Fundies Trip Report - Part 2 of 2

[Garf]

A final word about the Saturday before I move on. Rock Bottom. This is not the condition that arises from maintaining trim, or even the condition that Daz adopted after eating too hot a carry, rather a calculation that provides the absolute minimum requirement for a given depth in terms of gas and time to get you and a buddy safely to the surface. When it was explained to me, I have to be honest I thought “What’s the point of all this faff, if the result is always the same for a given depth, why not just work them all out and write them down?”, which of course Rich then showed me that there was a rock bottom table, but he wanted us to understand the theory. Standalone, it provides a useful little “get out of jail” tool. However, when combined with GUE’s gas management strategies, it becomes very useful indeed.

For example, if you know that rock bottom (and I’m not going to get into the calculations here, they are on YD if you want them) is 90 bar, you can then use a gas management strategy, for example the thirds rule, and arrive back before you get to rock bottom. If you arrive back in plenty of time, you might then extend the dive in another direction with another plan, all the time remembering that it doesn’t matter as long as you don’t violate rock bottom. Simple, and obvious, but one of those little gems that I will always remember to do before a dive, and keep in mind when running plans through any software. Moving on…

Day2

Now I felt MUCH better today , partly because I had broken the fever and was on the road to recovery, but also because I’d managed to have a good night sleep, although poor boggie had been up since about 4 going through valve drills in his head. Fundies is a bit like that  Off for breakfast, and another fine fry-up was provided, washing down with the appropriate amounts of caffeine. By now, I was realising that Chasey and I shared a similar sense of humour as well as an addiction to caffeine, so we growled at everyone across the table until they ordered more coffee in self defence.

The plan for the day was to do a full backplate check (Now this happened on the 1st day, so forgive me I’ll include it here). I was a little sad at the prospect of having my harness messed with, as I have spent MONTHS getting it to what I thought is right, finally nailing it a couple of months ago, and writing down all the measurements etc. We kitted up in full drysuits, and then Rich and Dave cast a very critical eye over the harnesses. First adjustment, the shoulder straps. Leaving the wasitbelt undone, can you reach back with one hand at a time and just touch your backplate with the tips of your fingers. Luckily, I could, but everyone else was told to strip theirharnesses down and adjust them. Let’s just say that not one of them was too tight, all had to be tightened up, to the point that I thought we were going to have to grease Daz and Chasey up with KY to get them out. We didn’t in the end, so after we had finished, they lubed up anyway as they had got the idea into their heads…..

Next step, are the shoulder straps even. Stand on the crotch strap and pull the shoulder straps. I escaped again, so far so good. Another five minutes was spent adjusting, checking and readjusting. Next step, the waist belt. It should come across horizontally from the slots in the backplate, not under or over a belly  When done up, the buckle should be over on the right hand side near the buckle holding the light canister in place. Another five minutes was spent adjusting this. Finally, the crotch strap. Standing up, there should be a minimum amount of room between the crotch strap and you. There was a little more than necessary in everyone’s, but it was VERY cold. Finally, do the whole harness up and see how it feels. Next, cylinder bands. Top band should be JUST below the break of the neck of the cylinders. Ahar had to move his up about 4 inches and was VERY concerned about what this would do to his trim. Boggie also had to move his up a couple of inches. I had escaped the trial unscathed. Hurrah.

Back to the plan……Dive 3

The plan for Dive3 was to take a step back and teach the valve and S drills, and also do “The basic 5”. Now the basic 5 are as follows; Reg remove and replace, Reg exchange, mask flood and clear, mask remove and replace and then a modified S drill. I’ll go through all of these in some detail, as it’s the details that bite you in DIR.

We dropped in, and I felt much better than the previous day. I started to concentrate on my trim, but it was intermittent, so more work needed there. I found that if I adopted a perfectly flat trim, I would start to drop head down, very so slowly. This was discovered by Rich, who got me into a perfectly flat position, and then watched my drift. That one would be resolved later.

Onto the basic 5. The Reg remove and replace. Easy peasy, just remember to remove the reg by the hose and don’t let go of it. Reg Exchange, a little more complicated than it sounds, but again you are building muscle memory. I’ll detail it so you can see it; 1. Get backup reg in hand, 2. Get primary reg hose in hand, 3. Remove primary Reg (keep hold), 4. Put backup in mouth, 5. clip off primary reg on right chest D ring with right hand, 6. unclip primary reg from right chest D ring, 7. take told of backup and remove from mouth, 8. put primary in mouth. Sounds like a hell of a lot of steps doesn’t it, but it’s all nice and smooth when you get it right.

Number three the mask flood and clear. No problems here as long as you control your breathing so that you trim and buoyancy do not go to ratshit. Mask remove and replace I have no issues, its just a case of getting the breathing under control so that when you take the mask off the icy waters of vobster don’t freak you out. By jesus it was cold and no mistake. Watching Rich demo the drills I saw his eyes bulge when he did the mask off, and the uwatec was reading 4 degrees C

Number 5, the modified S is just an S drill where the other person holds the reg rather than breaths it, so they don’t have to clip off their own primary etc. this is a drill I will be doing whether I am in the water with DIR divers or not, as all I have to explain to JAG is “hang on to my reg when I give it you until I ask for it back”. It is also worth doing at the surface as it is a check you have not tangled any of your hoses and can deploy the long hose without any issues. The basic 5 then, are drills I will practice again and again. They are simple enough, but there are lots of little steps to build muscle memory. I think we all managed to get through these fairly successfully, although joking aside the cold water really was an issue.

We then watched Rich do a valve drill. Again, I was looking for the wires that were keeping him rigidly in place whilst he did it, his control was awesome. Smoothly through all the steps, and then it was our turn, which again we did we varying degrees of success. Now, Ahar, who had been worried that Rich’s insistence he move his bands on his cylinders a good 3-4 inches had him worried sick, had just dropped into PERFECTLY flat trim the moment he hit the water. It looked superb, so apparently Rich knows what he is doing. By now, the valve drills for Andy and I were getting steadily better, and we were starting to focus on the minutiae of the drill rather than the major issues. This also meant we could pay more attention to trim, as it is during the more complicated drills that trim tends to go to ratshit as you forget about it. Practice, practice, practice I guess. The GUE valve drill seems to take ages, especially when compared with the TDI drill, which is more of a “dislocate your own arms if you have to, but turn that damn thing off NOW”. I liked the TDI drill, but the more I do the GUE drill, the more I understand that its detailed steps and procedure are designed not to be replicated in an emergency, but ensure you don’t have to think about where to go or what to do when that emergency happens. Muscle memory was a term used again and again through the course. It’s also the drill where you are most likely to drop your head, lose trim, and go all introspective as you try to remember the procedure. I thanked God I had spent a few weeks with the drill blu-tacked to the side of the training pool I used, as this helped me a lot. There are a lot of steps in the drills, and I would personally recommend that GUE write these steps into a procedure and issue them to students a couple of weeks before the course, so at least they have some time to read through it and practice the arm movements. It would also get rid of a lot of what Rich is worried about – people being instructed incorrectly by their friends, and him having to then unpick this training. Anyway, moving on….

Out of the water, and we all felt pretty cold this time, so it was off to the burger fan for double cheeseburgers and triple coffees. I personally took a diversion to the loos first. I had fitted a p valve catheter before the first dive, and having not used it, decided to remove it. Evidence showed NOT using it was a good idea, as it had come loose. Obviously I need a “Summer” size and a “winter” size 

We took our coffees and went for a debrief. Again, rich was pretty thorough, and praised as well as criticised. Suggestions were made for the final dive. We then discussed what was to happen on the final dive. Basically, rather than hover over the “artificial crutch” of a platform, we would move to open water, and do our valve drills and S drills in open water. We would then swim off at 6m round the quarry, and Rich would throw the odd “grenade” at us. This meant if you were daft enough to be more than arms length away from your team mate, one of you was going to run out of air. We spent an hour or so warming up, and then carefully kitted up for the last dive of the course. I was feeling a little better about my diving at this point, but wanted to really focus on the trim in the last dive. I also needed to resolve that weighting issue, so I got Rich to check over my weighting arrangement and he made a suggestion which I implemented immediately.

We put all the kit together, and went over to the water next to the burger van, which saved us the trek round the quarry to the platform we had been using for the other dives. We went through the head-to-toe pre dive checks we had been taught, and then moved into the water. Down to six metres and something strange happened. I arched my back, raised by head, clenched my arse, and the trim just fell into place. It felt perfectly natural, and I felt rock stable in the water. It was the best I had ever felt when underwater. Meanwhile, poor Andy, who had been diving well all weekend, was struggling. He was obviously a but unstable, and the inability to stablise was making him more and more frustrated. I could hear him swearing through his regulator as he thrashed about, which probably appeared more pronounced than it actually was because I was more controlled than I had been on any of the other dives.

Andy, who had no problems with the Valve drill all through the course, now missed a step and I dived in and cut the drill, resetting his valves for him. I could see he was fuming with himself. We went through it again, and then went through mine, and then proceeded onto the S drills. I was really enjoying myself at this point, but then Rich appeared from nowhere and signalled to cut the dive. Andy and I went up to find Mark had experienced a valve failure, I believe during his S drill. We watched it on the video later, and I have to admit he dealt with it pretty well, but then I’ve never seen a video of anyone throwing up underwater before, so maybe everyone just hovers there when it happens 

On the video you can see him begin an S drill. He checks his backup, which works. He then donates his long hose, and goes to his back. You can see one clear exhalation from the regulator and then bugger all as it breathed water. He signals to Ian that he needs the regulator back, and Ian provides it immediately. Actually, I thought the both did pretty well considering there was a real gas failure going on. It should also be noted that Dave, the trainee instructor we had been taking the piss out of all weekend, had basically stopped filming at this point and dived in with a reg at the ready. Nice one.

Eventually, Chasey decided enough was enough and went to the surface to sort out the regs, which then appeared to be working ok. This is the point at which Rich called the dive for Andy and I and we joined them on the surface, obviously without a clue what was happening to the other team. Once everything had settled down, Rich asked Mark if he was up to going back down, and he gamely said he was. Respect where it’s due, I’d have probably had enough by then.

We descended again, and then Andy and I hovered around whilst Chasey, Bogwoppit and Daz went through their S drills again. I was having a great time by now as the trim was really starting to come together, and Andy appeared to have settled down, although we was drifting a little more than usual. Once the other team had finished all their drills, which took a little longer than usual as Daz managed to get himself all mixed up, we then just started a simple swim around the quarry. Andy let himself drop a couple of metres below me, which Rich then rewarded with an OOG drill that resulted in Andy rocketing up into me. The inevitable occurred and we ended up on the surface. Bolox. Back down and continue swimming. Eventually, Rich gave us the signal to bag up, and as previously agreed, Andy began to put his SMB together. Just as the spool was unwinding, Rich gave me the OOG signal and Andy had to dinate immediately. The lesson here was obvious. Sort out the gas situation, and then go back to everything else. We dealt with it ok, and then Andy started to wind in the spool. We managed a controlled, slow ascent to the surface, and then spent two mins at the surface organising lights, hoses etc, so we were set to leave the water. Swimming back to the exit point, I felt like everything had come together on the last dive, and felt for the first time like I might be joining Andy, whom I was convinced would pass the course. If I’m being honest, I figured the other three would get provisionals, although both Chasey and Boggie had been harder on themselves than they needed to, and both had proved competent team members, providing gas on demand when the other managed to shut down both their valves on a vavle drill (they both did this one after the other, you couldn’t make up anything funnier than this )

One final interesting point on the last dive was that Chasey bagged up, and then on the video you can see the SMB sailing back down to the bottom from the surface, despite apparently containing gas. It looked truly surreal on the video.

We exited the water, and immediately packed up all the kit into the cars and headed back to the B&B for the full debrief, video, and then individual assessments, which I awaited with some trepidation.

The video showed exactly what I expected. Scrappy on the first dive on the dive, and then all coming together on the last dive. I would give vital parts of my anatomy for a copy of that video. The video debrief was ruthlessly honest, as normal, and then a surprise appeared, another lecture to do.

I struggled through this if I’m being honest. I made notes about situational awareness, dive planning and preparation, which I’m glad I did or I wouldn’t have had a clue. Once the lecture was over, Rich said it was the time for individual debriefs. The plan was that Rich and Dave would remain in the room, and then we would come in one by one for 5-10 mins per person and be debriefed. I volunteered to go first, and remained in the room whilst all the others filed out, feeling strangely nervous about the whole affair.

“Right then….no, I want you to debrief yourself. Go for it”

Bolox.

Below is a rough interpretation of what I said

“Well, I know I can do all the drills as I have been training for them. I appreciate that you have concerns about training before fundies and now understand why, but in this case I think I was lucky to be told the correct drills and the practice has helped me. My diving has improved through the 4 dives, and there is a substantial difference between my diving now, and my diving at the start of the course. I felt everything came together in the last dive. Why are you both laughing, stop pointing at me, that’s really mean, I’m going home”

Rich asked me what I felt I had to train on. I said I was overjoyed with how my trim had fallen into place and needed some in water time to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Once I had that properly dialled in, I then needed to spend time working on the drills to make them smoother and smoother. I also knew I had to work on clipping things off with one hand, which I was struggling with. Rich suggested some pool time with no gloves, so that the movements become second nature, and then add the gloves back into the equation.

Rich then asked where I wanted to go with my training. I had been thinking about this throughout the weekend. Diving a la GUE had started to make more and more sense to me over the weekend, and I came to realise that I wanted to progress along this course. So I decided to just tell him the truth. I said I wanted to get the fundies skills nailed properly, and then go for Tech1, once I had found an appropriate team to train with. I knew Andy was thinking about this as well, and so all I have to do now is convince him 

By now Rich was in hysterics, and I thought Dave was going to have to call an ambulance. Actually, Rich took it all very seriously, and then said “you’ve passed”.

Which was nice.

I thanked both him and Dave and admitted I had got far more out of the course than my jokes and teasing might have suggested. I then left the room and called my wife, who said “you’re really late, I’m going to eat without you”. Sigh.

I waited in the corridors for the others. Andy got a full pass, which seemed to be no suprise to anyone except Andy. He had dived consistently well throughout the weekend, and deserved his pass, well done mate.

Chasey and boggie, both came away with provisionals, and both furious with themselves, unjustly so in my opinion. It’s easy for me to be relaxed about it, but I’ve seen both of them dive far better than they did this weekend, and they had their share of bad luck. Perhaps most importantly, they have both come away with the determination to go back and nail the skills, which is great as it means I’ll have people to train with over the next few months 

Daz apparently got a provisional as well, although tbh we didn’t find out right away as he came out of his individual debrief, stormed out of the B&B without saying a word, and drove off in some kind of munchkin strop. Whoops.

Lessons and Thoughts.

Am I convinced that DIR diving is for me. Yes, I am. I love it, it makes sense, and it feels right.
Should everyone dive DIR? Whatever, it works for me. Will I stop diving with non-GUE trained divers. Don’t be daft. I might have to explain to JAG exactly WTF I am doing, but I have no doubt he’ll take an active interest in it anyway, as he’ll want to see what all the fuss is about, just as I did.
Will the VR3 be burnt in a midnight ritual. No, but I can see the day when it will be ebayed. That day will come when GUE training gives me the tools to do without it. Maybe.
Did I understand DIR before the course. No. I read everything there is to read. I spoke to numerous GUE trained divers at various different levels. And I still didn’t get it. If you are curious, take the course, it’s worth it.
Should you train before fundies. Difficult one. The problem is THE STANDARD. The moment training is done by people other than GUE instructors then they lose control of that standard, and the standard really is the core of it all, if that starts getting diluted it’s all over. That’s why GUE instructors are continually examined to ensure they are still adhering to the standard. Ant yet….it helped me, but I was lucky enough to be taught the correct drills. So I dunno.

So what’s next. For me, months of training lie ahead, getting these drills nailed. And then I’ll start hassling Andy to train for tech1, and by then I suspect Chasey and Boggie will have passed fundies and we might have a team coming together. Daz, I’m afraid is a little fiery for me. Must be all the curries.

So, thanks to Rich for being a top instructor, Dave for never losing his cool, Andy for being a superb buddy, and all the rest of the team for a great laugh and a great course.

[GLOC]

Thanks Garf, it has wetted my apetite even more. Hopefully see you Thursday at Stoney.

[Clare Gledhill]

Superb report Garf.

Well done to all involved

[SoB]

Garf,

Your report along with Marks are superb - congratuations.

Simon

[Lou]

Bloddy multiple threads, I don't know, all this team disciple but no forum discipline

I dunno.. *shakes head sadly*

Congrats on the pass, Garf

[MATTBIN]

Nice report and a great result Garf, combined with Mark's report the darkside doesnt seem quite so offputting now.
Shame some of the others only got a provisional, still, gives then something to work on and towards. A little (no pun) surprised that Daz didnt get a full pass, expect the fag breaks didnt help much in the learning from lectures part of the course. Better luck next time mate.

Matt

[ahar]

Great report Garf (and Mark on the other thread).

I’m pretty sure that Garf and Mark have covered everything on their accounts, although Garf was kind enough to leave out a detailed description of my amazing impression of an unqualified open water student for the first half of the last dive (hand flapping & all).

The best thing that I think I did was to do some practice before the course. I fully take the point about learning GUE skills from GUE instructors, but nothing can replace time spent in the water getting comfortable and really trying to achieve good trim. I don’t think that you necessarily need to do this practicing GUE standard skill procedures – I think it’s enough just practicing holding perfectly still and flat while shutting and opening valves and donating the long hose in an OOG scenario. How you exactly do it will come from the course (along with many other things), but holding still and flat and always facing your buddy is harder than in sounds.

I would definitely recommend DIR F even if you’re not really interested in taking it further – I don’t think there are many people who won’t come out of it a better diver.

[Bardo]

Top report, Garf - once again, congratulations to all of you for braving what can be a very humbling experience. Particular kudos must go out to Daz for finally accepting his fate as a fully paid up member of the DIR brigade. Of course we knew it was so long ago - it just took him a little longer to accept it...

Death, taxes and going DIR - they're the three things in life that are certain, Daz...

[daz]

Originally Posted by Bardo

Particular kudos must go out to Daz for finally accepting his fate as a fully paid up member of the DIR brigade. Of course we knew it was so long ago - it just took him a little longer to accept it...

Death, taxes and going DIR - they're the three things in life that are certain, Daz...

You would think so wouldn't you

My principles are still fully intact but I'll say no more

Daz

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by daz

You would think so wouldn't you

My principles are still fully intact but I'll say no more

Hehe. Just give it up, Daz - we've known all a long that you've always secretly wanted to wear tight GI3 Speedos! Putting yourself through a DIRF has only validated that opinion...