The first day of training went very well.
0800 everyone is at the Marine building. We shoot the bull and play around on the new barge for a while. Lots of neat ideas surfaced about it and everyone is excited we have it.
Around 0900 we head for Hayden Lake and find more ice than we wanted. But a few passes with the jet boat opened up the area.
First off everyone did basic skills in 10 feet of 37df water. Off with the mask, off and on with the BC, share air several ways and free any buoyant assents. Everyone did very good, better than I thought in the cold water.
Then some line searching with new bodies. They also did better than expected and caught on quickly.
Mexican food was next in line.
Back at the lake we set up a rope course with 3 150 legs. One of three of us would observe one diver at a time. They had to maneuver along the line and make two 90-degree turns. They had a short piece of line attached to the main line. At each turn they had to undo it, move it past the anchor and continue to the end.
Sound easy? They had foil in their mask to black it out and the attending diver kept fouling them with rope, fishing line, and some pipe debris on the bottom.
Everyone had so much fun they did it again. I was very proud of the team. They kept their cool, took charge of the task put before them and continued to the end without hesitation.
What they didnt realize is two of us had agreed that the better they did the rougher we would make it. A couple of the guys got a treatment that would make Navy Dive Training seem easy. But they were like the little engine that could and they did.
The last one was so efficient at it that he was clipped to a 90# cement anchor. It didnt take him long to figure out he couldnt get free, but he could move the anchor. He packed that thing the full 150 leg right to the ending point as if the anchor wasnt there. The average time for everyone was 10 minutes give or take a couple. Anchor boy did it in 14 minutes and he never realized that when he started moving the anchor we had already unhooked him. Had he noticed he was free we would have just re-hooked him
Maximum depth was only 15. That shallow depth was so anyone having a buoyancy issue could work on it.
Everyone had a ball and wants more of what we did today. Ask and you shall receive. Tomorrow is more of a play day and not as intense as today was. Next month it will be the gear in the bay drills.
Took some pics and Ill post them when they come back.
Gary D.
0800 everyone is at the Marine building. We shoot the bull and play around on the new barge for a while. Lots of neat ideas surfaced about it and everyone is excited we have it.
Around 0900 we head for Hayden Lake and find more ice than we wanted. But a few passes with the jet boat opened up the area.
First off everyone did basic skills in 10 feet of 37df water. Off with the mask, off and on with the BC, share air several ways and free any buoyant assents. Everyone did very good, better than I thought in the cold water.
Then some line searching with new bodies. They also did better than expected and caught on quickly.
Mexican food was next in line.
Back at the lake we set up a rope course with 3 150 legs. One of three of us would observe one diver at a time. They had to maneuver along the line and make two 90-degree turns. They had a short piece of line attached to the main line. At each turn they had to undo it, move it past the anchor and continue to the end.
Sound easy? They had foil in their mask to black it out and the attending diver kept fouling them with rope, fishing line, and some pipe debris on the bottom.
Everyone had so much fun they did it again. I was very proud of the team. They kept their cool, took charge of the task put before them and continued to the end without hesitation.
What they didnt realize is two of us had agreed that the better they did the rougher we would make it. A couple of the guys got a treatment that would make Navy Dive Training seem easy. But they were like the little engine that could and they did.
The last one was so efficient at it that he was clipped to a 90# cement anchor. It didnt take him long to figure out he couldnt get free, but he could move the anchor. He packed that thing the full 150 leg right to the ending point as if the anchor wasnt there. The average time for everyone was 10 minutes give or take a couple. Anchor boy did it in 14 minutes and he never realized that when he started moving the anchor we had already unhooked him. Had he noticed he was free we would have just re-hooked him
Maximum depth was only 15. That shallow depth was so anyone having a buoyancy issue could work on it.
Everyone had a ball and wants more of what we did today. Ask and you shall receive. Tomorrow is more of a play day and not as intense as today was. Next month it will be the gear in the bay drills.
Took some pics and Ill post them when they come back.
Gary D.
