Mod 1 Course Report

[Mick F]

A long, long time ago, in a beerhaze far far away, Midnight & I decided we were gonna have a shot at this closed circuit business. Well, it's bound to be a doddle innit?

I order meself an Evolution, & Midnight, the sneaky hoor, cops a second-hand Inspo in perfect nick at a knockdown price. All we have to do is wait the ten months for APD to ship my Evolution. Ten what you say? So did I!

In the meantime (lots & lots of meantime) we book a course with Tim Doyle of Bantry Bay Divers/Firststage Diving. Now Tim's been around a while or two and has been there, seen it, and kicked the b0llocks out of the bloke who sells the t-shirts. He's a commie diver with huge experience as an instructor. When I initially booked the course, I was told that "Mickey, you pay for the course but you earn the cert. If I ain't happy with your performance, you've got f*ck all chance of getting the c-card"

We've arranged the course to begin on Wednesday the 3rd May. Midnight & I drive to Cork from Co. Meath, don't get lost en-route for the first time ever, and arrive about 3pm after a 5 hour drive. Tim says "Had a good trip lads? Right then, semi-closed calculations. You don't need to know all of this, but you need to know the bits you need to know"

We spend about four hours filling out the forms, getting a course overview, & some intense tuition about semi-closed calculations. This is followed by an in-depth rundown on the two units. We’re also taught how to fill the scrubbers properly.

Thursday 4th May, 7.30am

Tim's wife Maggie, who is our Mum away from home provides a huge brekkie, and proceeds to set the standard for the week; "You boys need feeding; you've got some work ahead of you"

The wind is Southerly which has messed up Tim's plan for some confined water work. We head for "The Factory" which is to be our home for the next few days. A protected bay with a concrete pier provides the perfect environment.

We kit up and go through in-depth pre-dive checks. Once we’re all happy, units on & hop in; straightaway I'm beginning to wonder about the money I've spent on this kit. We're in 1.5MSW and I cannot keep the unit on the bottom. I'm up and down like a prozzies knickers and am well pissed off. Midnight nails it pretty quick and looks smug. Bastard.

Back to base, strip & clean the units. How did that much crap get in my counterlung? Review of the morning, more theory and a Q&A session. We finish up at 7.30pm.

Friday 5th May, 7.30am

Gettup you pair!

Midnight claims I snore! A serious and unfounded defamation of character! I resolve to turn off his O2 when the swine isn't looking.

Unit's prepped with fresh slime; we head back to the factory. We're running through a stack of new drills which we had covered in theory the previous evening.

"Your main enemies are the Three H's. Never, ever forget this"

The drills are tough. It's only 3M of water & any mistake is easily noticed by our eagle-eyed instructor. But after a while it slowly gets better. I've moved the Evolution HUD to the right hand side & things become easier as it’s no longer blocking my view of the handset. I’ve also added more lead & I’m finding it easier to run minimum loop volume now. We go through the drills & skills over & over. Getting these down pat is the key to staying alive on these units. Midnight starts quoting the movie "Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels

Originally Posted by Rory Breaker

If you hold back anything, I'll kill ya. If you bend the truth or I think you're bending the truth, I'll kill ya. If you forget anything I'll kill ya. In fact, you're gonna have to work very hard to stay alive, Nick. Now do you understand everything I've said? Because if you don't.....I'll kill ya.

We're beginning to sympathise with Nick the Greek.

Eventually the drills come together. “Well done Mickey that was absolutely perfect. Now do it over again until you do it that way every time”

Back to base. Clean the units & settle down for the last of the theory sessions. We cover rescue scenarios, bail out, and talk about ancillary kit configs. Finish about 7pm


Saturday 6th May, 8.30am

After a lie-in, one of Maggies super brekkies, new slime, preps and checks. We’re back in the water. Practise lifting techniques, blob deployments, lots & lots of running manually & SCR, and of course more drills. No sloppiness is accepted now. Things have to be sharp.

Out of the water, back to base, clean units, and sit the exam. It’s open book but still requires a good understanding of what we’ve been doing for the last few days. Finish up about 6.30pm.


Sunday 7th May, 7.30am

It’s the last day & we’ve got a boat dive planned to 30M. We’ve run the plan the previous evening. It’s a no-deco course, but bailing off a CCR no-deco dive could leave us with a significant OC deco requirement. We bring a trapeze along & are given an in-depth dive briefing. After checks, kit up, & rolling back into the water, we drop down the shot to 6M for a bubble check, then on down to the bottom, purposely dropping too fast the last couple of meters to see the units spike up to .85 Bar. Reeling off the shot, we take a swim along the bottom for a while; nothing too stressful, just a 5 minute bimble. We reel back and start some drills & skills. As the planned runtime approaches we clip off reels and ascend. Up to the 9M bar on the trapeze & bail off the unit to OC, and back on the loop. More drills & up to 6M, still watching the runtime closely. We surface, de-kit, & get back in the boat. De-briefing back on land is lengthy. We are both honestly critiqued and some mistakes are pointed out in Tim’s inimitable fashion.

To our delight we are then told that we have both passed the course. We pack away the kit and after Maggie cooks one last luverly lunch we begin the trek home.

This was, without a doubt, one of the toughest diving courses I have ever done. I had read many reports from other CCR divers about being a novice again, but I really didn’t get just what a seismic shift it is going from OC to CCR. Finding myself ploughing a trench along the bottom was a shock to the system. It’s also bloody hard to remember that inhaling as I approach the bottom only results in a collision and silt-out. It also doesn’t help that because we can semi-talk to each other with the breathing loop, I can clearly hear Midnight’s chuckles every time I do this.

Tim is a great instructor and I would recommend him to anyone. He doesn’t hold back with either honest critiques or praise, and you really feel you’ve achieved something when you see his applause under the water.

Now that we’ve gotten the basics down, Midnight & I plan to stay shallow this season until we get plenty of hours up on the units. We’re under no illusions about the capacity of these machines to kill if we cock up, but the feeling of diving CCR is like no other. Bring on the summer!

[parahandy]

Good post Mick

[DaveB]

Thanks for the report - a right riveting read.

[Midnight]

Thanks Mick,

But you made me out to be the "A" student when I was making the bulk of the cockups!!!

BTW you do snore, and sometimes fart at the same time. You would not have noticed as you had earplugs in (due to the false claim that I snore when everyone knows that I just carry on talking bollocks in my sleep). I wish I had some earplugs but I would have had to put them up my nose!!!!

Very tough but enjoyable course, I am gonna miss those huge frys for breakfast. Pity those poor buggers on SC with all those weird calculation thingys!!

My wife thinks that is a good idea that I am getting chemically scrubbed on a regular basis. Just got to keep those credit card bills hidden for a while.

You forgot to mention the round of applause I got when Tim found out that I had sacrificed my wedding anniversary to attend the course!!

Regards
Midnight

[zepp]

Good post Mick, thanks for sharing..

[Chriz]

A good read, cheers.



Chris/z

[Spike Jackson]

Hi Mick

Great course report. Sounds like you guys had fun and learnt a hell of a lot.

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Spike Jackson

Sounds like you guys had fun and learnt a hell of a lot.

Thats right............... now do it again!!!!

OMG it is catching!!

I'm off to get a sanity breath.

Regards
Midnight

[Mick F]

Originally Posted by Midnight

BTW you do snore, and sometimes fart at the same time

Yes, yes, it is an art form, but I do tend to hide my light under a bushel.

Originally Posted by Midnight

You forgot to mention the round of applause I got when Tim found out that I had sacrificed my wedding anniversary to attend the course!!

Bugger! I forgot about that. Folks, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Midnight does have the most understanding wife in the world, bar none!

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Mick F

Midnight does have the most understanding wife in the world, bar none!

Took me ages to find a good looking woman who has a "thing" for fat, stupid blokes and then keep her away from the rest of them!!!!

Regards
Midnight