We get to the Marine Building at noon. First on the agenda was another recovery debriefing involving everyone plus the guys that weren’t with us.
The FNG’s had a bunch of questions as well as some issues with the operation. I hope we answered their questions. They also know to do as I say, not as I do.
I re-enforced how much pride I have in the guys for having the common sense to not dive when they weren’t sure they could do it.
Good debriefing.
We then went out to the boat bays and put three cars in at a time. The lights went out and the stopwatch started.
The object was to get 100% suited up in the darkened bays. Not as we suit up for rescue but 100% suited. To make matters worse a couple of us were popping pictures screwing up their night vision.
You hear about us getting suited in less than three minutes. That’s true we can but that involves several shortcuts. Today they got suited up for an extended dive with everything on.
I didn’t care how long it took as long as they were 100% correct on their set up. 99% doesn't cut it, It's 100% or nothing. Speed comes with practice. This drill was not to embarrass or poke fun at anyone but to show each guy where he needs to practice.
The SUV’s were fastest while a couple driving POV’s were slowest which was expected. The times went from just over 5 minutes to just over 9 minutes. The poor guy with the 9 minutes has to pull all his gear out of a truck bed toolbox, which puts him at a serious disadvantage to start with.
They did fantastic. The more we throw at these guys the more they seem to thrive on the challenge. If this had been a Rescue scenario the times would have been seriously reduced so even the slowest one did great.
We then headed for a private lake a short drive to the north of us. Max depth is supposed to be about 20’ but we didn’t find it. A couple of the guys got to 12’, I found 13’ and another team found a 14’ hole.
Vis was about 10-12’ and it was 54df. Fricken warm compared to what we have been used to. A few of us removed the juice from the battery on our DPV and a couple of them covered a big section of the lake free swimming.
Then it was the almighty Mexican Food tradition.
Back at the Marine Building we did a BS debriefing and reviewed the ROV tape of the recovery.
All in all it was a very good training day. The weather was good and we got a bunch of pics. I’ll post some later.
Next training is early next month.
Gary D.
The FNG’s had a bunch of questions as well as some issues with the operation. I hope we answered their questions. They also know to do as I say, not as I do.
I re-enforced how much pride I have in the guys for having the common sense to not dive when they weren’t sure they could do it.
Good debriefing.
We then went out to the boat bays and put three cars in at a time. The lights went out and the stopwatch started.
The object was to get 100% suited up in the darkened bays. Not as we suit up for rescue but 100% suited. To make matters worse a couple of us were popping pictures screwing up their night vision.
You hear about us getting suited in less than three minutes. That’s true we can but that involves several shortcuts. Today they got suited up for an extended dive with everything on.
I didn’t care how long it took as long as they were 100% correct on their set up. 99% doesn't cut it, It's 100% or nothing. Speed comes with practice. This drill was not to embarrass or poke fun at anyone but to show each guy where he needs to practice.
The SUV’s were fastest while a couple driving POV’s were slowest which was expected. The times went from just over 5 minutes to just over 9 minutes. The poor guy with the 9 minutes has to pull all his gear out of a truck bed toolbox, which puts him at a serious disadvantage to start with.
They did fantastic. The more we throw at these guys the more they seem to thrive on the challenge. If this had been a Rescue scenario the times would have been seriously reduced so even the slowest one did great.
We then headed for a private lake a short drive to the north of us. Max depth is supposed to be about 20’ but we didn’t find it. A couple of the guys got to 12’, I found 13’ and another team found a 14’ hole.
Vis was about 10-12’ and it was 54df. Fricken warm compared to what we have been used to. A few of us removed the juice from the battery on our DPV and a couple of them covered a big section of the lake free swimming.
Then it was the almighty Mexican Food tradition.
Back at the Marine Building we did a BS debriefing and reviewed the ROV tape of the recovery.
All in all it was a very good training day. The weather was good and we got a bunch of pics. I’ll post some later.
Next training is early next month.
Gary D.
