conducting those dives is significantly higher.

I know a lot of people have asked the question - why R3? Why not tech1? Obviously there's the simple answer - "I didn't have my tech endorsement yet". Really though, I could've practiced for a bit and gotten it - that's not the issue. I knew I still would've been borderline, and I don't generally like being borderline. For people who do better in bite-sized chunks, R3 is a tremendous option. Looking back on the class, it gives you 2-3 days with an instructor to work out what realistically needs to take at most a day in T1. That's a huge time difference, and the experience has definitely paid off for me. I think that a team of active R3 divers entering T1 would have a much more comfortable time than most classes. There's obviously a financial cost to taking two classes instead of one (especially when helium and boats get involved), but I think it's a very valuable path to consider. It will be interesting to see how many people treat R3 as a final destination rather than a stepping stone to T1, but I wholeheartedly recommend it to any fundies graduate who's looking to expand their horizons and take their first step beyond purely recreational diving.

Huge thanks to Casey Harnal, Beto Nava, Susan Bird, Rob Lee, and to the staff at La Tortuga for their delicious burritos. :D
 
Brian,
Great report. It's nice to see the R3 class take off and get off the ground. Itll be nice to dive some of the deep Lobos scooter profiles with you. I'm pretty sure Casey is bummed about sitting the second half out... Hopefully he'll get back in the water soon and catch up

Ben
 
Thanks for the report! You took Rec 3 for exactly the same reason that I took Rec Triox, back in the day. And it does open up some additional terrain to you, and the practice will be great to make you a more solid T1 candidate, if and when you decide to do that. (Worked for me, anyway . . . )
 
nice job doing those ascents in those conditions with the added pressure of instructors watching over you...
 
Well done, Brian! You worked your butt off for this pass and it was well deserved/earned. :D

I have to apologize for almost monkey wrenching the whole plan though. I'm so glad you were able to finish up and everything went well. Perhaps it was a good thing, given my propensity to yoyo before settling down on the stops.
 
Brian,
Great report. It's nice to see the R3 class take off and get off the ground. Itll be nice to dive some of the deep Lobos scooter profiles with you. I'm pretty sure Casey is bummed about sitting the second half out... Hopefully he'll get back in the water soon and catch up

Ben

Count on it! Now that Brian has set the bar, I have a lot to live up too.
 
I have to apologize for almost monkey wrenching the whole plan though.

You really should be careful when participating in "dangerous" and "risky" sports ya know :wink:
 
I have to apologize for almost monkey wrenching the whole plan though. I'm so glad you were able to finish up and everything went well. Perhaps it was a good thing, given my propensity to yoyo before settling down on the stops.

You say that as if you were the only one doing the yo-yo routine (you definitely were not). I can't wait for you to eventually finish up though - we need as many R3/T1 scooter owners as possible at Point Lobos. :D
 
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