Rec Triox report

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

As a precursor for the rectriox at Capernwray in a few weeks, her is what to expect.

GUE Rec Triox Trip Report:
Something may go wrong

Something may go wrong the words that echoed through my head as Mike politely asked for my mask during an air-share drill. Mike Kane (known as MHK on most boards) uttered these words before we submerged on our 3rd dive of the class. They became the mantra for the class. The Austin, TX DIR group that had not yet gone to the level of Tech 1, Cave 1
decided to bring Mike back into town for the Rec Triox class. To some in the class, this was a precursor to going on to Tech 1 and Cave 1. 2 students are planning on going to Akumal for Cave 1 in January and we all needed to get
hammered on before moving up to technical training.
Let me put a few points in to help setup the report. First, this class is about how to dive safely at depths 0-120 and the GUE/DIR methodology used to support this. Triox is only a portion of the class with skills, experience and fitness (DIRs big three) being harped on as the most important aspect of diving in this range. Triox is only one tool used to accomplish safe diving below ~ 80ft. Secondly, practice is the word. We (all who took the class) practiced extensively on our fundamentals in the month leading up to the class. I can’t over emphasize this enough. You need to have your fundamentals stuff together to get the most out of this class (and I suspect any other GUE class). So with that said, we went into this class with our minds open to the knowledge Mike was to bestow upon us. Mike got in on Thursday night and we took a tour of the University of Texas Aquatics Center (can you say swim test).  After our leisurely swim we decided
to call it a night and get ready for the weekend.

Day one: We arrived Friday 8:45am at Lake Travis to begin the class. With this format, we dove in the morning, grabbed lunch, and spent the afternoon in the classroom. So we all setup for the morning’s dive while Mike went over the
class and objectives for the day’s dives. Since I’m going to get a dry suit soon, I asked Mike to go over this again so it is fresh in my mind. After that, we jumped in for the morning’s festivities. The 1st dive, we went down to a platform at ~ 20ft and Mike ran a line to another platform at ~ 25ft. This
allowed us to follow the line as a team with some tactical interruptions (like S-drills, light failures, etc.). This allowed Mike to evaluate us on our Fundamental skills. The 2nd dive was like the 1st with the exception of some simulated valve failures, and shooting a bag demonstration. Once the dives were complete, we grabbed lunch and headed back to the shop. We received the day one lecture with a review of Fundamentals, and a thorough look at Nitrox, its applications and limitations.   One the most compelling realizations we had in this lecture is that we all basically had $600 depth gauges on our wrists. Once we were all filled up with day one’s knowledge, we went to fill our tanks for the next day’s fun. After that, we all went to dinner at one of the visiting GUE instructor’s favorite steakhouses!

Day two: Another great day in Texas’ capital started with a couple more dives with the emphasis on shooting bags, rescuing both a unconscious and toxing diver, valve drills and more assorted (simulated) failures. On every dive of this class, we changed up the buddies to ensure that we all got familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Once in the crystal clear water of Lake Travis, we took our turns demonstrating our (well practiced) valve drills under the watchful eye of our instructor. Once that was done (not to say that we didn‘t touch our valves again!) we went on to shooting a bag, and rescuing a toxing diver. We took turns doing rescues from the platform and it was a great experience for all. This is a skill that needs to be practiced often so that it also becomes second nature and is one of the key take a way’s in the class. With that done, we ran a line out to ~40ft and shot a bag. Here we moved on to a deeper rescue and tried an ascent / descent drill. I say tried because we let
a few things get to the point of a multiple failure situation. This included simulated valve failures, S-drills (with the knowledge of who’s valves were failed) and a few masks being asked for. Once on the surface, it was evident that we needed our game faces on for the 4th dive of the class (2nd of the 2nd day). After getting out, Gatoraid/foodaiding, we got the after-action report from Mike. Basically our teamwork communication needed help and our situational awareness sucked. We should have stopped everything with a hold signal while we got sorted out. Into the water for the last dive of the day, we had a look of determination about us. This dive went much better. We did our descent / ascent drill much better, while ol’ something may go wrong reared its ugly
head once again. We even had an actual single tank wing failure (turned out to be gunk/sand in the dump valve) and a couple of real light failures on our primary lights, all of which were handled quickly. Once on the surface again, we
decided to do a line drill with one of the prospective future cavers running a line. We pared off differently again and went down to run line. Once out about 50ft, an out of air with one team was compounded with a simulated toxing diver on the other team. Once on the surface, we all decided to go back down as a team to retrieve the line and got to see a demonstration on how to reel in with your back up light since pretty much every HID light on the team had failed
for real by now..

Day 2 dives completed, we grabbed lunch and went back to the shop for the 2nd lecture. This lecture went into detail on C02 toxicity, Narcosis and Helium use. We also went into detail on Decompression theory. This does not mean that
we learned about advanced decompression techniques, but with the base knowledge that all dives are decompression dives, we reviewed the use of recreational decompression including deepstops and how our ascent profile should look.
Within this we went into detail on decompression history and the differences in the different algorithms that further illustrated the futility of computers. We talked about mixing techniques and labeling, then went and watched our tanks
getting mixed with the golden mix, Triox 30/30 for Day 3’s dives. We enjoyed some famous Texas BBQ for dinner and looked forward to our experience dives the
next day. Day 3 Experience dives in GUE classes are just that, the instructors are there to evaluate you on an actual dive. No simulated failures are introduced, but that doesn’t mean that you just put gear on and get in the water. You are
expected to apply what you’ve learned, plan your dive with the appropriate gas planning techniques, SADDDD and teamwork. We went on 2 dives with conditions limiting our depth to 85ft on both dives. Everything went smoothly with the only issue being our getting out of formation on the ascent on the 2nd dive. I want to add, wow what a difference He and proper techniques makes on these dives.
Back at the shop, we took the test (not easy) and went over our answers to ensure that we understood our mistakes.  All in all we had an excellent weekend!

Take a way’s from the class:
This was an awesome recreational class. It works as both a proper kick in the ass advanced recreational class, and a great introduction to the more technical aspects of diving (this is not a proper technical class). One other thing,
PRACTICE! Get your team together and practice as much as possible before the class.  The key to our success was having things from fundamentals squared away so we could move forward to new things.  This is not to say that you might be
able to take the class without practice, but I believe that you’ll get much more out of the class if you are solid on fundamentals and team communication.
Remember, something may go wrong!

[Mr T.]

Dude,

I take it that was a C&amp;P job? Any chance you can re-do it so as to make it easier to read??

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

Your wish is my command Bren.

Ran out of chill pills?

Andy

[Ben Harris]

<font color='#8D38C9'>Andy,
Hi, what do they teach as being the benefit of using he below say 30 - 40m. I mean this in regard to benefit vs additional problems and cost.

Cheers

ben

[Bob Cooper]

The benefit is in reduced narcosis and all the other benefits of &quot;not&quot; breathing nitrogen.

Cost doesn't come into it.....

Bob

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

Helium is easier on your lungs, and of course is not narcotic (or not to a degree we are worried about) GUE believe that it has better decompression advantages and that Helium is a far superior gas in all respects.

30/30 is only used up to 36 mtrs and so its really intended for those people who prefer the longer no deco times of nitrox but then the advantages of helium. At 30 mtrs END of 30/30 is only 18 mtrs or thereabouts. The rectriox course is no deco but does use twinsets and is a nice bridge between fundamentals and tech1.

In terms of cost its all relative. 32% fill costs around £12 whereas 30/30 around £30. Some will say that is significant but it isn't really when incorporated into travel, boat, digs etc. A perfect 30/30 dive is the Somali or the Glanmire. You know that you'll be at the bottom for all of the dive and the bottom is between 30 and 35 metres. With 30/30 you can do the dive and get 30 mins or so bottom time and no deco to do and more importantly a lower END, a clearer head. Its funny, on my nitrox course the instructor told us a common misconception of nitrox is that it is a deep gas. GUE believe that the same can be said of helium. It doesn't only have to be used deep, there are significant advantages on shallower dives too.

Costs don't really figure in the GUE thinking, its more about choosing the best gasses for the dive, and if you can't get or afford the gasses, don't do the dive. I don't understand what additional problems you would encounter.

Hope that helps

Andy

[Ben Harris]

<font color='#8D38C9'>so would a triox diver use it mainly as a non deco dive without a stage of 02 or equiv.?

Cheers

Ben

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

Triox is just another word for trimix and the 'rec' triox diver would use it as you suggest, no accelerated deco or stages.

the recTriox course does not cover accelerated deco or stages. It is in essence half the tech1 course.

Andy

[Ben Harris]

<font color='#8D38C9'>So do they teach after spending the full no deco time at the planned depth just straight ascending and a safety stop. Sorry havent had a chance to look at d planner and compare. Do they basically run it as a straight dive with no extra obligation at all even with a 30% he mix?
If this is so its worth looking into.
Sorry if this is a dum question but Ive never looked into using helium and extra o2 on more shallow dives. The general trend (imo) with iantd and tdi is that you only use he if you really need to and get on and off it as soon as possible.

I know GUE teach a different point of view and (for once ) Im not being arguementative. Guess its a different way to do things that makes sense if it works. im thinking in cases of dark, nasty dives like the clyde where they are all in about 35m and make you feel more narced than you probably are.

Ben

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

If you read through the report you will see this

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]We also went into detail on Decompression theory. This does not mean that
we learned about advanced decompression techniques, but with the base knowledge that all dives are decompression dives, we reviewed the use of recreational decompression including deepstops and how our ascent profile should look.

GUE's point of view is that there is no such thing as a no deco dive, and that certain rules are adherred to during ascents, such as deep stops and spreading the traditional safety stop ie instead of 3 mins at 6 mtrs do 1 at 12, 1 at 9, 1 at 6 and then a slow final ascent. This makes the profile cleaner.

Regarding IANTD and TDI I have no experience of their policy on helium although I am beginning to understand more from other threads. Traditionally this was because it was thought that helium, as it has a faster diffusion rate approx 2.7 times that of nitrogen, it was thought that it must also have a faster saturation rate ie absorbed into tissue faster, particularly the slower tissues. From research and stuff done later it does not appear that this is completely true and helium actually benefits offgassing because it's easy breathe reduces co2, improves lung efficiency etc.

I suppose the main thing is to understand that helium is a divers friend and nitrogen is the enemy.

Hope that helps

Andy