GUE Tech 1 August 15-21st w/ Bob Sherwood

[ScubaFeenD]

The following is a class report for GUE Technical Diver Level 1 class taken with Bob Sherwood (and Karim Hamza, Errol Kalayci, and Fraser Purdon) at the St Lawrence River. I was so impressed that I will try an provide a description of the class, some pictures, and a comparison to other technical training I have taken.

Prior to Class: I had had some sport trimix training this previous January which got me used to technical diving concepts and allowed me to get some Tech 1 level dives in prior to class. I had taken the class and enjoyed it, but now realize that there is so much more to learn.

Day 0: A few weeks prior to class Bob, me, and my teammates met at our local quarry (Dutch Springs) to get some of the formalities out of the way and to talk more about logistics, since getting oodles of Trimix up to the American side of the St Lawrence (which barely has nitrox) was going to be a huge endeavor. It was at this time that we learned that Karim Hamza, Fraser Purdon, and Errol Kalayci would be there to assist for different GUE organizational reasons (which I prefer not to go into here). So logistics would be especially complicated/important considering there would be not only the three students, but also bob, and a filmographer, two other GUE instructors and one intern. You read that right, there would be 7-8 people there diving at any given time.

After we talked we got in the water and started with the Swim tests, and the followed up wtih 2.5 hours learning and practicing the toxing diver rescue over and over. The team had a mix of big and small people to practice on with a variety of tanks. One of my buddies (who I aptly nicknamed sasquatch) also likes to wear HP130s. Needless to say he was heavy and we all learned an extremely valuable lesson regarding the need for a balanced rig when my 40lb wing wouldn’t lift the both of us during my stint as victim and his position as rescuer. The Balanced Rig is so hugely important for so many reasons, and after practicing a bit the toxing diver rescue became pretty easy on anyone.

--Intermission while attending the Brockville Invasion with the Blanchard/Canadian crew—

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Day 1: Bright an early; class/the week started on an overcast Monday at 8am. We started with lecture and then went right into land drills discussing failures of an isolated manifold. It was the best coverage of manifold failures I have ever heard and helped parse multiple problems into classes of problems with discrete solutions—this was far better than in any other training I have received. There was no shortage of questions, answers were plentiful, and everyone had useful input to help the understanding and absorption of information. It was then time to put what we learned to use.

The first day in the water was kind of a mess. Fundamental skills were refined even further and complicated failures while running line over a weedy and extremely silty bottom made mistakes in failure resolution into CFs that needed to be sorted out. I would call the first day a significant learning opportunity for the rest of the week. It was the worst performance of the week for sure, but surprisingly things were to get so much harder as the week progressed.

Day 2: After licking our wounds from day one we got up bright an early again to start class at 8am. We would do lecture then off to the water for another 2-3 hours of diving. We would discuss where Bob wanted us to be and what we needed to work on while trying to maintain proper team, line awareness, and problem resolution while not creating more problems than we started with. The first day was light, but Bobs ability to inflict one problem that would turn into a CF is truly astounding. He would constantly apply pressure to any perceived weakness while trying to form cracks in our strengths. One particular attempt to cause team separation was brilliant and devious, and I have so much more respect for Bobs ability to create problems than ever before—the good news was even when he tried team separation never got more than 2ft, and trust me that was amazing considering what was done to try and cause the separation.

After 4 dives we surfaced and each instructor had their go at what they saw that could be improved upon and then Bob added his “big picture” things that needed resolution for the next day. We finished up in the water, hobbled back to our vehicles, got dinner as a group and went back for more lectures. HW was distributed and we prepared for another day. The good news was that we were making enough progress to move on to the next step.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Day 3 and 4

Day 3: Like the previous days it was an early start, but instead of going right to lecture in the morning, the third day was spent almost entirely in the water; diving from 9-5. We were right on schedule skill wise and we were to start ascent/descent actions in the st Lawrence rive proper, which (as you might have guessed) required movement against the river while also doing everything else. This day was mild though which would be expected as Bob ramped up the pressure everyday--it always felt like were weren’t improving, but the conditions were always getting more difficult.

We did timed ascents and descents, which are not overly difficult if good buoyancy control is present. It does get complicated as you manage the line, failures, buoyancy, team, and finning. The goal was to have exact control over position on the x, y, and z axis. We weren’t perfect, but we did fairly well.

The afternoon was occupied with site lecture for bottle switches (which land drills covered) and decompression was introduced. We got back into the water and did more ascent descend drills while managing failures and additionally managing a decompression schedule (artificial at this point). We were expected to be on time no matter what was happening. Team, awareness, and quick thinking were key to performing this well! After a little argument regarding dealing with lost deco gas we surfaced with huge laughs about the underwater “discussions” that took place….video review was absolutely hilarious this night and thanks to me everyone in the group learned the F-off hand signal :-D It was a day of solid performance and was a much needed ego/confidence booster.

Day 4: Another early day, and another day of all day in water time. This was the last day before the experience dives and our performance on this day would determine if we were truly ready to take the next step or whether we needed some remedial work. We focused more on decompression, and bottle work, which would round out what we had been focusing on the whole time. More than just up and downs, Bob expected a the combined experience from the week to guide decision making, control in the water column, comfort in the water, and the correct decisions regarding how best to get onto the deco gas, how to deal with contingency management, and navigation. It was stressful and not easy to maintain awareness with lost gases, air sharing, bag shoots, navigational decisions, silt outs, line that disappears, and contingency deco obligation management. Further, much of the dive was in extremely elevated current (the instructors keenly used Gavins to maintain their position; we had only our fins and each other). While not perfect we handled it well and made it to the surface…ready for the experience dives.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

The Experience Dives: Meant as a way to put everything together the experience dives allowed my teammate and I to plan dives, execute them, and practice everything we had learned. These were not cake walks though, because the current as a whole was up in the river, and so our First dive on the AE Vickery was quite tiring.

Our last two dives were on the Roy A Jodrey, which sits in 250’ of water. It’s a beautiful wreck and I was happy to share the experience with old and new friends alike. We found out our fate at the 20ft stop on the last dive, and Bob let us know in a very classy way—--what an end to the last dive of an amazing class. The celebration on the surface on the last day, while in the pouring rain on an empty river, was fun and the day couldn’t have been better. It was a somber, exciting, bittersweet end to an amazing week of diving and learning that I hope I will never forget.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Summary: When I first heard how many GUE instructors would be in attendance at my class I joked that it would be the mini-GUE conference of 2011. It was a great fun though. We had oodles of in water time to practice and learn while having the perspectives and input from men with combined experience of at least 20,000 dives all over the world from the back of Wakulla to 300+ft ocean dives. Having all the time to hang out with and have fun with the instructor corps was really value added, and it let me get to know instructors I might not have necessarily met.

Bob was an amazing instructor and he really made the information available. He focused on big picture ideas (ie don’t get frustrated, keep awareness high, GET OFF THE BOTTOM) while using specific examples to teach—it was truly optimal for learning. He also has a truly disturbing talent at creating the perfect failures, and I am not just referring to failures for the sake of failures but I am speaking to finely directed failures that are meant to truly teach and prepare a student—not just task load them. Last, Bob was truly impressive managing the logistics of filling gas every night, having food available, scheduling lecture. Im not sure there are any other instructors I know with the energy, determination, and skill to manage so many tasks while still provided a superb course. It was truly amazing and he deserves a ton of credit for the logistics alone.

It was an awesome week and the resources available were amazing. A special thanks to Karim, Fraser, and Errol for all your guidance, help, pep talks, and information sharing. Having you all there was truly a treat, and help make for an awesome week. A class with any of those instructors would be a treat for any student.

In closing, I would like to add a few suggestions for any prospective Tech 1 students. First, make sure that your tech pass isn’t something you earned while stressed. I know lots of people that are using every bit of awareness underwater to make the fundamentals eval dive into a tech pass. What helped me was having the skills necessary for a fundamentals tech eval down pat. The eval skills should be second nature and easy, and still within 4-5 (preferably a 5). Second, focus on the fundamentals. I thought bottle work and deco training would be necessary to being successful in the class, but I was wrong. All anyone really needs its extremely solid fundamental skills and they can be successful in any tech 1 course. Just prior to tech 1 I switched to a dry suit and dove it ~25 times focusing on getting control and practicing the fundamentals, and that was more helpful than anything else, but it was the fundamental skills that were key to being successful.

 

[ScubaSam]

Tim - I enjoyed reading your very detailed class report, summary and advice. How could the class be anything less than stellar with multiple GUE instructors in the water.

Congratulations to you and your teammates. Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Scott L]

Nice write-up! Thankfully, you did not succome to stage-fright with all those big name instructors...

 

[lamont]

After we talked we got in the water and started with the Swim tests, and the followed up wtih 2.5 hours learning and practicing the toxing diver rescue over and over. The team had a mix of big and small people to practice on with a variety of tanks. One of my buddies (who I aptly nicknamed sasquatch) also likes to wear HP130s. Needless to say he was heavy and we all learned an extremely valuable lesson regarding the need for a balanced rig when my 40lb wing wouldn’t lift the both of us during my stint as victim and his position as rescuer. The Balanced Rig is so hugely important for so many reasons, and after practicing a bit the toxing diver rescue became pretty easy on anyone.

What exactly was Bob's take on on the 40# wing, double-130s, nitrox, balanced rig issue?

 

[lamont]

In closing, I would like to add a few suggestions for any prospective Tech 1 students. First, make sure that your tech pass isn’t something you earned while stressed. I know lots of people that are using every bit of awareness underwater to make the fundamentals eval dive into a tech pass. What helped me was having the skills necessary for a fundamentals tech eval down pat. The eval skills should be second nature and easy, and still within 4-5 (preferably a 5). Second, focus on the fundamentals. I thought bottle work and deco training would be necessary to being successful in the class, but I was wrong. All anyone really needs its extremely solid fundamental skills and they can be successful in any tech 1 course. Just prior to tech 1 I switched to a dry suit and dove it ~25 times focusing on getting control and practicing the fundamentals, and that was more helpful than anything else, but it was the fundamental skills that were key to being successful.

And +1 on that. Nothing sucks like having way too much of that awareness pie focusing on fundamental skills and/or having remedial fundamentals days in tech courses. The tech courses really aren't that difficult once the fundamentals are truly solidly in place. An instructor once told a buddy of mine that they looked good in the water but they were working way too damn hard at it, and if you are in that situation where you have to work hard to meet the tech pass standards, you're probably going to struggle later if those problems don't get fixed (and of course bob is the master at fixing all those issues, too).

 

[kathydee]

Congratulations Tim! Job well done! Thanks for your detailed report and the tips at the end!