UTD Overhead Protocols Class Report

Over the past weekend I had the pleasure of taking UTD’s Overhead Protocols taught by Elliott Jessup and Andrew Georgitsis in Monterey, CA. The class was three days of fun, failures and learning. I had taken a stage mini from Elliott a few months ago and I highly recommend taking a class from him. Not only is he a great diver, his style of teaching is very laid back, but right on point.

What is OHP?
Overhead Protocols is a class that focuses on the unique aspects and skills of diving in any overhead environment (wreck or cave). It’s designed to cover the basics prior to entering a wreck or cave class so that the environment specific learning is more effective/efficient.

What OHP isn’t
Although there were some new personal skills to be learned in this class, was primarily about diving in as a team and solving problems. After watching some of the video our trim and buoyancy controls was really in bad shape (especially when wearing our blackout masks) but I don’t think I heard one comment about our trim or buoyancy. Most comments were focused on our decisions (or lack thereof) and our logic behind them.

Why Take OHP
I was signed up to take cave training in October when Elliott mentioned this class to me. I immediately knew that only good things could result from taking OHP. I highly recommend that anyone thinking of taking a cave or wreck class (regardless of agency) consider taking OHP. I have owned a reel for a few years and have used it periodically (primarily in low viz to ensure I found the upline again) but after taking this class I realize I had NO idea how to use it properly. Same thing goes for operating in zero viz. I have done a fair amount of no mask training, but after wearing a blackout mask I realize that there is a huge difference between no mask and no viz (at least for me). I feel infinitely more confident going into my cave class. I think I will be able to relax somewhat and really focus on learning.

One of my classmates also took the class without any current or future plans of taking a cave or wreck class. Based on discussions with him, I think he views the class as a positive for his normal open water tech diving as he feels much more comfortable dealing with failures when extremely task loaded (i.e. following a line with a blackout mask and OOG). This class develops diver “capacity” which can only benefit you regardless of your diving environment.

Overall Thoughts
I am very very glad that I took this class. I had taken some classes that had limited critical skills/failures, but nothing to the degree of OHP. The UTD style of training is clearly very effective to me. As a team we would react to these compound failures, deal with the issues the best we could and then the instructors and the team would immediately debrief. Over the three days I slowly started to move from “how should I react to THIS specific scenario”, for example, how do I deal with a right post fixable failure? to “what are the team’s priorities for dealing with these issues?.” I began to think in a far more flexible way. This is not to say that it was easy. There were a couple of dives/drills where Elliott and AG would debrief by stating that it appeared that my mind just shut off. Very humbling, but very valuable feedback. In sum, if you are thinking of taking an overhead class or just want to be a better and more thoughtful diver I highly recommend you take OHP.

A big thanks to Elliott and Andrew for a well-run, informative and challenging class.

Thanks for sharing. I've been an advocate of the need for a class of this type for a long while - for most agencies there's simply far too big a jump between the basic wreck/cavern courses and cave/technical wreck level training.

Especially in regards to wreck diving, the diver does a very thread-bare 'basic' course - with, at most, a single dive of guideline skills, a single penetration with line... and no contingency drills, zero viz simulation or team emphasis. As they gain post-course experience, they venture more aggressively into overheads - and an accident is waiting to happen. This skill-demand balance is not...cannot... be rectified until/if they reach technical wreck levels.

Apart from this UTD course, the only other option has been non-certification workshops/clinics - and they can be hard to find and of variable quality. I've run something similar (Advanced Recreational Wreck) for several years. It's very popular and, as you noted, brings a wealth of transferable diving skill and experience for the participant. (A coincidence, but I'd recently re-named my clinic as 'Overhead Protocols' also... I'm thinking of a new name now, lest being accused of plagarism. ha ha).

(For the OP - if you have time, how does my clinic measure up against the UTD course on paper?)

We can hope that other agencies will sit up and take notice of this course - it's a great concept, that fills a very real need.

Great review, thanks for posting.

One of the decisions UTD has made that I wholeheartedly applaud is this class. Looking back from the other end of cave training, I am extraordinarily happy that I did both GUE Fundamentals and our local wreck workshop before thinking about cave training . . . there is no reason you have to be in an overhead environment to learn buoyancy, trim, position, communication, line skills, or how to cope with zero viz. And since, for most of us, open water is much easier to reach than caves or caverns, why not learn this basic stuff there, and practice it there, so that when you get to the caves, you don't have to spend time learning these things?

I did several months of "diving lessons" with AG a few years back. Training with him is not always comfortable, but it is ALWAYS a learning experience. And you don't have to be perfect . . . you have to show improvement, and potential, and good judgment. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work with him, and you were lucky, too.

DevonDiver:

Thanks for sharing. I've been an advocate of the need for a class of this type for a long while - for most agencies there's simply far too big a jump between the basic wreck/cavern courses and cave/technical wreck level training.

Especially in regards to wreck diving, the diver does a very thread-bare 'basic' course - with, at most, a single dive of guideline skills, a single penetration with line... and no contingency drills, zero viz simulation or team emphasis. As they gain post-course experience, they venture more aggressively into overheads - and an accident is waiting to happen. This skill-demand balance is not...cannot... be rectified until/if they reach technical wreck levels.

Apart from this UTD course, the only other option has been non-certification workshops/clinics - and they can be hard to find and of variable quality. I've run something similar (Advanced Recreational Wreck) for several years. It's very popular and, as you noted, brings a wealth of transferable diving skill and experience for the participant. (A coincidence, but I'd recently re-named my clinic as 'Overhead Protocols' also... I'm thinking of a new name now, lest being accused of plagarism. ha ha).

(For the OP - if you have time, how does my clinic measure up against the UTD course on paper?)

We can hope that other agencies will sit up and take notice of this course - it's a great concept, that fills a very real need.

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Compares very well Andy. . .

I've taken one of Andrew Georgitsis' first wreck classes here in California back in Nov 2005 when he was a NAUI Instructor (#44964); and a quick refresher of his current UTD Overhead Protocols/Z-system Sidemount this past Feb 2012. Together with Sam Collett's IANTD Technical Wreck Course in Subic Nov 2006 , I have had the best training & experience in wreck diving the sunken WWII ships of the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

There is no better Wreck Penetration Training Laboratory for this type of diving than the sunken ships of Subic Bay Philippines . . .right where you are!

Kevrumbo:

Compares very well Andy. . .

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Thanks. It's a logical step in training, which is why I'm surprised no agency has provided it before now.

Kevrumbo:

I've taken one of Andrew Georgitsis' first wreck classes here in California back in Nov 2005 when he was a NAUI Instructor (#44964); and a quick refresher of his current UTD Overhead Protocols/Z-system Sidemount this past Feb 2012. Together with Sam Collett's IANTD Technical Wreck Course in Subic Nov 2006 , I have had the best training & experience in wreck diving the sunken WWII ships of the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

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It does sound like good training you've had. Access to world-class mentors/trainers counts for a lot - I've been lucky in that regard also. I get to dive very frequently with Bruce Konefe when he's here in the Philippines... and in the past with Mark Powell (UK), Jamie McCloud (Thailand) and Tom Morato (who I'm sure you must have known also?). Very different outlooks and approaches, but it all comes together in the 'doing'. I'd take technical wreck training again-and-again, with different world-class instructors, just to access those varied philosophies and approaches.

Kevrumbo:

There is no better Wreck Penetration Training Laboratory for this type of diving than the sunken ships of Subic Bay Philippines . . .right where you are!

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Indeed... spoiled. I've always dove wrecks - 10 years diving in the UK and you've got to be a 'wreck-head'. Thailand was more difficult - everything decent was deeper there - but the expeditionary approach was a learning benefit in itself. Subic is wreck heaven - 5 years diving and teaching there means a lot of opportunity to put skills and procedures to use. As you say... a perfect laboratory

TSandM:

One of the decisions UTD has made that I wholeheartedly applaud is this class. Looking back from the other end of cave training, I am extraordinarily happy that I did both GUE Fundamentals and our local wreck workshop before thinking about cave training . . . there is no reason you have to be in an overhead environment to learn buoyancy, trim, position, communication, line skills, or how to cope with zero viz. And since, for most of us, open water is much easier to reach than caves or caverns, why not learn this basic stuff there, and practice it there, so that when you get to the caves, you don't have to spend time learning these things?

I did several months of "diving lessons" with AG a few years back. Training with him is not always comfortable, but it is ALWAYS a learning experience. And you don't have to be perfect . . . you have to show improvement, and potential, and good judgment. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work with him, and you were lucky, too.

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I agree, Lynne, diving with AG can be very humbling but always a big learning experience.

The weakness of the UTD wreck course here in Calif is that there are no suitable wrecks shallow enough to start the training on, hence the general prerequisite course Overhead Protocols. The Yukon Destroyer in San Diego at 24 to 27 meters depth is way too deep, IMO, to safely practice the contingency scenarios & drills you need to learn. (And it's financially and logistically inconvenient to start the class in open water up in Monterey, and then travel over 300 miles to the south for the Yukon wreck in San Diego some weeks later to practice on an actual wreck)

Contrary to what Lynne said above, you DO need an overhead diving environment to practice on for learning reinforcement, as soon as you complete the drills on land, preferably nearby and within the same day. In Subic Bay, there is a wide body cargo airplane fuselage wreck at barely 6 meters depth (Andy -the one in front of Vasco's Resort), where my team spent nearly two hours practicing drills & contingency scenarios, all in the afternoon right after the morning classroom and land drills (i.g. line laying and then following out with blind-folded eyes, etc) on Day 1.


http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/wr...al-wreck-course-subic-bay-25-30-nov-06-a.html

OFF TOPIC

Pity the coastal water around Philippines is so deep otherwise there would be plenty of very interesting wrecks from Aircraftcarriers , Super Battleship to whatever imaginable eg. Ormoc Bay has at least 5 Jap destroyers + 1 USS destroyer(Cooper) but none is shallower than 100m.

DevonDiver:

(For the OP - if you have time, how does my clinic measure up against the UTD course on paper?)

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I'll add my 2 cents.

At least in my experience, the mechanical skills such as using a reel were the least of the course. Fundamentally, Sheck Exley's rules for survival + 1 are taught, as are protocol for blind communication on a line, lost buddy, lost line, etc. But once you hit the water, it soon turn to a bloodbath (in a good way).

I can't really tell from your outline (and it's probably not also obvious from UTD's, though I haven't read it recently), but the UTD OHP class is significantly about compounding failures across a dive time.

The initial failure common across all scenarios is obviously vision. From what I understand, UTD no longer allows instructors to take masks; they have to ask for them. That wasn't the case when I took it. Andrew merely came up from behind and took it. That was your signal to deploy the blacked out mask. In retrospect, that time between losing the good mask and putting on the bad one allowed me to mentally prepare for what shenanigans would follow. Perhaps rather than taping over a backup mask, it would be better for instructors to carry something like aluminum foil so they could come up, wrap it on a student's mask, and in one fell swoop kill the vis.

But I digress. From that point on, it's following line protocol while handling additional failures. Maybe the guy in the middle gets bubbles blown. That's a personal skill. First he has to remember to keep a hand on the line while diagnosing the valves. Let's just say it's right post not fixable, he figures it out, shuts down, switches regs, and signals the team to keep going. Now maybe the person in the back goes out of gas. Now (blind) she has to tell the guy in the middle she needs gas. Per protocol she'll reach up and take it, but since it's bungeed she won't be able to, so they'll have to swap positions while maintaining line contact and exit orientation so she can get gas from the guy in front. Now maybe the line gets cut, so the train has to stop while the guy in front who is now sharing to the girl behind him has to deploy a spool, tie into the broken line, go find the other end of it, tie in, and exit.

In all honesty, we didn't succeed with the broken line. Rather, this happened:

But in fairness, I don't know if many people would in the same circumstances (line is tied to orange camping stakes stuck into the sand, a little too much tugging or tension will pull it out, and there's about 5 foot lateral surge, and we're wearing either dry gloves or heavy wet gloves that make very difficult to feel line at all when it isn't extremely taut, let alone broken).

In any case, it was one of the most valuable classes I've taken even though I rarely actually penetrate (while I did continue through the wreck penetration class, there's simply not much opportunity around here). It kicked my ass all three days.