Special Training to do Swim Throughs?
- Thread starter BDSC
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miketsp
Contributor
I've had an o-ring blow at 22m and it actually takes quite a long time to empty the tank provided the tank is more than half full. Certainly enough to get out of a typical Caribbean swim-through or cavern. If I had less than half a tank of air I wouldn't be starting any kind of penetration.
There are threads on SB giving actual times to drain a tank.
Amusing, but swim-through s do pose unique problems. As a very inexperienced diver < 10 dives, I had a DM lead my son and I through a swim through that not only was long and narrow, but it took a turn near midpoint and you could not see the exit. Because we were near the end of the group, the divers in front blocked our view of what we were getting into until we were committed.
I had a similar experience with the Cozumel Wreck Dive. We were briefed that we would be entering the wreck, but were assured that the parts we would enter were cleaned out with outside access cut at short intervals. This turned out to not be entirely true. There were definitely entanglement hazards and passages with no light or exit.
We had no problems and enjoyed the experiences because we were too inexperienced to consider the possible hazards. I take a more conservative view now and want to know how far, how wide and the available exits before I commit to entering.
Specialty - No, but a discussion about how a diver can end up in these situations and how to avoid them would be in order. A simple, avoid overhead environments certainly did not prepare me for my later experiences.
I had a similar experience with the Cozumel Wreck Dive. We were briefed that we would be entering the wreck, but were assured that the parts we would enter were cleaned out with outside access cut at short intervals. This turned out to not be entirely true. There were definitely entanglement hazards and passages with no light or exit.
We had no problems and enjoyed the experiences because we were too inexperienced to consider the possible hazards. I take a more conservative view now and want to know how far, how wide and the available exits before I commit to entering.
Specialty - No, but a discussion about how a diver can end up in these situations and how to avoid them would be in order. A simple, avoid overhead environments certainly did not prepare me for my later experiences.
I think we should break this question down to two parts, the diver and the environment.
As to the diver some have already said if it is a longer swim through are you prepared to self rescue or assist another diver. No it is not a cave, but I think the problem is that scuba SEEMS safe when you look at the number of incedents per number of divers. This leads to a false sense of safety and that is when the stuff hits the fan and divers are not preared to deal with what ever issue arises.
Second the evironment. Should divers with poor bouyancy skills be allowed to dive sensitive areas. I am sure that when state that way many divers will puff their chest out and profess they have every "right" to dive wherever they want, but should you? I have a friend who is a "big" cave diver as in he is close to 300 pounds, many divers will follow him with the thinking "if he fits I will".
As Akimbo said basic OW divers "should" have enough bouyancy skills to manage a simple swim through.
As to the diver some have already said if it is a longer swim through are you prepared to self rescue or assist another diver. No it is not a cave, but I think the problem is that scuba SEEMS safe when you look at the number of incedents per number of divers. This leads to a false sense of safety and that is when the stuff hits the fan and divers are not preared to deal with what ever issue arises.
Second the evironment. Should divers with poor bouyancy skills be allowed to dive sensitive areas. I am sure that when state that way many divers will puff their chest out and profess they have every "right" to dive wherever they want, but should you? I have a friend who is a "big" cave diver as in he is close to 300 pounds, many divers will follow him with the thinking "if he fits I will".
As Akimbo said basic OW divers "should" have enough bouyancy skills to manage a simple swim through.
OP
BDSC
Contributor
Thanks for all the responses so far. One reason I brought this up was I have seen some folks say that because while going thru a swim through you don't have direct access to the surface without first getting out, most of the time anyway, you are now in an overhead environment and to do that safely, you need special training to do so. Now I don't know exactly what "special training" is. Is there some actual course out there for overhead environments that you can become certified for? I honestly have no idea.
I'm in the camp that these types of dives have been going on for years and years with no extra/special training and it's not necessary to safely do these dives.
I'm in the camp that these types of dives have been going on for years and years with no extra/special training and it's not necessary to safely do these dives.
miketsp
Contributor
The training would basically cover the equipment required, gas & lights redundancy, line running, lost line procedure (how to find it in zero-vis with your mask off - simulating a silt-out with lost mask). Most LDS offer a wreck penetration course. The quality (and the stress level) will vary dramatically depending on the instructor and if he's cave qualified will go into a lot more detail - example communication by contact in zero-vis.
In the OW class I had, we used these PVC cubes in the pool. The DM's put the cubes in, ran a rope through them to a few various points in the pool. We had to swim through them as part of class.
They looked kind of like this, except they were much smaller so a person plus gear would barely fit:
If you've got access to a pool that is divable, you could build such a thing to practice with for only a few bucks.
They looked kind of like this, except they were much smaller so a person plus gear would barely fit:
If you've got access to a pool that is divable, you could build such a thing to practice with for only a few bucks.
I try to remember to ask the DM in the pre-dive briefing if the swim-through is wide enough to accommodate two divers side by side, "in case someone becomes disabled and needs help." If he says "no," then I would ask if there's an alternate route so that I can go around the swim-through, and ask him to point it out to me when we arrive at the swim-through. If he says there's no alternate route, I would ask if I can do a different dive.
is swimming into a ship's boiler, then up the stack a "swim through"? There is no overhead.... 
They were probably talking about something along the lines of NACD Cavern Diver (I've heard it called "Cave 1" before). Some folks hold the belief that OW divers should not be in any overhead without additional training. Some folks don't. Personally, I wouldn't have any qualms about going into a swim through. I've done caverns many times, and smaller swim through in the Keys. I might be a little uneasy about going in with a large group. Seems like it would be awful crowded, leaving more potential for problems.
NAUI, SSI, and probably all the other big agencies have cavern classes which cover basic operations in an overhead.
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