Video from a Training Dive with John Chatterton

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Not sure what you are questioning or objecting to here but I am referring to intense self marketing/promotion over the last few decades. Being a famous celebrity explorer doesn't always mean being a good instructor or being better than a less known instructor who is able to "teach" and deliver the knowledge and skill training at a better level than a celebrity instructor. I have taken seminars and courses with dive luminaries only to find out that they sucked as instructors/teachers. They were more interested in self promotion and very good in story telling than actually teaching. This doesn't mean that John is a bad instructor at all, I am merely asking somebody who has first hand experience with taking a course with John what he thought of the course and training they received. I don't think that I have met anyone who has taken a course with John before I read this post.

I hope that John lives up to his reputation and is as good of an instructor as he is an explorer and pioneer in diving.

I took Advanced Wreck thru Trimix with John - fantastic instructor if he's what you're looking for in an instructor. He is not your standard kum ba yah instructor by any means - in fact - I think that's probably why you don't hear people talking about his classes. He's rough raw and real - he has a lot of material for you to ingest and comprehend - he answers any question, is just a normal person and most of all for me at least - he listens to why you want to do something a certain way, he tells you what he honestly thinks about it.

I was in Lake Superior back in July for 7 wreck dives ranging from 120ft to 265ft deep.

If I looked like the divers in this video I would have destroyed hundreds of artifacts (including some human remains) dating back to the 1890s. The boat captain cooperates with the National Park Service to preserve these sites because his business relies on them being pristine. If I looked like this, he probably wouldn't let me dive the most sensitive sites or possibly assigned me a DM to make sure I didn't kick the crap out of or kneel on priceless irreplaceable destination worthy resources like the matches and lifesavers on the Kamloops.

I understand the OP is a student and learning but Chatterton is a horrible role model here - and if he took students this unprepared to these depths also a lackadaisical instructor. I don't care if New Jersey and Atlantic wreck divers are still carrying goodie bags and chisels, they are no longer the norm. Good buoyancy, shooting an SMB, neutral buoyancy, using the right kick to not disturb the floor of the wreck, all these basic skills are (properly) taught in 30ft of water as preparation for decompression and wreck penetration. You don't know what you don't know, but having good midwater skills starts at Intro to Tech or GUE-f or a class like that. And that includes having good role models and mentors so you can have something to aspire to, Chatterton's in water skills are nothing to aspire to.

John isn't teaching you buoyancy skills - he's teaching you survival skills inside wrecks while incurring deco - that's the focus. These dive sites aren't wooden treasures in some national park, I don't think he'd ever approve of those diving methods/styles in any park. He teaches NE down and dirty wreck diving period.

I live in Cozumel, dive in a marine park where we touch nothing - my 12 year old kid has perfect buoyancy and can drift inches over the reefs. There's a time and place for different styles of diving, dragging yourself thru small window openings is kinda fun, pulling yourself verses fining is very different.

So a "famous" instructor talks about how progressive pen. can be safer
Then you don't run a line on your wreck dives in class even though you only have a couple dives (at most) on a given wreck

1) how are your line skills ever going to get better if you don't have (class) supervised practice
2) are you ever going to run a line? I mean it was "safer" in class without one right? How do you develop the judgement to know you need one if you didn't use one on your first dive on a wreck?

The Wreck/AN/Deco class is 9 or 10 dives - there is a lot going on during each dive. Most of the dives averaged a 30 minute bottom time - having 6 students running lines every dive leaves little time for anything else. You really are in sensory overload during his training - lines are run on a few dives, lines were followed on others. Lots of blackout mask work, boom drills etc..... You can't only focus on one thing.

I would expect a good wreck class to include tons of line work. And because you only have a few class dives and no experience yet to make judgement calls about the possibility of doing lineless penetrations - that every one of the class dives would include running a line. If you are in a class environment and the instructor is saying you don't need to run a line you are basically doing a trust me dive.

Again, there's a lot going on every dive - you run lines, follow them, talk about them.......

for sure, and plenty of bodies have been recovered by divers employing "strobe" marking in wrecks.

I didn't even watch the video but I know that particular dive well - the strobe is used as an EXAMPLE. Open your mind up, he isn't teaching strobe only, line only penetrations - he's teaching you tools that are used in different places.
 
+1 to what ChuckP said.
 
John isn't teaching you buoyancy skills - he's teaching you survival skills inside wrecks while incurring deco - that's the focus. These dive sites aren't wooden treasures in some national park, I don't think he'd ever approve of those diving methods/styles in any park. He teaches NE down and dirty wreck diving period.

Open your mind up, he isn't teaching strobe only, line only penetrations - he's teaching you tools that are used in different places.

#1 Sorry buoyancy IS a survival skill
#2 The class was in FL, in big steel tanks and wetsuits (there are other threads to address that issue)
#3 There was no line run anywhere in the Hydro but there was a ton of unnecessary silting.

I could go on but you're going to rationalize whatever and however you learned.
 
I don't believe it's really a question of how long: it only takes a few moments of breathing the wrong gas for it to be fatal. It's by far the easiest mistake to make, yet the most preventable (i.e. by having a robust gas switch protocol that involves a buddy verifying your mix before the reg goes in your mouth).

This class might have been wreck only but it's also taught in combo with AN/Deco - in that you are only taught to carry one deco gas and yes it is checked for proper depth with your buddy. What you aren't seeing is John is a big fan of gas switches on the fly - he really likes to see efficient deco being done - not sure how to describe it. After dives in classroom, we looked at gas switches, where they happened, how it effected your run time etc...

In Tri mix, with multiple deco bottles, you prepared for your gas switch before you left the bottom - again, it goes back to the efficiency he's trying to teach.

He teaches a method, whether you utilize every letter to that method is up to you. There is a lot of stress in the classroom about correct gas switches and the bad results that can occur.

Cool. So you're on the it's ok to kneel to perform basic early technical skills bandwagon? Specifically because they didn't come to him to learn to shoot an smb or drop a stage but to penetrate a wreck? That's scary. There should be a certain level of skill required by any class at that level. Kneeling to perform a task shows a lack of skill. I am on the bandwagon that kneeling for skills should be strictly forbidden from OW classes up. Apparently agencies feel the same way too since they're moving that way.

I personally think that's BS. There's a time and place for everything.

I will concede that a couple of breathes or limited time on the wrong bottle probably won't kill you. I think the issue with John's technique is what is safer? You plan on doing a buddy check on the gas anyway immediately after switching, right? Is it safer to do the buddy check before you put the bad gas in your mouth or after you put the bad gas in your mouth? If you don't plan on doing buddy checks that is one thing, if you actually do plan on doing buddy checks then John's technique is an increased risk (even if minor) for ABSOLUTELY no reason. Staying on your back gas a minute longer 100% won't kill you. Breathing the wrong gas for a minute might not kill you, but it is not 100% won't kill you.

Yes his method of gas switching is riskier - it's a choice that is talked about in class. It's a method you can choose to do or not do.

It seems like everyone who's taken a class with him says he's fabulous
and everyone else, based on your video and others

questions what was so amazing about the instruction if your buoyancy, trim, kicks, SMB, linework and other basic skills seem to be below what we expect from intro to tech students.

I know in the classes I took with him, we never once talked about style points - well we talked and laughed about them. He teaches buoyancy, fining etc in ITT - wreck diving class is more of a wrestling type class.

John focuses a lot on CO2, much more so in the deeper classes but it's high on his list of priorities. I call it lazy diving, call it whatever you want. There is an underlying method that he wants you doing the absolute minimum effort underwater - why be neutral fining into the current if you can kneel - why fin your way thru a passageway when you can pull yourself along? CO2 CO2 CO2 bad bad bad - he says something related to CO2 about every five minutes - maybe that's a partial reason he teaches the way he does.

I noticed two issues, the first, which as mentioned in the narration, was that the initial ascent rate was fast. It looked to be around 60 feet per minute for a full minute - going from 130 to around 60 feet. I often do the first 30 feet of an ascent that fast, but generally not for 60 feet. Was the computer complaining about that?

The other question, I had was about the technique of BC inflation and putting air in the smb at depth. I don't think I would have any questions about that, IF the smb was released at depth. However, presumably the diver is neutral or close to it on the wreck, he dumps most or all of his air into the smb, As indicated in the narrative, this preserves the perfectly neutral condition. However, this seems to be a potential big problem.

What happens on ascent? The smb is expanded and pulling the diver up and he has little or no opportunity to vent the smb. I can see how, depending on the amount of air added to the smb at depth, that this could cause an ascent to get out of hand quickly. If the diver were using a BC and dry suit, he might have to be dumping air from three different sources to control things. I didn't notice you venting the smb on ascent. I really don't see any benefit in this.

I would think, it would be preferable to either add a little air at depth and let it go, or ascend to a reasonable stop depth and inflate the smb and let it go, but carrying a partially full smb that is expanding during a good portion of the ascent seems to add task loading and potential negative consequences for zero benefit that I can identify. Is this issue partially why the ascent was kinda fast from 130 to 60 or so? Is there a benefit to partially filling and then carrying the smb?

And I should mention, the OP should be recognized for exercising considerable patience while receiving a lot of less than positive feedback on this thread.


A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A Moderator is taking the liberty of singling out this excellent observation with boldface. @Zack-Bloom is to be congratulated for keeping this thread on a very even keel, despite some not-so-veiled criticism.

The SMB elevator - complicated stuff with many things that can go wrong but when you get it figured out, it's an art. Again, it's big picture teaching I think. Transfer wing air to SMB while you're neutral and start heading up - it doesn't take long before the SMB and air in your BC are pulling you up - you watch your computer to monitor speed - vent your BC to adjust and release the SMB when you hit the depth you want - oh yeah - do your first gas switch while all this is going on..... Complicated

It's what he teaches - do it or don't do it - your choice. It comes back to his broad thoughts of reduced physical effort and efficiency in your deco. There's a lot of talk in class about ascent rates, how they effect your deco obligation, the ATM delta and how at greater depths you should really be ascending faster...... It's a skill that is taught for a reason - it's a complex skill - it's a skill that I don't really know if it applies to 150' dives as much as it applies to 300' dives. I don't square profile dive much, I practice it when I can because I think it's fun, I like the complexities - I don't really dive to depths that a slow ascent kills my deco obligation.

John certainly isn't for everyone. John is in no way set in his ways, some old school diver - I think he's quite the opposite. He has a wealth of real world experience - he does things because they work for him, not because everyone else does. If you want to do something different, just ask him, explain your reasons, he'll talk it through with you and you might just be suprised that he understands and agrees with you. Pretty funny story when after six or so dives with him, he asked me why I had a seven foot hose...........I don't think the man is trying to impress anyone, flaunt anything - I think he cares about you living to dive another day and tries to teach you the skills and reasoning behind them.

Hopefully will be back there diving with him the end of October for some more fun if there's room on the boat.
 
#1 Sorry buoyancy IS a survival skill
#2 The class was in FL, in big steel tanks and wetsuits (there are other threads to address that issue)
#3 There was no line run anywhere in the Hydro but there was a ton of unnecessary silting.

I could go on but you're going to rationalize whatever and however you learned.

If buoyancy is a needed all the time survival skill, the morgue here in Cozumel has got to be full.

Heck yes, as an instructor, I want and will teach you in neutral trim, John on the other hand, he don't give a chit about it other than the ITT class.

I can say from a student point of view, I lost nothing in the class being taught kneeling. It allowed me to focus more on the task at hand verses adding another task. It was more convenient and orderly with the amount of stuff we were doing every dive.

Cool country we live in, we're all entitled to our own opinions.

The Hydro - I didn't watch the video but it's the last dive of that class so it's more of a culmination of things. I can almost close my eyes and go thru that dive. The dive is a pre planned route thru the ship, gone over in class and it covers a considerable distance - there is one section at the end that really could run a line thru but that's where he uses the strobe example. Our dives at least, we enter the engine room thru upper hatches, exit into the hold area (160' region), thru the hold at depth, one person set a strobe at the upcoming exit point then it was up to the coffin and down thru that stairwell across the bottom over to that hole where the strobe was set then out. The bottom time plan the class comes up with will be 25 minutes - the dive is broke into 3/4 parts - go to engine room, thru engine room, thru hold and finally thru coffin. The distance covered is long, the time is short. I remember there always being one instructor (John) and at least two more assistants spread among the group. It's a deep dive, one that he has an exemption or something from TDI to be able to do, and it's on air.

The line running skills, blackout mask etc are done on the shallower wrecks - I suppose it's safer. The Hydro is really the fun dive of the class - one reason I'm going back for the week.
 
I think, the discussion about buoyancy vs no-buoyancy or line work vs no line work somehow misses the point here. I entered Jonhn's AWTT class as a Full Cave certified diver. I knew how to use reels and spools and everything, as my cave instructor was really meticulous. John even jocked that I was brainwashed with hovering and flat trim as all sidemount divers are. I expected the wreck course to be more of the same, but it wasn't. "Thou shalt hover" and "Thou shalt not touch" were not the supreme comandments here. I had to discover that not always this was the most practical approach. We did the line drills and I had to find my way in and out of the wreck blindfolded, using a spool. However, it was obvious that a line is not John's tool of choice because of additional risk of entanglement and slowing him down. I would say - understanding ships in general, studying the wreck beforehand, knowing your route and keeping your plan in your head or in your wetnotes is on top of his hierarchy. Other navigation tools are just supplements. As far as I could observe, he prefers strobes over lines. I guess, no one can deny that it has worked quite well for him, no? Thusly it apears to be a legit aproach to the wreck diving. If John's disciples would dive wrecks as he does - what's the big problem with that?​
 
That statement can really be a problem and get you in a lot of trouble depending on how it's meant. I don't do much wreck diving so I won't talk about lines vs no lines. Regardless, I have several friends that have said something similar about cave diving. They tell me that what's taught in class isn't "real cave diving". They try to justify things such as blind jumps in well known parts of the cave because if you've been there enough you know that part of the cave and that the cave divers they know that have been diving for many years or "real cave divers" do it with no problem. What they're not seeing is that's complacency, not how it's done in the real world. Why am I addressing that statement? Because I see an instructor in your video that's letting things go that never should be allowed at that level. That makes me start to wonder if when he's teaching "real diving" or is he just teaching you lazy complacent diving. Based on the video I think there's a good chance it's the complacent way he's teaching you because that's what's "worked for him for years" (as my cave friends tried to convince me). At this stage of your diving, I think there's alot that you don't know you don't know. So what may seem like "real diving" may actually be really dangerous.

Again, I'm not trying to pick on you. It's John Chatterton that is the problem in the video. When I was first learning technical diving years ago I was taught some things I took as gospel. Now years later I shake my head at the ridiculousness. It would be great to see what you think about this video after 150 wreck dives under your belt.

Out of curiosity did you guys talk about the merits of doing that depth of dive on a helium enriched gas? Air at that depth inside a wreck doesn't seem very safe. I would hope at least it would have been discussed as not ideal by your instructor. Unfortunately alot of old school instructors think it's OK.

And did everyone pass?

rddvet, May we assume that the dive count on your profile is incorrect and that you have achieved more than 99 dives?
 
I think the OP made a great video with wonderful narration. I really enjoyed watching it so thank you for sharing it with us.

I do have to say that as a Navy veteran, I am a wreck head! It is one of my main passions in diving and as such JC stands out as a legend. However watching this video I cringed many times. Not at what they students did as they were students but at what was allowed to happen. Not what I expected from one of John's courses.

I see a lot of people saying it is ok to kneel on the steel wreck but never on coral. To me this makes no sense as the wreck itself is full of life that kneeling can and will kill.

Anyway, thanks for sharing and giving me things to think about as it relates to how I dive wrecks and how I teach a wreck course. This was a learning experience I very much appreciate.
 
@Zack-Bloom many kudos to you! The video and narration are great. The way you've dealt with the criticism is a testament to you as a person and no doubt, the diver that you are, as well as, the diver that you will become.

You are a wonderful addition to the Scubaboard membership, and I for one really hope you will stick around and be a regularly contributing member.

Thanks again for sharing your video.
 
Wow, the kid got to take a wreck dive coarse with a legendary wreck diver. He
wants to share what he considered a once in a life time experience. Why do you feel the need to come [Mod edit] in and criticize?
Mod: Editorial comment withdrawn

Thanks Zack, It was legendary moderating too! I'm in US next November & December I might look that course up, when there. Regards
 
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