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Diving, SCUBA

Introduction

Here’s a brief history of what lead me to where I am today in SCUBA diving. My current diving CV is as follows:-

Qualifications

• PADI Instructor (MSDT).
• PADI EFR Instructor.
• BSAC Instructor (Open Water Instructor).
• TDI Advanced Nitrox & Decompression.
• TDI Trimix.
• GUE Fundamentals.

Experience

In excess of 2,500 dives as of Autumn 2007 including dives in the following locations:-

• UK South Coast(most of my diving is here).
• UK West Wales.
• UK West Country.
• Orkney Islands: Scapa Flow.
• Maldives.
• Red Sea: Sharm el-Sheikh, Marsa Alam, Dahab.
• Caribbean: St Lucia, Bahamas.
• Florida Keys.

My deepest (technical) dive has been 60m.

In my instructor capacity, I have certified over 150 divers from entry level open water to Divemaster certifications.

How It All Started

By profession, I am an IT consultant. 2002 was a tough year for the IT industry and in March 2002 I was made redundant from my job at the time. With some redundancy cash in hand and after having worked without a major holiday for over 5 years, I booked a 2 week trip to the Maldives in October 2002.

Dive Career: Chapter 1 (Getting the bug)

On arrival at the resort, I noticed a dive shop. A few days later, after having gotten pretty bored with eating / lounging around in the sun, I wandered into the dive shop and booked a try dive. That was it:- hooked at 1st dive! My PADI Open Water and Advanced courses were completed in 10 days whilst in the resort. On returning to the UK, the anti-climax of not potentially being able to dive until the next holiday (who knows when I’d get another redundancy payout ) really took hold. I definitely wanted to dive but had a choice to make. Did I want to be a holiday diver or did I want to give UK diving a try? To be honest, I didn’t much fancy diving in the UK as I believed that it would be cold / dark with not much to see. However, the prospect of not being able to dive again for several months / years made be consider UK diving.

Dive Career: Chapter 2 (First UK experiences)

So, in late November 2002, I visited the local dive shop and ended up signing up for a dry suit orientation. The next dive was in Wraysbury in January 2002. It was cold (4 degrees), the viz was bad (As the silt had been kicked up a little) and my regulator free-flowed. So, I’d gone from 31 degrees, 40m+ viz in the Maldives to 4 degrees <1m viz in Wraysbury in a few weeks. How was it? Honestly, it wasn’t very comfortable / enjoyable but I decided to stick with it and give it a bit longer before deciding one way or the other.

Dive Career: Chapter 3 (Going pro)

The next thing that I did was to sign up for the PADI Rescue course which was conducted at Horsea Island in Feb 2003. At the end of a really fun course, it was at this point that I decided that UK diving was going to be a great adventure. The decision was probably due in some respects to the additional confidence that one gains after doing a Rescue Diver course.

Here is where diving really became a serious commitment for me:- I signed up to the PADI DiveMaster course and every weekend that I could find was helping out with Open Water courses whilst doing my internship. It was not an easy course but at the end of it (completed in September 2003) I felt as if I’d really earned the ticket.

Not wanting to slow down at this point, I booked onto the PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) during October and November 2003. The Instructor Examination was hard but fun and I ended up as a PADI Instructor in November 2003. Interestingly, my Instructor ticket is dated exactly one year (to the day) from the date on my open water ticket.

Dive Career: Chapter 4 (Getting experience)

In the “race” to get from Open Water to Instructor in exactly one year, there was not much time to really gain any significant experience in UK sea diving. The UK sea is a fantastic place to see abundant wildlife and stunning wrecks. However, UK sea diving is a lot different than blue water / holiday diving. In the UK, we have currents, tides, wind, variable visibility, darkness, cold. We dive in dry suits, need good orientation and navigation skills. Organising dive trips can be frustrating and can end up in dives being blown out due to bad weather.

During 2004 & 2005, I dived nearly every weekend at various offshore and inland locations. All in all, I must have racked up 200+ dives is various conditions ranging from freezing cold (yes, I have dived when it’s been snowing) to near Mediterranean conditions during summer. We’ve done visibility of 40m+ (yes, you can get that here in the UK) to just a few centimetres in the depths of Vobster Quay.

Dive Career: Chapter 5 (Technical)

Say “Technical Diving” and most recreational divers get visions of heavy gear, loads of tanks:- the whole thing is a bit macho perhaps? Well no, not really (read on).

Shortly after gaining my PADI instructor ticket, I signed up for training in Advanced Nitrox and Decompression theory with Underwater Explorers in Portland. There are significant moments in any career:- this was one of those. This is really where all the loose ends of diving finally started to come together in my own mind. For example, we are all taught that good streamlining is important for efficiency and safety underwater. Unfortunately, most divers are never shown how to achieve this(certainly I wasn’t and a quick look around at most other divers seemed to confirm that they aren’t either!). I’m not going too much into the detail here, but suffice to say that, after doing the training, that I feel a lot safer in executing a dive (including recreational) than before the course.

So, as far as “technical” diving goes, my current qualifications mean that I can participate on dives to 60m. The major point on this is that, to do this, I’ve got the right kit, right training and (very important!) the right gas mix. Remember the PADI Open Water manual where it talks about Safety and comfort? Deep diving is all about Safety and comfort.

Oh, the kit / weight. Most divers are initially surprised that a 12L twinset is only a couple of kilos heavier than their single scuba unit + weight belt.

Values & Beliefs

So, after all of this diving, what have I learned so far? I’ll list out the important things as I see them (in my humble view). These are my views only remember, so take in that context only.

• NEVER dive beyond your training, experience or equipment. There is nothing worth dying for underwater.
• A bad dive buddy is worse than no buddy at all.
• Don’t dive without a buddy.
• Don’t dive over weighted. Lead is not a substitute for good buoyancy control. Being over weighted can seriously harm your chances of getting to the surface in an emergency.
• Ignore the crazy things that some divers do. Diving is a safe sport but, like most other things, there are a minority who take it to it’s extreme and run risks for the “thrill”.
• Don’t put up with Narcosis:- If you want to go deep, get Trimix trained (Safety and comfort remember?).
• Every dive is a decompression dive. No?! Well, yes it is (including your so called “No Decompression” dives). Why do you think that you have a maximum recommended ascent rate and a safety stop?
  Understanding this and learning about decompression profiles and deep stops will make a tremendous difference to how you feel after a dive (anyone seen a diver yawn a lot after a days diving? This can indicate excessive bubbles which could have been avoided with appropriate ascents / stops). It will also help prevent you getting bent.
• Get your kit configuration sorted out. Trim the dangly pieces of equipment, reduce the risk of entanglement.
• Always conduct decompression dives or dives in overhead environments with redundant air sources
• Always carry / deploy a SMB when sea diving.
• Get comfortable with near zero viz, mid water SMB launches and relaxing in current.
• Computers are great for recreational diving. Not so good for dives requiring decompression. Do yourself (and your pocket) a favour and learn to use a simple depth and bottom timer together with doing some adequate gas / decompression planning before the dive. It may be just about acceptable to just jump in the water with a computer on a recreational dive but it is not acceptable to do it on deep / overhead environment dives.
• “Bail out” tables have limited value (particularly after long decompression dives). If you lose a deco gas, it can be very serious. A workable “bail out” plan needs to include your buddy, surface support, planning, briefing, drop bottles etc. Learn to cope with loss of a deco regulator.
• Do not rely on a shot line for ascents. Skippers have been known to pull up shot lines just when you need them the most (e.g. a deco stop). Also, having to re-locate a shot line can be a pain in the backside (particularly in low viz) and requires lining off whilst at the bottom. Why not trim your buoyancy and get comfortable with free / SMB ascents?

Diving SCUBA

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Rowland :: Sep.19.2007 :: Uncategorized ::

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