Kitting up quick: It's a life or death thing...

[Mark Chase]

I dont beleive it. Total muppit, hide in a closit, shoot your self dive and it was part of my Trimix course.

OK so heres how it starts:

Moldavia 50m planned for Sat 8th Feb. Wether forcast says 15mph wind SW so its not going to be on. BUT Just in case I drop my stage in to my M8 for a 50% fill for travel gas.

8.30 Friday night and the phone finaly pics up on re-dial AND ITS ON???

PANIC I havent picked up my stage coz I was convinced the dive was off. So ring 'P' and say bring it with on the dive I havent got time to pic it up.

Rush out to garage and asemble kit. Load car and its 10.45pm and I have to be up at 4.30am.

Do check list at 4.45 go to meet 'P' and off to Littlehampton.

Arive at 6.30 boat leavs 6.45 GO FOR IT

OK two hours to kill out to the dive site, meet and say hello to TDI Trimix instructor Paul and kit up. All goes well till we get to the stage cylinder. All my regs are din except the travel gas which is still my old trusty K clamp Alpher 7. But Pete has removed the K insert on filling the tank and forgoten to bring it with him. Whoops

A lot of embaresment later I have scrounged an insert and an A key to sort kit but instructor is not impressed. I have Analox so can test mix and it is spot on 50%.

Arrive at dive site and dont kit up streight away as there is 30mins to slack. Then get unexpectedly told Slack is NOW so kit up.

Mad rush to kit up is hampered by masive Irish bloke on my bench taking up whole bench. Bugger!

Dive instructor shouts 'Are you ready' and I hevent got my fins on yet. Bugger!  

Fins on and in and down for the 6m bubble check. Check CCR instructor, No Problems. He checks me and my Travel gas which is also suit inflaton is leaking from a high presure port. Bugger!

Switch to redundant inflator hose for suit which is helium back gas (not good burrrrr) and switch off valve to travel gas.

And decend to 50m

OK we at 50 on the bottom and he asks me to do a stage removal and re fit. No Problem. Then he askes or a gas shut down. So look down and the Slob Knob is MISSING. Sudden realisation that in my rush to kit up I forgot to put the slob knob in the rubber O ring on my bottom D ring. Bugger, Bugger, Bugger. I have NEVER done this before. Imagin the sceen as I spend the next 15 seconds wasting time trying to retreve my slob knob. (PRAT springs to mind) I then gave up and did a manual shut down which is what I should have done streight away. BUGGER I hate my self

On we go to the dive and our 10min's at 50m is over due to the delays on the shot line and the time wasted on the skills (ha ha) test and we ascend to 45m for the remaining 15mins of the dive. Just to rub salt into the wound I spot a big Lobster on the deck back down at 50m and my computer is showing well below planned deco due to fafing on the shot but I dairn't go chasing after it as my instructor will probably confiscate my fins and ban me from diving.

I SMB'd spot on time and did my ascent but my first stop was at 21 and my instructor was on a first stop of 30 due to CCR and VR3 so thats the last I saw of him. I honistly did perfict stops and even a 4 min ascent from 6m but I was all allown with no witneses. Bugger.

So I sheepishley got back on the boat and my instructor said. 'Never mind, Its a good lesson in what can go wrong.'

SHOOT ME NOW

My excuse (yes I have one) is the rapid kitting up which I hate. Yes Yes I know it's no excuse but it's the truth in my panic I forgot to put my slob knob hose in it's proper place. Also failure to pick up the stage the night before had resulted in me not presure testing the rig prior to the dive. It made me realise I am no where near diciplined enough to do CCR diving.

Ho Hum

Wish me luck on the 15th. (last dive of the course and I suspect I will be doing shutdown drills again)

Mark Chase

[andy2tanx]

Gotta disagree there Chasey old boy.  Quick kitting up is a good excuse, and something that shouldn't have to be done.  As for the old not being disciplined bit.  Did you learn from it?  if so then thats discipline.  Don't bang yourself on the head about it.  

Best of luck with the rest of the course.  Tell us how it goes please.

[Gavin Yates]

When Mr CCR said: "Are you ready yet?" The answer should've been

"No - I need another ten minutes to do ALL my checks."

If that's no goood for him then find someone that's more safety minded.

At the end of the day - you came back safe, learned a valuable lesson and you ca move forward. Don't be so hard on yerself.

[Davey Willo]

Wow Mark, way to go mate... a great read and i feel for you as there's nothing worse than being rushed before a dive, any dive never mind a 50m training dive..

Mark, I wasn't there and so might get slated for saying this but based on what you've written I think your instructor failed you badly.. I think as a pressured and frustrated student you might be willing to put up with a few problem with the mndset of of "Oh bugger it, lets just do it" but your instructor should have a cool calm head and have a completely unbiased view... if the dive wasn't to be then it wasn't to be.

Firstly I'm suprised that after doing a bubble check at 6m and realising that your travel gas was leaking from a high pressure port that he did not abort the dive.. is this not the whole reason we do a 6m bubble check to find problems before its too late? too progess onto a 50m training dive armed with the knowledge that the HP port on the students travel gas could go at anytime was ludicrous.

I'm also suprised then that he allowed you to use your helium based back gas for your drysuit.. this could of chilled you very badly during a decompression dive with all of the inherent problems that would bring on.. used as a last resort to get you to the surface maybe, but to start a long deco dive with helium based insulation is madness.. another reason to have called the dive there and then...

I also find it hard to accept that an instructor would teach a student on O/C while he was on a rebreather with different deco obligations and dive profile, knowing that you would become separated during ascent, what on earth was he thinking?

Was he carrying some sort of bailout for you/himself incase there were problems down there?

Mark mate, I'm being serious not argumentative here, I'd be asking this geezer the same questions, now I realise that you might feel a certain loyalty to this guy but he did not do you the student any favours whatsoever.

BTW mate, get yerself an argon bottle, linking your drysuit to a stage just isn't cricket ;)

Glad to see you're ok but I'm hoping that this post raises a discussion cos I feel that your instructor was out of order.

Best regards
Dave.

[Phil Ennis]

Well said Dave,
Saved me lot's of typing there. It strikes me the Instrutor was taking the opportunity to have his own dive rather than doing what he should have been doing. Duty of care, hum, different depths for deco stops.
Enough said by me, I am sure there are more to come. As far as the point of kitting up, I rush for no-one and as recently using borrowed twins, people are politely told to bugger off and leave me alone while I kit up.

[Bob Cooper]

Sorry if this sounds a bit tough but.......

I read this and my jaw dropped.  So I read it again and I couldn't believe what I was reading.  Tell me this is a joke.

I cannot believe this was a training dive, with an instructor? on a CCR? a failed bubble check? you were on different schedules? you ascended alone? you did your gas switch alone? you used a helium mix in your dry suit?

Please, tell me it's a joke.

[Andy Phillips]

Sorry Mark, can't resist the joke

Now you know why it's called a slob knob.

Andrew

[CotoChris]

Out of curiosity (not familiar with Trimix) what is the slob knob?

[Jay]

Its an extension device for operating your valves without having to reach behind you.

[Dr Stevil]

Following on from Bob's comments, this is a similar thought, perhaps taking control and saying "Oi, Instructor, nooooooo....." was part of the test? Maybe you were expected to tell him he was wrong?
I once heard a similar tale about cave diving training.

If I was doing a 50m dive I wouldn't be happy with the scenario described, especially with your Ins on CCR,
Chee-az
Steve