That tech 1 - it's hard you know...

[Clare Gledhill]

First sign that something was up was bubbles behind my head from the right. Shutting the post down, I signalled to Al who came over to help...just at the time that Fraser when OOA Knowing that Fraser's need at this stage was greater than mine I waited on my backup for Al to be able to check the first stage and repressurise...when he did the bubbles had stopped - and we all relaxed for an instant ....the same instant that Andy Kerslake was pulling off loose line and wrapping it round Al and Frase

Well, it's the end of day one, Tech 1. We've just crashed out after a 19 hour day, 16 hours of which were under instruction to a greater or lesser extent. The most important thing today was we didn't die...there were times it came close but we survived to try again tomorrow

The day started with theory and then line laying in the garden of the B&B. It was quite funny when Andy tied off to a garden fountain - which then toppled over as he pulled the line taught - but not quite so funny when it took us 6 minutes to return blind along line which took us only 1 minute to swim when sighted.

Off to a very busy Stoney Cove at lunchtime for the first dive of the day. First were individual s drills and valve drills. When these were duely completed with no issues we went line astern and Fraser tied off a primary tie to start running line. This is roughly where my recollection of the dive starts to blur...

Multiple valve failures, loose line, collapsed SMBs, OOAs wing inflate problems - you name it - it all happened, often simultaneously A touch of class at the end was Andy's insistance that we each put up SMBs which he then knitted together at the surface. We did all surface laughing though

Dive 2 was similar - although Al was running the line. It went somewhat more smoothly until Andy managed to pull a good 20 meters of line off the reel and wrap Al and Fraser together thoroughly - several times round manifolds, legs, arms etc. I went back to help and was confronted with line floating everywhere in the water and the hand of Kerslake dropping a loop of it on to me for good measure. An anglo saxon hand signal stopped this one and I untangled Al and then Fraser who was OOA but didn't know what to do with what I had untangled. I gathered it up round my hand which was not perhaps the brightest thing I've ever done - next time a rock would be good. Andy repaid me for my cheeky hand signal with a valve failure.

Fraser got fed up with my housekeeping and huried us up back along the line to the exit - as we had an OOA he was of the view that the priority was out. Only problem with that was that the slack line was free for Andy to play with again. Flashing lights alerted to the fact that buddies were again trussed up but this time when the line was freed I attached the slack to the armoured carrier instead to try to get rid of it. Line, nasty stuff

Back to the B&B for video debriefing and more theory...then dinner and dive talk....then a bit of kit fettling and bed.

And that's where I am now...writing this so that at the end of the course we have some record of what we did. As a team we had a damn good day...more enjoyable than we thought it would be...with some valuable lessons learned.

PS - if the title doesn't make sense...look here http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...919#post281919

[Reikimaster]

Glad its all going well

[Narked@50]

You want to be a bit more carefull!

All that running out of air and getting tangled in line, you wouldn't get that in a pub on a pool table, you've got your priorities wrong!

James

[andy b]

Keep up the good work

andy

[gunsentry]

Nice report, look forward to next instalment.

[Mark Chase]

You wanna do that PADI OW course M8 they teach you to check your gauge so you wont keep running out of air and they dont lay line or use SMB's so no problems there either.


Let me know if you want me to put you in touch with a decent instructor


ATB

Mark Chase














PS: Sounds like you're having fun keep up the good work

[Helen F H]

I demand that you stop enjoying yourselves!

Stop it right now!



Glad its going well girlie.

[daz]

Yep have to agree,

These DIR bods are frankly irresponsible and I have serious doubts about their training when out of airs seem to be so common.

When I was in Vobster on the weekend with a couple of mates (I use the term mates loosly ), one PADI trained, one BSAC trained (actually judging by their diving I use the term trained loosely as well ), we did three dives without any of us even coming close to an out of air incident.

However on the second dive while we were just chilling at 6m, I turned to find a 'resident' vobster DIR boy throwing an out of air at me!

So word of warning to all :- Watch out for them in the water, it looks like they are now testing their OOA practices on other agency trained divers. I guess given the amount of OOA's that occur it makes sense. Afterall chances are the other members of the DIR team will also probably end up OOA as well if the training is anything to go by.

I did the right thing though.... respond as they expect, afterall it was only tyre gas and I'm pretty sure he realised as he did not want to hang onto it for long

There was one other attempted interferrence but I believe I handled that one by indicating that I had a minute to ascend so wouldn't be playing... Just to confirm, a raised middle finger does indicate one minute doesn't it?

Anyway I would have thought all of you would have handled the line in the water incident much better given the amount of times you have spent practicing discarding line all over the place In fact I'm suprised you didn't manage to crochet it all into a nice cylinder cover for AK

Good luck on the course all but remember, "Frankly if you were better f*cking divers it wouldn't f*cking happen"

Daz

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by daz

These DIR bods are frankly irresponsible and I have serious doubts about their training when out of airs seem to be so common.

When I was in Vobster on the weekend with a couple of mates (I use the term mates loosly ), one PADI trained, one BSAC trained (actually judging by their diving I use the term trained loosely as well ), we did three dives without any of us even coming close to an out of air incident.

However on the second dive while we were just chilling at 6m, I turned to find a 'resident' vobster DIR boy throwing an out of air at me!

So word of warning to all :- Watch out for them in the water, it looks like they are now testing their OOA practices on other agency trained divers. I guess given the amount of OOA's that occur it makes sense. Afterall chances are the other members of the DIR team will also probably end up OOA as well if the training is anything to go by.

I did the right thing though.... respond as they expect, afterall it was only tyre gas and I'm pretty sure he realised as he did not want to hang onto it for long

Hehe. Couldn't resist mate - you just looked too damned smug for your own good when I spotted you practicing your backward finning near 'Salty' (the red escort wreck) - gotta say I was impressed, chap! Most people tend to 'rock' when they fin backwards but your trim didn't change. Bearing this in mind - and the fact that it was payback for all the 'rabbit jokes' - I felt it only right that I should throw a few spanners your way on your safety stop!

Still, I guess I should be thankful that you didn't mention the god-awful fins I was 'forced' to use on the second dive just so my buddy could try out my turtles - rest assured that I grabbed my own fins back damned fast!!!!! They were certainly easier on my knackered ankle than the turtles but frog kicking in them was a nightmare!

Dave's emailing through the pics we took with his F90x later so if the one of you I took comes out, I'll post it up later...

Originally Posted by daz

There was one other attempted interferrence but I believe I handled that one by indicating that I had a minute to ascend so wouldn't be playing... Just to confirm, a raised middle finger does indicate one minute doesn't it?

LOL! Yup - that was damned funny! I'm not normally in the habit of hovering over other divers so I can fiddle with their kit (ooer) - but in your case, I thought I'd make an exception...

[Little Pete]

Sounds like it's going all groovy (in a nightmarish, sado-masochistic and very tough way) with the Tech 1 bods.

I have to agree with Daz though, the amount of OOAs that happen in a DIR team just shock me :o Maybe I should stick to the PADI OW classes and they can teach me to check my guage more.....


Hope it all continues well (ish)