Trimix trip/course report

[colinicky]

By the end of this you may think it should have been posted in the incidents forum !

So Friday morning bright & early ,3.30 am leave home & drive to the Ndac for a trimix course .Met Ash (Dr T ) there & we talked crap untill everybody else arrived about 10 am . Plan was to do a shake down dive so that the instructor Steve (manx856) could assess us .
Well due to blown out dives I had never got round to actually trying to dive with 2 stages so it was going to be interesting .I thought "well I added a 7L ally & left of the 150m KT reel so we're about right ,it works in the sea so here goes ! " It didn't work ,what had been lovely clear viz from pontoon to the bottom was now zero .I didn't land on the bottom more, ploughed into it leaving a crater .First thought was " Sh*t my ears hurt ,better try equalising " .I just could not stay of the bottom ,as soon as I stopped finning I sank like a boulder . As you can imagine on exiting everybody ripped the P something rotten led mainly by Ash ! ( revenge comes later ) .Steve decided that I needed to lose some weight but that was a problem as I didn't have any lead on ,So loose the Argon bottle & run the suit from the 50% stage ,loose the CD umbilical torch & rely on a Q40 & last but not least loose the lid of my KT frame .
By this time I was so totally dejected that I decided if it didn't get better on the 2nd dive I was canning the course & going home ! I even told SWMBO to include me in the dinner plan but thankfully the seconmd dive was a lot better .
Day 2 started with a 50m 20min dive using tables & timers & other than Steve moaning that I took to long to descend everything went to plan .

Second dive was going to be more skills & drills with full OC bailout ascent , Other than me forgetting to switch to low set point & having to faff around the menu it went ok untill we got to our gas switch depth ,I switched & there was a horrible weazing sound as if some one had drawn their dying breath .Quick check & I'm still breathing & nothings bubbling .Steve has immediatley spun round to look assuming that its me after all my problems ,but it's not me it's Ash (told you revenge ) he switched & suddenly there was air escaping at a rate from the hose to 2nd stage union ,unfortunately 5 seconds later there was no union as they seperated completly Steve sopon helped sort it out & then it was time to deploy smb's & ascend only I got a reverse block at 6m & dropped to clear it without realising the line had jumped the real & proceeded to jam solid ,as can be imagined much mickey taking back on the pontoon
So back to the hotel & an exam paper ! This was were I discovered how much I had forgotten but got there in the end .
So final day 70m for 15 min, Errr sorry not enough bailout so replan .Eventually 60m for 8 minutes with back up for 65m for 13min
Steve tells us that if ANYBODY exceeds 60m we must run the back up plan ,so guess who broke it ? yup yours truelly ,but in fairness only by 0.2.
It was already a forgone thing as Steve deliberately went to about 65m to make us run the back up plan .Everything to plan & a leisurely swim back to the pontoon .
In conclusion I did enjoy the easy going ( Beasting ) of the course with a group of great people who were prepared to put up with a muppet who had forgotten a lot .
Thanks to Steve for the patience ,to Lara for surface support & doing up my crutch strap & to Edd for helping me with the dive planning & putting up with my snoring ! Sorry it was so long

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report mate, sounds like a normal couple of dives then

[ardhill]

Colin, I thought it was very good of you to concider Steve so much. I mean he didn't have to spend any time thinking of ways to task load you, you did all the work for him

Well done for surviving the weekend.

[Dr T]

nice one col.

yep not really much to add on top of that. It was a fun weekend and good to re-practice all those rusty skills.

Yep kit maintenance is now set for this bank hol monday following my rich mix second stage quite literally coming unscrewed without me noticing and then falling off when i needed it !!!

note to all - you really need ally 80s for this course, 7s are not big enough if you are given a bailout scenario with a high breathing rate

thanks to all involved with the weekend.

ash