OK, just a quick report (you and I know it's going to be a long one, but there we go, bear with me) on a kind of KISS Mod 1 kind of thingy, but not exactly, if you know what I mean.
The background:
I did a fair bit of diving on the homebuild. Probably 100 hours all in. Then I got a KISS, so I could get a ticket and use my unit on holiday (for insurance reasons) and within the BSAC club in Nottingham (for club rules reasons). I did about 100 hours on the KISS, including some comedy dives (102m in Dorothea along the way) and basically a full season of trimix diving. Then I decided after a few cock ups which never should have happened, like nearly dying the once, and a few other things I decided to get a ticket. It was only a few dives later than it should have been, but I needed to do a course at some point really.
So, I made some enquiries. I rang Jack Ingle. Juz has trained with him, and he was high on the list of people I thought I would get on with (having seen some of his presentations and had a couple of chats with him here and there) and who wouldn't make me go back and start again from the beginning. He teaches the KISS through PSA which turned out to be a bit of an issue. Firstly PSA isn't an agency that a lot of people seem desperately familiar with, which could have its issues abroad potentially, then there was the problem of the BSAC bit. I needed a cert I could cross over, and there seemed to be some confusion from HQ. Confusion isn't something I like. There was also some discussion about depth limits after training, where if I go on to further training I would get a 75m ticket. Which for 80m diving isn't good for me. I've still not managed to get to the bottom of the depth limit on the IANTD Mod 3 for the KISS, with some certs seeming to have 100m on them, but the limit of the unit according to the manufacturers is 75m, hence the PSA limit. Curious. Anyway, I digress.
While I was thinking about things and getting ready to give Jack a call Howard came long with a load of plans to go to Pensacola and do a Mod 3 with Ritchie Stevenson. So a few e-mails bounced around, I wanted to go. So I talk to Ritchie, who was very helpful and answered massive numbers of questions, and he tells me to come to Plymouth for the weekend and he could sort me out. He was one of the people Andy Hayhurst had suggested when I talked to him about doing a course a few months before, so I was comfortable with that as a reccomendation. Andy is a mate and I respect the diving he does and his knowledge of rebreathers and instructors for them. so when he says a guy is ok, he usually is.
Now the complicated bit is not starting at square one like the rest of the world. You get a unit, you get training. Simple. Mod 1, off you go. I am anything but conventional, so needed something a bit different. The weekend on the wrecks of Plymouth sounded like fun, whether I did a ticket or not, so I signed up. It also fitted in with me getting my compensation from the company for working Xmas day, and I had the time off so go for launch.
Now after explaining the situation to Ritchie he suggested a Mod 1 assessment type thingy. I don't know if its an official course or what, but basically he offered a 2 day 4 dive extravaganza of skills, drills, and general stuff. Plus some theory in between, but not too much. Oh, and it was going to be a whole lot cheaper than a full course, which appealed to my pikey northern side, as well as my gippo roots.
There were 3 other guys on the course diving Inspirations, who had already done the pool sessions, a lot of the theory, and a few open water dives somewhere along the line. So I joined kind of late, but that was ok with me. If I'd not learn enough to cover the stuff they'd already done in the last few weeks in the last 100 hours I probably don't deserve to pass the course anyway.
Right, on to the diving, the important bit.
Dive 1 Saturday morning
The Rosehill
Purpose of the first dive was to have a nice swim around, and generally make sure I wasn't a prat. Of course for all Ritchie knew I could have had skills like the Dude, so probably best to make sure I'm at least not going to kill myself over the weekend. The other guys did a couple of drills, can't remember which ones particularly, but from memory they involved bubbling a bit, and running the unit manually I think. They all did well, and made it look like they were far further into this RB lark than they were. You hear horror stories of people wanting to bin their units or giving up crying at this stage, but these guys were having none of it. They'd got it licked pretty much, ok their trim was a bit cack, but this is Mod 1, most of these guys were still in their first ten hours. I never got below 6m in my first ten hours on the homebuilds, so they were well ahead on that front. They made it look quite easy, which probably has something to do with them being quite good, and something to do with Ritchie being quite good as well. All round goodness.
Anyway, Ritchie had them come back up the shotline from the wreck (which they did very nicely), and told me to keep out of their way in the briefing. Which meant a free ascent. Cheers matey. Only a bit of current running, so I was ok keeping with them. Now I'm not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to blowing my own trumpet, and this time I was well chuffed. It felt bang on, and thanks to Ritchie filming the ascent, I could see that it was. I was very smug. I tried to keep it in, but in reality it was because this was good even for me who is a big fan of fire a bag from the wreck or get your arse back to the shot. After 2 mins at 15, 2 mins at 12m, 2 mins at 9m and 5 mins at 6m I was happy to get my hands on a cup of tea and took the chance to feel a bit more smug. Just wait for day 2 if you think I'm going to stay this smug all the way through, I know its unbearable but it does end, honestly.
Dive 2 Saturday afternoon
The Scylla
Right then, after the guys did a good job of dive 1 and Ritchie seemed happy with me (I was happy with me, and I'm normally very hard on myself diving-wise, so I kind of expected that) we carried on to do some drills and skills. Ritchie's plan was to bring me into the course gradually with the other uys, so I'd be doing the full works by dive 4 but up to now he'd just wanted to see me dive, I was carrying 2 stages as this was also a kind of assessment of my ability to go on to do Mod 3, which is the eventual plan. We dropped down on the Scylla.
Now I've not seen the Scyalla for a year, so I was surprised when it was all covered in sea cack and had a bit of sea dirt on it. We swam along the seabed, then Ritchie had the guys fly their units manually. I think this is where he started a drill which I came to love - the KISS valve failing open. Basically you bleed the O2 down then hold the KISS valve open, manipulating the oxygen bottle valve to control the flow of gas into the loop. It meant reaching across and turning the knob about once every couple of minutes. I found this quite intuitive, you get used to how long a spurt you need to get your ppO2 up by 0.1 or 0.2 bar, and this was the same sort of thing. I can see that it would be more difficult if I was less familiar with the unit, but this one was a bit clumsy to do at first, but I got it quite slick by the end of Dive 4. ppO2 varied a bit, but not more than it would on a normal dive anyway, so I felt pretty ok with that.
After we'd done that Ritchie had us do swimming bailout down the other side of the wreck. Basically you swim along and bail out every 20 seconds or so, then bail back on to the loop, then back on. 6 times. I thought this was going to be easy (I can just turn the knob on my bailout valve!) but Ritchie asked me to start by doing that but then to switch to my sidemounted bailout tank. I quite liked that. It got me practicing something we should all be practicing all the time as rebreather divers, and was a healthy refresher for me. The other guys again took it all int heir stride, I understand they'd done this skill before in the course but all the same they were doing well.
We came up onto the deck for High ppO2 drills. Ritchie went round videoing us in a semi circle doing the drill. I won't get into too much detail, the skill varies slightly from the Inspiration to the KISS, but not a lot. The video feedback was a useful tool which we all benefited from, and I would reccomend anyone to put it on the list of questions to ask your instructor before signing up for a course of any kind. It is used to good effect, and you can't argue with the video. Nor can you hide from it, as I discovered on day 2
The skill went pretty well for everyone. We weren't going to die in a hurry, so good news all round. The swell on the top of the Scylla became a pain in the arse, but nothing too stressful.
We all bagged off the top of the wreck, which went well, and ascended. Same stops on this dive, and I was comfortable with this, and the others seemed ok with it.
Anyway, back on board for tea and medals, everyone did quite well on the 2 dives, and we were all quite positive, if a little tired, at the end of the day.
Right then. I'll just post this bit then post 2 can cover day 2. Bear with me. It's fun on the next bit, as opposed to all this backslapping and general narcissism