those who have taken tech1

[Spoon]

guys i am once again considering taking tech 1 with jj on june. can someone tell me what to expect from this class? are there any skill exercises i can do in advance or practice before the classes commence to further improve my chances of passing? some tips thanks.

 

[onfloat]

didn't think you would go back to GUE

 

[Spoon]

didn't think you would go back to GUE

im still weighing my options. just completed my csu with andi and was planning on taking the TSD and Trimix courses with em as well but gue's tech1 course is really appealing to me. i may well take the plunge

 

[aquaoren]

*

 

[Vie]

can someone tell me what to expect from this class? are there any skill exercises i can do in advance or practice before the classes commence to further improve my chances of passing? some tips thanks.

There was a lot of line work with the reel, simulated OOG, valve "failures" and "no mask" situations - a lot of the time all at the same time...

New "skills," such as gas switching, will be introduced. The class will run all day (mine was a six-day class) - expect at least four short (but seriously task-loaded) dives every day and class room sessions will go well into the night afterwards.

Timing, smoothness, communication (hand signals AND light), and buddy/situational awareness become critical during the Tech 1 class. You will be "debriefed" right after every dive (as you are swimming back to the boat) and will be expected to be able to provide accurate, detailed answers to the instructor. Understanding of theory and dive planning is also crucial.

Imho, you should not try to practice any of the "new' skills before the class. My advice would be this. Work on all the skills you learnt in Fundies and get them perfect, especially buoyancy and trim and one-minute descent/ascent. Go diving in your doubles a lot and practice all the Fundies skills whilst using your canister light.

 

[limeyx]

There was a lot of line work with the reel, simulated OOG, valve "failures" and "no mask" situations - a lot of the time all at the same time...


Imho, you should not try to practice any of the "new' skills before the class. My advice would be this. Work on all the skills you learnt in Fundies and get them perfect, especially buoyancy and trim and one-minute descent/ascent. Go diving in your doubles a lot and practice all the Fundies skills whilst using your canister light.

I am signed up for it, and the advice is basically as above, BUT you have to get those skills perfect floating in mid-water at 20 or so feet with just an ascent line, and in a place where you cannot see the bottom.

It makes the skills considerably more difficult not having a visual reference.

What we do is:

1) Descend as team, shoot a bag from 50-70 feet.
2) Ascend to 20 feet as team, stopping 1 min each 10 feet
3) at 20, each do a valve drill hanging at 20
4) each do an S-drill at 20, where each person donates and receives at least once.
5) 6 min ascent to surface

then, go back down
- each person ascends to surface maskless from 20 feet. with 6 min ascent.

Did that for a few weeks, then we add more complexity
1) do all of above carrying deco bottle (but not breathing it). Adds another level of difficulty with accessing SPG, Dumping gas etc
2) Mask off at 50 feet
3) OOA drill as we ascent to say 11 or 14 feet

 

[Vie]

I am signed up for it, and the advice is basically as above, BUT you have to get those skills perfect floating in mid-water at 20 or so feet with just an ascent line, and in a place where you cannot see the bottom.

It makes the skills considerably more difficult not having a visual reference.

Very good point about practicing with no visual reference. During a "Tech 1" dive, you may also be shooting the bag from a deeper depth than when doing a rec dive (for instance, right after the gas switch at 21m, conditions and time permitting).

 

[maccajim]

we had to do vavle drills and s drill every dive. But it is not enough to be able to do them smooth have to keep awarness of team and position at all times. so always looking and thinking.

It is compared to underwater chess you have to solve problems underwater. one scenario we had in a team of 3 one buddy gives ooa another donates so they are now sharing long hose thumb dive heading out along line. Air gun comes out the donating divers right post bubbles what do you do? You cant shut down the post as your other buddy is breathing from it, have to donate your primary to him then shut down change position of team and exit.

good luck well worth it

 

[coralcuts]

You havew Maciek helping you and I have not been able to join you for a substantial amount of time. So I expect great things of you when finally I can join in the fun!

 

[lamont]

I haven't taken Tech1, but we went through similar stuff in Triox. I found that the scenarios with various OOAs and post shutdowns were easy enough to learn in the class. The things which hurt were having not practiced *timed* ascent drills. We practiced ascending a lot, but they weren't 30 second moves and 30 second pauses, we would spend a lot of time getting comfortable at each stop and then move up, so we were doing 2-3 minute stops, and that hurt us -- time them and get them precise. Then throw in OOAs or other failures as you are ascending. And stay trim. Also, be able to hold your buoyancy at stops with your right post shut down (just unhook your inflator to simulate this) -- we had several occasions where someone with the right post shut down would lose buoyancy control upwards a little, would try to come back down to the stop by dumping, would overcorrect and then would plunge to the depths as they tried to hammer on their inflator and got nothing, and generally they never bothered to try to kick to change position. If you are reliant on the power inflator before the class that will hurt you in it and will be difficult to fix in-class. OOAs and valve drills should be trim and stress-free going into the class. Also you'll need to be comfortable with your mask off and/or closed eyes (particularly for tech1, we didn't get as much of that as a tech1 class). For tech1 I gather there's also death and destruction with the reel and I have no idea how to prepare you for that...

In retrospect, we all took DIRF in single tanks fairly early on and would all have benefitted from re-taking it in doubles and ironing out little kinks in our fundies skills first -- they've got to be really solid.