What would recommend as a path to Wreck Diving in the North East and Great Lakes?

[Gilldiver]

Sidemount is a great system for wreck diving, but I agree that backmount would be better for swimming down the hatch on the 853, just like backmount sucks for trying to slide under a deck plate on the Oregon. I think you're a ways off from this yet, but at a certain point you might want to consider cave training. It helped me a lot with wreck diving to have that training--gave me a whole different mindset.

I have been diving the 853 for 30 years and know the in's and outs of that sub and have gone through all the hatches with the exception of the engine room and crews quarter escape hatches, with double 72's, 80's, or100's (the escape hatches or just too narrow for me). But, I have seen a good side mount diver do it by unhooking the bottoms of the tanks and swinging them in front like DevonDiver is doing in his profile photo. The drawback is that your hand are needed to control the tank and are not as useful for pulling you through the hatch. They are also not available to clear any hangs like a camera, wreck bag, etc, when used to control the tanks. But that is where practice comes in. You also would need to rely on you fins a lot more if you can't just grab the sides of a hatch combing to pull through. The tightest hatches I have gone through are the Engine room hatch and the Engine room to Officer quarters hatch on the USS Bass, they are just narrow but tall so getting doubles through is not all that much of a problem, but you have to be clean with nothing dangling off of you. They should be just as easy/difficult in side mount.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

I have been diving the 853 for 30 years and know the in's and outs of that sub and have gone through all the hatches with the exception of the engine room and crews quarter escape hatches, with double 72's, 80's, or100's (the escape hatches or just too narrow for me). But, I have seen a good side mount diver do it by unhooking the bottoms of the tanks and swinging them in front like DevonDiver is doing in his profile photo. The drawback is that your hand are needed to control the tank and are not as useful for pulling you through the hatch. They are also not available to clear any hangs like a camera, wreck bag, etc, when used to control the tanks. But that is where practice comes in. You also would need to rely on you fins a lot more if you can't just grab the sides of a hatch combing to pull through. The tightest hatches I have gone through are the Engine room hatch and the Engine room to Officer quarters hatch on the USS Bass, they are just narrow but tall so getting doubles through is not all that much of a problem, but you have to be clean with nothing dangling off of you. They should be just as easy/difficult in side mount.

Points well taken, i also teach Side-mount and one of the skills I teach is actually swinging both tanks in front and controlling them with one hand so that if you have to use the other hand, you can. Again, the value of taking a Quality Class with Experienced Instructor.

 

[DevonDiver]

... at a certain point you might want to consider cave training. It helped me a lot with wreck diving to have that training--gave me a whole different mindset.

Bill, there's plenty of technical wreck courses that offer the skill-set.. but with a 100% focus on the wreck environment and it's specific risks and factors.

 

[billgraham]

Bill, there's plenty of technical wreck courses that offer the skill-set.. but with a 100% focus on the wreck environment and it's specific risks and factors.

Oh, I'm sure that's a good idea too, but there's nothing like cave training--boot camp for divers!

---------- Post Merged at 08:16 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:10 PM ----------

I have been diving the 853 for 30 years and know the in's and outs of that sub and have gone through all the hatches with the exception of the engine room and crews quarter escape hatches, with double 72's, 80's, or100's (the escape hatches or just too narrow for me). But, I have seen a good side mount diver do it by unhooking the bottoms of the tanks and swinging them in front like DevonDiver is doing in his profile photo. The drawback is that your hand are needed to control the tank and are not as useful for pulling you through the hatch. They are also not available to clear any hangs like a camera, wreck bag, etc, when used to control the tanks. But that is where practice comes in. You also would need to rely on you fins a lot more if you can't just grab the sides of a hatch combing to pull through. The tightest hatches I have gone through are the Engine room hatch and the Engine room to Officer quarters hatch on the USS Bass, they are just narrow but tall so getting doubles through is not all that much of a problem, but you have to be clean with nothing dangling off of you. They should be just as easy/difficult in side mount.

I've only done about a half dozen dives on it through the years. I was just picking something that might be harder in sidemount (I dive it 100% of the time, though). I'm not keen on taking tanks off on the bottom on wreck dives if I can avoid it.

 

[00wabbit]

Greetings 00wabbit when are you getting to IN?
Where are you going to be? If you are in state try to come to the Great Lakes Wrecking Crew M&G Oct. 19-21 at Gilboa Quarry in OH.
When you get to ZINZ look me up and we can talk a bit about the local scene here and in the Great Lakes.
There are charters who could take you as a AOW diver to some really cool wrecks within your training and level of experience.
I would recommend Rescue and also finding a group / club to keep you actively diving.

One of the best things you can do is research, read, study, start to formulate just what your training goals are.
This thread is a great way to seek out your path of training.
Agencies will be scrutinized but in the end it is the instructor who determines just how good the training is.
Everyone has opinions as do I but it will be up to you to decide what direction to go.
I can give you names, LDS's, and groups to meet the rest is up to you.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

I'll be there early November. I'll be living in the Indianapolis area. I am already on the Indiana Scuba Divers and Ohio Quarry divers facebook.
I'll definitely hit up some of you guys and come to meetings when I get settled.

Cave Training - I definitely want to do that as well. I think at some point I will schedule some time in Florida to do cave training.

 

[DevonDiver]

Oh, I'm sure that's a good idea too, but there's nothing like cave training--boot camp for divers!

Bill... the skills, drills and procedures are virtually identical (techwreck vs cave). Lost-line, Lost-buddy, entanglements etc etc... it's all there. Black masks too

Points well taken, i also teach Side-mount and one of the skills I teach is actually swinging both tanks in front and controlling them with one hand so that if you have to use the other hand, you can. Again, the value of taking a Quality Class with Experienced Instructor.

Agreed. I've only seen tanks controlled with one hand, when dismounted to the forwards position. One hand must be retained free for dive operation.

@Bill - "Unmounting" sidemounts doesn't mean 'taking them off'. A particular feature of sidemount is that capacity to release the lower boltsnaps and traverse the tanks into a forwards configuration for passage through very restricted areas. The tanks are still secure to the diver via the forwards bungee loops at the shoulder d-rings. In essence this configuration allows the diver to pass through spaces restricted only by the size of their own torso profile. Realistically, this means port-holes and small windows etc.

This clip demonstrates what we mean by 'unmounting', along with some other insights into sidemount capability