New PSd Team

[Mverick]

With a 80,000 $ budget.

I'd get a Kirby Morgan 17k Hard hat and do surface support. Throw in a Surface box with com system in it and 200ft of line. Use a harness with a 30cf tank for bailout. Get 3 bailouts. For spares No BC... And between 40 and 90lbs per diver. No BC. Get Pulled up and Dropped down. We actually use them in all water types. It's not that big a deal once you're used to it.. And they are Super safe.. Compared to normal scuba.

Your safety divers would wear normal scuba with a Kirby Band Mask if contaminated. Bc's would be Either. Back inflate or regular. I use my own Transpac 2... Just because it's extra...

For Rescue. Divers carry there own gear in vehicle. And Always wait to have enough people to tend them and back them up. Or there dead...

Oh, Use a Harness and line on all divers. Not just hooking to his BC... Very important.. 2 tenders for each diver. One man running com box. One recorder for time and air and tank switches. One person making a map of area from the paterns and sweeps you're running.. One diver in means one diver ready and geard up. And one on stand by with gear ready to go.

Lot to it. Depending on what you're doing.

Boats depend on area. We have big river johns. Small standard V hull aluminum. And Boston Whaler.. Had a 42ft houseboat but team was going broke and had to sell....

1 ton pickup dually 4 wheel drive. With a 12,000lb winch. Club Cab. And a Panel Van to tow all the gear with. And a extra boat. We put in 2 alot of times. One for the diver. One for running to get stuff... Or even setting anchors..

Well. Boats and Vehicles might go over budget. Ours are used. But I'm a real big supporter of Hard Hats over the Masks. Sticks and logs can't jam you in the head. Makes it nice. They take a little getting used to though...

And 30min to 1 hour in water. Depending on temp and conditions. We've stayed in for 3 hours before. Shallow and weak current. Warm too..

Been in for 30min with Heavy fast current. And it was 32Degrees F... COLD>>>> LOL

30 min isn't a lot of time to keep a diver in.

I can't even come close to telling you what you need total. We have a huge amount. But we also dive our own gear.

I wouldn't buy the Best breathing regs. SP's are known to Free flow in Cold water. I haven't had a problem with mine. But you don't wanna find out during a Rescue or Recovery do you??? Maybe a Blizzard. There pretty cheap. I use Apeks... And never had a freeze or free flow...

It ain't really fun.. But, I like it.. Kinda giving something back. I have around 20 to 30 thousand in gear. It ain't cheap. And I paid for all of it.. Nice to get grants for the gear. But, as a Diver for a team. You can also write your gear off on your taxes if you all sign paperwork OK'ing using your own gear.

Our team is voulanteer also. No money... :11:

 

[Mverick]

Oh, and you don't need expensive BC's. You're gonna tear em up... Fishing hooks and metal will eat them up... Just get cheap and good.

Tech with lots of d rings. Means alot of things to get tangled underwater..

Stick to basics.

Remember KISS
Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

It will keep you alive..

 

[mntdiver]

"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."

Gary,

I'm not sure what you mean by "AGA style". There's only one AGA, the Interspiro Divator MKII. And it's low profile. The side mounted exhaust is excellent in strong currents since there's no purge in the front. Add to that the five point strapping system and you see why NFPA 1670 describes this mask to a tee. I've dived the AGA in extreme currents from Tacoma Narrows and Colorado River to the Cooper Estuary. Never had a single worry about the mask. Plus there's no way to add comms to the Cressi...

 

[mntdiver]

A lot of the PSD's around here use the Ocean Reef Neptune II full face mask with underwater communications. Lets you talk to other divers and topside.
Just my $0.02
Bob

Ocean Reef Neptune II. Well... I had to re-write this to not sound critical. Let's say, not the quality of equipment that will withstand the rigors of Public Safety Diving. No offense, but, $0.02 is about all their worth...

 

[wcsddvr]

Personally, I use a BP/Harness setup. I am a PSD with a local Sheriff's Dept. I am also certified to Adv. Nitrox/Deco. and an SSI Dive CON.

In my diving career I have used MANY equipment configurations including jacket and back inflate BC's. My first harness was a DiveRite Deluxe harness which has no adjustment. In the die hard (DIR/GUE) tech community, this harness is frowned upon...(rubbish). I wanted more adjustment for quicker DON/DOFF and did not want to have 2 complete sets of equipment. Recently I purchased a DiveRite Transplate with a Set of Rec wings for single tank and standard wings for twin tanks. I have conducted dives in shallow water as well as a body recovery in 120 feet...flexibility is key for me. Also, the backplate adds 6 pounds to the diver, thus the ability to remove weight.

ScubaPro is great equipment. I agree with the mask thing though. Our team uses AGA with wired Comm. (we're teathered anyways). In ScubaPro I would suggest the MK25/G250HP. Great breather in all depth ranges and a large second stage for easy manipulation with gloves, etc. I have a Nighthawk and prefer BP/Harness for working dives.

Another option is to look at Aqualung. Aqualung/DRI has a Public Safety discount on all gear. I personally like the Apeks TX50 reg. Aqualung owns Apeks, Seaquest, any seceral other diving companies.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

I am new to the whole dive thing as is 4 of the 5 five divers we are trying to outfit. we will be strictly a search and recovery team with each diver being asigned his own gear. as for the reason for scuba pro, the two closest dive team in our area both use scuba pro. as i said earlier this equipment will be bought with federal grant money, so it has to be maintaned or replace when it needs to be. we are also getting the reef neptuneII. but for our basic certifications we are looking for a really good reg, not just a middle of the road one.

I am a career FF and recreational diver. So I am not an expert in PSD. That said, I have to express some concern with your comments about inexperienced personel taking to the water as part of a new rescue/recovery team. It reminds me of the early haz-mat days when every little department had to run out and throw some class A suits on a converted Coke truck. Diving is not a simple matter of switching to under-water capable SCBA. Equipment (while important!) should be secondary to training and experience in the water. Think of it this way: Would you staff an engine with 4 guys fresh out of the academy? Of course not -- you staff 4 engines with one probie each.

I don't know if the local politics permit, but I wonder if any of your neighbouring departments with an experienced team would consider a multi-year mutual aid deal, wherin you supply personel and equipment to augment their team while they offer experience and training to your people until you have sufficient numbers to form your own team? Just my $0.02. Perhaps someone else here has experience in the start-up of a new team and can offer better guidance, but it almost sounds like you are putting the cart before the horse.

As far as regulators go, my brother is a commercial diver and has been unhappy with the performance of ScubaPro under demanding conditions. When it came time to purchase my own equipment, I listened to advice similar to that offered in this thread and went with the Sherwood Blizzard. Tough and reliable in cold, dirty water. Of course, being a rec diver, I don't have a need for helmets and comms...

 

[gjmmotors]

As far as regulators go, my brother is a commercial diver and has been unhappy with the performance of ScubaPro under demanding conditions. When it came time to purchase my own equipment, I listened to advice similar to that offered in this thread and went with the Sherwood Blizzard. Tough and reliable in cold, dirty water. Of course, being a rec diver, I don't have a need for helmets and comms...

I only dive with scubapro regs. If you use a sealed diaphragm type reg(such as mk-16) You will not have a problem with freezing. Most freezing here takes place when you surface breathe the regulator. Considering scubapro has a parts replacement warranty,(everytime you do the service the parts are free) its not that bad of a deal. And if you want scubapro and you dont care abt the warranty, some online places have them pretty cheap.
-g mount

 

[f&rdiver241]

I am a career FF and recreational diver. So I am not an expert in PSD. That said, I have to express some concern with your comments about inexperienced personel taking to the water as part of a new rescue/recovery team. It reminds me of the early haz-mat days when every little department had to run out and throw some class A suits on a converted Coke truck. Diving is not a simple matter of switching to under-water capable SCBA. Equipment (while important!) should be secondary to training and experience in the water. Think of it this way: Would you staff an engine with 4 guys fresh out of the academy? Of course not -- you staff 4 engines with one probie each.

I don't know if the local politics permit, but I wonder if any of your neighbouring departments with an experienced team would consider a multi-year mutual aid deal, wherin you supply personel and equipment to augment their team while they offer experience and training to your people until you have sufficient numbers to form your own team? Just my $0.02. Perhaps someone else here has experience in the start-up of a new team and can offer better guidance, but it almost sounds like you are putting the cart before the horse.

As far as regulators go, my brother is a commercial diver and has been unhappy with the performance of ScubaPro under demanding conditions. When it came time to purchase my own equipment, I listened to advice similar to that offered in this thread and went with the Sherwood Blizzard. Tough and reliable in cold, dirty water. Of course, being a rec diver, I don't have a need for helmets and comms...

let me restate our teams position. we are all new to the psd world, but we are also not as ignorant(for lack of a better term) as the guys of the early haz-mat days. we have been handling drownings ever since i got into the fire service 7 years ago. so we are planning on using the old school tactics we use today until our team gets up and going. currently we are looking into the proper equipment to purchase. we will begin our PADI Basic OW class the end of the month, then we will take PADI AOW and DRI's Dive Rescue 1. we are not even considering taking calls until this team is set up properly and ever member is 100% comfortable and trained to handle the equipment and situation. we will be doing a lot of training dives in the real world conditions that we will be fielding calls in. we will not be sending guys into the water that just learned to dive. we are currently looking at taking calls this time next year. training is what our department is built on, we have one of the best trained departments in the state. our guys average 1600 training hours per man, so we are not scared to go to school and learn the correct way to do things.we also will be operating as a recovery only team for some time until we get every member of the team train to dive. and with the all the ODP funded schools out there every depatment should be very up to date on haz-mat training. even the little guys like use. we only have 36 guys total on shift, 3 shifts 12 men per shift.

 

[sauga]

I'm inclined to agree with derwoodwithasherwood. I imagine that these are DHS funds and need to be spent within some timeframe, but without the training first, you really have no informed perspective from which to base your equipment choices. I'm sure you remember your first few fires, you were so absorbed in the moment that you may not have been completely aware of your equipment and surroundings. Then, after some experience, you stated thinking about nozzle patterns and experimented with fog, strait stream, etc. So, based on training and experience, you now know what nozzle and pattern to use on a given fire. When your sales rep comes along selling the latest Task Force Tip, Gods gift to firefighting, you simple pull out the pumper, hook it up to a hose, and put it through the paces. SCUBA gear is kind of the same way. Our dept. likes MSA, others like Scotts. But we tried them both (a couple others, too) and went with the one that was the best match for us. People (and salesmen...)will give their opinions and recommendations, but it's ultimately you down there breathing off the equipment. Get the benefit of trying different equipment.

So, get the OW training first, then consider the equipment. You'll have plenty of time to use it in your AOW, Rescue, etc. classes.

Stay safe, brother.

John

 

[bridgediver]

then we will take PADI AOW and DRI's Dive Rescue 1.

I know you are discussing equipment here but have you looked at other alternatives in your training plan? I'm not associated with Lifeguard Systems but it may be worth your while to have a look at them.
pm me and I could give you some details if you're interested