Me and MOD1 with Rich Stevenson

[warmwaterdiver]

apologies, its a bit of a long read

My reasons for doing the course are numerous but include getting a better understanding CCR’s in general, how to effect a better rescue of a CCR diver should I ever need to and thinking about the future (and direction) of my diving.

The story starts even before day 1.On Thursday I had a blow-out on one of the front tyres on my way into the office, ‘no problem’ I thought. Then having bent the wheel brace trying to undo the wheel nuts because they were on so tight ‘ah more of a problem now’, I called out the handyman from the office in the pool car and we eventually got the wheel off & fitted the ‘space-saver’ spare. Now because I have one of those & the fact that the main tyre size is an usual one and not generally kept in stock, I keep a full size spare at home. So I returned home, collected it and went down the local tyre workshop. Swapping it over, the fitter looked at the other front tyre & noticed a similar damaged inside face of the sidewall and suggested not traveling far on it before replacement. ‘So not Plymouth tomorrow then?’ No. So I ordered another tyre. Getting into the office lunchtime to tell them that I’d be leaving early so get the second tyre didn’t do me any favours!

Anyway nightmare over, tyre fitted, wallet £500 lighter, home, load car, food and an early night.

[warmwaterdiver]

Day One

Got out to the car, put key in ignition, engine management light came on. ‘Fcuk!’. Luckily my parents were overseas so I drove over and picked their car up. Transferring the gear, fuelling up and then on the road 45 minutes late. Half way to Plymouth I realised my fathers car hasn’t got satnav, ‘ah that could be a problem!’. Well I kind of knew where Richs place was so I was hopeful I could find it. Rolling up 30 minutes late after calling Rich and letting him know the situation, I found his new unit roughly where I thought it was. Less of a problem as I found out, as one of the other students was still missing as he had driven to Richs old unit at Mountbatten, so there was no rush after all.

We had a quick look at the units before going upstairs to the classroom area for Rich to introduce us. There were three trainees on the course, Terry, Wade and myself. Now, looking at the other two, I was definitely putting myself as number three in the league. Both the other two looked confident and I was literally shitting bricks. A quick pep-talk by Rich about the history of himself, Deep Blue, and CCRs, then onto the course outline.

Back down to the workshop to strip the unit and have a good look at them. Rich was being assisted by Mike Potts, who was not only Richs safety diver but a very experienced CCR diver as well. I was on an Inspo Vision (as I liked the look of the electronics), Wade a Classic and Terry a Meg. Mike showed us how to strip the units down to their component parts and reassemble them, careful to remember the O rings in various important places! We went through the electronics and menus, then actually putting the units on and pre-breathing them. From the basics of being shown how to adjust the harness, manually add dil and O2, the manual pull dump on the loop, mouthpiece opening and closing, positive and negative pressure checks, loop clears, etc, etc.

Time to pack them into the back on Richs van and drive over to the pool. We used the pool at ‘Sea and Sea’ and very nice it was too, cheers lads! Carrying the gear in, it hit me that I was actually going to dive a CCR!

Now, its been 3 years since diving in the Red Sea and couldn’t find my wetsuit at home, so decided to just wear an old t-shirt and pair of shorts. Getting into the water was lovely, it was heated to swimming pool levels, so I was happy, whereas the other two were in rashsuits and wetsuits. Another very surprising thing we found out was that Rich and Mike weren’t actually going to get wet. Rich uses a comms set with underwater earpieces (mask strap mounted) to communicate his instructions to us, whilst Mike used a underwater video camera to record us and generally watch over us, ready to jump in should we need assistance. The pool has three levels, so we started at the shallow end, just going underwater and getting used to the units. Then, progressing to moving down and actually trying to swim the unit. We were soon in the deep end and during the following two and a half hours, we were swimming around trying to get neutrally buoyant and completing the basic three drills.

1. bailout
2. manual dil flush
3. boom scenario

I was having trouble already, the mouthpiece swivel is fairly tight and although I could manage it in the pool, I knew I would struggle with 5mm gloves on. The time seemed to fly by and soon Rich was telling us we had the last 15 minutes on our own in the pool to get confident and enjoy ourselves. But not for long, as no surprise he started on adhoc drills as soon as we left the bottom for a swim, but no dramas occurred and we all managed fine.

One thing that did surprise me, as I hadn’t given it much prior thought, with OC if you turn all your gas off you can’t breathe, but with CC you can turn it all off and you can still breathe, for a while anyway!

Units out and we went back to Richs unit for a debrief.

I was stopping over down there so had a nice warm local B&B to go back too. Some food and another early night.

[warmwaterdiver]

Day Two

I met Rich at his unit at 07:00 and Terry rocked up shortly after. Gear loaded after being checked by Rich and we set off for Vobster Quay. Getting there for 09:30, I was glad to find we were allowed down into the lower carpark.

We did a full kit check, calibrate, pressure checks and prebreathe, then off to get changed. Now, Terry admitted he’d only done one quarry dive (although many hundreds of sea dives) and was aware it was going to be cold. Wade on the other hand had got cold in the pool, this didn’t bode well!

I use the principle ‘any fool can be cold’ so I was in full Weezle Extreme +, two sets of warm socks, 5mm gloves and 7mm hood, plus of course lots of ‘natural’ insulation

Rich let us know the layout of the dives, 40 minutes having a swim about getting use to the units in open water a bit deeper than the pool, surface and quick chat (but not get out) and then re-descend back down onto the platform for drills. The first part I found really hard, it was a game of follow the leader with Rich in number 1. I found the pace to be a little quick for me and was struggling to control everything and not look a fool to the people following. My mask was giving me grief, mainly due to my moustache and the RB mouthpiece. This obviously had me mask clearing more than normal and I soon found out I could locate the dil button in a millisecond And more obviously much gurgling was heard in the loop, luckily Rich and Mike had showed us how to clear this into the T piece. Also, I felt I was swimming at an angle with my left side down, listing 10 degrees to port!

Upon surfacing it was clear both Terry and Wade were very cold so the decision was made to get out for 5 minutes for a quick debrief. We soon got back in and decended onto the training platform for drills and skills. Similar to the pool but this time Rich demonstrated the skill and the pointed to us in order, repeating again and again as necessary if we weren’t quick enough or didn’t do it quite right. A minor problem by one of the others but nothing major. The tight mouthpiece closure wasn’t too bad but I certainly wasn’t as proficient as I could be, or should be.

60 minutes in 6deg water and even I was glad to get out, not because I was cold but I was hungry

A debrief and a cheeseburger (or two, soup, chocolate, flapjack and crisps) followed.

The plan for the second dive was to go deeper and therefore have more of an ascent to deal with on our return. Terry then ‘stole’ my spare pair of 5mm gloves to see if they could help with the cold. This mostly went to plan but someone did have a problem at the bottom, so we did an ascent earlier than planned. I was happy on the bottom changing my setpoint down for the ascent when I got prodded and told to ascend with the rest! My diving viewpoint is ‘I’d rather be on the bottom so long as I have enough gas, than ascending too quickly’. I think it was Charles, a fairly new Meg diver tagging along with us who was watching my back at this point, although I’m sure Mike was also very close too, nice to know, although I certainly knew where my bailout was at all times . Back onto the shelf I was reminded to buddy up with Terry but he was a few metres above me, and as I wasn’t prepared to ascend quicker than I was (I felt I would loose control if I did) so I stayed below him, catching him up on the surface. Drama sorted and we continued the dive. Part of this dive we ran a low setpoint of 0.7 but tried via the inject buttons, to keep the ppO2 up at 1.3. Mask still leaking Drills completed we exited the water.

Another debrief by Rich, some good, some bad. Units stripped, I emptied my loop, hoses and the water in the bottom of can, I was amazed at how the unit still worked fully despite 10/15mm of water in the bottom. Repacking the scrubber brought back memories of friends with units, the ‘tap tap tap, tap tap tap’ We were the last to leave Vobster and I think the staff were glad to see us go so they could lock up!

A few of us were stopping over a The Vobster Inn Welcome to The Vobster Inn, which is very nice, especially as its only a 2 or 3 minute drive away.

An informal chat in the evening helped my understanding a bit more of various unit differences. Also what ‘running semi closed’ meant and the importance of later picking the right bailout gases. More food

[warmwaterdiver]

Day Three

Lovely breakfast, made even nicer by the fact that I didn’t get up until 07:30 and we were still at Vobster before the gates opened.

It was no surprise to find that we were down to two students today. Wade had called it a day due to confidence despite Rich talking to him. We looked at the video Mike had done so far, I was glad to see I wasn’t as bad as I thought although Mike had cut me out of most of the shots

A few friendly faces were met around the carpark and quizzical looks gained when I explained why I was there, as well as several requests for first dibs on my OC gear if I was selling up

Units prepped and checks done. Into the changing rooms to get changed, I exited to be told we were now done to one, ie ME! Terry had an equipment failure and couldn’t dive. So now it was Rich, Mike and me. No escape from video camera today

Extra drills added today were the high O2 alert and manually keeping the ppO2 above the setpoint.

We set off and I found I was much more comfortable today, the pace was slower, perhaps as there was only me to look after and watch. One thing that reminded me though was stopping, anyone can have fake neutral buoyancy whilst finning (and compensating) but once stopped, generally I sank slowly onto the ledge, still I felt a lot better than yesterday. We went over and down to the 20m area for 20mins, this time I didn’t land in a heap at the bottom, hurrah! On the turn point, Rich asked me to leave the setpoint at 1.3 but turn the O2 off at the valve and by turning it on & off (very quickly I soon found out), keep the setpoint as near 1.0 as I could (suggesting solenoid failed open). I had an attack of the task loading gremlins to start with and must have slipped down a bit as Rich pointed to his wing inflate to indicate buoyancy. Recovering after a minute, I followed Rich back at 20m for 15mins, and then ascended up the wall (fairly slowly) trying to keep it between 0.9 and 1.1, failing a couple of times, allowing a bit too much O2 in but not enough for it to rise to alarming levels. I found this a really hard skill. More drills on the platform, including the high O2 drill. I messed the first one up and paid for it with having to do it at least 8 times after it seemed. I got my own back on Rich though, as I kept moving forward across the platform and forced him off the other side so he had to keep neutral buoyancy . My own buoyancy I felt was getting marginally better as I was doing the drills sometimes with only my fin tips touching the platform.

Breaking for lunch, another debrief and plan for the afternoon.

Afternoon dive was more of the same, only colder and less enjoyable but I felt the benefits of the buoyancy improvement. Also, I’d nicked Mikes loop as he’d got an extended handle on the front of his mouthpiece which I could grip and bailout drills were a lot easier.

Further debrief going over my many shortfalls and that was it for the weekend. A long drive home but fortunately not a huge amount of kit to dry. More food, then bed, I was knackered.

[warmwaterdiver]

It was nice having a few days respite between days 1/2/3 and 4/5, to collect my thoughts, concentrate on the failures and plan how to move forward. The car has been back to Vauxhall twice and they’ve now informed me that the part I need is covered under warrenty but out of stock at Vauxhall HQ so they’ve leant me a courtesy car for an indefinate period.

Well I'd been watching the weather forecasts and it was no surprise that the boat diving has been cancelled for the weekend so it was back to quarries. I was 99% relieved!

Although I didn’t have the unit at home, I closed my eyes and physically practiced the movements of the drills, mentally going through the reasons why I was doing what I was doing and what impact they’d have on me in a real life situation. I hoped I’d not mess them up at the weekend

[warmwaterdiver]

Day 4

Getting to Vobster early, I had a quick walk around to settle my nerves.

The biggest surprise was Rich turning up with the news that Terry wasn't going to be joining us for the rest of the course, so it was back to just Rich, Mike and me. People pay very good money to have a one-to-one with quality instructors and here I was getting it for no extra! Once I'd got over the shock of no escape from Richs gaze, I made a conscious decision to make the most of the extra benefit of having both of them to myself.

We made our plan for the first dive. A simple start, getting back into the rhythm of the unit, trying to get neutral, then down onto the 20m area for a swim off. On the turn point I am to run the unit manually again, injecting via the buttons, simulating solenoid failure closed. Even though I knew it was coming, my arch enemy "task loading" was working overtime but I managed to not screw it up at the start of the drill like last week. Keeping the ppO2 fairly stable as we came up the wall was easier than last week as well, buoyancy was going well. Back to the platform for the four core drills, these came back with excellent results and a whoop from Rich suggesting I was doing OK. Ascending was going to be interesting as I was to send the DSMB off mid-water at 12m and do simulated deco at 9m and 6m. It came as no surprise that Rich nicked the reel at 6m but luckily I'd got myself sorted and was able to get fairly neutral, staying between 5.5 and 6.5m. Back up and out for refreshments!

Mike was complaining his hands were getting cold as he'd got nothing to do so Rich soon fixed that. Mike lead the second dive to give him some instructor experience and so Rich could assess us both from behind. The main drill on this dive was again the O2 failure but with control being via the O2 valve knob, simulating solenoid failure open. Again doing a descent and ascent made life difficult but I was getting a bit more used to it now. I certainly felt more uncomfortable doing the drill via the valve compared with the inject button, for what was basically the same but managed to keep the task load gremlins away. From the plan I knew what was coming at the end of the dive and I was just praying I wouldn't screw up completely. We were to achieve neutral buoyancy midwater, no DSMB this time. 9m was OK for a couple of minutes but I just couldn't settle at 6m, rising to 4.5m and then falling to 7.5m until Rich called 5 minutes and we exited. I felt pretty annoyed with myself for messing up the deco stop and knew Rich wouldn't be pleased with my performance but a handshake and congratulations off Rich as basically I'd done well enough given I'd got less than 10 hours on the unit.

So it was off home for food, a quick look at the exam and then bed. Day 5 and NDAC awaits.

[warmwaterdiver]

Day 5

Early onsite again as the NDAC is only 75 minutes from home, even in the 'baby carrier' as a couple of my mates have christened the hire car. A treat for the last day, a sausage bacon and egg sandwich, yummy!

A bit of theory to start the day off, including the basics (and benefits) of semi-closed in an emergency scenario. Time to get kitted up.

We planned to take everything down onto the pontoon and have a short surface interval down there so we loaded one of the many minibuses up with all we might need and off down the new (and much improved) concrete roadway.

Dive one was a standard descent and get settled down at 25m for a 15 minutes swim so we were able to work out our metabolic oxygen rate, mine worked out about 1lpm. Off over the drop-off to my deepest CCR dive at 35m until Rich turned it. Back over onto the shelf we were to run a simulated semi-closed drill by attaching our bailout cylinder onto the oxygen inflator nipple. Then using the bailout gas we did a return swim watching how long it took for the ppO2 to drop 0.2 before doing an O2 (or rather in this case bailout gas) flush. It took about 2/3 minutes for it to drop from 1.4 to 1.2. It caught me out the first time as I didn't exhale quickly enough as I was injecting and started to ascend but no major problems. Drill over I saw I'd used just 15bar of a 7L in 15 minutes, a great saving on gas over OC and now I could understand the theory which Rich went through earlier about CCR divers getting best use of gas at depth even in an emergency. After yet another bailout, we did an OC ascent drill up to 12m which wasn't too bad, remembering to quickly open the loop to release expanding gas. Sent DSMB up, deco stops, etc.

Quick bask in the sunshine out of the wind and run through the plan for dive 2, and I didn't like the sound of most of it!

Dive two was a bit hit and miss! I knew the plan and knew what I should be doing but getting myself to do it was something else! Skills

A quick swim away onto the 12m area and then Rich ran the line out, quite a way given I knew what was coming! We started fairly easily with each one of us (me and Mike) going OOG and bailing out onto OC, then onto donating OC to the other, swimming up and down the line. Then onto a harder one. Mike was at one end of the line, I was at the other. Mike wasn't going to swim to me but I had to bail off the loop and swim to him. The first time I didn't make it to him before I had to take a breath off my reg (which I had in my hand for safety obviously), Rich was watching me very closely at this point! So back down the line to try again, second time successful but I certainly wouldn't want a 25m swim to find gas at any major depth for real. Swim back and recover line. Another simulated deco free-ascent to 6m, then along onto the roadway. Then the rescue, hmmmmm. I had nightmares after trying this with nickb on our Trimix course! But after one false start we completed it fairly well, Mike didn't end up flying up like a missile and it was a fairly slow but steady pace.

That was it, get out and get the kit back up to the top. Kit sorted into cars and I got changed.

Then the final verdict. I won't say it was a surprise because I had a feeling during day four but it was very very nice to hear both Rich and Mike congratulate me on completing and passing my MOD1. Now I know I'm not a great OC diving (thanks the DIR boys!) and I even admitted to Rich before the course I didn't expect to pass and was doing the course for the experience rather than the qualification but I must admit I drove all the way home with a smile on my face

I found this course incredibly hard work (I'm not good at diving course and getting stressed so why do I do it?), not really what I was expecting given the course reports I'd previously read (hence this rather long and boring post) but today I'm very happy! And very very happy to be in the office for a rest

I think the logbook at a little over 10 hours will stay that way for quite a while as I'm very busy over the summer with other stuff and diving already booked (not newly qualified CCR diver compatible), but maybe in the Autumn I'll think about a unit but if anyone hears of a good quality well looked after Inspo for about 2k please let me know

One last word:
Thanks Mike for all the advice, all the assistance and all the pointers, you're so much more than just a "safety diver"
Thanks Rich for taking all the glory

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by warmwaterdiver

apologies, its a bit of a long read

but interesting. Well done Gary
Mal

[SML]

Nice write up Gary

[neilh]

Nice report and congratulations Gary