Boater Dan:
As I think you will find, everyone will have an opinion on equipment and it will vary greatly. As Gary indicated, warm water, shallow diving, basically any reg will work well.
On the grander scheme of things, if I were to be given $80,000 for a 10 man/6 diver team, I can tell you the way I would head.
- AGA Masks with comm systems. Since much of the diving will be done in low to no visibility, the comm systems allow the divers to communicate directly if one of the divers were to get into trouble. They allow for diver to diver, diver to surface, and surface to diver communications. The full face masks also provides benefits to contaminated water, swift moving water, lower risk of losing a regulator, etc.. Tethered diving signals can indicate trouble, but not what it is.
- Drysuits- For contamimated water diving, the vulcanized type of suits work well and are easy to decon.
- Pony Bottles with splitter blocks.
- Since Public Safety Divers should be limited to 20 to 25 minute cycles, the tanks can be aluminum 80's.
- Simple guage consoles work. No real need for computers as the cycles and the depths are limited.
- I prefer a back inflate, weight integrated BC. This is not what is generally recommended for PSD, but more of a personal preference.
- Lights and back up lights. Shears and back-up cutting tools.
- Training, Education, Drills, skills maintenance, and start all over.
Well this is much more information than you asked for, you got me excited about having $80K to spend on a PSD team. Generally, we have about $800 to spend.
Learn, dive safe, never do a dive you are not comfortable with performing, and support the other members who also chose not to dive. Recovery is not rescue and waiting for better conditions is not a crime.
Dan
Dan brought up some good points.
It costs us roughly 5-6K to set up each diver on our team with the basics. So 8K isn't out of line at all or for that matter a lot of money when devided by 10.
"- Training, Education, Drills, skills maintenance, and start all over". Read this over and over and stick to it.
" I prefer a back inflate, weight integrated BC. This is not what is generally recommended for PSD". For recovery I'd say OK but for any rescue work, I will use that word I hate NEVER as standard equipment. But there may be a time it happens.
Some of the AGA atyle masks are to high profile to work good in swift water so use caution here. I use a Cressi for swift water. It anchors good and has a small surface area for the current to rip at.
"- Pony Bottles with splitter blocks". They have their place and should be used wisely.
"- Since Public Safety Divers should be limited to 20 to 25 minute cycles, the tanks can be aluminum 80's". Kind of a rule of thumb. Each diver will have his/her own comfort level and working around that is better in my opinion. Where I might be fine at 45 minutes another diver might be exhausted in 15. Take this on a case by case.
"- Simple guage consoles work. No real need for computers as the cycles and the depths are limited". I will disagree here. It is much easier to work with computers. Some can give you a bottom profile which is great for future dive planning and should the need arise in court. In recovery OK but with rescue the computers have made my world a lot safer. There are benifits to both but if the technology is there use it.
"- Lights and back up lights. Shears and back-up cutting tools". YES. Other than rescue I take a light on every working dive. The majority of our dives are at night so we are used to packing them around. My UK main light may or may not go but my smaller back up goes 90+% of the time. Day or night.
" Drysuits- For contamimated water diving, the vulcanized type of suits work well and are easy to decon". Either will be OK and get foamed after a dive. Squeaky clean
. Just stay away from Neoprene, crushed or otherwise. To long a drying time and hard to clean.
I'd work on a 10 diver team and train the rest of your crews in basic surface tending. A diver on both sides of the line has a better understanding of whats going on.
We have a 10 person team. Right now it is 8 because we can't fill the other two positions. It demanding. So much so that roughly half of our department has been on the team in the past. So we have plenty of tenders when needed. All our new hires spend at least a week in marine and part of that time is working with the divers.
Don't judge what your team needs by the team next door. Even if they have like waters and conditions your needs might not be the same. Use that knowledge as your root. Strong roots breed strong plants.
Our surrounding counties are a good example. We have just about everything fresh water can offer including 2 dams and a power plant. Most things we lose stay with us except for the last 6 miles of river. Then it goes to Washington.
To the west they have more dams and power plants, more nasty rivers and a lot of small lakes. They keep about everything.
To the east a few small lakes, alpine lakes and lots of creeks and rivers. Everything they lose in the river comes to us someday.
To the south just a lot of creeks and one major river. They lose it we get it.
So you can see even being next door we have different needs.
Again, Good luck and count the gray hairs now. They will increase.
Gary D.
