Team foxturd

Diving Incident and Safety Resource Centre (DISRC)

2010-09-13T22:38:00.000Z

The aim of the DISRC site is to provide a single focal point for all recreational (not commercial) diving. Whilst it excludes 'Commercial Diving Operations' it does include those divers who are 'At Work' such as recreational and technical dive instructors.

The site will provide links to:

* Incident reports, accident reports and incident data capture forms.
* Best practice information for diving and hyperbaric medicine and medical incident management.
* Reference & research materials pertaining to incident management, hyperbaric research, agency training standards, human factors research, in fact anything to do with improving diver and diving safety.

Where possible this information will be hosted on the DISRC server, but copyright and publication limitations might mean that reports are just hyperlinks off-site.

The site can be found at http://www.disrc.com

Cognitas Report Into Incident Reporting in the UK is Published

2010-09-13T22:31:00.001Z

The report into "Incident Reporting in the UK Recreational Diving Industry - An Assessment of Current Practices and Potential Ways to Improve Them" has now been published and can be downloaded from the Cognitas Website http://www.cognitas.org.uk/report

Garf now teaching for GUE

2010-09-02T12:11:00.002Z

hi all

I am now offering a range of courses from GUE, including GUE fundamentals. You can read all about the course, and find out if it is for you, by having a look at my website at http://www.divedir.com

Garf back in the water

2010-03-10T22:25:00.004Z

Well, after a year off I've decided it's time to get back in the water. I can't say I've enjoyed my forced sabbatical, but I've had a lot of private stuff to sort out, and now things are in a much better place for me. As far as diving goes, the kit has all been checked, and maintained where necessary. the cylinders have all been put in for testing and O2 cleaning. all that's left is the skills, which have inevitably become tired.

to remedy this I've signed up for a local club at a dirt cheap price just to use their pool each week. The first cold water session is in wraysbury next week. I've got a few trips planned for the year and possibly something big happening in June, but I'll keep that one quiet until I know for sure. Whatever happens, I'm glad to be becoming a fully paid up member of the team again.

G

DIR Rules. Explained

2010-03-10T22:23:00.000Z

After a recent thread, someone dropped me a line and asked me what are the DIR Rules, especially "Rule6" as it seems to be unofficial and a bit stupid - always look cool ffs? the person asked how I interpret the rules, and so I thought I'd explain what they mean to me.

The rules are

Rule 1 - "DO NOT DIVE WITH UNSAFE DIVERS"

It’s the first rule, arguably the most important, and the one that has raised the most emotions in the past. It has been erroneously translated by dumb-ass DIR and non-DIR divers as “Don’t dive with people outside your team” or even “Don’t dive with people from another agency”, and by some real dipsticks “Only dive with DIR divers”.

This is an error.

The rule does not mean don’t dive with a particular type of person. It means don’t dive with someone who is unsafe. So what is an unsafe diver.? Forget the agency, training or background. Your best friend and GUE team mate can be an unsafe diver as much as anyone else. An unsafe diver is someone who is not physically or psychologically prepared, in your opinion, to safely conduct the dive you have planned. Maybe their kit looks cobbled together because they rushed. Maybe something on their kit looks like it needs maintenance. Perhaps they are so focussed on themselves they are not taking an active team role in preparing for the dive. Perhaps they haven’t analysed their gas, or conducted a proper pre dive briefing with you. Perhaps you are not on the save wavelength regarding the dive plan, or the decompression strategy. Perhaps they are using kit they are clearly not comfortable with, or trying out new kit on an inappropriate dive. There might be a million and one things, but I’d come back to someone who is not prepared, in your opinion. To safely conduct the dive.. Someone will raise so I’ll pre-empt it – the rule has also been described as “Don’t dive with strokes”. A stroke, in this context, is an unsafe diver, regardless of background or training. Rule 1 then, Do not dive with unsafe divers.

Rule 2 – “DO NOT LISTEN TO UNSAFE DIVERS”

As a general rule, if you have decided someone is acting in an unsafe manner, you probably don't want to listen to any arguments they might have. Again, this does not mean “don’t listen (or speak to, as someone once suggested) to non-DIR divers. It means don’t take advice from people you shouldn’t’. I have been guilty of this so many times. I hear a diver, using a different configuration, or different signals, or kit, or whatever, and I think “that sounds cool, I’ll incorporate that into my diving”. I’ve just forgotten the point of DIR, which is that the strength is in standardisation, and the moment someone starts moving away from that standard, the system begins to fray around the edges. I can jump in the water with any DIR diver and know exactly how their kit is supposed to be setup, and how intend to conduct the dive. Until someone starts mucking about with the standard. Another take on the “do not listen” rule – You think your best mate is unsafe today because they haven’t analysed their gas – there’s no current sticker on it (IE one that says they analysed it TODAY). They tell you it’s fine because they did it last week. If you listen to that, you’ve broken rule 2.

Rule 3 -NOTHING UNDERWATER IS WORTH DYING FOR

Surely this is obvious to everyone. Yet we keep hearing about people who stayed just a little bit too long. Or went a little bit too deep. Etc. George Irvine came out with a lot of vitriolic nonsense, but one of the things he said which rings true to me is that no-one gets any smarter underwater. If you’ve made a plan on the surface, stick to it in the water, as you made it for a reason. If you happen to stumble across the treasure of the Sierra Madre but you have reached minimum gas, tough shit. Come back tomorrow. I can personally attest that it’s far more pleasant being at home wishing you were diving, than being diving wishing you were at home.

Rule 4 – ALWAYS ANALYSE YOUR GAS (BEFORE EVERY DIVE)

Logic would suggest that this would be the least emotive rule. Surely everyone would agree this is a sensible idea. But every now and again, someone dies for the lack of adhering to it. A couple of years ago, I tested my twinset on the boat as I prepared for my 40 metre dive, and found to my consternation that I had 200 bar of pure Oxygen in my twinset. How my body would have reacted to a partial pressure of Oxygen of 5.0 I cannot precisely determine, but I think it’s far to say the dive would have been both brief and somewhat eventful. Another diver I know blacked out whilst sitting on the side of a rib as he prepared to roll off the side into the sea. He can be thankful to an unnamed and unknown gas filler for the low price he had been charged for a very expensive fill, and thankful to his body’s swift reaction to the 100% helium in his twinset for probably saving his life. Stuff like this happens. Most of the time, it gets caught in time. When it doesn’t, the unfortunate result is that we tend to read about it. Gas accidents sicken me, because their results can be so easily fatal, and yet so easily avoided. Analyse your gas before every dive, including after air tops in the morning. Do not make any assumptions based on what people are telling you. Analyse anything you might potentially have to breathe. Mark your cylinders with the current date, and check your team mates to make sure they have done the same. If they haven’t, see rules 1 and 2. If the shit hits the fan you might have to breathe what's in their cylinders, so check those stickers before you hit the water.

Rule 5 - DON'T DIVE A RE-BREATHER UNLESS YOU NEED IT

DIR’s stance on rebreathers is fairly simple. There is a balance of risk and need. DIR Divers believe that rebreathers are, generally speaking, more dangerous than Open Circuit. However, there are certain dives where the risks of open circuit outweigh the risks of closed circuit. Where gas logistics become ludicrous – extremely long exposure cave exploration, or very deep wreck diving, then there is an argument that a rebreather is the tool of choice. I have to be honest, if I wrote more on this rule I’d be making it up. I don’t do these types of dives, so I don’t really relate to this rule.

Rule 6 – ALWAYS LOOK COOL / FABULOUS.

T hat seems a bit silly doesn’t it? Everything I’ve written above is designed to help safety, so what’s this bollox about looking cool?Just a joke? Maybe. But think about it a bit and all of a sudden you start to see something in it.Let’s just assume for a moment that the rule does not mean “Only wear black”. Let’s also assume that it doesn’t mean “Only buy Halcyon”. On a side note, I don’t know of a single DIR diver that only uses Halcyon equipment. Anyway, I digress. DIR and Non-Divers that make the assumption that this is what the rule actually means are missing the point.

Let’s imagine you are on a boat. Your potential buddy’s equipment looks messy, or poorly maintained. Maybe the hose routing looks all untidy. They are clearly in breach of rule 6. What’s important is not that their configuration is not neat, or their equipment knackered. What’s important is that they have rushed their setup, or have been failing to keep up to date with maintenance. Refer to rule 1. Let’s assume your buddy’s cylinders have 15 different stickers on them. Bong. Rule 6 violation. But again the important thing is that you might not be able to identify a current gas test sticker or, god forbid, misread the maximum operating depth. Refer to Rule 1. Now you’re in the water. Your buddy is dropping in and out of trim. They are waving their arms about. Bong. Rule 6 violation. They are not looking cool. Equally, if you have your head switched on, you now know that they are uncomfortable for some reason. Don’t ignore it. Find out why.

Rule 6 is not about looking cool for the sake of cool. It’s about looking in control, prepared, calm. In short, it’s about demonstrating you are a safe diver.

Those are the rules. There is one small addition I might as well make to this post. Something we call “Option 1”. Option one is very simple indeed.

Option 1 Any diver can call any dive. At any time.

Before or during the dive. No debate. No questioning. No argument. The dive is over. Why someone calls a dive is irrelevant. They have decided they want to be out of the water, or don’t want to get into it. Diving is supposed to be fun. So respect that decision. Would you really want to be in the water with someone who doesn’t. If someone tries to convince you to dive when you don’t feel comfortable, please refer to Rule 1.

Have a nice day

Garf

GLOC's PFO and where things are now

2010-02-15T09:20:00.002Z

The first part of this was originally written in October once I got back from Malta and had my PFO test.

Well, I have been doing some fairly big dives with a PFO but I didn't know about it!!

The last dive I did in Malta (9 August 2009) was 15/40, 50% and 100%, 30mins at 63m and 65mins of deco from 21m up including 35mins on 100% at 6m (god that was boring!). The dive was really uneventful (apart from some cracking photos!) and when I surfaced I didn't have any issues. Handed the stages up to the boat and then climbed up the ladder onto the rib. No issues at this point. Dekitted and then sat on the tube of the rib and noticed some visual disturbances but no headache or muscle pains or anything else. Nothing too major, just a slight blurring, the sort of thing you get when you look at a light bulb too long.

I didn't say anything to anyone, just thought it was one of those things...besides no other symptoms. (Mistake 1)

We then went back into the harbour (20mins or so from surfacing) and during this period the visual disturbance disappeared, probably around 5mins or so, and I thought, no worries, just something transient.

Pulled alongside and then started to unload the boat which entailed lifting the kit from the RHIB up onto the quayside and then onto the back of a flatbed. At this point, the disturbances came back, again no other issues with regards to DCI. Mistake number 2, I didn't say anything to anyone. About 20 mins later, these disappeared again, so again, I thought no worries at the moment, but I probably need to see someone when I get back to the UK (last dive of the trip, flying home the following morning).

So, I get back to the UK and book an appointment with my GP and explained what had happened. This was quite funny as I knew far more about the link between PFO and migraine and PFO and DCI. He was going to put me in for an ECG which I said would be a waste of time that I needed a ultrasound test. Ended up him asking me to go away, let him know what he needed to do with regards to a PFO test and he would refer me!

I didn't do all of that. I spoke to a couple of people who put me in touch with Mark Turner at the Bristol Heart Institue who said that I probably did have a PFO even though I didn't have any other DCS symptoms but the only way would be to complete a test. To do this, I could wait 10 weeks or so for an NHS test once he had the referral paperwork or pay ~£500 for a private appointment in a week or so. Being the impatient person, and the fact I now had 2 T1 weekends that I was going to be diving on, I went for the private test.

I went up to Bristol 2 weeks ago to have the test which entailed doing a baseline scan of the cardiac area whilst lying on my left side and using an external ultrasound scan (Transthoracic Echocardiagram). Once this was done, I had some saline/blood mixture mixed with small amounts of air injected into my left forearm and a scan taken without conducting a valsalva clear. There were some bubbles present in this.

Then I was asked to do a big sniff (builder's sniff, Mark called it!!) halfway through the injection of more blood/saline/air and Mark immediately said "You have bubbles there" :( Then there was a valsalva for 15 secs which makes your head hurt, but there was limited crossing of bubbles with this, 2 more valsalvas with limited success and then another sniff, with more bubbles but not as much as the first sniff.

This is the [URL="http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/PFO_Test.wmv"]sniff test [/URL]video clip! <
So, I have a PFO :) The stats Mark gave were something like 1:4 people have a small PFO but because most people don't dive this isn't an issue, however, there are major indications that a PFO increases a risk of stroke as it allows a clot to transfer from the veinous side of the blood system to the arterial (the same way bubbles do). 1:10 have a moderate PFO and about 1:100 have a PFO the size of the one I have!! However, the PFO can be fixed and there is a no-dive period of 3 months following the op when a very large percentage of PFOs are closed.

Mark thinks that the visual disturbances were caused by bubbles forming on the retina as the disturbances were not indicative of a bubble in the neural area where nerves would have been blocked/trapped etc.

Mark is in the process of writing up a report for my GP, so that I can get an op to fix it. I will not be doing any trimix diving until it is fixed and the only other diving I will be doing will be inside air NDL limits using high FO2 and using O2 at the 6m stop when I get anywhere close to that.

Getting bent knowing that I have a PFO is somewhat stupid so I am not going to push it even though diving means so much to me.

Looking back, I can make one of two assessments of why I haven't been bent...

1. I have been lucky...
2. The deco I have been doing has been good at stopping bubbles growing and the O2 has sorted the remaining stuff out.

What was different about the dive I did in Malta was the time it took from surfacing to getting back on shore. Most of the diving in the UK I have done has been done with a hardboat 1-3 hours from shore so I haven't had to hump kit around so close to the surfacing time. Simon Mitchell at EUROTEK last year said that the worst time to be doing anything strenuous is around 30mins from surfacing. Guess what!

So, you don't know you have a PFO until you

a. have a test,
b. get bent, then have a test,
c. have a stroke, then have a test.

I have done something like 10 T2 level dives and 50 plus T1 level dives and nothing has presented itself, until this time. Fortunately, when it did present itself, it was a fairly minor thing ;)

It has been hard for me to not go diving but then I have the rest of my life in-front of me, and to do something because it is there and bugger the consequences is just plain stupid for all concerned.

Hopefully you will have got something out this post....not least, own up to your buddies that something is wrong and then they can do something if you go tits-up quickly! Denial isn't just a river in Egypt! :D
=======================================
Update 15 February.

Last Friday, 12 February, I went into Bristol Heart Institute to see Dr Mark Turner and get my PFO closed.

I will update this in more detail shortly but suffice to say that I had a rather large PFO 7-8mm x 12mm. The average is around 3.5-5mm.

I need to go back in 6 weeks time to make sure things are healing and then 6 weeks after that to have a bubble test before I can go back diving.

In the 6 months since the bend, I have been diving twice, once for Scuba Santas in December, the other teaching UW photography in January. I really miss it and want to get back in the water. Hopefully I can, as I have a week booked to dive Shetland in July...

Course report: GUE Recreational ITC, November 2009 High Springs Florida

2010-02-14T14:32:00.002Z

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915)

We all know that GUE instructors are amongst the best educators in the dive industry, but what exactly does it take to become a Fundamentals instructor?

Having participated in the November 2009 ITC in High Springs, Florida I thought I would share some of the highlights of the course and give you an insiders view of the Recreational ITC.

The Location.....

For the November Recreational ITC we were to be hosted by Extreme Exposure, High Springs. I had always wanted to dive the Florida springs, so the chance to combine 4 days fantastic diving with the GUE annual Conference and then straight onto the ITC was an unmissable opportunity. Doug Mudry and the team there were just fantastic, thanks guys. Hot coffee in the morning, great classroom and no shortage of gas, twinsets and sensible answers to our dumb questions! I couldn't think of a better base if you are going to North Florida.

The Prerequisites

In the spring of 2009 I took the decision to become a GUE Fundamentals instructor. We are lucky in the UK to have 4 instructors, including Director of Technical Training Rich Walker, so discussing my ambitions with Rich was the first step.

Unlike some of the other training agency's instructor training programs there is no 'zero to hero' route. The minimum is you must have passed GUE Fundamentals and either GUE Tech 1 or Cave 1 and you must have proof of at least 200 logged dives, with at least fifty dives in a single tank/cylinder, DIR configuration. At least twenty-five dives must have been in a double tank/cylinder configuration and at least ten with a stage bottle. But the most important prerequisite of being a GUE instructor is just like the prerequisite every other GUE course, it is having the right attitude.

That means not only always thinking about the safety and enjoyment of your team, in this case, students but also having a commitment to delivering the highest quality training possible. That's a big responsibility.

Although interning a fundamentals class is not a compulsory prerequisite I felt it would have been valuable for to see a class run in its entirety prior to the ITC. Personal commitments meant that it was unfortunately not possible for me. It really is going be a question not just your availability but of course availability in your location, especially if there are instructor candidates in your region who have already completed an ITC (more on that later) The key is to register as an intern via gue.com and discuss it with GUE HQ or your local instructor mentor.

The team

I was joined by 3 other candidates, Peter Brandt from Belgium (Team Koelakant) Rob Lee from the US (BAUE) and Ricardo Constantino from Portugal (SPE) The guys represented a great mix of backgrounds and interests from the wrecks of Jutland, to the deep reefs of California and cave exploration in Portugal. For me it showed the growing international presence that GUE divers and projects now have. And of course its great to make new friends from a global community.

The instructors

Its not very often you get to spend a week with two of the GUE communities most widely respected dive educators and explorers. Well that's exactly what we had with our ITC staff, Richard Lundgren and Mark Messersmith. We could not have asked for better instructors and mentors. Their experience of some of the most challenging exploration diving is matched only by their patience and understanding of diver education and development. They are also great company. If you get the opportunity to take a course with either of these guys, do it.

We were also joined by Jesper Berglund, Ed Gabe and Wojteck Filip (interning as an IT) whose insights into how to teach Fundamentals & Rec1 was greatly appreciated.

The Course

I am already an active instructor trainer with another agency and felt comfortable and confident with both in water and classroom teaching, but like every GUE course no matter how good you think you are, the bar is always just a little higher........

Like other agency Instructor development programmes the ITC is a developmental process not an evaluative one. However unlike other programmes there is no pass/fail exam at the end, it really is just the first step in becoming an instructor. The 7 days were split into 3 diving day and 4 classroom days. Essentially we were to teach a Fundamentals class (classroom, land drills and in water sessions) and at the same time be a student in 3 others!

As with other GUE courses it started in a nice relaxed informal manner and then increased the task loading during the week. We started with an introduction to the frame work for delivering academic topics, land drills and in water training. The presentation framework was not dissimilar to what I used before but with emphasis strongly on the principals of immediacy and primacy. This helps focus the learning on the just the most important relevant information. This ensures that time is invested on the 'need to know' not unnecessarily spent on the 'cool to know'.

The GUE approach to teaching is subtly different to that of mainstream recreational training. You are not just teaching out of a manual or off of a slate, you have know the material in side and out and know when and how to deliver it. And that will change from student to student. The key phrase that was drilled in to us was 'own the material'. We really started to understand that teaching Fundamentals is not about just repeating information, its about teaching something that is part of your diving 'DNA' and never missing an opportunity to teach or enhance a students skills or knowledge.

The standard for the academic presentations and field drills is high and to nail the timing and precision required is tough, in the ITC its 15 mins per subject, and I have to admit I really struggled to get it right.

With each presentation Richard and Mark began to crank up the pressure to show the areas that need development and refinement. All the time the feedback, good and bad is immediate. The areas that need improvement are clearly shown along with the 'tools' to fix it. And you are expected to fix it!

Its worth mentioning the in water sessions. These were held at a site called ' Blue Grotto' that gave us access to range of depths and room to work in. Its about an hour from High Springs and this made for long days. Each day we would have a couple of land drills and a dive from fundamentals to teach. There was always a candidate that was used as a video diver and a member of the IT team acting as a student and the slightest error in our demonstration or set up of the skill or control of the 'students' would result in it being exploited without mercy until you diagnosed it and fixed it. We were assured that they took no pleasure in this.

With the focus from the IT team on safety, control and positioning at all times the task loading is relentless, but we all felt our confidence and comfort increasing during the sessions. Particularly in relation to the post dive and video debriefs. It is worth noting that we all struggled initially with the steel 104's as none of had dived them before, but it was good lesson in learning to work with whatever you have when you travel to teach fundamentals.

In addition to the assignments from fundamentals we also had an afternoon in the water and classroom looking at the skills and theory of Recreational diver Level 1 with Jesper Berglund. There was were also a series of presentations from Mark and Richard on the origins and future of GUE and the vital training and quality control standards.

It was on these standards that we had the only part of ITC pre-study. About 3 weeks from the course we had been emailed a study guide and quiz from Dan Mackay. This was useful and I hope in the future that the pre study element takes a more formal structure and grows to include other topics such as the administrative aspects of working with GUE HQ and maybe the internet can play a part in delivering some of this material via gue.com

Fortunately one of the long academic days was broken up by the infamous ITC swim test and breath hold swim. Needless to say an hour in the cool, gin clear water at Ginnie springs is no real hardship! It is worth spending some time on your swim technique in the time leading up to your ITC or that can seem a very long 15 minutes!

Needless to say most nights we were beat, but as we had the assignments for the whole week there was always homework to do.

The last day (or is it the first day?)

By the last day we were tiered but happy in how far we had come. We were also given a chance to present any academic topics that we felt we needed additional feedback on.

At the end we were given very simple individual debriefs on how we did, what needs improving and what we have to do next. Of the two IE signatures that are required to become an active fundamentals instructor, only one is available at the ITC. The second must come from another IE. For all of us the way forward involves interning a number of Fundamentals classes before going to an IE (Instructor Evaluation) We are assigned a mentor to work with in the intern process and it is made clear that if the commitment is there from us, then GUE will provide all the resources needed to make us successful. It is only the availability of courses to intern on that dictate how long this will take. Although this may seem an onerous proses it ensures the on going high quality of the GUE instructors and the courses they deliver.

For all of us it left us with a new respect for exactly what it takes to be a GUE instructor and a real desire to take in everything Richard and Mark had shown and told us to become great GUE instructors one day.

Wreck History Week on MV Halton with Bob Anderson and Kieran Hatton

2009-07-12T22:03:00.001Z

Last year Bob and Kieran mentioned that they were running a slightly different week in the Flow where they would spend a little more time looking into the history of the wrecks inside the Flow, both from a technical point of view (the way the ships were constructed and the history of maritime architecture) and from a history aspect looking at the political situation and the way the war developed. This interested me and I asked about a place for Garf and myself. Unfortunately due to Garf’s company being audited by a major client this week, he had to pull out, much to his disappointment. After another buddy pulled out (I was starting to get paranoid), Zak finally surfaced as a buddy!

The plan for me to get here was a little convoluted to say the least! I was shooting a photography event on the Friday night in Salisbury which I had already committed to, so I needed Zak to drive my kit and his up to Scapa and I would fly from Gatwick to Inverness and then onto Kirkwall where Zak would meet me. After 4 hours kip on Friday night, I got a cab over to Gatwick with plenty of time to spare and watched the departure board…”Gate opens at 08:45” (for an 09:30 departure)…at 09:10 “Please wait”…at 09:20 “Gate Closing” !!!! I have 35 mins at Inverness to cross from one flight to the next, so I highlight my situation to the ground staff who say that the flight will be late off but they won’t hold the Inverness to Kirkwall but they could arrange a tarmac transfer for me. No worries I think. We didn’t get airborne until 10:05. As we land at Inverness I can see the onward flight sitting on the ground and despite some people not letting me get off the aircraft first, I manage to make it onto the flight with literally one minute to spare!

Over to Kirkwall and down to Stromness where I meet Bob and board MV Halton. I haven’t been on MV Halton before and I must say it is a nice boat. The bunks have plenty of room and the galley/meeting/dining room is plenty large enough for the daily briefings which Kieran was to conduct. I retired at 23:00 after a long day with not a lot of sleep the night before.

Day 1 – Sunday 12 July

The day started around 07:30 with a nice breakfast and lashings of hot coffee! We were to do the SMS Coln II this morning with a maximum depth of 36m. Along with Zak I was diving with Christine, a Belgian diver from DIRx I had met last year in Narvik. I won’t go into the wreck details themselves as they are plenty of details online but it is a nice shakedown dive on a pretty intact wreck.

Christine had already said that she might be a little slow getting down the shot but after spending 5 mins getting to 12m she thumbed the dive and Zak and I carried on down to the wreck.

The shot was tied in on one of the lifeboat davits and after making sure things were where they were supposed to be, I led off towards the bow and straight into a nice swim-through behind and above the conning tower. Kieran had given a comprehensive brief about the layout of the ship which meant that I could recognise certain parts as we swam through (the lower deck of the armed conning tower make sense, the winch capstans from a deck down and other bits and pieces). Out through the bow we met some others before turning aft, passing the bollards, capstan, the rangefinder (now missing the top half) and underneath the conning tower and superstructure. I know now where Zak got his YD handle of “wreckweasel” from. Keeping track of where he disappeared was sometimes a challenge. Along the seabed and behind the superstructure, we entered a great swim through which ended just before the break and debris field. Up over the top and past the 2 5” guns at the rear and over the rudder before turning forward to ascend on the shotline. After 60mins in 12 degree water I was still pretty comfortable and up the shot we went to be met by Bob’s new deckhand Gregor and a warm mug of coffee. A great first dive in the Flow. Combined with this being my 4th time here and the briefs from Kieran, the wrecks are starting to make more sense. The vis was around 5-8m with a slight plankton bloom; inside the wrecks was much better.

Off we steamed to Lyness to have a look around the museum and during the surface interval here, Kieran explained some of the significance of the site for both World Wars and also the plans to turn the area into a large ship-to-ship container transfer port. If this happens, then we are going to lose some of the access to the wrecks in the Flow.

All images on the Coln II

[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0004.jpg[/IMG]
The bow
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0006.jpg[/IMG]
Deck structure
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0014.jpg[/IMG]
The lower half of the rangefinder
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0015.jpg[/IMG]
About to penetrate...again...
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0026.jpg[/IMG]
Just off the seabed inside the wreck
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0030.jpg[/IMG]
Going up aftwards
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Coln-0038.jpg[/IMG]
The rear guns

After a nice surface interval we motor out to the SMS Karlsruhe which lies between 16 and 28m. Again you can read up more elsewhere but this wreck is one of the more broken up wrecks which means you can have more of a rummage and penetrations/swim-throughs are a little more accessible. Chris’ ears were playing this time and after Zak pointed down the wrong side of the wreck and subsequently got it right, we dropped over the top-side and proceeded forward. Zak was looking for any hole big enough to get a twinset diver through and he found plenty. Chris and I decided that the best plan, knowing his experience and the tightness of the holes, was just to follow the bubbles and meet him at the exit point of each swim-through. On the way forward we passed Kieran and Helen and then Zak found the capstan winching gear a couple of decks down (or would have been if the wreck hadn’t just slipped downwards, so it was only one deck down). This was a really nice area which I have been in before and I got some nice photos of Zak on the other side of the gear. Kieran told us that if we had gone aft in that room we would have seen the room lights which are still on the roof of that deck – doh!! Out and towards the bow where it has pretty much collapsed before turning aft and over the capstans before reaching the 2 guns on the foredeck. The brass operating plate on the upper of the 2 guns has been cleaned and you can see the German for open and closed on the rear of the breech, again something I haven’t seen before but Kieran did mention it in the brief so we do go looking for it!

Again Zak was like a rat up a drain pipe whenever a gap appeared and there was one occasion when we couldn’t see a bubble trail but he appeared very shortly afterwards none-the-less with a big grin on his face and giggling away. We finally reached the stern after spending nearly 60mins on the bottom and as we moved forward I thumbed the dive and we ascended, firing a bag on the way to let Bob know that we were okay.

The plan for the evening was to complete the first of the “history lessons” from Kieran which looked at the development of the British and German Navies and setting the scene for the political situation leading upto World War I. We also went through the dive plan and brief for the SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, the wreck planned for tomorrow.

Today was an excellent start to what will hopefully be an excellent week up in Scapa. If you are into wrecks, this place is for you. The additional material which Kieran and Bob are putting together adds more to the trip and allows you to understand the wrecks in more detail.

We are off to Burray tomorrow and Longhope Tuesday to look at some of the land-based sights here and see how they fit into the history of Scapa Flow so I am not sure if I am going to be able to update this before Wednesday night.

[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0004.jpg[/IMG]
Just forward of the conning tower
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0006.jpg[/IMG]
Kieran and Helen coming aft
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0015.jpg[/IMG]
The lower capstan winding gear
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0018.jpg[/IMG]
More of the gear
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0026.jpg[/IMG]
The top of the capstans
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0032.jpg[/IMG]
The rear of the upper breech
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0038.jpg[/IMG]
Inside the rear of the hull
[IMG]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/Scapa2009/Karlsruhe-0043.jpg[/IMG]
The prop support for the port prop shaft

Howard and I are going back out...

2009-07-02T21:19:00.000Z

After such a successful weekend this June, we are going back out again in August to dive the Polynesia on scooters, the bow of the Southwold and the Schnellboot.

Bring it on...

Part 4 - Malta

2009-06-20T21:23:00.004Z

After a cracking 3 dives in the deeper sections, Howard and I thought we would join Paul Toomer and his IANTD ART student, Adam Fish (A Fish!!) on Adam’s first ‘deco’ dive to the El Faroud. So cylinders loaded onto the flatbed and off down the coast to the gulley and local swimming area which is the entry point to the Al Faroud. The pickup was parked on a very steep slope and to prevent it becoming a wreck of its own we made sure the front wheels were jammed with a breeze block before we left. Getting kitted up in a drysuit and thermals on the shore in front on scantily-clad locals is an interesting experience, especially as we were carrying stages of 100% too! I got kitted up very quickly as I was cooking my nadgers off and getting in the water was a welcome relief. The others (Paul, Adam, Howard and Hayden) joined me and Hayden led off towards the wreck surfacing swimming to the drop-down point and Adam leading the surface checks just before dropping down. We swam past a memorial to commercial divers on the way to the wreck. Once you pass the vast expanse of sea-grass, you come across white sand and the dark outline of the El Faroud.

L-R, Paul Toomer, Adam Fish, Howard Payne

Again, a little about the wreck

“M/t Um el Faroud was built in 1969 at Smith Dock Co. Ltd., Middlesborough, UK and was owned by the General National Maritime Transport Company, Tripoli. (GNMTC)
It had been operating between Italy and Libya carrying refined fuel up to the 1st of February 1995. On the 3rd of February 1995 it was docked at Dock no.3 of Malta Dry-docks. During that night an explosion occurred in one of the fuel tanks and 9 shipyard workers lost their lives. The vessel suffered structured deformation and was written off after following inspection and survey. It had been occupying the dock ever since the explosion until was decided that the best option to utilize its remaining value was to scuttle her as a diving attraction and to start a new life as an artificial reef.”

After the explosion

On the surface before scuttling

Once we got a little closer to the wreck I could see the scour around the rudder and propeller, so went over to get some shots of the guys coming across the sand and into the prop area.

Mr Payne above the huge prop

Adam above the same

Howard looking at some squidgy stuff just before crushing it with the torch head!! (1)

Paul and Adam started down the port side of the wreck with Howard and I hanging slightly back. Howard then spotted a hole in the side…here we go again!!

Howard entering the El Faroud

I followed Howard up into the wreck and then through a section before coming back out. Shame, it looked like it would go but we said we would stay with Paul and Adam. So further forward and towards the massive clean break in the ship. It looks like someone cut it cleanly in half at the stage and moved one section 30ft to the left! The penetration opportunities look massive!! This reminded me of the wrecks which Howard and I dived in Narvik last summer…through a bulkhead and out into another section. A quick goodbye to Paul for an explore…

Howard squeezing his tiny body through a bulkhead door…

..and back through the same hatchway so we didn’t lose Paul for too long. Then up onto the deck area in front of the bridge and superstructure; we could see Paul and Adam off to the left making their way back. We signalled that we might join them at the stern…

(1) Howard didn't really do that!!

Both Howard and I saw the entrance at the top of the stairs at the same time but I beat him to it to get some shots of him coming through the companion way with the daylight behind him…

What you can’t see is the massive fish that got in the way above Howard’s left shoulder (PS magic ;) )!!

Not that fish, a much bigger one!

Howard then turned right into the superstructure and first into what looks like the messhall/café…

Tables and ceiling lying on the floor…

Through another passageway making our way rearwards we passed a couple of other rooms which looked like they would entertain some penetration and then into the galley

Howard, the masterchef, fish anyone? :)

I exited the galley (just to the right of the cooker in the shot above) and waiting for Howard to exit behind me so that we could get some more shots of the hull before, hopefully, catching up with Paul and Adam.

Coming out of the Galley

One thing I did learn on this trip is that having lots of light can be a pain in the arse sometimes. Most of my stuff in the UK you don’t normally have a problem with shooting into sun because (1) there normally isn’t any and (2) if there is, it isn’t too bright and you don’t have too much of a contrast problem. The following shots were very hard to get sorted because the vis wasn’t great (by Maltese standards) into sun because of the small ‘dust’ particles in the water. As such, detail of the hull was almost non-existent.

Howard over the rear-starboard quarter

Howard poncing with his light sabre

We then followed the return track back to the exit point, stopping at 6m for 8 mins to clean up and admire the view. Howard then tried the “who can I hit with the SMB” game with the swimmers above. We surfaced to be met by some holiday makers with a video camera…stars again!

This nice little dive rounded off an excellent long weekend in Malta. As Howard has already said, Divewise bent over backwards to help us and I would definitely recommend them when it comes to running a wreck trip from Malta. Paul Toomer is now planning on running 3-4 months worth of trips back to back, so if you are interested in IANTD training in a brilliant wreck environment, drop him a line. I had not met him before and he certainly seems to hold no prejudices and appears to be a really enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructor and instructor trainer.

This was my first experience of the island and it certainly won’t be the last. The food was cheap as was the beer (certainly cheaper than Stockholm where I was 3 weeks ago!!). The wrecks are awesome and from my point of view, very photogenic. As both Howard and I have alluded to, we are already planning on getting back there and we will be using Divewise.

Admin bits:

Flight from LHR Term 4 to Malta with Air Malta was around £120 return. £13 each way for 32kg of additional baggage (dive gear) but on the return leg we only paid 15eu for 2 x 32kgs :)

Accommodation was in “The President” which is a 5 min walk. 25eu pppn based on 2 sharing a twin-room.

Food and beer was mainly consumed in “Huggins” bar where Divewise have a 25% discount. Huge portions and good quality food.

Additional costs (Gas for 2 x T2, 1 x T1 and 1 x recreational dives, stage hiring and twinset hiring, boat costs and water in the centre) came to around £370

Part 3 - Malta

2009-06-19T19:31:00.003Z

Owen has an important meeting to get back for so we have an early start this morning. Meet at the dive centre at 07:15 only to find that Howard (Shaw) has been up all night because the Haskell isn’t boosting like it should do. We go with 130 bar of 02 in the 7s as that is as much as we can get. The mixes are sorted and analysed. Kit is loaded and we set off through the small backstreets of St Julians and onward to Valetta. We arrive at the boat at 09:15 and quickly load the kit on. We have scared George off and we now have Hayden, another local who this time is diving air. We were also joined by Paul Toomer who was out running some tech courses. This week was an ART course but Paul was coming for a fun dive before diving with his student on the Al Faroud this afternoon. Paul is a really good guy and got our sense of humour straight off.

We are going out to dive the 153m long “Le Polynesien” which lies in 65m. Again a small bit on the wreck

“Like her sister ships “Australian”, “Armand Behic” and “Ville De La Ciotat”, she was quickly recognizable by her length, low profile on the water and the double funnels painted black. All ships were painted white between 1895 and 1905.

- In 1891 she started operating between France and Australia,
- through the Suez Canal.
- In 1903 her route was changed and she operated between France and the Far East mainly transporting passengers to the French colonies.
- In 1914 it operated towards Australia and New Caledonia,
- before being dispatched back to Europe were she was transformed into a troop transported for the first world war.

On the 10th of August 1918 she was hit by a torpedo from the German UC22 (which also sank Luciston Collier) and sank in 35 minutes, taking 10 lives. She now lies 7 miles outside the entrance of Valetta Grand Harbour.”

The Polynesien on the surface

A massive 5 mins out to the wreck again! I was starting to see a pattern here.

Leo, Howard and I roll in off the rib together with the O2 bottles being passed down again. I lead off again and down the shot we go. There is a little current here and we can see the sag in the shotline as it drops into the lee of the wreck. I reckon we have around 40m vis by the time we get to 30m! The wreck starts to come out of the deep blue. What a huge wreck she is! I make sure that Leo and Howard are sorted and we head off to the bow to get some shots and do a little exploring.

The gun on the bow

The gun on the bow

Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed that something had happened to the housing between the dive centre where I sit the kit up and getting into the water. There is a lever on the side of the Hugyfot housing which selects the focus mode (Single Shot, Continuous Auto-Focus or Manual). The camera was in manual focus :( and this is why the shots on this dive aren’t too good. Whilst they are just passable for on-screen display, they are pretty pants for printing. Oh well. I have now modified the housing levels so that that level doesn’t come anywhere near the switch on the camera!!

We moved aftwards now over the bow winch gear and one of the huge elevator sections into which we peered into. I could hear Howard giggling at this!! Maybe…

Bow winch gear

Cavernous hold

Under the structure Howard and I swapped from stage bottles to backgas. A quick clean up and then onwards through the decking.

Howard coming through the decking.

There is a huge coil of rope/cable lying on the deck just past the remaining top-deck structure and there is also another huge hole in the deck!! Just too tempting. I signalled to Howard that I wanted him to drop down and I would get a picture looking down the shaft towards him. Little did I know he was going to do some exploring!!

The coils on the deck

Howard down the shaft!

…then onto some exploring inside the wreck…[img]http://www.imagesoflife-online.co.uk/malta/DSC_8015.jpg[/img]

Howard inside a swim-through at 65m :)

..and back outside the other side with Hayden on the right hand-side. Leo is behind me when I taking this shot.

Howard and Leo coming through the swim-through.

Bottom time is now starting to come upon us so I pop down and see Paul who has joined us with his shiny Sentinel. This is a nice looking machine and Paul is very proud of his. He has now sold both of his Inspos due to his experience of diving this!

Paul on the bottom with his Sentinel

We gradually make our way back to the shot and as I look back I see Leo sitting nicely off to the side of the wreck

Leo above the wreckage of the Le Polynesien.

As Owen has a rib without a winch, he puts an SMB near the bottom of the shot to make it easier to haul the 20kg of lead back in again when we have finished the dive. Last man up fills it up. We leave Paul and Hayden on the wreck and start our way back up the shotline with huge grins on our faces giggling gently away having had a fantastic time…

L-R Howard, Paul and Leo.

Paul at 6m chilling away. That is a nice looking unit…

After 75 mins or so we surface and all proclaim that was the best wreck dive we had ever done. Leo says that this is also the calmest he has been out with the current being very slack. Paul comments that he has seen the lead weights (2-3kg) lifted from 9m where they normally sit to 6m due to the current!!

Kit packed up and on the boat we speed back to Valetta to allow Leo to get on with his prior arrangement. We drive back via an ice-cream shop! A well earned Magnum :) At Divewise we quickly decant everything, changing the cylinders over ready for a 32% and O2 dive on the Al Faroud.

Part 2 - Malta

2009-06-17T16:12:00.003Z

So after a cracking day on the Stubborn we retired to the bar, Huggins, for a few carbonated adult beverages, mine tasted on lime and soda, Howard’s was Cisk! After a filling dinner in the same place we retired early as we were both knackered.

Meet time was 08:30 for a wheels away of 10:30 to drive down to meet Owen in Valetta. Gases were spot on and the most Leo could get out of the compressor (215 bar). Today was to be the Southwold which lies in 75 metres, a 3 stage dive for Howard and I using 15/45, 50% and 100%. Leo was going to be joined by George a local trimix diver. That meant we had a grand total of 5 on the boat including Leo! We were advised that we would have to pay a premium because of the small numbers – each trip was 50eu! More than worth it.

Here is a little about the events leading to her demise in 1942

“On the 23rd of March 1942, one of the merchant ships in this convoy, Breconshire was hit by enemy bombs and stopped a few miles off St Thomas bay. The weather was becoming rough and Breconshire was drifting helplessly towards shore. The crew on the Breconshire managed to anchor the ship 1.5 miles off Zonqor Point. The following morning on the 24th of March Breconshire was dragging it’s anchors over the sandy bottom. HMS Southwold was ordered to Breconshire, but while trying to pass a line to the disabled ship, a mine exploded under her engine room. One officer and four ratings were killed. All power and electrical services were lost, but the diesel generator could still be started. The engine room flooded but water flooding into the gearing room was held in check by shoring up the bulkheads and blocking leaks. A tow was attached to the Southwold by the tug Ancient, but the ships side plating abreast the engine room split right up to the upper deck on both sides. She sagged and took a list to starboard. The wounded were transferred to the destroyer Dulverton. The midship portion gradually sank lower and the ship started to work with the swell. She was then abandoned, started to settle with considerable sag and sank in two parts”

The Southwold before she sank. Note the guns at the back, more of them later

This time we had a massive 5 minutes drive out to the wreck site with a slight swell. Leo suggested that Howard and I go down before he and George so that we had the wreck to ourselves for photos, plus the fact we were looking at a bottom time of 20 mins and they were only looking at 15mins. We would meet on the ascent or maybe somewhere on the wreck. The water was a deep blue cobalt which could only mean one thing, cracking viz again! Rolling off a rib with 3 stages and a camera was going to be a challenge so I decided to get the O2 bottle passed down to me once I was settled in the water. Over to the shot, and a quick descent to 6m for the bubble check, as we were on 15/45 bottom stages at this point.

Down the shot line and at 45m I started to make out the wreck 30m below! I also started to see large white fish which I have no clue what they were, they looked about the size of small dolphins (I asked Leo what these might have been and he reckoned they were probably white grouper which can grow to around 1.5m). The shot was bang on the wreck just on the break line where the stern section begins (the bow section lies some 300m away in slightly shallower waters). Moving over the wreck down the port side, we passed a large pile of shells next to the rear superstructure area, just in front of the large 4in guns.

The rear superstructure

The piles of shells next to the 4in gun.

The twin barrels of the 4in gun

As we moved aft you can see a depth charger launcher complete with chargers. We spoke on the surface of taking a mallet down the next time…

Howard and the depth chargers

We then moved further aft and dropped over the stern to the seabed. I saw another white fish as it quickly swam off into the distance to get away from the noisy OC divers who were giggling with joy!!

Howard at the stern

We then spotted the large intact props underneath the rear. There is quite a lot of netting here, fortunately it is tidy and out of the way but it shows that even in nice places like this, netting could be a problem. This wreck had far more life on it that the Stubborn but still less than anything I have seen in the UK. The Mediterranean is somewhat fished out…

Howard and the props, with the netting in the foreground.

Back over the top past the rear gun again for some gratuitous photo shots next to the gun!!

I then led into the overhang between the gun and superstructure, turning around to fin backwards and get Howard coming through. As I was about to exit this area I nearly finned into a single strand of monofilament; photos taken and Howard cuts the line to make sure no-one else has an issue with it.

Underneath the superstructure between the guns and deck.

We then move forward towards the shot and pass over the break point where you can see the inwards of the ship with cable runs and such-like exposed. We leave the bottom a little early and send the Al10s which we are using as bottom stages up on an SMB (already coordinated with Owen) for no other reason that it is one set of bottles that don’t need to be rotated at 21m!! Just as we reach the shot we see Leo and George swimming the other way. Up we go and as we are passing through 45m we can see Leo and George making their way back to the shot, there bubbles creating a very artistic curtain above them. We reach 21m for the switch and can easily see Leo and George 30m below us!

Leo and George 30m below us!

More uneventful deco and whilst today was longer, 100mins run-time, it didn’t feel as boring as yesterday. Leo and George joined us and then passed through our stops and we joined them at 6m for our 20mins of O2 before ascending to the surface. All the dives are shot-line ascents which isn’t too much of a problem because Owen has rigged 3 drop-lines with weights at 9m which means everyone isn’t crowded at 6m and 9m doing their stops.

Leo and George at 6m bathing in the sunlight coming from the surface.

Big smiles all round and back onto the boat for the 5 mins back to the shore. Unload the boat and back to Divewise. Unfortunately Owen has an appointment at 14:30 which means we have to load the boat at 09:30, which means a start time of 07:15 the following morning. Whilst this isn’t a problem for us, it does mean that the gas monkeys have to work all through the night. A big hats off to Howard (Shaw from Divewise, not Mr Payne) for working through the night to get the trimix, 50% & 100% sorted for when we arrived. Without the dedication of the staff at Divewise we would not have got the dives we did.

I also must say a huge thank you to Howard Shaw for lending me his DS125 for the next day's diving. Somewhere between getting back on the boat and putting the camera gear in the dunk tank to clean it off, the SS200 strobe must have been banged because after I had rinsed the rig and taken the strobe back off to charge the battery I noticed that the pack was wet and the front of the strobe was full of black water :( One flooded strobe. A quick taste of the water showed that it wasn't salty so must have come from the dunk tank (as I managed to take shots at 6m with both strobes).

I would like to say that if anyone is planning on sharing a room with Howard after he has had a few beers, that they either take some tamazepam themselves or they buy a large blunt object to beat the sh*t out of Howard when he is snoring like a bull elephant. I have never heard or seen anyone snore like he does, even when he is on his side! Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night!

If Carlsberg Made Normoxic Wrecks...Malta Would be the Place...Part 1

2009-06-17T07:46:00.004Z

Part 1

Last year I saw a video from Stuart Keasley of the bow section of the Southwold which lies in 68m off Malta and I immediately said that I had to go there. I contacted Howard about this and he said he was also interested.

Howard next to the conning tower of HMS Stubborn

We set about setting up a photography workshop for a weekend in March where we would teach for 2 days and then he and I would dive the Southwold. Unfortunately there wasn’t too much take up so we said “What the hell, let’s go and make a good weekend of it”. The plan was to fly out on the Thursday night with Stuart, dive HMS Stubborn on the Friday, HMS Southwold bow on the Saturday and then the stern section on the Sunday. However, after discussions with Stuart, he recommended binning one of the Southwold dives and do the Polynesia instead as it is a classic, this we did. Unfortunately the weather gods weren’t playing in March and the weather was crap so the trip was binned. Some rapid re-planning ensued and we rebooked for this weekend just gone.

Unfortunately Stuart was running a photography and video workshop this weekend and I couldn’t move my dates due to having my kids over, so he didn’t join us. Howard and I met on Thursday evening at the X-ray machines where the security staff were looking over his collection of things… (mainly regs, HID and battery!) and making his hand-luggage not look like it weighed 20kg! I had already been rumbled when I put my hand-luggage on the scales at the request of the check-in staff and it came in at 19kg! I moved some regs over but it was still 14kg and I got away with that. We hadn’t pre-booked any extra kit so had to pay £13 (15eu) for the 32kg of dive kit which wasn’t too much of a problem.

Alan at Divewise had said that he would pick us at the airport, this he did, very good service considering we were landing at 00:45!! In fact Alan and Divewise provided an excellent service and I would definitely recommend using them as an operator (more of that later). Chatting with Alan on the way to the hotel we sorted out what gases we would be using the following day on the HMS Stubborn and he dropped us off saying he would pick us up at 08:30 the following morning for a 10:30 wheels to leave for the boat.

For those who have shared a room with Howard, you know what a snore-monster he can be. However, he does realise this and provides ear-plugs for his room-biddies! Fortunately I was knackered and he hadn’t had a beer so there gentle rumbling of a hippo didn’t materialise.

Up and off down to reception where Alan was waiting for us. The 5 min journey in the dive mobile might have seen excessive but carrying 2 x 32kg worth of dive gear plus camera gear wouldn’t have been fun in the 25 degree heat. The dive centre is very much set around recreational work but they have recently launched Techwise under the watchful eye of Paul Toomer who plans to run the majority of his summer courses from the facility. They currently have plenty of twinsets and Al7 but they lack 80s which means the bottom stages are limited to Al10s which don’t sit as well, or hang as well empty. They are addressing this shortfall. They are also upgrading their gas panel to pump beyond their current limit of 215 bar. They have a Haskell but the air-lines are limited to 215 bar. Gas is pretty cheap compared to the UK too; a twinset of 18/45 fill was 29eu!! Paul was running an Advanced Rec Trimix course when we got there and just as we left he had started a Normoxic Trimix course. He had something like 8 courses planned back-to-back there as it is an ideal facility. The staff couldn’t do more to help. Their other Tec instructor is a dutch guy called Leo who was an absolute star; he was the mix gas monkey, dive buddy and overall good egg and he would be joining us for 2 of the 3 mix dives we had planned.

Once all the kit was sorted and gas analysed we found that we had a little more spare time; as we were the only people on Owen’s boat, he was going to bring it up to the centre and drive the whole 7 mins out to the Stubborn site! Owen’s boat is great, a fast rib with enough room to take 8 divers equipped with twins and 3 stages.

He shotted the wreck just as we finished get the drysuits on. Whilst the air temps were in the high 20’s and the top 6m was 24 degrees, the bottom temps were around 15 degrees. I was sweating like a para in a maths test by the time I was ready to jump in with twin 12s and an Al7 of 50%. Rolled over the side into the relatively cool water and over to the shot to meet up with Howard and Leo. I led down the shot, bubble checks in the crystal clear water. At around 20m, shapes on the seabed at 58m started to become visible! At 35m I looked between my legs and noticed the wreck behind me (the shot was about 10m off the port side of the wreck, up current on a sandy bed). I couldn’t believe what I saw, the whole of the 66m long submarine was visible in one go. If this is what wreck diving in Malta was like, I was sold.

We had already discussed that we were going to move to the bow to get some photos of Howard and Leo near the 3 torpedo tubes on the port side. This we duly did. The seabed is a nice white sand so the abundant ambient light was reflected back making shots my ambient light/fill shots relatively easy compared to UK diving. Most of the shots were ISO 250, 1/40th and f6.7 on a Sigma 10mm/Nikon D200 for those who are interested.

Howard moving from the shot to HMS Stubborn.

The bow of HMS Stubborn

The bow of HMS Stubborn

Howard next to the conning tower

Howard looking into the escape hatch (Mark Ellyat allegedly has penetrated this hatch with just a single while the rest of his kit was taken off and staged on the outside)

Howard next to the conning tower

Howard next to the conning tower

Howard next to the conning tower

Howard and Leo at the stern section

After 23 mins on the bottom we called it on min gas and ascended for a warm relaxing deco before getting back on the rib with massive smiles on our faces. We couldn’t believe what we had seen down there and more importantly, why hadn’t we been out here before? Leo was a happy bunny too; he is TDI Adv Trimix trained and a Trimix Instructor but also has a strong GUE bent and really wants to develop his GUE tech side (he is Fundies trained) but funds are the limiting factor at the moment. Having a pair of chimps who didn’t need looking after, like some of the clients, made for a relaxing dive for him too.

Back to the centre for a swim from the RIB to the shore, which was made the more interesting by Howard having to have his clothes and shoes (which he had worn to the jetty around the corner from the dive centre) stuffed inside his drysuit.

What a cracking first day, we were certainly looking forward to days 2 and 3 if today was anything to go by.

The Chimps Spring Tea Party - 18 April 09 - NDAC

2009-03-20T17:35:00.002Z

It's that time again. Traditionally, this is when GLOC throws a hot BBQ over people and then has a go at them for not paying attention. Howard gives a speech about the incompatibility of alcohol and DIR diving, then drinks an entire crate of magners and ends up running around the house wearing nappies. And singing. Badly.

So yes, it's time for our regular spring DIR grooming - sorry that should read "experience" - day.

We've run these days for a few years now. the concept has always been to explain what DIR is all about and demonstrate some of the stuff we do. This is a chance for anyone who's read about DIR and always wondered what it's all about to

Find out from people who are actually DIR divers. Maybe someone would like to have the equipment configuration and it's rationale explained.
Learn more about our approach to diving, safety, preparation, training or decompression.
Find out what happens on fundies, tech1, tech2, cave1, or cave2 from people who have done the courses and find out if it's something that might interest you.
Watch the drills and skills we practice regularly in action, and perhaps have a crack at them?

Or perhaps you just want to come and listen and nick the bits you think are useful to yourself, and then heckle the trim nazis. Whatever, all are welcome.

The day is Saturday the 18th April, and it is being held at NDAC. If you are interested in coming along, the general plan is to rock up saturday morning, spend the day diving and talking DIR, then go get drunk and have a meal somewhere.

If you fancy coming along, just drop your name on this thread and we'll be in touch with you to find out what you specifically are interested in. This is your chance to find out what DIR is all about from everyday divers who follow it,without having to decipher what is on the internet and without having to invest anything other than your own time.

And - have a bloody good laugh at the same time

Cheers all

First Dive with the MDE Manifold

2009-02-16T16:08:00.000Z

I went diving this weekend with Chris to do some underwater photography stuff and as I was mentoring I wasn't doing much shooting so I decided to have a play with the manifold and to be honest I wasn't that impressed with the valves.

To put it in perspective I have dived with DIRZONE or AGIR manifolds on all of the twinsets I have used and whilst they do get a little stiff if they haven't been cleaned/serviced for a while, once they have been cleaned they are really slick even when filled to 230 bar.

The fills I had were 220 bar and I did a series of shutdowns at the start of the dive and to be honest, they were worse than a clean set of Scubatec (wearing whatever badge they wear on the outside) valves. They weren;t stiff and I could move them pretty easily, but they weren't as slick as a clean set.

To counter this, I can't say I have dived with an old offset MDE manifold so I have nothing to compare it with, they might be the same. As the gas was used up (I didn't use more than 110bar and didn't want to drain the 32% for the sake of it), I can't say what they were like when empty (to see if they were consistently average) but I will be diving them again on the 8th March to see what they are like when a little more empty :D

We are also trying to get hold of a Halcyon manifold to take pictures and do a side-by-side usage comparison, so watch this space.

The new MDE manifold and valve - initial thoughts

2009-01-26T14:09:00.008Z

The new MDE manifold and valves. Some initial thoughts from a divers perspective.

This is only the view of TFT and is not meant to take the place of an engineers report or an official review. Photographs taken by Gareth Lock.

For reference a comparison was made against a set of Agir Brokk valves and manifold and Sherwood rubber handwheels fitted to a set of 12litre 232bar working pressure (WP) Eurocylinders with 192mm centres.

Prior to fitting:

At first glance, the MDE set looked to be well made and sturdy. Being made by MDE - Midland Diving Equipment we were expecting/hoping that this would be the case.

Straight away after unpacking - we noticed that they lack the smooth shiny finish of the older “facing o-ring” style MDE valve – something we hadn’t expected. The finish is now more of a burred mottled effect – more in line with some of the other manifolds available. We noted that the WP is stamped both on the valves and the manifold itself. We were supplied with 232bar WP valves and a manifold rated to 300bar WP. The MDE valves are M25 valves – so adhere to the current regulations on the inlet valve gauge for gas fills, not the proposed EU ones.

Markings on the valves and manifold are either formed into the mould during the casting process or stamped in after the casting process. The valves – other than the WP appear to have a manufactured date, a batch number and the EN250 stamp on one side and MDE’s logo (and WP) on the other. Everything except the “232 bar” on the valves is stamped.

We did note that what appeared to be ‘contact points’ (indicated by lines in image below) during the moulding process still appear on the outside of the valves, left proud of the surface slightly. I thought this looks a little untidy and could have been finished off prior to launch.

The manifold isolator valve has now been moved into the centre of the manifold – enabling shutdowns with either hand now – as opposed to the previous MDE manifold where the isolator vale was biased towards one side (from all of the images I have seen – the right hand post when wearing the set).

One of the first surprises we found was the way the handwheel for each valve has been connected to the valve spindle. For some reason MDE have chosen to use a Nyloc nut in place of the more ‘traditional’ slotted nut with its ‘locking pin’ in the top – not sure why they diverted away from this type of securing nut – as their old valves used them. This of course now means that to gain access to the valve body a socket (10mm) is now required – and potentially in your dive tool kit too if you are away on a trip. The handwheels are also a little smaller than the Sherwood version fitted to the Agir Brokk hardware. In water time will tell if this will be an annoyance or not.

I am awaiting confirmation on what the o-rings are made from – but Viton is the candidate here – as the spec says that they are O2 adiabatic compression compatible.

We did weigh them – and compared to the Agir Brokk hardware – there was little difference – so there should be no issues with having to move weight around the twinset to balance it.

Stripping a valve down:
After finding a 10mm socket and taking the Nyloc nut off, the handwheel can be removed leaving the valve spindle in place. Referring to image below: Loosen the locking nut (1) and remove. The spindle section can now be removed. This leaves the plug (3) in place. This can be removed using the spindle section to unscrew the plug.

You will see from the images below that the valve plug (3) has a hole in it. We assume this is something to do with the pressure equalisation across the valve plug – and should make shutting the valve down easier.

Assembling the valves and manifold into the twinset:

It would appear that the manifold is ‘sided’ – i.e. one valve fits one side of the manifold only. Therefore you cannot help but put it together the correct way around.

After prepping the o-rings with Crystolube, it was time to screw the first valve into the cylinder.

Now I should say here that like most twinset owners I know where all the stickers are on the set – and in my case they are all placed where I want them. The ID stickers that we use on them is always outer-most on the set and any required stickers are placed where they are visible to a fill station – but not on the outside of the set (as I like a clean twinset.. )

So the first valve is screwed in, hand tightened and then nipped up by 1/16th. I then look down and find that all the stickers are no longer in the correct place. Sure enough – screwing the other valve in gives the same results except a mirror image. One ID sticker is now on the back of the set and the other on the inside behind the backplate.

So after much head scratching Gareth and I count the threads on the valve. And recount them. Sure enough the MDE valve has 1 less thread – plus a bit – hence why the stickers are not in the same place here.

The valves were inserted and tightened up by the same amount. The manifold was screwed in and the centres were measured for the bands at 192mm. Bands were applied and tighten up. Anyone moving from an Agir Brokk or similar valve system will notice the same issues. New stickers for your cylinders will be needed if you are bothered about their placement..

At this point we also noticed that the retest mark on the cylinders was different between the two cylinders (the red squares shown). Before the set was disassembled, we noted the red squares both on the front of each cylinder. As the retest marks are stamped manually – we can allow a little for human sight – but it appears there is more than this.

This might indicate that the threads are slightly different in length – but as we didn’t have any technical way of deducing the length. Depending on which side of the valve we were counting – we counted either 9 or 10 threads for the MDE and either 10 or 11 for the Agir Brokk.

Shutting the valves down:

We did a comparison between the two types of valves – and this is what we found.

MDE valve – from fully open to fully closed: 2 turns. [1]
MDE isolator – from fully open to fully closed: 1.5 turns.

Agir Brokk valve – from fully open to fully closed: 3.25 turns
Agir Brokk isolator – from fully open to fully closed: 2.5 turns

[1] Just. Though most people would never do the full 2 turns – as they don’t want a cylinder wrenched fully open or closed – as this can be problematic underwater if the valve seizes.

That’s it for this part of the review. There will be another review once we’ve been in the water with them initially and also a review to cover the 3 months we’ve had them.

I would also add the shots comparing the layouts of the valves side by side so that people can see the difference in lengths (valve longer). Also show the plug inside the valve so that people can see the ‘square’ hole. In fact, I would upload most of the photos so that people can see what they look like and the whole shabby make-up

Larger Images:
We've made all of the images that Gareth took available - not just the ones seen above..
Large images are now available: Images of Life Photography - MDE Gallery
If you want a full-size image to download just click on the download button, if you want a more detailed view, move the mouse over the image and a magnified view will be available

Credits:
The MDE manifold and valves were very kindly lent to us for a few months by Antony from ScubaDivingStore (Scubadivingstore.co.uk) based down in Torquay. What a nice chap and very approachable.

The press cuttings and Wilbo is shown diving a CCR!

2009-01-17T22:22:00.004Z

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/wdp/news/Chepstow-s-underwater-ironers-smoothly-break-world-record/article-621937-detail/article.html - The Western Daily Press

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2141923.ece - Creasy does it for Mark Williams!! - Don't you just love the press!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4272205/British-scuba-divers-break-world-record...-for-underwater-ironing.html - The Daily Telegraph online edition

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/4052264.Herefordshire_man_in_at_the_deep_end_to_set_a_record/ - the real CCR diver Ashley Tucker

The video of Wilbo and I is here. The video was grabbed from ITV News South West and the copyright remains with them for this clip.

Wilbo and GLOC make ITV West News

2009-01-15T18:34:00.002Z

Team members GLOC and Wilbo were interviewed today by Rob Murphy from ITV News to cover the Extreme Ironing event this weekend just gone where UK divers took the record from the current record holders, Australia. We fought hard but fortunately we didn't have to wear comedy snorkels but we did have to watch a 'shark scene' be enacted with iron and ironing board!! I hope to get a copy of the video clip to upload and link here.

Team Foxturd members help break world record for the most number of divers ironing underwater at the same time in aid of the RNLI.

2009-01-11T10:35:00.006Z

Wilbo, Howard and GLOC all dived to 53m to partake in this record attempt.

Official Press Release:

128 scuba divers braved the freezing winter temperatures today, 10 January 2009, to attempt to break the world record, currently held by the Australians, for the most number of divers ironing at the same time underwater. The previous record was 72 but the British divers managed to get 86 ironing within a 10 minute period and this also included 6 freedivers. Water temperatures were in the region of 5 degrees Celsius and air temperatures as low as -2 degrees C. Divers covered the full range from technical diving with trimix to 55m to the shallow end at 6m.

The event took place at the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) near Chepstow, Gloucestershire and was organised by Gareth Lock, Morag Ward and John Turnock of the Yorkshire Divers internet forum (www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk). In addition to breaking the world record, the aim was to raise money for the RNLI, the charity of choice for the forum for 2008-2009. At the time of going to press, nearly £6000 had been raised from this event through application fees, sponsorship and a charity raffle.

Photographs of this event are available by contacting Tim Moran (thewainhouse@hotmail.co.uk) or Gareth Lock (gareth.lock@imagesoflife.co.uk)

On the way down...

Howard using his 'Halcyon' ironing board!

Wilbo ironing away...

Wilbo and Howard on Deco after the dive

Team Foxturd Takes Part in Guiness World Record Attempt at Extreme Ironing

2009-01-08T20:45:00.002Z

Wilbo, Howard and GLOC will be taking part in a Yorkshire Divers/RNLI charity fundraising event to hopefully break the world record for the most number of divers ironing underwater at the same time. They will all be in the 45m-50m section with another 10 divers (the deepest of the divers taking part). The record is currently held by the Australians and this weekend, 10 Jan, GLOC with the help of others, has helped coordinate 135 divers and 15 photographers/videographers to be in the water at the same time. YD has managed to raise around £6000 from this event alone for the RNLI which will be enough to train 6 crewmembers for one year.

There should be national press coverage of this challenging event, especially as the air temperatures are around zero and the water is 4-5 degrees!!

Read more at the NDAC site - www.ndac.co.uk/extremeironing

Merry Christmas from Team Foxturd

2008-12-24T20:34:00.002Z

2008 has been a good year for the Team. Garf, Howard and Gareth all achieved Tech 2, James and Wilbo gained Tech 1 and Howard managed Cave 1.

James has left the cold of the UK to spend 6 months in Utila in the Caribbean working at a dive centre and we hope to see him back in the summer when the weather has warmed up a little.

Howard is undertaking Cave 2 with JJ in the New Year.

From all at Team Foxturd, have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2009.

EuroTek 2008 - What a great Weekend!

2008-11-17T07:32:00.005Z

Leigh Bishop, Carl Spence and Roz Lunn put together a great weekend in Birmingham over the period 15-16 Nov 08. This was organised following their visits to OzTek and consists of getting all the major players in the technical diving world together, Phil Short, Ric Stanton, JJ, Casey, Dr Simon Mitchell, Eduardo Pavia, Rich Stevenson and whole raft of other speakers to talk about their expeditions over the last couple of years. 130m on the Victoria, 180m+ in a cave system, 60m in Truk, and technical developments in CCR technologes, it was all there.

There were also some great physiological presentations by Dr Simon Mitchell about DCS, PFO and inner ear bends.

Well done to Leigh, Carl and Roz. I know they put some long hours in to produce the best dive show of 2008. They plan to hold a 2010 EuroTek and following this 'starter' show, that promises to be even better.

EuroTek 2008

Extreme Ironing

2008-11-13T19:27:00.005Z

The Chimps, less James as he is off to sunnier climes before Christmas, will be partaking in some domestic chores on 10 January 2009. We are going to help Yorkshire Divers break the world record for the most number of divers ironing underwater at the same time. The record is currently held by some Australians at 72 but we already have 150 names pledged for the event.

Help the RNLI, the charity for which the event is supporting, by visiting this link

Updated Images of Life Site

2008-10-03T06:52:00.002Z

The site where I showcase my images has undergone a revamp and I now offer the opportunity to purchase images, either as stock or as prints. I have also added the fact that I can run training courses in underwater photography. The site link is still http://www.imagesoflife.co.uk

However, in this process, the links to my previous host have been severed and I am in the process of re-enabling them so that images show correctly here. Please bear with me while I update the links.

Thanks

Wilbo takes Tech 1

2008-09-23T20:31:00.003Z

Yep.. and about time too!

I joined up with Matt G and Rich G to take Tech 1 with Rich Walker down in Plymouth from the 6th to the 10th September.. The weather played havoc with us and this meant that we were unable to complete the course within the 5 day alloted time..

This was a real disappointment to everyone and meant we would need to meet up with Rich to do our experience dives. As the 3 of us have busy lives - it meant that it would be several months before we could all get together to do the experience dives together - so we conferred and decided that it was best for me to get my experience dives out of the way.. So I did. On the 21st September, I met up with the chimp's very own Badger (himself already Tech 1) who ably buddied me and enabled me not to cock it up. Top bloke.

At the end of the second dive Rich gets Badgers attention and made a 'T' sign followed by a '1' and points to me. Click. It sinks in.. Joy.. Oh the Joy.. :) One happy simian.

Garf turns to the dark side

2008-09-15T21:35:00.003Z

Hot news off the press is that I am joining Eastbourne BSAC to dive with them, and possibly do some PADI training for their members. They seem like a great bunch, and I am looking forward to doing some of the shallower stuff with them from the club rib.

First dive was this Saturday, and between a small group of us we brought up a couple of crabs, a huge (and very tasty) Brill, and an engine maker's plate. Not a bad haul for a ten minute rib out of Eastbourne harbour and a very pleasant introduction to diving with the club.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 6: The Final Day

2008-09-06T11:32:00.004Z

Tech 2 thoughts

So, here we are on the last day of the course. The final dive as to 70 metres, and was planned and executed perfectly, or at least good enough for all of us to be deemed suitably skilled to qualify as Tech 2 divers. We were told we had passed the copurse during the 6 metre stop, so there were some leaky masks from all the smiles for the rest of the stop!. Tech 2 has been my most fascinating experience with GUE to date. The previous course, Tech1, was more endured than enjoyed. I learnt a great deal from Andy Kerslake, and still rate him very highly as an instructor, but realise that I was incredibly stressed throughout the entirety of the course, something I had expected to be magnified at the Tech2 level, but something I was suprised to find is not true.

Tech1 represents a significant change in skills. A fundamentals diver is limited to 30 metres, with no decompression, and may never have carried a stage. A Tech1 diver has 50 metres within their grasp, potentially carrying one of two available decompression gases, and a runtime of 90 minutes in the water. This is an enourmous change in diving, and so the course has to raise the bar of the student's skillsets to meet these challenges. Tech2 is different. The failures that you are given on Tech2 are no more complex than those on Tech1. In fact, they are, by and large, the same things, as there is only so much that can be failed. Yes, there is more equipment to be carried and managed in the form of additional decompression gases and bottom stages. And yes, this does give the instructor more scope for generating failures. However, whereas Tech1 represents a significant change in skill, it is presumed at Tech2 that those skills are now firmly embedded, and it is an attitude, or indeed awareness change that has to happen at Tech2. No longer can you rush in and just fix something and move on. The Now it takes a moment after everyone can breathe to think your way through the dive and determine how the failure, and any fix you have put in place, will manifest themselves as bottles are changed and regs are switched. In addition, communication throughout the team becomes critical so that everyone knows what is working, and indeed what is not, on every diver's rig. So, what is built on a Tech2 course is not buoyancy skills, but awareness, capacity, and finesse through the ascent. the buoyancy skills must be in place, unconsious, or you simply cannot get through the course. If you have to think about buoyancy when task loaded then you're not going to get through Tech2.

Being around people like Rich Walker and Rich Lundgren is also a fascinating experience. They are both highly competent divers, and both highly competent educators. Both are passionate about GUE without being exclusionist. Forget your image of the GUE instructor unwilling to listen to new ideas or concepts. These guys are researching and reading everything that comes out to see how it might affect their diving, and you're going to struggle to find many people who know more about decompression. Rich Walker has spent 20 years in academics creating models of what happens to the human body in certain situations. As you can imagine, this gives him an interesting perspective on decompression models. We've picked up plenty of the most recent thoughts in decompression, diving practices, safety, exploration and research, which has made for conversations late into the evening. They are also, it has to be said, just phenomenal in the water.

finally, the course is a good laugh. Tech1 will make or break a team. By Tech2, the team must be in place, so from this perspecitve everyone just relaxes and has a good laugh. Howard and Gareth have become good friends of mine, and as we begin the process of planning the dive today, I know that I've had a bloody good laugh with some good mates.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 5

2008-09-06T11:32:00.001Z

Day 5

Imagine my suprise when we woke with a fully grown Hippopotamus amphibius in the room. As the room swam into focus I realised that although there was indeed an enormous mammal in the room, it was merely howard snoring. I checked to make sure my fillings were all in place, and staggered down to the breakfast room in self defence, with GLOC just a moment behind me.

The plan today was to do three 40 metre dives, each once requiring changes in ascent rate, bottle rotations, and multiple gas switches. At any point, Rich was of course free to mess with us and induce failures for us to manage. "Manage" is the appropriate word now. Problems requiring thinking through rather than just a fast response, as a hasty action that seems to work now might cause you further problems later on down the line. With the training dives only giving us ten minutes on the bottom and ascent times of approximately 15 minutes, our aim was to ensure the ascents were as smooth as possible.

To goal for the day was to ensure that we stayed together as a team, as in elbows touching in a triangle of three if possible, at exactly the same depth, and breathing the right gases at all times, whilst obviously ensuring the ascents kept to time.

The three dives were all pretty similar. Ten minutes or thereabouts at the depth of 40 metres, with failures going on. There were failed isolators, failed bottom stages, failed right posts, failed left posts. Some were fixable, some were not. We had to remember who had what failed so we knew who could donate gas and who couldn't and who was the potential weak point in the team, re-ordering the team accordingly. Without going through every dive, I'll do the last one, as it was challenging one.

Descend to 6 metres on a mix we were simulating to be almost hypoxic, so fast down to 6 metres. There switch to bottom stage, and perform a bubble check. All good. down we go. 20 metres per minute. At the bottom - 40 metres, swim along the wall, GLOCS left post fails. Howard's torch fails. Re-order the team. Howard goes into fix GLOC whilst I provide a visual reference for buoyancy control. Very, very dark. GLOC sorted, swim on. GLOC's bottom stage runs out. He tell us and the team switches to backgas. Howard's suit inflation bottle runs dry. My iolator fails. Howard's in there to check whilst GLOC provides reference. As it's the isolator I know what's coming. I go out of gas. GLOC donates. I thumb the dive. Up fast in a triangle to 30 metres. Slow the ascent from 9 metres per minute to 6 metres per minute. up to 21 metres. Me back onto my own bottle of 50%. GLOC and howard switch to 50%. I bag up. Still at 21 metres. GLOC and Howard rotate bottles. I pass bag to Howard. I start rotation, but it's now time to move. I rotate the bottles on the move between 21 metres and 18 metres. GLOCs 50% bottle runs out. He switches to backgas and tells the team to extend the deco stops. Howard's 50% bottle runs out. He does the same. My 50% bottle runs out. We're now at 9 metres. Switch the team to backgas ready for the O2 switch. 6 metres. GLOC switches to Oxygen. howard passes him Bag. Howard switches to O2. I switch to O2. 3 minute stop. 2 minutes to surface at 3 metres per minute. Break surface and swim back to pontoon for debriefing.

Now, back in the B&B having watched the video self assessed, we're going down the pub for a pint.

We must be doing something right, the two Richards are letting us go to 70 metres tomorrow. Either that or they just plan to leave us there and let natural selection judge us. Whatever the above sounds like, it is not in any way " a beasting". The whole point is that it is not stressed, and there is a time-out signal if we feel overloaded anyway. We're here to learn, and learning we are, as well as having a good laugh all the way through the week. Yes, we have progressed an awful lot during a short space of time, but then we have the attention of two very competent divers and instructors, so that's hardly suprising.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 4

2008-09-06T11:31:00.001Z

Day 4

Very, very short report today. My head hurts. We did swim tests, we passed swim tests. We talked abotu decompression strategies. We took an exam, in fact we took 4 bloody exams. We planned 70 metre dives. We planned 100 metre dives. We talked about Oxygen Windows, counter diffusion, new directions in decompression strategies. We talked support divers and ommitted deco plans. We talked in water recompression.

then we mixed a lot of gas. Sorry, a LOT OF GAS. This was to cover us for the remainder of the course, which is a couple of dives to 60 metres and a couple of dives to 70 metres. Once we had all the gas we could lay our grubby chimp mits on, we decamped from Plymouth and headed back to the B&B in chepstow, ready for a busy day in the NDAC tomorrow.

Meanwhile I swam into a bulkhead and bashed my nose and forehead. Then I took enough painkillers to wipe out a small country, and painted my face in liquid plaster. I guess I'll have to wait and see how things look tomorrow.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 3

2008-09-06T11:30:00.001Z

Day 3

you remember the scene in the Matrix when Neo is being shown "the world as it is today". The sky is dark and evil, constant storms rage, lightening bolts split the sky, everything looks imposing and dreadful. Looking at the weather reports for the day, that's pretty much how I expected to find Plymouth when I woke up this morning. Contrary to my expectations however, the day appeared to be fairly tolerable. the promised "wind from hell" had not appeared, and I had high hopes of getting in the water.

so, off we trotted down to Aquanauts, and leapt onto the boat. Once again we had aquanaut to ourselves, and young Joe as a deck bitch. 3 stages diving requires the strength of Atlas, or in the lack of superhuman arms and legs, a deck bitch. They ony need to achieve one thing, and that's connect the 3rd bottle onto the correct place on the hip D ring. You'd think that's the least of jobs, a mere trifle. And yet we were incredibly grateful to have Joe doing this, as he consistently put it into the correct spot and handed up the bottle at precisely the right moment. It was a sunny morning, and we were dropped in right next to the old fort inside the wall. Outside the wall, carnage was raging. We had put in a fairly tight shotline to give us a visual reference, and dropped down it to begin the planned dive. Down to 6 metres, where Rich wanted to see set piece demonstrations of valve and S drills". We did our best, and put in what I thought was a good performance. we then all did a double bottle rotation, whilst moving the team around the shot to try and provide some break from the current for the person doing the rotation. This worked really well. In terms of team positioning, we were now getting used to doing drills and descending/ ascending in a triangle. Close enough so that your elbows are touching every now and again. what we were adding into the mix now was a little more finesse on the drills and station keeping. We had been moving plus or minus half a metre, and Rich wanted to see the teams together at all times. Once we had doen the bottle rotations, we then ascended for a debrief. Rich decided he was happy with the progress, and we descended to the bottom so that he could mess with us. Having no other option, we lined off from the shot, as there was a current running and we had to return to it. I laid the line, with GLOc and Howard following. Rich descended intermittently and failed right posts, bottom stages, and the like, and problems were thought out and dealt with. This is an area we were developing. We were learning not to rush into sorting the problem you can breathe with a leaking post, and there's plenty of gas in the team. Think about how does this affect the rest of the dive, and then put in place the best solution, which might be one of several. Then re-order the time, and rearrange the dive accordingly.

We laid line for a little while until Rich gave us a failure requiring us to call the dive and swim back along the line. Basically, he put GLOc out of GAs. with Howard donating from the 3rd man position, and myself leading, we sandwiched GLOC in the middle, we left the line in place and swam back along it to the shotline. At the shotline, we stowed the bottom stages and switched back to backgas. up to the first stop depth and we switched to the 21 metre bottles. Once we were all on the 21 metre bottle, we all did bottle rotations and began the ascent through the intermediate stops. Howard bagged up. At 9 metres, we swapped back to our backgas ready for the move to Oxygen. Up to 6 metres and Onto the O2 for 3 minutes simulated deco. Rich came in and congratulated us, and then informed us We were to swap back to our bottom stages, boogie back down to 8 metres, and do the whole ascent again. Which we did.

this time we surfaced, and it was obvious that wind, current and chop were all picking up. i stowed the O2 bottle and cleaned myself up. At that moment I suffered a catestrophic loss of fabulousness. The top of the corrugated wing inflator hose seperated from the plastic connector at the top of the wing. this had the effect of dumping my wing instantly, and the 3 heavy stages dragged me underwater immediately. Arse. I popped my backgas reg back in my mouth, closed the suit and inflated it. As I stabilised at about 1.5 metres GLOC arrived and hauled me to the surface. Then everyone else arrived, and I just lay on my back as i was inflated like an SMb, my stages and anything remotely heavy clipped to me was quickly removed and distributed to the other divers. It was no drama. The worst that could have happened is that I could have been sitting ont he seabed at ten metres thinking "arse, I'm going to have to bag up and connect the stages to the line so they can be hauled up". This little incident ended the diving for the morning, so we headed back in for lunch. Debrief on the boat, and everyone was pleased with the performance so far. the plan was to get back in, grab some food, and head out again in a couple of hours once the various failures had been repaired.

So, 3pm in the afternoon, and TFT are heading back to sea. The plan this time was to drop to about 30 metres, so we could do the ascent with the bottle switches in the right place - 21 metres and 6 metres. This was, in Rich Lundgren's words, "the most challenging Tech2 conditions he had ever seen". We jumped into a faily calm sea to find a raging, swirling current. At about 20 metres God turned the lights out. We got to 30 metres and didnt find a bottom. The viz was les than a metre and it was very very black. Rich decided that conditions were just not up to the course, and called the dive. At this point God turned out two of the teams 3 HIDs, leaving me with the only remaining light. As we were there, we did bottle rotations whilst hanging onto the washing line, and switched at 21 metres, feeling along the hoses from the 2nd stages to the bottles to ensure teammates were switching to the right gas. There was a definite lack of pretty, but everything was functional, and we hit the surface when we were suppoed to, give or take a minute.

Back to Aquanauts, and its now 6pm. Time for theory then. Decompression strategies, decompression illness. It went on through the early evening and continued over dinner. We wrapped up about 2130 and headed back to the B&B. Bearing in mind the abysmal weather forecast, we canned the rest of the week in Plymouth. The plan now is to finalise theory and swim tests and administration and exams etc tomorrow, and then spend two days at the NDAC working up to the 70 metre dive on the deep day. Having tried the salt water, and having been spat out by the sea, we had decided to head back inland to a quarry to lick our wounds.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 2

2008-09-06T11:29:00.001Z

Day Two

After decamping from the NDAC last night and driving to Plymouth, we had high hopes for a week's diving in the sea for a change. Alas, it was not to be. It was, to be fair, blowing it's nadgers off today in Plymouth, with the forecast for the week getting worse and worse. However, seeing as we had the boat to ourselves we went out anyway, especially as we only needed 10 metres of water.

so we dropped into a ridiculous current, in terrible viz, and attempted to hold station carrying 9 stages between the three of us, and perform v drills, S drills and bottle rotations. A few steps into my valve drill Howard had had enough and called the dive. I did a flow check of all my valves (now including the three bottles and the argon bottle) and we ascended. On the surface it was clear that Rich was having as hard a time watching us as we were performing, but we decided to try and get in closer to the fort and see if the current eased up. It just didn't happen. After a little while, the dive was called and we got back on the boat. Getting off and on the boat is a bit ttoo much like hard work to be buggering about in 10 metres. Howard suggested that we skip the remainder of the course and jump immediately in on the Affric at 70 metres, with the logic that anyone that survived the dive should be given an automatic pass. Luckily for us, Rich decided that this would probably not be the best of plans, so we headed back to Aquanauts to make the mst of the remainder of the day by covering theory.

So, into the classroom we went, and discussed minimum deco as it is affected by having a bottom stage. strategies for different bottles including the use of additional deep deco mixes, and how these affect minimum gas. Tech2 adds a level fo complexity in the theory to the point where there simply are no right or wrong answers. there certianly is no GUE big book of rules about how deco is conducted or how gas strategy is managed. Rich simply enabled us to discuss all the options and come to our own conclusions. This course is all about making you think for yourself, rather than try and provide you with answers. It was a very interesting discussion, and moved onto decompression illness and oxygen toxicity, and what options are available - or indeed simply not available- when things occur at different depths. For the example, GUE's approach to Oxygen management is that the only gas on which we ever push the PPO2 to 1.6 is Oxygen at 6 metres. In a freakish coincidence, we train to lift unconscious divers from 6 metres. The deeper the decompression mix, the lower the Max PPo2 is on it. none of them reach 1.6. The discussion went along the lines of that we reckon we'd have a fair shot of lifting a toxing diver from the shallows, but the toxing diver at 70 metres is probably going to die. This took the discussion back to the reasoning why we are so anal about gas analysis and the gas switching procedure requiring a team authorisation as the final check in about 6 to make sure the gas is safe for that depth. We discussed how to handle hypoxic mixes when getting on and off the boat, and why we always ascend on Oxygen, and never on backgas.
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The discussion moved around the managagement of gases to the treatment of bends, and current thoughts on immediate treatment of DCI with heliox rather than Oxygen. The two Riches wee bang up to date with the lastest research emerging in the area of decompression, and as all three of us find the topic fascinating, this went on for some time. we also discussed tweaking and playing with the deco, what areas can be played with, and what areas should be left alone. We planned out a 100 metre dive, reminding us that Tech2 gives you a set of tools you can use to risk analyse and plan pretty much any Ocean Dive, rather than being a fixed set of rules to be obeyed. More and more, the message was "what would you guys do and here's some ideas to choose from", rather than "this is the way we do it".

The discussion continued over dinner, although the weather made frequent visits to the list of topics on the table. The weather does not look good for the remainder of the course. The plan for tomorrow was to do 2 dives, a shallow skills dive to 10 metres, and then a progression to 25 metres where Rich could mess with us, and see more of an ascent. Personally, I don't think we're going to have any more joy tomorrow than we did today diving wise, but we're learning a lot anyway, and having fun.

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 1

2008-09-06T11:28:00.001Z

Day 1.

Well, either GUE has undergone a fundamental shift in it’s approach to training, or at the very least the UK training director has a very different style than this team has encountered previously. Previously, various members of this team have been threatened with verbal assassination, clubbing with a stick, and on one memorable day, stabbing by Tech instructors in the past. Not anymore. Now, the instructions is more of a specialised coaching. The instructors listen, and give individual guidance. The course is more about you and your requirements, albeit within the usual strict performance requirements of a GUE course.

But then, Tech2 is a bit of a weird course. There is a depth limit on the qualification, but the course gives you the tools to plan and execute pretty much any open circuit dive you care to invest the time and energy in. The drills described in the course materials are there as guidelines, and are modified by the instructors to suit your specific learning needs. The course materials themselves are well prepared, and reviewed by most of the senior team at GUE. We got the feeling that at the Tech2 level, we were being brought more into the fold than previously. It’s a fascinating experience.

Anyway, we all rocked up at the NDC to do the first day. Richard Lundren (RL) is the official instructor, and so did the official safety briefings and introduction to the course. As Rich Walker (RW) was interning on the course, he would be delivering most of the actual content under the ever watchful eye of RL, with RL chipping in here and there to add a different perspective, or give the benefit of his frankly ludicrous amount of diving experience.

On land, we walked through gas switching and stowing procedures. These were obviously the same as at Tech1 level. Well, not quite. Whilst the procedure was obviously identical, there was a great deal more finesse put into it, with checks and balances here and there, all designed to reduce the risk of swapping to the wrong gas when you have a potentially large number of bottles clipped to you. We went through it mentally a few times before moving on. We then discussed how to handle multiple bottles. RW has a great style of doing this, which I remembered from my fundamentals course with him. Contrary to popular belief, GUE instructors by and large do not say “Do things this way because I say so”. What they, and especially RW do is to let the group discuss it, and use the benefit of experience to point out potential flaws in your argument. Pretty soon we had come to the ideal solution( to fit in with the rest of the DIR configuration and procedures obviously) for wearing two bottles, and a leash containing one or more other bottles. We then had quite a discussion about how all of these boltsnaps should be arranged on chest and hip d rings, which I guess sounds like overkill until you try it in the water and realise that unless you do have a robust solution for doing it, usually means you end up cross-clipping things and getting into a nightmare of stress.

We then talked about how to rotate deco bottles, to bring bottles off the leash and onto you, and take bottles off you and onto the leash. Again, a robust procedure, which we practiced out of the water for a while, and spent the rest of the day doing in the water. For those interested, a summary might be unclip the tail of the stage you want to put on the leash, and unclip the leash whilst your hand is already back there. Bring the leash to your front. Unclip the nose of the stage you want to put on the leash, and clip it onto the leash. Now unclip the bottle that was already on the leash, and nose clip it to your chest d ring. Finally, take the leasg round and clip it onto your hip, and tail clip the stage whilst your hand is there. To those that think that sounds complicated, it’s done with a minimum of movement, and makes a lot more sense when you see it. To those to whom that sounds simple, remember you can’t see much of what is happening on your hip, and moving all of these bottles around plays holy hell with buoyancy and trim.

Ahh buoyancy. Deep joy. We all struggled with that today. 3 heavy bottles attached – more gas in the wing. That meant it dumped from the wing quicker. So coming up to stops , we had to relearn how much gas todump to bring you to a stop without overshooting it or dumping too much. This took a couple of dives, and is something we need to keep working on.

Once all of the theory was out of the way, we jumped in for a 2 and a half hour dive. We descended to 6 metres and did valve drills and S drills. Again RW was looking for more finesse. Now cam our first bottle rotation and ascent. Well, we didn’t hit the surface, but I got lost in the procedure and just stressed out. We recovered it but it wasn’t by any means pretty. Descend again, and this time we go to ten metres, and start laying line. Like Tech1, the line laying is a distraction to give you something to do, rather than keep a concerned eye on the instructor. Mr bubble gun appeared several times and made things fail. Right posts failed, left posts failed, deco bottles failed, stage bottles failed. Masks disappeared, people went out of air. It was Tech1 all over again, but with more bottles. And considerably less stress. I suspect partly the lack of stress is down to the fact that we have moved on as divers since Tech1. But part of it is definitely the more relaxed teaching style.

Once RW was satisfied he couldn’t fail anything else, we went into an ascent.

8 metres. Start the clock. Wait 1 minute, move to 7 metres. Wait one minute. Move to 6 metres. Switch team to 21 metre bottle. 3 minutes deco during which to do the bottle rotation. Wait 1 minute. Move to 4 metres. Switch back to backgas ready for the switch to Oxygen. . Stow the 21metre bottle hose. Move to 3 metres. Switch to Oxygen. 3 mins deco. Clear up hoses, tidy up lightcords. 1 minute at 2 metres. 1 minute at 1 metre. Surface.

That became our ascent for the day, and we did it several times. At one point RL stepped in and said we needed some more time doing rotations. So we dropped to 6 metres and just rotated. And rotated, and rotated. At the beginning of the dives the rotations were just terrible, but got smoother and smoother as we went on. Partly this was us just getting better and better at it. But partly it was breathing down the bottom stage, as moving an AL80 full of nitrox onto a leash in front of you is a nightmare as it is so heavy. On a real multi bottle mix dive, it would be full of mix rather than nitrox and would behave very differently.

5 o clock and we left the water for a debrief. RW announced there was enough there for him to work with. Tech1 skills were there but rusty and the bottle rotations had improved during the course of the day. Plan for the next day would be more finesse of V and S drills, and tighten teamwork during failures and ascents. This was no surprise to us, as we had a pretty good idea of what had gone well and what needed some work.

On the last GUE course I did I sat in my car at the end of the first day and gave serious consideration to giving up and driving home. This time, I can’t wait for tomorrow to begin. Apparently, we’re going to dive in something called “the sea” tomorrow. This will all be very new to us, but that’s what courses are for I guess.

The chimps tackle T2

2008-09-04T19:51:00.004Z

Well this week sees the Chimps (well GLOC, Garf and Howard) tackle Tech 2 with Rich Lundgren and Rich Walker down in Plymouth. Will 5 days of full on beasting and dive theory take its toll on their fabulousness? We will have to see...

TFT's "Nuts Deep in Rust" Narvik Tour 2008

2008-08-04T17:41:00.002Z

Narvik is a town of 18,000 people in the county of Nordland, Norway. "Nord" means North, and this is not an underestimation. Look at a map of the world. Now head up the uk with your finger until you reach the Shetland Islands. Now move your fingers to the east and you should hit Oslo. Now move your finger north again and when you almost run out of country you'll be in the Narvik area. Now you;re in the Arctic circle, where a day last six months, and the following night the remaining six months. Where everything is tough enough to survive a change in temperature from day to night of 30 degrees to minus 30 degrees. And where the water is testicle-retractingly cold.

Narvik is dominated by an Iron Ore shipping plant, and it is to this plant that the town owes its growth. The ore is shipped from the rich mines in Sweden. During the summer the ore can be shipped from other locations, but in the winter Narvik is the most northerly harbour that does not freeze over. It is to this day a busy shipping pant, and a busy location, and much of the goods that are imported into northern Norway still come through Narvik.

The strategic importance of this harbour was not lost on the Germans in World War 2. Their entire economic and war footing was based on steel, and the supply of iron ore for that steel of vital importance. during the summer months, the ore could be shipped from the Swedish town of Lulea, but in the water Narvik was the only option. The town thus became the focal point of the Norwegian campaign for the Germans.

On April 9th, 1940 ten German Destroyers, each carrying 200 mountain warfare troops, slipped into the Ofoten Fjord and quietly made their way to Narvik. Two outdated coastal defence ships, the Eidsvold and the Norge were alerted and fired warning shots across the German ships bows. The Germans were under orders to capture Narvik without a fight if possible, so after some signals were batted back and forth, the Norwegians sent across an officer to speak to the Germans. When the German captains failed to convince the Norwegians to give up without a fight, torpedoes were immediately slammed into the side of the Coastal defence ships, putting 276 men into the freezing waters, where they lives ended. This battle lasted less than 20 minutes from start to finish. The Germans had successfully invaded.

As a matter of complete coincidence, the day previously had seen a British task force int he area laying mines to stop just such an occurrence, as Churchill had decided there was no way he could accept Johnny foreigner having access to all that iron ore. Commodore Bernard Warburton Lee commanding the 2nd destroyer flotilla had 5 H class British destroyers. On the way to Norway, he wrote to his wife "I believe the war is going to start soon, and I am going to start it".

Warburton-Lee was a "bit handy" at this Naval battle stuff. He arrived at the entrance to the port, hidden by snowstorms from Johnny foreigner. He then took the Hardy, Hunter and Havock into the harbour, and sank two of the German destroyers with a withering force of torpedoes and gunfire. Thus ended the Wilhelm Heidkamp and the Anton Schmidt. Next, the Hotspur and Hostile joined in a second attack which sank a number of merchant ships. Warburton-Lee then withdrew outside the harbour.

Warburton-Lee decided to remain at Narvik for long enough to make one more attack, before making his way back out to sea. Before he could go this, the three destroyers from Herjangs Fjord appeared to his north west. Now they were at sea the larger German destroyers had the British at something of a disadvantage, which soon got worse when they were attacked by the two destroyers to their west. The British were now caught between two attacks. The Hardy was badly damaged, and had to be beached while the Hunter was sunk outright. Captain Warburton-Lee was killed in this phase of the battle. He was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. A third British destroyer, the Hotspur was also badly damaged. The five German destroyers had also taken some damage in the fighting, and failed to press their advantage, allowing the two relatively undamaged British destroyers to rescue the Hotspur. On their way out of the fjord, the British sank the German ammunition ship Rauenfels, the only one to have reached Narvik.

Three days later the British returned to Narvik in much greater force (second battle of Narvik, 13 April 1940), with the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers, and quickly sank the surviving German ships.

The ferocity of the battle can only be imagined. At one point, the Hardy turned broadside to the harbour and launched TEN torpedoes. The end result of all this carnage is that the harbour and fjord were simply littered with destroyers and with merchantmen of all sizes. It looks a little more peaceful today.

The harbour today has been cleared of some of the destroyers, all dumped outside the harbour in a perfect formation for diving together. However, some of the merchantmentmen, not considered a risk to shipping, are still exactly where they sank, perhaps 5 minutes from the dock. they lay in a natural harbour , surrounded by mountains. the water is brackish, as although he fjord is tidal the water itself hardly moves, and the run off from the mountains is just so staggeringly huge. The end result for divers is an extremely well protected mecca for wreck diving, with perfectly clear but cold water, no currents or significant water movement to speak of, and extremely well preserved wrecks. Today you can still dive most of the German Destroyers, although some of the British ones are protected. You can also dive the merchantmen. The all lie in 30 metres of water or shallower.

The Dive Boat

The MS Galten is a converted Swedish Mine Sweeper. 24 metres long and extremely solid in the water, she could handle heavy seas with ease, never mind the glass calm waters of the Norwegian Fjord. She was converted by skipper Anders to serve as a perfect technical dive boat, and is extremely well fitted out for this. The boat has lots of nice little touches, like a ship behind every twinset for simultaneous filling of all bottles, a built in sauna, an attached rib for picking up divers and fishing, and a large sheltered kitting up area.

The boat was tied up at Narvik Havn (The port of Narvik) every evening, but the long trip back from the dive sites was an average ten minutes so this was hardly a chore. The skipper was ably assisted by crewmember Patrick, who besides being a dab hand with crewing a boat, is also a hotel trained chef, and provided the divers with three cooked meals a day to keep the home fires burning. The boat had a good ladder at the stern, a large top desk for drying kit and snoozing, and enough berths for the two crew and twelve burly divers, including some private rooms as well as a large stern bunk room. Needless to say this stern bunkroom smelled like the inside of a skunk’s arse by the end of the week.

The full line of DIR divers for the invitational trip, made up of YDers and DIRXers was

1. Rich Walker
2. GLOC
3. Garf
4. Howard Payne
5. James the Badger
6. Joe Hesketh
7. Zuckerkringel
8. Jimbob
9. Osama Gobara
10. Godiva
11. Vid
12. Aitch

This was an interesting collection of divers at all levels, from fundies qualified people, to Tech1 and Tech2, with some Cave1 and Cave2 levels thrown into the mix. Obviously we had 12 identical sets of kit, but also a collection of scooters and enough spares to kit another few divers.

There was no issue with the kit as Rich had arranged several tons of shipping, so we packed up all our kit, spares, toolkits, scooters etc, and sent them off to Norway. This removed much of the stress of packing, and left us with 30kg to handle last minute items and clothes etc. Quite a pleasant way of organising things.

All we had to do now was get there.

26th and 27th July 2008

Well, the first day started off badly, tailed off a bit in the middle, and the less said about the end the better. It started with Gareth having a nightmare with his camera requiring no less dramatics than a frantic drive into London to Cameras Underwater, just before we were due to leave for Heathrow, and then having to beg YDer and Chimp Technician David to meet him at a secret location in order for David to perform field repairs on one of the camera strobes. David, armed with multi-tester and portable soldering iron, saved the day, as he has done many times in the past.

Next up for a pre-trip nightmare was Howard. Howard, the duke of cool, the master of calm, stepped out of his flat for a quick beer, and let the door close behind him. For the love of God. A very panicky half hour was then spent trying to figure out what to do, contemplating special-forces style breach through to lock picking and removing windows. However, in the end he decided that the most appropriate approach would be to walk in through the unlocked back door and take it from there. Situation number two – resolved.

Next up is Badger, who arrives pretty much on time to pick me up, and then proceeds to run over a cat on the way out of Haywards Heath. Obviously, we then pulled over and I went climbing through the fences and bushes looking for this injured cat. Eventually I found it, and aside from a bit of shock, it did not appeared to be inured, so as we had no idea of where the cat had come from I texted the local CPL branch to let them know, and we then continued on our way.

We were due to meet at the Thistle hotel in Heathrow. I believe the plan was that this would mean we would not have to get up early, and could have a couple of beers. Fantastic. After driving through Heathrow three times Badger and I eventually found the hotel and met up with Howard and GLOC, who had arrived half an hour earlier. There was an Indian wedding going on at the hotel, and the smell of food from the hotel was absolutely amazing. So we went directly to the bar to order food and beer. And more beer. And more beer. Eventually, we decided that as we were getting up at 4am to go to the bloody airport, we should all go to bed. Which we did. And then Badger and I went down to the bar again. For more beer. And more beer.

Somewhere around 1am, and absolutely shitfaced, I went to bed. I closed my eyes and it was 4am. I had the mother of a hangover. I had the father of a hangover. And I could feel a lot of little hangovers coming on.

Between 4am and 6pm was just planes, trains and automobiles. A flight to Oslo. Three of hours of waiting. A flight somewhere else. A 50 mile taxi. Gahhh. Narvik is not a simple place to get to. As the day went on, everyone else got taller, more blonde and more beautiful. and we looked more like a sack of shit.

At this point it’s worth introducing a few facts about Norway. Firstly, whilst waiting in Oslo, I ordered 3 coffees and three ham and cheese sandwiches. The lady behind the counter relieved me of twenty eight pounds. That’s 28. As badger eloquently put it, “nut crunchingly expensive”. DVDS cost between 20 and 30 quid. CDs are 20 quid. A pint, oh let’s not even go there.

Next fact is that it doesn’t go dark in Narvik in the summer. I mean ever. This plays very strange mental tricks with your head. It plays havoc with your sleeping patterns and kicks your circadian rhythm in the nuts. Very bizarre.

Next fact. Northern Norway is gut wrenchingly, stomach-flippingly, jaw droppingly beautiful. The view on the final plane flight coming across the fjords and seeing the effects of the glaciers was just breathtaking. It was incredible, and everyone was looking out the windows.

Next fact. The water is cold. I mean involuntary-retraction-of-testicles, can’t feel your legs kind of cold. Badger, GLOC , Rich Walker and I went for a 6k run sooner after we had arrived, and went we came back we joked about jumping in to cool off. Whilst Gareth was dipping his toes in the water and saying “fuck that” I dived off the railing into the water. Well bend me over backwards and roger me gently with a chainsaw. It was unbelievably cold. Rich had mentioned something about Narvik being in the Arctic circle and the waters coming directly south from the north pole, and somewhere in my head a little voice was reminding me of this, whilst my balls leapt up into my body and my fingers and down shut down in self defence. I swam to the ladder rather quickly. Gareth, blatently peer pressured, now had no choice but to jump in or face me making “cluck cluck” sounds all week. So in he went. And out he came, swearing and shivering. Badger took a little more convincing, but fair play he went in. We decided afterwards to go for a quick run and dip every morning, or at least every morning we could face it.

28th July

As we had promised ourselves, Badger, GLOC and I got up an hour before everyone else and ran 5 k along the causeway in the morning sunshine, whilst the sun burn off the very low cloud cover and revealed another beautiful day. When we got back to the boat people were starting to get up, but the three of us jumped in the water to cool down, which was very, very effective. A great breakfast was had by all, and a very lazy trip out to the first wreck took a grand total of ten minutes from time the engine was fired up to the time we were tied into the shot. Think Scapa with all the wrecks moved to just outside Stromness harbour, all the mountains pulled up into snow-capped peaks, and the water temperature dropped to about 10 degrees.

The SS Romanby was a British Merchantman 130 metres long weighing approximately 4880 tons, and now lying in approximately 28 metres of Water. She was sunk during the invasion in 1940, partially filled with Iron ore right next to the quayside. Today, she is completely open, with all holds and corridors accessible to those willing to penetrate the wreck, and a stunning dive if you are a wreck ferret.

TFT was split into two teams, as Rich W had joined us and this made for a team a little large. So as Howard is a complete tart, and Rich looks a bit handy in the water, we put them with Gareth so Gareth could take photos, whilst Badger and I would play who can wriggle into the most unfeasibly small looking gap in the wreck. This turned out to be a result, as Badger and I share a similar attitude to wreck diving, in that the point is to be on the inside of them.

Kitting up on the boat is just no drama. There’s loads of room, and with 12 DIR divers on the boat, there was no faffing or fettling, changing kit or deep discussions on deco or minimum gas. Everyone just kitted up, went through their team checks, and jumped in. Lovely.

Badger and I descended the shot and I immediately located the first big dark hole I could find, inverted to a heads down position, and that was the last time I saw the outside of the wreck until the end of the dive, an hour later. I’ll let Gareth tell the story of the dive and the wreck with his pictures, but it was a wreck ferrets dream. Multiple levels, long corridors, each hold completely accessible, even the enormous engine room full of wrecked equipment and tools, accessible to those not too wary for a penetration dive. The wreck has 4 holds, and each of them are lined with a layer of Iron Oxide. Picture the scene in the movie alien where Kane is lowered into the egg room and the walls and floor of the room are covered with a fine mist. It was just like that. Without the face-hugging, chest-bursting, multi-jawed, homicidal alien monsters of course. The “mist” looked green fro the light until you shined your torch into it, at which point it went bright orange. Incredible, and true to form, our Gareth took some stunning pictures, which are going to end up on people’s desktops I suspect.

What followed was 60 minutes of delightful diving. Badger and I called the dive pretty much at the same time, when we reached minimum gas. We swam back to the shotline, which was no effort in the incredible visibility (this is the nearest wreck to the harbour with the worst visibility, but it was still 15-20 metres in places), and then ascended back to the boat. After this first dive, we steamed back into Narvik, and the 6 hour surface interval gives you an indication of the tone of this trip. Slow, no stress, no hassle, everything done at a relaxed pace.

We all went up to the Narvik Musem, which gives a detailed history of Narvik’s involvement in the second world war. There was everything you might expect and a few suprises, like the sniper’s nest discovered in he 70’s as it was abandoned 30 odd years earlier and moved piece by piece and recreated in the museum. Fascinating stuff. Obviously, there was lots of information about the battles themselves, but that story is easily researched and explained elsewhere.

The second dive of the day was even better than the first – the same wreck, but now we knw our bearings. James and I headed for an opening we had spotted earlier in the day and dissapeard in the wreck to reappear 1 hour an 15 minutes later, covered in rust . At one point James and I debated passionately whether or not a gap was wide enough for us to squeeze through, and I resolved the discussion by getting myself properly wedged into it. In a perfect example of DIR trim and buoyancy control I pulled some piping out of the silt and threw it out of the way, leaving enough room for us to get through. James decided not to swim through the wall of now complete zero viz, and found another way to reach me. He then “had words” with me  It was a great laugh, and everyone had a great dive. I’m sure others will post descriptions of the wreck itself, but unfortunately there were no real photos from the second dive, as Gareth had left his camera on manual focus.

After dinner that evening, some of us decided to climb the 1KM hill overlooking the harbour. There was a 30 minute walk to a cable car, then a 600 metre cable car ride, followed by a fairly serious 400 metre hill walk. About 8 people made it to the top of the cable car. 5 people made it a hundred metres further. Only Chris and I made it to the top of the hill. We arrived at 11.30, still, and at midnight we had a snowball fight in the midnight sun. Now how often do you get to experience something like that. We walked back to find everyone else asleep, hardly surprising as it was now 2 am. Strangely I did not have problems sleeping that night.

The next day had promises of interesting dives, as it would be our first visit to two of the German warships – specifically two destroyers lying side by side in close proximity. James and I decided to buddy up again as we had had a laugh the day before. Gareth remembered the auto focus.

Tuesday 29th July 2008

Anders had decided to put us on the pile of destroyers right outside the port for two dives. these would be the Wilhelm Heidkamp and and Anton Schmidt. These wrecks were both 125 metres long, and approximately 12 metres broad, weighing circa 3500 tons each, and lying side by side immediately outside the harbour entrance where they were dumped for being a nuisance to shipping. this being a DIR boat, a great deal of research had been done on the wrecks we were to dive.

the ships now lie in approximately 28 metres of very clear water. Howard had decided that today was a scooter day. This left Badger, GLOC and I to have a bimble about, with penetrating the wreck again number one of the list of “must do’s for the day”. Skipper Anders had briefed everyone on the wrecks for the day, and we had learned that there were corridors allowing access, but requiring very careful finning. Some of the corridors allowed a complete swim through, and some were blocked by cables and fallen plating some distance in. Guess which one we chose…

Badger started laying the line. However, I wasn’t happy with the way he was doing it, so took over the number 1 role. The corridor was maybe 1 metre high by 1.5 metres wide. There was little room for aggressive finning, and certainly no vertical forgiveness for anything other than flat trim so it was all very gentle, very slow. I tied off every 4 metres or so. After a while I came to cables blocking the corridor. Arse. I knew they were both behind me so I reached behind me and gave the turn around signal. There was no way we could turn around we this was now a bit of a pain in the arse, as even using slow gentle fin kicks had destroyed the viz. So all three of us back-kicked all the way back long and out of the corridor, staying in touch contact, trying not to piss ourselves laughing at picking the one bloody corridor that was a non-starter. The wreck spat us out like a shit flavoured mint imperial, an we were fallowed by a cloud of crap. I recovered the primary tie off and we decided to stay outside for a bit. We swam around the central destroyer, peering into holes. What astonished us was how bloody small all the entrances were. We concluded that whilst the high command of the German Navy was run by German nationals, a crack Nazi unit had actually captive bred a race of oompah loompahs to run their warships as there’s no way people could fit down some of those hatches.

One of the destroyers is still sitting upright, so we focussed on this for the reminder of the dives. It is covered in life, which I found to my regret when GLOC caught badger and I playing starfish Frisbee and gave us the wagging finger that says “badcrumble says no”. The water temperature was actually relatively pleasant, and the viz better than anything I have seen in the UK, with the possible exception of the tabarka in Scapa. Everybody surfaced and began the continual laughter that accompanies a good dive on any dive boat in the world.

Forty Six minutes into the dive, God decided it was time to end the dive, as the inflator button from Gareth’s Halcyon Inflat-o-matic shot out of the inflator and disappeared into the depths, with the contents of his twinset desperately trying to follow it. Gareth handed off his camera to badger and shut down his right post. We called the dive at this point, and ascended where we were, with Badger and I keeping a close eye on GLOC, who was very carefully ascending without dumping any more from his wing than absolutely necessary. The ascent went fine, and we broke into the sunlight ofa 30 degree day in Narvik, just in time for Chef Patrick’s Salmon and Asparagus soup, with, of course, his homemade bread, which was becoming a daily highlight.

The guys began filing the cylinders for the second dive of the day, which was another visit to the central destroyer. We had decided on a specific area just aft of the bridge area to investigate and look for a way into the wreck.

This dive promised some great shots for Gareth. We went into the wreck a little, but it actually offered little in the way of openings, or so we thought until we saw Joe Hesketh make the sign of the cross and follow an unstoppable Howard Payne into a penetration that ended up going the entire length of the wreck. An outstanding performance. We had begun a similar penetration, but in tohe third room I was unhappy with the amount of cables and loose plating flapping around, and turned the team around to swim out again. On the way out my arm began to feel cold. Unfortunately, my suit flooded immediately after we exited the wreck, so that was pretty much the end of that for me. I had obviously grabbed onto one too many bits of rusty crap when doing tie-offs, and holed my dry glove in four separate places. I sent GLOC and Badger off of their own and mad ea leisure swim to the shotline and drifted up slowly. You could see the Galten on the surface from the bottom of the line and despite the cold arm I spent 15 minutes ascending the shotline, just watching all the divers below me on the wreck, moving about in teams of 2, 3 and 4. that was something I hadn’t been able to do before, so I just chilled out, ignored the arm, and drifted up at about a minute per metre to the surface. Out of the water I ran for the shower as I was bloody freezing.

That evening, following a “very” brief team chat, the team broke it’s vow of abstinence and headed down to the local supermarket to buy as much local lager as humanly possible without actually having to perform surgical procedures to remove kidneys and other high value items to sell. The local lager was called “Arctic”. It might as well have been called “drain-o”. It was horrific. We had to drink gallons of it before it began to taste acceptable, and only a bottle of vintage Cuban rum finally washed away the taste.

Several hours later, and completely toasted, we found out that the dive tomorrow was the deeper one of the week. Oops. At that point we called it a night, but not before Patrick had done us proud again with a dinner of reindeer meat and mashed potato.

Wednesday 30th July 2008

1st Hermann Kühne (125x11m ca 3500t)
2nd MS Strassa (127x18m)

Today was the longest steam of the week, and the skipper was somewhat anxious to get going early. It was going to be literally some miles and it must have taken a good 30 minutes to reach the dive site. Somehow we endured the boredom of the endless trip to the divesite. This one was going to prove to be an interesting dive, as it was a destroyer resting at an angle so that the stern of the ship was in 38 metres of water, and the bows were in two metres, so a leisurely hour could be spent drifting upwards from the bottom an finishing your deco still on the wreck. Badger and I dropped in together and descended to the bottom. I let Badger lead as he has that cave diver’s calm, slow approach, ideal for drifting about on a wreck slowly. We moved from 37 metres up to 30 metres, at which point Badger indicated for us to swim back down. I was a little baffled and shouted “what’s up are you not fucking narked enough or something” to him as we were breathing a weak nitrox mix for the dive. His reasoning soon became evident as we rounded the stern of the destroyer and came into what was perhaps 30 metres of light blue water, and an absolutely stunningly preserved wreck. We spent an entire hour drifting around the wreck, with no real need or desire to go inside it as the views wee incredible. We ended up at 2 metres, decoing out on Oxygen, to conclude what was the best dive I have ever had.

The afternoon plan was to dive a couple of merchantmen lying side by side in relatively shallow water. This is my sort of dive. Huge wrecks with loads of opportunities for squirreling around inside them. With great anticipation, I lay down in my bunk to chill out before the dive. And then woke up when everyone was kitting up. I was exhausted, and the thought of rushing to kit up did not fill me with glee so I called the dive and went back to sleep. I got up a bit later when everyone was in the water and thought “I’ll just pop through and check through my kit to make sure it is all ready for tomorrow” and found, to my horror, that my kit had been gang raped in my absence. My backplate was lying on the floor. My cylinders were missing. My torch was missing, it was all quite pitiful. That’s life in TFT though. If you can a dive your decision is not questioned but your kit is immediately up for all takers. Hey ho. Jimbob had taken my cylinders and Badger had wanted to try out a 21W Hid, so off he went with it. This proved to be a costly mistake, as he immediately decided he had to buy one. Then Osama told him he was selling one and had it with him and that was pretty much the end of that. Everyone surfaced safely after their dives to inform me that essentially I had missed the best dive of the week. However, divers being divers they could have missed the wreck and I would have been old that, so I didn’t beat myself up.

That evening was once again lovely, with sunshine over the mountains. Patrick cooked up a storm of freshly caught sea otter meat (caught whilst we were diving, how cool is that), pork chops and potatoes, and TFT supplied the beer. We had gone to the supermarket and bought some slightly more upmarket beer in self defence as none of us could stomach another can of denture cleaner. We also disovered the sauna on the boat that night, and fired it up to 90 degrees before a gang of us ran out and jumped into the arctic waters. I sounds horrific to type it, but it’s very, very refreshing and thoroughly recommend. The skipper has promised to post our testicles to us when they are found.

Thursday 31st July 2008

1st Neuenfels (140x19m 11600t)
2nd Fisser (116x16m)

The pan for the day was back on 32% and back onto the two merchantmen. The two wrecks are so large and intricate that you could spend the week on them. There were scooter teams going in, teams planning on gentle bimbles, teams planning on getting nuts deep into the wreck. GLOC, Badger and I were I the last category, whilst Howard was going off for a scooter with Osama and Joe.

So, this time it was a 4 hold merchantman, lying right inside Narvik Harbour so literally only a 10 minute steam from the quayside to the wreck. Tough week this. The XXX is lying completely upright, with all holds and engine rooms accessible on multiple levels. It was 140m long and 20 metres wide, so a good size wreck, plenty big enough for Howard to cause mayhem on his scooter, whilst leaving enough small passages for the three other members of the team to play about in.

We jumped in and did a bubble check at metres. Everything good and we dropped down to the bottom. Max depth for this dive was 24 metres, and our average around 19, so we had oodles of time and gas. In the end we did 75 minutes on the wreck and then 10 minutes O2 deco. The wreck is lying very open, with a massive torpedo hole in the port side, where she was walloped in 1940. The holds have been emptied, but there is still plenty to see. We started at the stern, where the twin props are still in place, although mostly buried in the sand. Gareth took the obligatory photos here, and we then ascended to the stern rail of the wreck. The following 70 minutes we spent descending into each hold in turn, swimming round each level in the hold, before finding some passageway or hole into the next hold. We spent the entire dive inside the wreck, and although it was a little misty, with that same green / orange iron oxide mist we had seen earlier in the week, the visibility was still very good indeed.

One interesting moment passing between the holds was had when Badger and I were trying to decide whether or not to line into a hole to investigate whether it went through to the next hold, or whether it was no worth it. Just at the moment we made what we thought was a prudent decision based on available gas to NOT go into the hole and find an easier way in, Howard came barrelling through on his own, at full tilt on his Gavin, from the other side. The light at the end of the tunnel is a fat hooligan on a miniG. We shook our heads in despair, and began the swim through, safe in the knowledge that if that asbo-wielding psychopath an fit through the bloody hole, there’s no way it was going to be a problem for any of us.

After approximately 60 minutes, we had covered all the holds, encountering most of the other teams on the way. We then exited the wreck and began a slow leisurely swim over the top of it back to the shotline, where we met up with another three divers. We swam up slowly to 6 metres, swapped to the Oxygen bottles we were carrying, and then looked down at the wreck for ten minutes whilst relaxing. We ascended at 1 metre per minute to the surface, and got out.

Patrick served up an outstanding spag bol whilst Gareth started processing his photos (some crackers today as I’m sure you’ll see sooner or later) and Badger waited for Howard to surface so he could hurl abuse at him, a task he performed with both passion and vigour, although it was all in good humour. Whilst GLOC had said "Howard could have slowed down a bit", and I had said "Howard FFS you nearly made me shit my drysuit", Badger, with his usual eloquence just stormed up to him and said "You're a F*cking menace you fat c*nt"

So, a good lunch was had by all, and we all sat back in the now emerging sunshine to wait for the cylinders to be filled and the boat to move the boat to the second dive of the day, another merchantman. Once again, Badger, GLOC and I planed to squirrel around in the silt and rust, whilst Howard and his hooligan friends fly around on their scooters.

Squirrel around we did. For about 75 bloody minutes. the trouble was, I had called the dive after about 65, but a miscommunication led to the message not being recieved by Badger HQ and GLOC HQ. so we swam on for ten minutes until I just lost my rag and called an immediate ascent. We did the ascent fine but were now 150 metres from the boat. A full on garf temper tantrum was interrupted by Badger suggesting we move out of the way of that "fucking huge chinese superfrieghter bearing down on us you stupid T*wat". I shut up and swam for it . Back on the boat and apologies all round for miscommunicaitons and temper tantrums. GLOC, as always, pulled some stunning photos out of the bag, and it was a top dive once we had all calmed down a bit and I had stopped shaking. Hey ho

We were now being totally spoilt with food. We had fresh Salmon for lunch, and some unidentifiable meat for dinner. Bearning in mind that we had eaten rudulf, and watched sea otter sqealing it's last on the end of a Norwegian harpoon, we had stopped questning what we were being fed with. Apparantly the cuter the animal, the more likely norwegians are to eat it, and the more delicious it is. This is not a place for fish huggers.

01.08
1st Wilhelm Heidkamp
2nd Romanby

The last day. We knew today was going to e a cracker. As per UK diving trip rules, we had all agreed to get mind bogglingly shitfaced that evening, following a couple of marathon dives. Badger and I werre geared up for Oxygen Deco to leave the week ncie and cleanly, and GLOC was after some specific images. With this in mind, the plan was Gareth and I would do the first dive together, with Badger and howard Teaming up with Joe. And then Badger and I would team up for the second dive, with Gareth and Howard teaming up for the second dive. This was the perfect combination as Howard is a complete camera hog and cannot resist being in front of the lens, and I can't interrupting a dive to "model" a shot. Howard will,on the other hand, spend anentire dive doing this.

so, the first dive of the day was the Wilhelm Heidkamp, one of the German Destroyers, funnily enough named after an engineer who saved the battlecruiser Seydlitz during the first world war - a battlecruiser later scuttled at Scapa flow. Anyhoo, I digress.

It was a delightful morning. the weather had turned a bit during the week, but picked up on the last day to see us off nicely. We had had a fantastic week, and were now thinking just of having a fun couple of dives rather than the "penetration to the max" approach we had adopted for the earlier part of the week. We were also going to do some nice slow ascents to leave the week nicely and cleanly.

That being said, the very first thing we did was descend into the mess hall and lay a line into the port passageway. This gave us about a 30 metre penetration into the wreck, passing hatches into lower levels and doors off to the side. GLOC decided that, on this last day, neither of us wanted to get into multilevel penetration, so we just had a nice straight line to swim.

we swam all the way out of the wreck, and then turned around and collected up the line as we swam back through the passageway.Here we encountered a bit of an issue. I was reeling in the line that Gareth had laid, and it had become trapped on a doorr handle. It proved impossible to release. The visibility inevitably closed in. This was not a problem. I knew Gareth was ahead of me on the line, and I knew the line was good to the exit. so I cut the line, ensuring I left the line to the exit secure. I then clipped off the reel and swam up, collecting the line very slowly and carefully by hand as I went. Gareth, of course, was happily waiting for me when I gave him the universal inter-agency signal to indicate i was dissatisfied with the quality of his line laying. He laughed at me, tooka photo, and we swam on.

Swimming around the port side of the wreck, we saw where another team had lined into another passageway. As we swam over the wreck, we would see torches in the corridors beneath us, and the occassional hole through which we could see a tie off. When we reached the end ot he passageway, Howard emerged with a reel. A few seconds later James emerged. Gareth and I were curious as to the apparant lack of Joe Hesketh on the line, so we stayed for a minute to watch. joe, cool as ice, had simply become completely silted up, and just cooly waited for his team to come and get him, which of course they did. Another good example of training turning what could be a drama into just another fun dive. they had done a fairly serious penetration as well, going down some of the hatches Gareth and I had shunned, so much so I was fairly jealous at having done gone down them myself. Ahh well, another time.

there was a line across to the anton Shmidt, so Gareth and I swam across that and then ascended up the shotline at a nice slow pace. A very peaceful, relaxing dive for all.

The second dive of the day was always going to be a biggie. We were to be back on the Romanby, which was my favourite wreck of the week. Gareth and howard were teaming up with Robto go and get some stage and line photos, and Badger and I were planning to inestigate every nook and cranny of this large wreck. Badger had already informed me that I was to "go and eat a lot of carbs as this will be such a long dive someone else might be in power when you surface". I did exactly what he said and ate lots of energy giving chocolate and potatoes and even weetabox between dives. I fancied a long old dive on this wreck myself.

Badger and I spent 90 minutes on the wreck, with an average depth of 18 metres, and temperatures ranging between 6 and 10 degrees C, depending on what deck we were on. thanks to Badgers nice, slow relaxed pace, my SAC had dropped during the week from abourt 18 at the start of the week to about 13 now, even in these cold temperatures. A good lesson learned there. Badger used this pace to investigate every single hold we could get into, and every nook and cranny of the massive engine room. whilst this is an easy dive, everyone was aware that they are heavily silted and a msissplaced fin kick immediately turned superb viz into zero viz, so it was just a matter of relaxing, avoiding flutter kicking at all costs, and taking our time.

It was up there in the top 5 dives I've ever had. It was just perfect. A loooongbottom time, with some nice clean Oxygen on the ascent meant that most people surfaced feeling on top of the world, and ready for the major pissup that would inevitably follow.

Much kit Packing, fettling and tidying ensued, and it was 10 pm by the time we finished. This is, however not a problem when it doesn't get dark, you can quite easily sit up drinking outside all night. Whilst we didn't quite manage this feat, we did consume gigantic quantities of "catering cider", which Badger had decided could "quite possibly give you magical powers if you drank enough". We also finished off the world's supply of Arctic beer to protect the rest of humanity from drinking it. We all went to bed, happy that we had had a stunning week's diving.

The next day was a reverse of the trip out, only with more pain and suffering. We ALL looked rough now. There were things left on on the boat we had to go back for, things left on the boat needing posting out to us, paperwork lost at the airport, tat purched for loved ones. We didn't buy a lot from the duty free becuase duty free in norway is like being gently molested as opposed to gang raped. It might not be the worst that can happen to you, but it's still bloody unpleasant. We also looked like we had all been through some sort of gang initiation ceremony, with our throats suffering from salt burn.

However, at the end of the day, everyone made it to where they were supposed to go.

As for Team foxturd, we had a final mcdonalds together at Heathrow airport before Howard and GLOC drove off, and Badger and I headed for Sussex. It was the end to a stunning week. I had learnt a great dea, certainly about DIR. All week teams had been chopping and changing. All week kit repairs and replacements were happening. All week, things just worked becuase we were all diving the same configurations, the same plans, the same guidelines. I am normally against DIR-only boats as I see them as exclusive, but I have to admit its a very efficient way of running a boat. However, most importanly, I had learnt a great deal about our team. It's fair to say we provided much of the chaos and madness above the water, but in the water when it was appropriate the humour dissapeared and we looked after each other. We took the piss ruthless on the boat, and watched each other carefully under it. This made for a very safe and enjoyable week. We all had a bloody good laugh, some bloody good memories, and I suspect a repeat performance will be happening at some point. In the meantime, the team has Tech2 approaching in the next few weeks, so no doubt there will be another report up then.

so thanks to everyone on the boat, especially rich Walker for organising it all, but especially to GLOC, Howard and Badger for being a good laugh and a solid team in the water.

Dive team identify Orkney wreck

2008-06-26T16:20:00.002Z

A team of technical divers has brought years of research to an end with the identification of the wreck of the SS Remus off Orkney.

The divers, led by Kevin Heath and Hazel Weaver, skipper on MV Valkyrie dived a mark in 60m off the east of Orkney on 15 May.

The SS Remus was a 1,079-ton rear-engined collier, one of only three sunk in the Orkneys area, which was sunk during World War One when it struck a mine on 16 Feb 1918.

The ship was on a sealed orders mission which meant there is no record of what she was supposed to be doing but it is likely that she was heading north to meet a capital ship to transfer coal.
Kevin has spent many years researching this and many other wrecks in the area. He was convinced the wreck which has been previously identified as the SS Remus was not following some detailed multi-beam sonar images, but needed divers to go down and identify and image the wreck site.

A trip was put together on the Yorkshire Divers forum with the aim of diving some deeper wrecks inside and outside of Scapa Flow and the SS Remus and another unidentified wreck were on the itinerary.

With calm winds and no swell, the conditions were ideal for this 60m dive. Visibility was around eight-ten metres and the wreck was relatively intact for something of this age. The two boilers and engine were in the correct relative position to the stern and a brief survey was conducted.

Photos were taken of the boilers and the bow section but unfortunately neither the bell nor the maker’s plate were found. This is not surprising considering the wreck has been trawled over several times looking at the amount of netting on the site.

Following the dive and a debrief of what the divers had seen and a review of the photos taken, Kevin was certain that this is the Remus although definitive evidence such as the bell or maker’s plate is still required.

This report was published in Sport Diver magazine after a submission by GLOC, one of the dive team involved in the identification of the wreck.

Team Foxturd Preferred Suppliers

2008-06-19T06:37:00.006Z

This link is for Team Foxturd to show its appreciation of our favourite suppliers. These are companies who have shown to have personally provided a service above that which you would normally expect; be that price, level of service, timeliness or anything that makes the Chimps say 'he needs a little recognition'.

Jim at Amphibian Water Sports.

Cylinder cleaning - cheap, fast turnaround
Gas fills - one of the cheapest around and good 250bar fills.

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SDS Watersports

Suit repairs and servicing. No problem too much for them.

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Brian Allen at Aquanauts

Supplier of dive equipment and operator of a hard boat in Plymouth

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Grahame Knott at Outcast Diving/Weymouth Diving

Top rate skipper based in Weymouth. Operates Lamlash, an exped class fleet tender and Outcast a Venom 38 hardboat.

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Steve Johnstone at Channel Diver

Another top class skipper, this time operating out of Brighton and covers trips into the English Channel and across to France

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Rich Walker at Wreck and Cave

Expedition organiser & DIR equipment supplier

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Brian Cooper: 07810 881899. Link on YD

Independent Scuba Service Technician (for most regulator types we believe..) Lovely bloke, very knowledgeable.

The Badger Loses His Virginity (on the DIR-UK boat)

2008-06-19T06:25:00.003Z

As I drop down the shot line I can see the exhaust of the team that hit the water a few minutes before us mushrooming up and reflecting the torch beam of GLOC behind me like a series of concave mirrors. I equalise, add a little air to my dry suit and continue down the shot. After few moments the outline of the LH Carl comes into view below us, silhouetted in the bright green ambient light, deck structure visible for at least 8m in every direction. I flow check, gas check and get my self trimmed and comfortable. Signal OK to Gareth and off we swim to explore the wreck.

I suspect that described dozens of dives that happened over the beautiful weekend that we have just enjoyed all over the UK. What makes it special to me was that I was at 47m on my first dive after completing my GUE Tech 1 diver just few weeks before with Richard Walker.

I spent the preceding week watching the forecast and tracking down enough Helium for my gas mix (some bright spark at the club had bought a J of balloon gas!!) I was ready to go. Gas selection is easy at Tech-1; 21/35 or 18/45 with one 50% or 100% deco. I chose 18/45 and 50%. What information did we have before the dive? None!! Isn’t that great. I knew where to meet and the range would be Tech-1. That's all I need to know.

It’s worth noting we don't go anywhere near the MOD of the 18/45 but if the dive did end up with parts of the dive profile at the edge my Tech-1 training, the PPo2 was still nice and low and the END would make my first dive after my course (without the watchful eye of Richard Walker ever present!) nice and relaxed.

I was going to be diving with Gareth (GLOC) so did I care what gas mix he chose? Nope. It would be one of the two standard gases for that range and they both have the same deco profile in that range. Easy.

I was luck enough to be on the boat Outcast with Grahame Knott at the helm and some of the divers from the DIR-UK mailing list. It’s quite a thing to be the baby Tech-1 diver on a boat with divers that had more hours at the back of caves or hanging in deco than I had women, and that is going some!! I had met a couple of the team before and the new introductions were quickly made.

James on the LH Carl

One familiar face was Iain Smith who I had done the GUE Cave 1 course with in January this year. Iain had driven overnight from Glasgow, via London to join the dive. It has to be said that man has whiter legs than can even be explained by his Gaelic genes and have no right to be on public display. Long trousers next time Iain, please! Also for reasons unknown, even to him, he left his scooter in the car.

And as we sat in sunshine at the quayside in Weymouth watching Bob, Andy and Joe loading scooters and Clare and Al assembling their RB80's was a great sight.

As a side note I had read a great deal about the RB80 but had never seen one in the flesh so thanks to Clare and Al for taking the time to talk me through that amazing piece of kit.

Bob Cooper :)

A couple of suggestions were made by Grahame for the days dive and the wreck LH Carl (LH Carl) was agreed. The LH Carl was sunk on the same day as the Salsette by the same U-Boat.

Realistically, the only plan Gareth and I had to make was who ran the deco, who was going to shoot the bag and how much deco did we want to do. Easy, so easy in fact that Gareth decided I should run it (with his reputation, this may have been the safer option!!). The controlling factor for me at the moment is my deco SAC, so we agreed 35 mins max deco. We would know when we hit the wreck what that would mean in terms of bottom time at our average depth. Easy, no complex plans on slates or two different computers on each arm, just make a plan based on what you know, then adjust as you need using simple easy to remember patterns. Min gas was worked out before we jumped in using the sounder depth from Grahame and didn’t need to be adjusted when we got to the bottom.

The really bad weather we had over the weekend!

The plan was simple, Clare and Al would hit the water first (what’s the point of having a rebreather if you aren’t going to extend your bottom time!) Greg and Iain would go in next, then GLOC and I, with Andy, Bob and Joe as the scooter squadron bringing up the rear.

This is where I hoisted my newbie status flag high above my like a majestic banner. All my dry kit is in a mesh bag under my seat, Grahame is pouring buckets of water over me to cool me down and the water is soaking my mesh bag and all my worldly goods. Bugger.

During the final pre-dive prep Joe had a problem with his scooter and rather than muck around with that, he just left his scooter buddies and joined myself & GLOC. No discussion of what gas or what computer or what profile, just minimum gas and what length deco we had planned. Joe gets the 'armchair' position or as we like to call it, 'Lucky Pierre'.

Unfortunately on hitting the water Joe had a primary light problem and decided to call his dive at the surface. I secretly suspect he had just spied another pack of hob-nobs that had gone unnoticed on the way out and was securing the lot!

So Gareth and I enjoyed a cracking 30 minute dive, with a swim through, great viz and some really top photographs.

The wreck sits in 54m and rises to 47m from the seabed. The bow section is quite intact with a nice swim through on the deck below the winch gear. The deck below that could be penetrated but it silted out really quickly with rusticles dropping down and GLOC turned around before we had gone more than a couple of metres in. After a few laps and exploring we wondered where everyone else was so we moved aft past the vertical hull break to find the boilers, engine and aft section some 15m across the seabed. Unfortunately we only found the boilers and stern section with a few minutes of bottom time left. After 30 mins of bottom time, with great viz and some cracking photo opportunities, I thumbed it and ran the ascent and deco. We hit the surface 40mins later feeling good with sunshine on my face. (Sunshine is not a euphemism for anything else before someone makes a comment!!)

Despite learning a little lesson in properly securing (and removing!) a catheter, the deco was easy and seemed to fly past, albeit a little damp!!

Kit offloaded and whizzed across to Scimitar Diving (Scimitar Diving Ltd Hardboat Diving Made Easy) for the gas fills and off we went for a curry in the Balti House where we were joined by Vonny. Many thanks to Vonny for putting us up for a good nights rest. I hope that was your cat we left asleep on the sofa.

Greg and James on the SS Chateau Yeams

The day couldn't have gone better especially as the trip out provided an excellent photo opportunity to show how big Bob Cooper’s nose really is!!

The following day we had a planned ropes off of 11:15 to the same area as conditions the day before were excellent. Unfortunately this departure meant that Iain was going to have to knock the trip on the head as he had to drive all the way back to Glasgow to start a shift at 07:00! Iain, top tips, look at the tide times before committing to a 900-mile round trip and you might get 2 dives in!!

The wreck we were going to was the SS Chateau Yeams/Yquem/Youem (Chateau Yquem SS WRECK). The prospect of getting onto a less common wreck with almost perfect dive conditions set spirits high and we were not disappointed. Chateau Yquem SS was traveling from Dunkirk to Barry in ballast, when torpedoed on the 30th June 1917. She sits upright at 44 metres standing 16 metres proud.

The Badger emerging from his hole on the SS Chateau Yeams

Where the shot went in there was a large mono-filament net draped over the port side but fortunately with the 10m+ visibility and the high levels of ambient light, this was easily avoided. We went down the port side moving forward to the bow section which stands some 15m proud of the seabed at 47m. Over the bow section which has collapsed crane towers and winch gear, through a couple of swim-throughs/companion ways and towards the stern which has almost disappeared. The scooter team came buzzing past on a couple of occasions. The rear deck was fairly collapsed but Clare and Al found the bridge section and went inside. Maybe next time.

30 minutes was up and I thumbed the dive; GLOC ran the deco, and I had the bag. For many this might seem like the 'perfect storm' of team responsibilities, but the pessimists were proved wrong. A slightly stuck spool was expertly caught on its way down by Greg who had joined us for that dive.

Greg and James on the bow of the SS Chateau Yeams

We were not the only team 'challenged' by a spool; Bob Cooper discovered that he had exactly 20m of line on his. The only problem was he was at 21m. Thankfully his right arm (for reasons best left unmentioned here) is 1m long and the stop was held, albeit with Bob looking like he was flagging down a bus.

A nice ride home in the last afternoon sun and fish and chips on the quayside rounded of a really great couple dives with a top team of divers. Thanks again to Grahame for skippering.

For me it was something of a personal milestone and achievement in a diving career that had started for me on holiday in Sharm in 2002 and has now afforded me some of the most amazing dive experiences. It was chance to put into practice more of the core philosophies and skills of GUE diving that I had started to learn with Fundamentals last October and Cave 1 in January. I believe that it shows the training offered by GUE and its instructors not only gave me a certification, but actually equipped me with the skills and confidence to safely undertake the sort of dives I want to do and really enjoy a cracking first Tech 1 weekend.

Team Advil Take A Trip To The Mother Ship - Florida 2008

2008-06-19T06:23:00.000Z

Back The Truck Up Buddy

Di With THAT Truck

The week started well with me being upgraded to Premium Economy on the top deck of the 747 for the journey out to Orlando. Dianne, Duchess Of Norfolk (aka Madfish), who was travelling with me, remained down in cattle class with several hundred screaming children on their way to Disneyland for the half term holiday. There was no trouble telling her apart from a ray of sunshine when she ventured up stairs to find me stretched out sitting next to John Grogan quaffing Champagne and discussing his deco strategy (“I like to get things bubbling before the gas switches” – no sh*t!)

I offered her my huge reclining seat right next to the emergency exit (even more legroom than usual) and got her a glass of bubbly in an attempt to stem her plans for mass infanticide downstairs. I contemplated offering to swap seats with her, but a quick check down below revealed that she was sitting next to a honeymooning couple who were like something out of a Harry Enfield sketch and the kids had turned the entire lower deck into the opening scene from Gladiator, so I popped back upstairs and hoofed her out of my seat pronto.

Ginnie Springs - The Devils Ear Sits Under The Buoy By The Boat

Things didn’t improve when we arrived and Dollar car rental only offered us an 8 seater people carrier which she instantly dismissed as being far too small. Several more vehicles including a Mack truck and one of those things they use for towing Space Shuttles were all dismissed out of hand and we finally settled on a Ford F150 minibus which was so huge that the bonnet was in a different time zone to the tailgate. By the end of the week – even I had to concede it had been a great call as it became our second home as we drove all round northern Florida to the various dive sites. The truck promptly pulled to the right every time we drove past a petrol station and on its first visit to the pumps when it was still only 2/3rds empty – it took 27 gallons to fill it up!

Two hours of driving north from Orlando found us in High Springs – home of GUE and Extreme Exposure - we had arrived at the Mother Ship.

Selection Of DIR Approved Snorkels At EE

Northern Florida is a big surprise – not at all what I was expecting: green, lush rolling hills and farmland – a bit like the New Forest

We checked into the Country Inn which is 5 minutes down the road from EE and was to be our base for the week. It’s a bit like staying in your Nan’s spare bedroom with more chintz than you could poke a stick at but at £10 each a night all in, split between The Duchess, myself and David Martin - you really couldn’t complain. Your money goes a long way out there just now.

Bryce At The EE Gas Station

The following morning – we were all up early with jetlag and piled next door into Winn Dixie which is a sort of redneck Asda. Di was somewhat disappointed they didn’t have a Waitrose, but promptly did her usual “Supermarket Sweep” and emptied the entire drugs aisle into a trolley and Team Advil (American Nurofen) was born.

Me Kitting Up At Jackson Blue

The B*ttplugs Of Madison County
On the Monday – Corey has arranged for us to travel a couple of hours north to dive the magnificent Madison Blue. Di insists on driving and every time we reached a stop sign we all peel our noses off the dashboard and remove the set of 104’s that were now imbedded in the back of our heads. I felt that a little driving lesson would be in order and helpfully explain that good braking should be like taking a sh*t. A gentle squeeze to get things going followed by a long even push and then finish with a gentle taper at the end. I explain that the desired shape we are looking for is like a cigar not a wedge of cheese. I helpfully speculate that when Di is enjoying a “motion” – her arse must snap shut at the end like a jail door. She gratefully thanks me for the driving lesson and declares a filth “time out” for five minutes as the truck had now descended into total hysterics and we are completely lost. Five minutes pass and she breaks her own “Filth Amnesty” with a discussion about whether if Halcyon made b*ttplugs – would they be Delrin with a NiMh battery? I tell her that she’s a dirty girl and just sharing a truck with her makes me feel soiled. By this stage we’ve seen every single bridge in Madison County and a few besides and we're hopelessly lost again. I suggest that perhaps Clint Eastwood’s next film should be called “The B*ttplugs Of Madison County”? He can have that one on me – I don’t expect any royalties. We decide to lay down some ground rules for general truck banter: we only stop if someone cries: the banter not the truck that is...

Finally we arrive and Bryce has been there for nearly two hours already, bored out of his brains waiting for us. He pretends it’s OK and says he’s been sorting kit. This basically consisted of unwinding and rewinding his safety spool, line by line about a hundred times. Madison Blue was worth the wait, I’m not sure Bryce could say the same for us.

Paul On The Boat At Merritts Millpond

GUE HQ & Extreme Exposure
We were calling in twice a day at Extreme Exposure to pick up and drop off our tanks. EE is the base for all of GUE’s teaching and the WKPP’s diving activities and forms a focal point for all the visiting DIR divers to meet: Think the best dive shop you’ve ever seen with a huge gas station to one side and GUE’s offices in the building next door and you get the picture. EE is run by Doug Mudry who epitomises the expression “nothing is too much trouble” and bent over backwards to make our week go as smoothly as possible, whilst all the time giving his students 110% on the Fundies class he was running at the same time. It’s not unusual for him and the guys to be working into the early hours filling tanks and sorting out equipment. This is at its worst during the weeks when the WKPP are diving and around 300 bottles need filling!

Team Mudry as they are known are Doug’s staff : Paul, Bryce, Kevin and Andrew: All super fit, super enthusiastic and mostly Cave 2 with either Jarrod or David – they live to cave dive and most of them are to be found buried in a wet hole somewhere in cave country at every available opportunity. They also provide shallow water support for the big WKPP dives. Paul was sporting the remnants of two black eyes – I speculated he’d been caught exploring wet holes that didn’t belong to him and warmed to him immediately.

The EE Gas Station

Paul, Kevin and Bryce provided guiding for us on most of the days and proved to be great fun and worked tirelessly to enable us to get the most out of the week. I asked Paul to debrief us after one of the dives and provide some constructive criticism. The feedback he gave us was insightful and revealing and I told him I thought he would make a great GUE Cave Instructor. He replied that when you looked at the existing GUE Cave Instructors like Rhea and Messersmith – they are still absolutely at the top of the game even now despite being in their late 50’s. He described them as “life divers” and his respect and admiration was obvious. He said that at 24 he wanted to gain experience first but someday he hoped someday to follow in their footsteps. I was touched by the thoughtfulness of his reply and felt it vindicated my original judgement. The quality of GUE’s next generation of Cave Instructors is not in doubt in my opinion. In the meantime Kevin and Paul both teach Recreational diving for EE. Reckon you'd get a damn good open water course with these guys!

Which brings us on to Team Bifocal! So called with irreverent affection by Team Mudry because they have a collective age of about 786 and most of them have bifocal lenses in the bottom of their masks

These guys are the GUE Jedi Council: people like Mark Messersmith, John Rose, Bob Sherwood and the Team Bifocal “Poster Boy” himself: David Rhea: Many of them have been cave diving for longer than some of us have been alive. They still run rings round people half their age and provide the deep support for the WKPP. They look like they’ve been carved out of the limestone Karst itself – stand them all next to each other and you'd have the Mount Rushmore of cave diving.

Matty G & Osama

As I struggle to get through the flow into the Devils Ear at Ginnie Springs for the first time on the Wednesday – Mark Messersmith was coming out With Chris, Ed and Pieter who were all doing Cave 1. As I bounce around like a frog in a liquidiser chewing through gas in what is basically a 20’x3’ fire hydrant, he hovers motionless in the flow barely moving an inch. Several things became apparent about Team Bifocal from observing one of these DIR “Big Beasts” close at hand in their natural habitat: Firstly – they have evolved to the extent that they now breathe underwater without the use of scuba. The twinset, regs etc are there purely for decoration. Secondly communication underwater has been pared down from crude hand signals to just the occasional disdainful glance at a student and Jedi Mind Tricks. He looks me straight in the eye: “Difficult are the ways of the force; practice, often you must; pies less must you eat”

40 minutes later we resurface, Ginnie hands me my arse on a plate – not for the last time that week either.

Di had the Team Bifocal experience two weeks previously when she did Cave 1 with David Rhea. From her description it sounds like she had to exchange her very soul for a Cave 1 card. “The nicest thing he said to me on the whole course was when he bubbled my left post and I refused to shut it down because I was breathing it and he told me afterwards: Girl: that’s the least retarded thing you’ve done all week” I reply that he sounds like a complete hard arse: “Oh no – he’s a lovely man” More Jedi mind tricks...

The Headspring At Little River

I go diving with her for the first time in a year and she’s transformed from being a solid diver to having that GUE “Tech Magic” in the water. She shows me her Cave 1 card like it’s a nugget of pure gold. Its sits with plenty of other cards in her purse which will buy practically anything – but the one that buys nothing and can’t be bought at any price sits closest to her heart...

The Halcyon Factory Tour

Ginnie has bent me over and given me a good spanking again so we pack up and make our way over to the Halcyon factory for a tour organised by Jarrod’s sister: Corey. Corey is like Gareth Lock – she organises everyone with great humour and gets the job done while the boys are out playing! For the week we were there – she had arranged packed lunches, breakfast at EE, cool boxes a great diving itinerary, a two day trip to Merritt’s Millpond in the North, a BBQ one evening and countless other little nice refinements that really made it a memorable week, all very much appreciated.

Halcyon is based on a small industrial estate just on the edge of High Springs. Casey comes out to greet us and reminds me that I’m supposed to be going diving with him later that week. We’d chatted when he and JJ came over for the dive show the year before and he kindly offered back then. Part of me was hoping he’d forgotten, part of me couldn’t wait. I have about 10 cave dives to my name at this stage – so no pressure there then! We arrange to meet up on the Friday.

Di's Cave 1 Buddy Dima - Top Man

Casey hands over to the Production Manager: Steve, who has been with the company practically from the start, like many of the staff, and he shows us round. Casey accompanies us for the whole tour – but he got Steve to do the talking which was a nice touch and his pride in the company and their products was evident throughout.

Halcyon is a huge surprise. I expected it to be more of an assembly plant – but they make everything from scratch. The attention to detail and quality is superb. Wings are made with ballistic nylon bladders rather than urethane for greater strength and puncture resistance; they even make their own hoses. Each and every item: wings, hoses lights etc are all tested to several times beyond their working pressure before being considered “Halcyon Worthy” and dispatched off to retailers. The concept of “Halcyon Worthy” sounds cheesy and American to an English audience – but if you visit the factory – you’ll understand.

Turkey Vultures Hoping We Screw It Up At Jackson Blue

Steve explains that because they make everything in house – they can produce working prototypes within weeks and play around with ideas in a way that a lot of manufacturers would find difficult. I had previously thought of Halcyon as being slightly behind the curve when it comes to newer technologies like Li Ion – but the truth is they look carefully at all the new technologies as them become available but won’t implement them until they are 100% happy that they can get the quality and reliability consistent and right. It makes sense.

We finish the tour and Matt says he feels embarrassed about moaning about recent price increases now, not least because Corey Smith the Tech Services Manager has sorted out some issues with his 18w HID, including changing the bulb, all while we waited in about 10 seconds flat. In an attempt to carry the unified team thing through to the manufacturing – everyone at Halcyon is called Corey – quite how they tell each other apart heaven knows? It’s like turning up at a mafia funeral and shouting “Tony”

Joe Hesketh & Myself Kit Up For A Dive At Little River - It's 105 Degrees!

Di and I go night diving at Ginnie later in the week with Corey Bell: Halcyon’s Product Development Manager: Night diving is one of the lovely surprises with cave diving – clearly when you’re underground, whether it’s day or night makes no odds. Emerging back into the cavern zone and swimming across the Santa Fe river by twilight listening to the bullfrogs croaking and distant Alligators barking is a truly beautiful and surreal experience. Much like surfacing through the thin film of dumped aviation fuel at Wraysbury on a Wednesday evening and catching the faint aroma of the old chemical toilets. Corey had been rubbing himself all round the walls of Ginnie like a dog with an itch. When we get out I ask what he was doing and he explains that they are doing some abrasion testing on the Cordura outer covers of their wings. Just another example of the lengths they go to. He’ll be coming over to the UK in September to see how the company’s products work in an ocean environment both off the South Coast and up in Scapa Flow – I look forward to diving with him again then.

Corey Bell With Di At Little River

Merritts Millpond

On the Wednesday – we head north to Merritts Millpond, a dammed river formed by the Jackson Blue headspring. We are staying overnight at Hole In The Wall House and we have a boat to visit the various caves along the Millpond itself. A more idyllic setting you couldn’t hope to find and home to some of Florida’s finest cave dives: Jackson Blue, Hole In The Wall and Twin. For many people: Downstream Hole In The Wall is the best cave dive in the whole of Florida.

Hole In The Wall House At Merritts Millpond

The house sits on the edge of the millpond and has it’s own jetty for mooring up the boat. Complete with it’s own pool table and huge living room – it’s the perfect party house and we waste no time filling the fridge with beer and settling in.

The Headspring At Jackson Blue - Cave Entrance Is Right Under The Diving Board!

After an excellent meal in Marianna just up the road we return with fireworks and the banter and a beers go late into the night.

The Cypress Trees Looking Out Onto The Lake

Hole In The Wall and Jackson Blue are just mindblowing – the highlight of the trip – I can’t wait to return. The variety of the caves in Florida is really surprising - they all have their own distict "personalities"

The Boats Moored At The Jetty By The House

Friday arrives all too soon and I arrange to meet Casey at Ginnie late in the afternoon. He arrives in a truck that gives ours a run for its money accompanied by John Rose, one of the WKPP’s longest serving divers. John turns out to be what’s known around those parts as “A Southern Gentleman” and he instantly puts me at ease whilst chatting as he assembles his RB80. He’s there to square away a few issues prior to the following weekend’s WKPP push dive.

We kit up and I have a good rummage around McKinlay's kit to find that he basically dives stock Halcyon everything with almost no mods at all. We hit the water and some smartarse chucks me snorkel. I consider a BWRAF check but we settle for a bubble check instead and then descend through the Devil's Ear. I don’t really do nerves, but it takes me about double normal time to tie into the primary line and I’m diving like a Korean housewife. I settle into the dive and about 50 minutes later we return. I'm struck that regardless of experience: the DIR system just works from the bottom to the top – everything feels familiar and instinctive – just as it had when diving with so many other GUE trained divers that week. I can’t talk too much about that dive other than to say that it was the absolute highlight of my three year journey through DIR / GUE and it will stay with me for a long time. Anyone who things “Gillette is the best a man can get” hasn’t been diving with Casey McKinlay…

From The Left: John Rose, Me Looking After Casey's Snorkel, Casey McKinlay

We head back for dinner at High Springs and join some of the rest of our group at “The Great Outdoors”. David Rhea is holding court over in the corner, the ever present toothpick hanging out of the mouth. Di is fawning over him like a schoolgirl with a crush. He certainly fills a room. Think Johnny Cash with fins and a bit more gravitas – you get the picture. We sit down for dinner and the conversation turns to the age of George Irvine. Apparently he’s in his late fifties which I would never have guessed, but no one’s sure. I suggest cutting him in half and counting the rings. Jarrod and Casey give David a bit of friendly stick about being an old fart as well and he gives it right back to them with “extreme prejudice” as GI3 used to say. It feels like having dinner with the chimps back home. All sarcasm is a team resource.

What A Week

One of the best holidays we’ve ever had – everyone agreed. The diving, the fantastic social: meeting Chris, Ed and Pieter and seeing them pass Cave 1, Dima from Russia who was with Di on Cave 1 and had us in stitches all week, meeting Os for the first time. So many great people

Kevin On One Of The Boats

GUE has truly grown into the “Global” part of it’s name and one of the great pleasures of diving this way for me is meeting cool people from all over the world and going diving together with almost no planning or prior preparation needed. Even with complex dives – you’re all on the same page which leaves more time for having fun and the diving itself.

Huge thanks to Clare and Corey who put so much work in behind the scenes in order to make the trip run seamlessly and so successfully and to Jarrod and Casey who, in spite of a packed schedule – spent loads of time with us all week.

And finally to Doug and the guys who showed us that “Doing It Right” isn’t just an in water thing – see you all soon and thank you all

Badger passes Tech1

2008-05-13T21:41:00.002Z

I've just heard that, along with his teammates Moz and Neilh, James has passed Tech1 with Rich Walker. Now there is yet another person that can listen to GLOC explaining what deco he intends to do with disbelief. Good work, fella!

Why we wear our stages on the left

2008-04-03T08:49:00.004Z

Taken from an original post by Hassan on www.direxplorers.com. I thought this was an excellent article on the reasoning behind having multiple stages on the left hand side.

Our standard switching procedure includes the following steps: Signal to switch, cylinder is prepared, diver checks markings and depth, buddy checks cylinder markings and depth and gives ok, diver then switches, confirming switch to team. What this sequence entails is that any particular placement of cylinders plays absolutely no role in choosing which cylinder we switch to. Therefore any richie-righty lefty-leany or any other similar rules become irrelevant.

Now, on to our reasoning behind having cylinders on the left. First, let's take a quick look at some of our gear and think about how it all comes together:

[*]Our stage/deco cylinders are exclusively aluminium, not steel.
[*]On our right hip we carry the canister of our primary light.
[*]Our long hose is our primary hose, ie we are breathing from it. Hence it goes over our right shoulder, under the light canister on our right hip, diagonally up over our chest, around the neck to the mouth.
[*]Our primary light head is carried on the left hand when deployed, and clipped off on the right shoulder d-ring when stowed.
[*]Our stage/deco cylinders have a regulator fitted with a 1m hose (more on that in a tick)
[*]We have two shoulder D-rings, one on each side.

Now, to elaborate on the above list point by point:

Since we use exclusively aluminium stages, we can never be so off balance that it becomes a serious comfort issue. On our left side we clip a maximum of 2 cylinders, with any additional ones being attached to a "leash", which puts them more or less centrally positioned on top of our backside when full, or when empty floating gently out of the way. We know from experience that aluminium stages, even several, when used correctly do not make a diver unbalanced.

The canister light on the right hip is convenient, since it provides a comfortable way of holding the long hose in place, its weight provides some balance to our gear, and its position on the right, non-buckle side of the strap means it can be easily ditched in case of a bouyancy emergency. There really is no room for a D-ring, and even if we were to add one in some awkward way, a cylinder on the right side would probably cause damage to the canister or the cable coming out of it.

The way we route the long hose achieves several things: It is easy to quickly donate to our buddy in case of an OOG emergency, the hose is kept out of the way, the hose is unlikely to come loose when we don't want it to, and it won't get tangled or entrapped in other parts of our gear. A cylinder on the right side is incompatible with our long hose routing. The long hose would inevitably become trapped by the cylinder, making gas donation a very complicated maneuver.

The primary light must be easy to deploy and stow during the dive. There should be no entrapment of it, and we must be able to manage it while donating the long hose in a gas emergency. We can't have stage rigging getting in the way. When stowing or deploying the primary light we don't want our right d-ring to be cluttered.

The stages are equipped with a 1m hose so that we can wrap the hose around our neck just like the long hose. This fullfills two functions: The hose is snug against our body and so is unlikely to snag, and secondly in case of an OOG emergency we can donate the regulator from our mouth using exactly the same well-practiced method we would when breathing the long hose. To do this from the right would require longer hoses. Just what we don't need; different stage reg hose lengths for each side.

Now for the shoulder d-rings: The d-rings have limited real-estate on them, lets see what a fully rigged DIR diver has on each one: LEFT: 2x stage cylinder bolt-snaps, 1 x backup light bolt-snap, total:3. Right: 1 x backup light bolt-snap, 1 x spare double-ended snap (for primary light), 1 x primary light bolt-snap, and finally the primary regulator is clipped off here when we aren't using it. So that's a total of up to 4 items clipped to the right shoulder d-ring - do we really have space for more?

Now add the scooter into the equation....

Losing weight for fat middle aged bastards

2008-01-29T19:19:00.001Z

Team foxturd has decided to slim down. We're all taking slightly different approaches, but Howard, Wilbo, Gareth and I are all cutting down on the food, and increasing the excercises regimes.

For Howard, this means giving whichever filipino boy he's chasing a head start, to increase the distance he is running. Wilbo is telling his wife about make-believe dive trips during this year and then attempting to outrun her. GLOC and I have invested in the nike+ gadget, which is very smart by the way.

So, we're slowly but surely vanishing. I've lost 18lbs in three weeks using the "eat fuck all, excercise like a bastard" diet, which whilst not being particularly popular in the shops, certainly works. All you do is eat sensible food (and let's face we all know what's sensible) in small portions. And then you excercise. A lot. To put this in perspective I am running 4-5 times a week, 5 miles a time. Combine this with a drastically reduced calorie intake, and the result is inevitble. I'm going to die. At least, sometimes it feels that way.

Here's another trick for you. Take a rucksack and just go walking. If you lose 1 kilo in a week, stick a kilo in the rucksack and go walking. As the weight falls off you, the bag gets heavier. This helps becuase as you lose weight it becomes more and more difficult to lose weight as your calorie needs decrease (you dont have that belly to carry round).

Obviously, the approach we are taking is all slightly different depending on the state of our knees etc. I am introducing swimming into the equation next week, and GLOC is putting the hours in at the gym. Even Howard is a changed man.

We've all been a bit worried about the state of our fitness for a while, and with Tech2 coming up later int he year, it now seems time to do something about it.

So now I'm off for a run.

G

Unexplained DCS theory

2008-01-29T19:13:00.000Z

This one comes from Helen on YD. It's her theory about the cause behind unexplained cases of decompression sickness. I think it's genius.

" I reckon that bends are like a curse that swims around dive sites. One is formed when someone does something stupid, rapid ascents, missed deco etc. Sometimes they dont actually get any symptoms so their bend is still in the water, swimming around waiting for a victim. An innocent diver just happens to go through a patch of murky water and blam, you are bent"

GUE Cave 1 – The Journey To Heaven’s Gate

2008-01-28T16:32:00.000Z

For a long time I’ve had a bit of an obsession with an underwater cave in Mexico called Nohoch Na Chich. Until the late nineties it was the longest diveable cave system in the world with around 100km of surveyed passages. It is widely held to be the most beautiful cave dive in the world with a colossal number of Speleotherms (cave features like Stalactites and Stalagmites created by mineral rich dripping water) and a picture by the EKPP photographer and diver JP Bresser has been the desktop on my computer for as long as I can remember.

FROM THE LEFT: FRED DEVOS, JAMES "THE BADGER" SANDERSON, IAIN "CALL ME SHANIQUA DANGER" SMITH AND HOWARD "SHREK EXLEY" PAYNE

Now I find myself standing on the edge of Cenote Nohoch which marks the entrance to the main line into the system. Next to me is Fred Devos our Cave Instructor: one of the founders of the Ox Bel Ha Exploration Group who uncovered the mysteries of what now replaces Nohoch as the world’s largest underwater cave: Ox Bel Ha sits just a few miles down the road from Nohoch and has a colossal 170km of explored passages. A continuing, ten year labour of love for Fred and his colleagues at Zero Gravity – the GUE training centre in the Mayan Riviera, just south of Cancun

THE AMAZING JP BRESSER PHOTOGRAPH THAT STARTED IT ALL

All week we had been learning to cave dive with Fred, one of the sports leading explorers and Instructors and all week I’d been gently pestering him about diving Nohoch. I knew from speaking to other people who had been trained by Zero Gravity that although it is not a difficult dive – they normally do not take novice divers because the slightest buoyant moment will have your fins destroying tens of thousands of years of geology.

WELCOME TO MEXICO!

Each time I asked him during our five day Cave 1 course he offered a guarded “we’ll see”. At the end of the week we’d booked two days of guided diving with him on the Saturday and Sunday before we left in order to consolidate our skills and enjoy some more of the stunning diving this unique area has to offer.

CENOTE TAJ MAHAL

On the first day’s training on the way to pick up “Ochos Dobles” from the fill station James (who is possibly one of the dirtiest and funniest people I have ever met) insisted on breaking the ice with our new Instructor by describing in graphic detail a sexual act called “The Halmstad Fish Hook”. This pretty much set the tone for the week and the atmosphere remained dark and funny throughout.

Several trips to the fill station later – Fred told us that the past five long days had elicited three Cave 1 qualifications and we were all chuffed to bits. None of us had dived together before, we barely knew each other. "The Badger", although an experienced recreational Instructor with 1400 dives under his belt, had only passed GUE Fundamentals two months previously. It really was an interesting test of GUE’s philosophy that any DIR diver can dive with another on an appropriate dive with a minimum of preparation because we are all “on the same page”. By the end of the week we had formed a highly cohesive team which is the backbone of safe cave diving and we were taking the piss out of each other mercilessly on every possible occasion, which felt extremely familiar from the diving I’d been doing with the Chimps back home.

CENOTE EDEN

Clearly a major contributing factor to our success on the course had been our decision early in the week to acquire cave diving names. A brief check on the pioneers of the sport like Sheck Exley, Parker Turner, Lamar English, Bill Hogarth-Main and Jarrod Jablonski had made one thing quite clear: To have any success: you need a stupid name and preferably with the surname and first name reversed. Clearly the Scottish, slightly Presbytarian sounding "Iain Smith" wasn’t going to cut the mustard at all. So Shaniqua “Danger” Smith was born. The “Danger” was only added on about day three when Fred was discussing patterns in cave fatalities and pointed out that people with high risk lifestyles were twice as likely to die underwater caving than your average accountant. “Shaniqua” had both skydiving and deep technical diving as hobbies – danger was definitely "her" middle name. James and I insisted on calling Iain Shaniqua at every available opportunity, which she loathed as only someone with three first class honours degrees from Cambridge University can. Every dive he would surface to a chorus of “Shaniqua where you at girlfriend!” and scowl like mad. Being a large clumsy oaf: I became become “Shrek Exley”.

Discretion being the better part of valour we left James “The Badger” Sanderson well alone. We never dared ask what “The Badger” meant, but after the Halmstad Fish Hook incident this was probably very wise. It came as a relief that James was such a fine diver because I don’t think a career in children’s TV presenting is likely to materialise any time soon.

Once you realise the true importance of a name to a cave diver – so many other things become clear and fall into place: The massive chip on George Irvine’s shoulder was clearly down to name envy. Adding “The Third” as a suffix clearly hadn’t improved his mood any either. Years of internet slanging matches and small man syndrome could have been cured overnight by just changing George to something more befitting like “Beyonce” or “Laqueesha”. Clearly we had a lot to offer the sport, even with so little experience.

Fred had proved to be a revelation. Zero Gravity do not assign an Instructor prior to the course commencing. You simply turn up and are taught by either Fred, Danny Riordan or Chris Le Maillot. Either way you end up with one of the worlds leading cave divers with countless training certifications under their belt. They are amongst the very best at what they do and our experience proved that this unusual system works just fine.

FRED DEVOS

Fred’s easy going manner and unbelievable attention to detail had blown us all away. Each skill and procedure he had introduced to us throughout the week had been run through on dry land several times to gain familiarity. Line wrapped around trees had served to teach us the skills to handle cookies and arrows, lost diver, lost line drills, blind exits and out of gas scenarios plus countless other subtleties that were essential for the cave environment. After one such blind line drill, we finished and opened our eyes to find Fred chuckling as he exclaimed “we don’t want that in your undersuits now do we” as he stamped on a black scorpion that had been a few inches from our feet as we fumbled around the line. Suddenly walking around the cenote car parks casually in flip flops didn’t seem quite so attractive.

After each dive we received a debrief: half an hour of step by step analysis of our every action in the water. His situational awareness and memory for every tiny detail of the dive was truly extraordinary. Countless times throughout the week he had picked us up and coached us on minute details that we hadn’t spotted. Always positive, calm and constructive in his Jack Nicholson soundalike drawl – he constantly pushed us to accept nothing less than perfection. If DIR is “The Dark Side” we were in the reassuring hands of a Jedi master.

By the end of the five days our own situational awareness for navigation and the constantly changing status of the rest of team had increased beyond recognition. By day four we starting to function as a cohesive unit and handle and prioritise multiple failures without drama. Despite modest beginnings we started to gain confidence in the last two days and actually relax and enjoy the dives.

Cave Systems like Ponderosa and Taj Mahal which usually begin in a Cenote (essentially a giant shallow, water filled pot hole formed from a collapsed dry cave thousands of years ago) had been our playground and training environment all week. Some cenotes had as many as 5-6 caves beginning or terminating in their basins.

Mexican caves, unlike many in France and Florida, are of a type known as Vadose. Essentially their features and topography were, to a large extent, formed when they were still dry caves many thousands of years ago. Changes in climate such as the Ice Age around ten thousand years ago caused large changes in the level of the natural water table and the dry caves became flooded. The water then started to channel between weaker areas or fissures in the rock forming the now diveable passages between the various dry formed underwater chambers.

This unique process means that all of the caves are extremely shallow – normally between 10-15m and highly decorated with the features that were formed by dripping water prior to the change in the water level. No photographs can do this surreal environment justice – it really is a privilege to take a glimpse into this truly beautiful world.

The first day of our guided pleasure dives on the Saturday had been spent at Cenote Car Wash (so named because the locals used to use it for washing their cars!) We had dived both the upstream and downstream sections including “The Chamber Of The Ancients”. This was something completely different and our deepest dive of the week at 26m. We squeezed down through a narrow restriction into a large bowl shaped cave that had a firepit sitting in the bottom of it. The charred wood sitting in the fire looked like it had only been left yesterday and has been carbon dated to 14,000 BC. It was like stepping back in time, a glimpse into the world of prehistoric man that few people have ever seen.

CENOTE CARWASH

As we exited the chamber, we passed back through the halocline at around 12m, which must be one of the weirdest experiences in diving. Because the caves are relatively close to the sea, there is a point where the salt water meets the freshwater: that point being the halocline. The saltwater is obviously heavier and sits under the body of freshwater. The point where they meet is like a rippling layer of glass and as you descend or ascend through it you can hardly see through the shimmer and you feel a marked change in your buoyancy. On certain dives like the “River Run” at Cenote Eden, you can look up at the halocline from the saltwater below and it literally looks like surface of the water shimmering above you, even though you know that it’s nearly 40 feet below the true surface: a weird feeling indeed.

Other highlights of the week had included several dives at Cenote Taj Mahal. The massive passageways in the system dwarfed us as we floated through them weightless and silent in water so clear it felt like you were diving in air. We made it to an area known as “The DCS Dome” where the cave runs steeply uphill to a depth of only 3-4 metres and you enter the top of a chamber where you can poke your head above the water in a huge air pocket that sits underground yet devoid of any water. The silt in the cave was so fine that the importance GUE training pays to trim, buoyancy and finstrokes became all too apparent. As I turned to dive on reaching minimum gas, although the helicopter turn I used was fine, just the turbulence from the finstrokes was lifting the silt and reducing the perfect visibility. The consequences of a silt-out and losing your team and the guideline in a cave can be fatal – you really do have to be inch perfect.

Then all too soon the last of our eight days diving came and Fred told us with a big smile on his face “Lets go to Nohoch”. After a long drive up the dirt track leading from Highway 305 that runs all the way along the coast, we finally stood amongst the orange trees at the edge of the Cenote kitting up and checking our gas and gear. The excitement was tangible – I was like a small child. As we started the long walk across the rocks round the edge of the cenote and down the steep wooden steps – I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much trepidation before a dive. What if it didn’t match my expectations? We entered the water and the small tetra fish pecked at us aimlessly as we ran through our equipment matching, flow checks and dive plan.

LOOKING DOWN INTO CENOTE NOHOCH

We dropped down into the cavern zone and Fred led with me at No4: “In The Armchair”. Almost immediately as we found and tied our penetration reel into the mainline – I knew I would not be disappointed. Nohoch Na Chich is Mayan for “Giant Birdcage” and moments into the dive the huge quantity of white speleotherms that gave the cave its name started to come into view. Beautiful formations of almost pure white rock, giant pillars and clusters were almost everywhere you looked like the bars of a giant decorative birdcage. Tens of thousands of stalactites hung from the ceiling just inches from our fins as we progressed nervous trying to damage anything as went. After about 6 minutes I marked gas and time as we reached the small Cenote to the right of the mainline where Fred had explained that the BBC crews who had filmed “Planet Earth” had staged the generators to light their underwater filming.

ANDREW GEORGITSIS'S PHOTO OF HEAVEN'S GATE

The line turned to the left and started to drop a little in depth, so I knew from the briefing that we were moments from “Heavens Gate” the cave’s most famous and striking feature. And there it was in front of us. A huge vertical pillar to the right around 30 feet high and to the left an equally huge C shaped formation that formed a natural gate in the cave. Heavens Gate was no idle boast, we rested for a few moments and picked out the shape with our lightsabres in awe.

RETURNING INTO THE CAVERN ZONE FROM NOHOCH

120 minutes after we had started, our longest dive of the week by far, we finally surfaced and laughed at what we had just experienced. The finest dive of my life was never deeper than 8 metres and used barely over an Ali80 full of gas. We chatted and took a few photos and someone said “Well that’s ruined ocean diving forever” No-one was going to argue.

Pictures to come when I can sort the IT out!!

TFT expands

2008-01-24T18:04:00.000Z

like all pack animals, the chimps seek safety in numbers from predators. As such, we regularly provide aptitude tests to divers wishing to become part of a very sad group. I am delighted to say that someone has finally failed the aptitude test and is therefore fully qualified to join us.

James the Badger will be diving and training with us during this year. Welcome to the madhouse James.

James has recently completed and passed Cave1 in Mexico with our own Howard, and Howard came back and insisted he was just the sort of person we want in the team; solid diver in the water, certifiably insane out of the water. Seems to tick all the boxes.

We're Back on for Tech 2

2008-01-15T17:39:00.000Z

Team Foxturd has now restarted the challenge for training and it's back to Tech 2. Richard Lundgren has been booked and we will be doing the course from 1-5 September in NDAC.

Cave 1 is currently underway for Howard in Mexico with Zero Gravity & DIR Mexico; Garf and I are not now doing the course as the main reason for undertaking Cave 1 was because I had a chance to work out in France with my job but this has subsequently fallen through.

Trips planned for TFT this year include a trip to Narvik with Rich Walker and GLOC is looking at going to Scapa for a deep wreck week from the the 11-16 May on MV Valkyrie with Hazel and Helen. Hopefully the weather will be fine and I get to shoot some more pictures of the cracking wrecks inside and outside of the Flow.

GLOC does the Red Sea on MV Tala

2007-11-17T21:31:00.000Z

MV Tala is a dive boat with a difference, whilst she isn't at the top end of the luxury liveaboard market and that might put some people off, she is at the top when it comes to technical diving in the DIR style. She has a competent skilled crew (topside and dive guides) who let you get on with what you want to do - dive. Mixed gas diving is catered for effortlessly with discounts being applied to standard DIR mixes, doubles and stages are the rule rather than the exception, and they can cater for any diving from simple singles reef dives to multiple stages dives to depths in excess of 100m.

The trip that I have just come back from was organised through DIRx and involved 9 people from all over the UK and one diver from Belgium meeting up in Hurghada on the 9th November. Lots of unpacking and fettling ensued before we started an excellent week's diving. Diving started with a wakeup call at 05:45 and in the water for 06:30-07:00, the first of 4 dives per day. Wrecks that were covered included the Giannis-D, Carnatic, Marcus, Kimon-M, Rosalie Muller, Salem Express, Ulysses, El Mina and the Poseidonia, and reefs that were dived were too numerous to mention. In 6 days I manged 20 dives after missing out on 2 night dives as they were getting a little samey (being a wreck diver rather than a fish diver). A full trip report was written by Iain Smith and can be found here.

Here are some pictures from the trip and more can be seen on my website here

Cave 1 for the Chimps

2007-10-31T19:24:00.000Z

January 2008 will see 3 of the Chimps jetting off to Mexico to conduct some further training with Chris Le Maillot, Fred Devos and Danny Riordan at DIR-Mexico. Unfortunately due to a clash in dates Howard will finish his course just as GLOC and Garf arrive!! Garf and GLOC are watching with interest as to whether Howard can organise his way out there without the help of the team admin bitch - GLOC!!

Unfortunately due to monetary and time pressures, we have decided that 2008 is not the year to do Tech 2 as it would be much better to gain the additional skillset from Cave 1 and consolidate the Tech 1 skills that we have learned. It will also allow us to go to France and not get blown out in the caves there if the Summer of 2008 is anything like 2007!

Commitment to Training

2007-10-15T09:44:00.000Z

GLOC is in hog heaven. He is having to organise gas, logistics, accommodation, an instructor, flights, etc, etc, oh my. Howard is in negotiations for a bulk purchase of bananas. I am digging around at the bottom of my dive kit box looking for my control freak Hat. Training will commence over the winter, and then the chimps will attempt GUE Tech 2 next summer / Autumn. OOK OOK

The DIR Head to Toe Check

2007-10-15T09:41:00.000Z

The DIR Head to Toe Check

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The DIR Head to toe check is something that gets taught to you and drilled in to you in every training course. At the fundies level, it can seem overkill, as it takes a couple of minutes, and some of the items checked just seem ridiculous. At the Tech1 level and above, the reasons for the checks become more obvious, and indeed can be suitably demonstrated by the instructor failing the piece of kit if he/she sees you missing a piece of the check. You have already checked a great deal of this when actually putting the kit on, but this is a check witnessed by the whole team, when you are about to hit or go under the water. the purpose of the check is to ensure that everything required to get you and the team back out of the water safely is attached properly, and working properly, so that you don't find out when you need it that it is not there. Lots of divers do a predive check, but many people do many different versions of it. If you are diving with someone new, how do you know what they will check etc. We do this the same way within our team every time, because the time you don't is the time you miss something.

Anyway, someone asked me to document it for them, so I just thought it might make an interesting excercise to write and expand it into an article. . The check, as the name suggests, begins at the head and ends at the toes. The precise order seems to vary depending on who is doing it, but the principle of moving down the body is sound, as it prompts you to remember things you may otherwise have forgotten. The check is done either on the boat in the sea, or in the water inland. It's worth noting at this point, that this head to toe forms part of the GUE EDGE pre dive checks (winner of the dumbest name in world history award). Anyway, on we go.

The check is done as a team. Each person is checking their own kit, but looking to the others to confirm they have actually checked theirs, and in some cases, doing the check for them. Each team member will have a role assigned to them for the dive. This will dictate their position in the water - diver 1 will lead, and in a three man team diver 3 will bring up the rear. This team element also manifests itself during kitting up, and during the head to toe check. Although each person will check their own kit, Diver 1 will check diver 2 where necessary, diver 2 will check diver 3 and diver 3 will check diver 1. This way everyone understands from the start who they will be checking, and nobody gets missed. It's all about making the checks flow smoothly. It is the same ethos that we use when doing a gas switch. 1 switches first, then 2 then 3.

Hood
Is it on. An obvious one, but I'm sure I'm not the only diver to have seen people jump in without a hood and practically leap back out of the water onto the boat to get it.

Mask
Is it on, and ready (demisted). Also, check your team's masks - are they trapping the hood and likely to flood once you descend. 20M per minute is not the time to find out your mask is flooding as it just becomes a stress factor and ups the breathing rate, and yet we see it all the time - divers having to stop on the ascent to sort things out. Whilst this might not be a big deal to them, we have a constant descent rate because we do not include the descent as part of bottom time for deco calculations - so stopping to sort something out for two minutes at 35 metres can bugger things up.

Valves - Flow Check
Reach behind you and check that all your valves are in the appropriate position - fully open for us. I've been guilty of leaving the isolator closed in the dark and hopefully distant past, descending with 200 bar, and surfacing with 200 bar. Oops. If you have deco bottles or stages, check that the valves are are again in the appropriate position - for us this means charged and then switched off. finally, check the suit inflation bottle if you have one. Again 20M per minute down to 50M becomes a real pain the arse if your argon bottle is switched off. We also perform another flow check at the bottom of a shotline in case anyone has rolled off a post against the line on the way down.

Regulators
Breathe Both regaulators in the water, so dip your head, breathe from the primary, do a switch to the necklaced reg and check it breathes. If your 2nd stages diaphram has become unseated, the reg will breathe lovely on the surface, and breathe water underwater. Not nice. Best to find out now than when you have to dinate gas to someone and find you have nothing left to breathe off.

Torch
Is your primary torch now deployed and in your head. Is it switched on and working. Are your backup torches in position. If not, get out of the water and sort it out. Trust me on this one

Modified S Drill
Take the second stage out of your mouth and hold it in your hand. Dip your head and undo the long hose. Undo it from the canister light and check it is free all the way back to the first stage. Hold it up in the air so your team mates can see it - they are the interested ones because they are the ones You are checking to make sure you can donate gas freely at any point, a critical piece of the configuration, yet it does get missed. We missed this once on Tech1 and spent a portion of the dive having to do mask to mask gas donations because the hoses were becoming trapped. Restow the hose carefully when you have finished. I was coaching a diver a few weeks ago and saw the same thing when he was kitting up and the inevitable out of gas I threw at him went predictably pie-shaped. I suspect he won't do it again.

Bubble check.
Whilst we're looking at the valves, let's check them for bubbles. Turn around onto your back and let your teammates look at your valves / manifold. Then let them check your suit inflation bottle and hoses, inflation valves, SPGs, deco bottles, stages. Diver 1 checks diver 2, diver 2 checks diver 3, diver 3 checks diver 1. This is a theme that goes all the way through DIR, each person has a role, and each person knows who they should be keeping an eye on / checking, so it happens smoothly and in an understood order. This takes practice.

Suit Dump Valve
Is it in the appropriate position. I forgot this on one of my fundies dives, leaving it mostly closed with air in the suit. It was a very uncomfortable dive, and the ascent was ludicrously messy as I now had a large bubble of gas to manage on the way up. Most divers I know just open it and leave it there, but the important thing is that you check it and it is in the position you want it to be in.

Suit Inflate Valve
Is the hose connected properly, can it be pulled off. Does it iactually inflate the suit properly without water ingressing. Suit squeeze - not nice

Wing Inflate
Is the hose connected properly or entangled. Can the low pressure hose be pulled off. Does the wing inflate.

Wing Dumps
Does the corrugated hose dump work effectively. Does the kidney dump work effectively. I missed this one on a Tech1 dive and found to my horror on the ascent that the string was not there. Kerslake denied cutting it, but who knows. You are checking to make sure you can actually reach it - you haven't got anything in the way, and that it functions correctly

Instruments
Have you remembered to put on the instruments on your arms? hold your arms up and let your team see - they might be counting on you to call the deco. GLOC's deco is shaky at the best of times, but when we arrived at 52 metres on the moldavia with nothing on his arms and showed us...well, you can imagine how the conversation went on the boat. An easy one to forget.

Weight system
How many times have you seen people jump in without weights. Easy at the start of the dive, especially in a twinset, but I bet its a sickening feeling realising as that twinset gets lighter when you realise that "something" that you were sure you had forgotten is what would have kept you from hitting the surface early.

Knife
Can you reach it, with both hands. Is it on the appropriate place on yoru harness so that your team mates know where to get it if they need it.

Pockets
We tell each other at this point what we are carrying in our pockets. This is pretty easy for us, as we are all carrying the same things, in the same pockets, but this is when someone goes "bugger, I forgot my SMB" when they tap their pockets to make sure they are appropriately full. This is also the time for people to deal with anything poking out of pockets for a team mate and tidy it away.

Deco Bottles
If you have clipped off your deco bottles to your hip d ring, have a team mate check to make sure that your main SPG coming off your left post is not clipped off THROUGH one of the hoses, making deployment of the deco regulator a job of either hvaing to thred it through, or removing the spg and then reattaching it. This was my biggest one on Tech1, kept doing this, and its amazing how much stress it adds when you can't pull the hose free. Whilst we are looking at each other's deco bottles, are the second stages stowed neatly away on all the bottles, and can we read the MOd markings clearly on the bottle for when we authorise a gas switch later in the dive.

Fins
Are we wearing them today GLOC?

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 7

2007-09-14T16:09:00.003Z

Dive 11. The James Barrie. 43 Metres. Bottom Gas 20/20. Decompression Gases 50% and 100%
Dive 12. The Brummer. 36 Metres. Bottom Gas 32%. Decompression Gas 100%

The morning got off to a ropy start when we ran out of coffee. David immediately experienced a fit from too low a partial pressure of caffeine in his blood system. Luckily, we were able to nab some from another location. Once everyone had calmed down, Gareth and Wilbo sat down to assist David with his planning. This was proving something of a consternation, as David's flavour of dive planning consists of "Point me in the general direction and push me off the wreck, we'll talk about the deco later". Once all the planning was done, Diane announced that she had finally figured out what Garf stands for. This intrigued me as I wasn't aware that it stood for anything. Apparently it stands for Grumpy and Really Fucked-off.

On to the dive. We kitted up and jumped in. I was diving with Howard and Wilbo but ascending alone, as we had struggled to obtain enough Helium and Oxygen the night before, so were all diving unique bizarre-o-mixes. To my delight, I could see the wreck at 20 metres, meaning there was at least 15 metres of vertical viz. Once on the wreck, I was amazed to see that the viz was limited by the ambient light, rather than particulate in the water.

The James Barrie was a 666 Icelandic Steam Trawler that foundered in Hoxa sound in 1969 following running aground in the Pentland Firth on her way to Hull. She now lies on her side in 43 metres of water, and makes for a stunning wreck as the water flooding into Scapa Flow flushes the area clear of silt. It also seems to stop some of the marine life from forming on the wreck, so the remains are remarkably well preserved.

If the Tabarka was the most atmospheric dive of the week, the James Barrie was the most fun. It's only a small wreck, and with 12 divers on it, including a photographer and three scooters, it was just a riot. Top moment was Howard Payne, doing a barrel roll, and messing it up, ending up on his back pinned to the seabed, with half a dozen divers laughing their heads off at him in the stunning viz. Scootering through the holds was amazing, as thy are well open, and, a first for me, the wreck was well lit with ambient light. I managed to get myself tied up in monofilament, but the guys told me to stop and unwrapped me with no dramas. It was just stunning, and everyone had a great time. All too soon, the time came to leave the wreck. Because I was on weird-o-mix, I had decided to take two deco bottles with me, so I ascended next to Gareth, Howard and Wilbo, so that they could watch me through the gas switches at 21 metres and 6 metres. This all went through with no issues, and the lads started playing around at 6 metres to relieve the boredom.

During the Surface Interval, the skipper tied up at Lyness, the Naval base for both WW1 and WW2. Being a military history buff, I always find this place amazing, incredibly atmospheric. The place is eerily quiet and deserted, but you can still hear echoes of the life the large base had during two world wars. Abandoned and rotting military gear lies around all over the place, and there is a small museum to be explored. At the museum is an interesting exhibition on the Royal Oak, a complex and interesting story in its own right, but enough in this context to say it brought the realities of Scapa Flow back to me.

After a couple of hours of SI and a hearty breakfast, we roped off to head back into the flow to dive the Brummer. Howard and Wilbo had decided to bin the final dive, as they had had enough, and wanted to get warmed up and packed. This left Gareth and I to do the final dive. The first moment of drama happened when Diane jumped in first, and experienced a massive suit flood. She waved frantically, and the boat came about for us to haul her out of the water. The second bit of drama happened when Gareth's twin set leaped off the shelving, shearing off the right post cleanly. Ooops. Luckily, it was just a two minute job to get Gareth out of his own kit, and into Wilbo's. And so off we jumped into the water to dive the Brummer. This is another small cruiser, and I remember it being fairly broken up. It appears that it has degraded even further in the last year. Although there are still many fantastic swim throughs, much of the plating is finely balanced on girders that look really shaky. We were lining into the wreck, and I decided that this was not the wreck to push too far, so we turned it and had a gentle 40 minute bimble, in and out of the wreck. There are still some stunning sights, with 5.9 inch guns a plenty, huge ventilator grills and winches on display. The wreck is covered in life, and is a really peaceful dive. All too soon it was time to leave the wreck. We were carrying Oxygen, so a relatively fast ascent was done up to 6 metres for the gas switch, and time to contemplate the week's diving.

Back on the boat, most people had begun packing away their kit, so Gareth and I dekitted and packed away our stuff as well. Once we had packed up the containers, we headed down the flattie bar for a few jars, and then off to the Royal Hotel for a meal. The group presented me with a brass replica of a sign for the officer's mess on the Markgraf, which came as a complete and very pleasant surprise, and then we all called it a night.

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 6

2007-09-14T16:09:00.001Z

Dive 9. SMS Markgraf. 42 Metres. 45 Minutes Bottom Time. 30 Minutes Decompression Time. 21/35 and 50%
Dive 10. SMS Karlsruhe. 25 Metres. 40 Minutes Bottom Time. 8 Minutes Decompression Time. 32% and Oxygen

The visibility on the Markgraf had dropped to about 5 metres, so we took the descent carefully. Gareth led the dive, and located the hole we were after almost immediately. However, Howard felt uncomfortable with the dive and called it immediately. As it was just a min deco ascent, we let him ascend on his own, and Gareth and I, as we felt ok, decided to continue with the dive. I tied off primary and secondary ties on the outside of the hole, and we made our way into the wreck. We past the point we had gone to the other day, and turned right deeper into the wreck. It opened up into a fairly large compartment, with several entrances, so we continued tying off and made our way out of the initial entrance and deeper into the wreck. We were now swimming parrallel to the keel of the wreck, and perhaps to decks in. Passing a hatch, we emerged into a corridor which went on for perhaps ten metres before coming to an area covered in cables and broken steel. It had taken us about ten minutes to reach this point, and although we were well within the rule of thirds we had set out when making the primary tie-off, I decided enough was enough and I turned the dive. Gareth collected the tie offs for me as he swam ahead and I reeled back. We exited the wreck three minutes later and stowed away the reel with no dramas. I felt at this point the wreck no longer held any fear for me, and I had really enjoyed penetrating it, seeing areas I had not seen before. It also gave me a healthy respect for the escape we made last year - turning the wrong way would obviously had been fatal.

Outside the wreck, we swam the small distance to the bows, at which point Gareth indicated he wanted to take a couple of shots with his camera. I did the posing thing over the bows whilst he took the pictures, but these did not come out well. We decided to do a swimming ascent, so swim very slowly up the keel of the wreck, which took us from 43 metres all the way to 24 metres, giving you a real image of the scale of these battleships. At 24 metres, we called the dive, and ascended just three metres above the wreck to switch gas to 50% and shoot the bag. Talk about an easy ascent. The deco was uneventful, and back on the surface, we could see Howard on the Invincible keeping an eye out for us, so all was well. Everyone seemed to enjoy their dive, although Mary had one surreal moment when, whilst swimming INSIDE the Markgraf, she came across a green Morphy Richards Hoover. Complete with plug. Despite the jokes about deep air that were made all day she insists it was there, next to an open porthole! Cue plenty of jokes about the cleaner leaving the window open when Hoovering, thus bringing about the demise of the high seas fleet.

Back on the boat for a hearty breakfast, and Ian was having problems with the compressor. He decided to head back into Stromness where a mechanic was waiting for him. We were on tenterhooks as to whether there would be further diving for the day, but the compressor was duly fixed and Ian steamed back out to the Karlsruhe. This is a much shallower wreck, a light cruiser well broken up. I had enjoyed it was one of my favourite dives of 2005, and was looking forward to seeing it again. The Karlsruhe was another light cruiser, slightly smaller than the Dresden and Koln, and now lying shallower than the other cruisers in about 25 metres of water. This makes for a lighter dive, and is perfect for a combination of 32% and Oxygen for a really long dive.

Once again, the teams had been moved about, to give everyone experience of diving with one another. I was diving with Howard, and Gareth was diving with Wilbo. Gareth and Wilbo were going to take the scooters in and do circuits of the wreck whilst Howard and I located a suitable entrance and did the usual ferreting. Howard excelled himself, finding a couple of great entrances, that we dutifully explored, although we did not go deep into the wreck as I decided it was a little too broken up and unstable. It definitely seemed to have flattened in the last couple of years since I had first visited, which was very sad. There were several sprung plates that were whole the last time, and the bows had a distinct sag to them which were absent in 2005. This is a real shame. These fantastic wrecks will not be there for ever, and it will be a sad day indeed when they lose their distinctive shapes and start to become flattened piles of plates. Guess that's a while away yet, but it is sad to see it happening.

Gareth and Wilbo managed about 6 circuits of the wreck, having a great time on the scooters, before stowing the scooters and doing their ascent. Howard and I had a slightly different story. Howard's p valve failed, causing a massive suit flood and resulting in him calling the dive immediately. We began an immediate ascent and Howard boogied up to the shallows a little faster than me, in order to get into warmer water. As we were decoing on Oxygen anyway and only had a few minutes’ stops, this was no real drama, but I could see his hands shaking on the ascent, and we if the deco had been any longer we would have cut it short in order to get him to the surface. Back on the surface he practically leapt out of his dry suit and into some dry clothes, and much humour was derived from the cause of the failure :)

Everyone else surfaced with no issues, and everyone had enjoyed themselves. The visibility had dropped to about 5 metres, but it was fairly light in the shallows, a complete contrast to the dark, moody wreck of the Markgraf.

We had a fairly quiet evening, with the final day's diving ahead of us. There was no helium left on the boat, but luckily Just about everyone had a fill left, so we were good to go for the James Barrie. Despite Roy and Mark trying to talk me into deep-airing the Barrie as they had also enjoyed how wasted I became on it, I had decided to do it on mix so I could use ratio deco, and also because I was interested in seeing the wreck with a clear head.

There was a sneaky helium rustling run organised this evening. As the skipper had told us he had run out of Helium, Gareth threw on a twin set and walked over to the MV Valkyrie, where Hazel give him a fill. Sneaking back, he was lumbered by a non-plussed skipper who groaned that he could have done the fill for him as he had 80 bar remaining in one of the J's. In Gareth's defence, the entire boat did hear the skipper say "That's it, no more helium" earlier in the day. Hey ho.

With the plans and teams all organised for the morning, the mixes checked and kit assembled, one half of TFT headed down the pub, whilst the other had an early night. hic.

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 5

2007-09-14T16:08:00.001Z

[b]Day 4[/b]
Dive 7: SMS Koenig. 39 Metres. 38 minutes Bottom Time. 24 Minutes Deco Time. 21/35 and 50%
Dive 8: Koln. 36 Metres. 45 Minutes Bottom Time. 15 Minutes Deco Time. 32% and Oxygen

The Koenig is the name vessel of her type. At 580 feet long, with 14 inch plating and displacing over 25 thousand tonnes, these battleships were truly monsters of their time. They were capable of in excess of 20 knots, and carried 10 12 inch guns to impose their will. There are three of these monsters resting at the bottom of Scapa Flow. The Koenig seems to be the least popular of the three, although it rates as one of my favourite wrecks. Today was to be a team Foxturd dive, with Gareth, Howard and I diving together, Wilbo with Roy and Mary and David Soloed. We dived in and descended to 40 metres. The visibility had dropped to approximately 5 metres. The plan for this dive was to penetrate the wreck. We all took reels with us, and searched for a suitable hole. At about 35 metres, we located a blast hole into the wreck, through which we see a variety of passageways and hatches leading further into the wreck. This was precisely the sort of thing we were looking for, so we did a flow check and calculated appropriate gas restrictions before I tied off a primary and secondary tie and started lining into the wreck. We swam for about 15 minutes, tying off wherever possible, and gradually made our way further and further into the wreck. The murky viz became clearer as we reached part of the wreck that were obviously less frequently visited, although the bottom of the corridor we were in was covered in a deep layer of rust that had fallen down and settled from the levels above. All too soon, we reached our turn pressure, and I called the dive. We turned around and began to collect the tie-offs, making our way out of the wreck. This was putting the Tech1 stuff into real practice, and we all loved it :)

Back outside the wreck, we tidied up the reel and swam slowly along the wreck, past casement gun after casement gun. There were several large blast holes leading into the wreck that looked very tempting, and everything was covered with a patina of sea life, but we did not have the gas to linger too long. Having racked up about 45 minutes on the wreck, we drifted slowly upwards along the hull until we were swimming about on the top of the wreck. We called the dive and began the 25 minutes of deco I was calling. Howard whinged about the amount of deco because his magic machine told him the average depth was shallower than I had estimated it. However, I told him to quite whinging and put up with it until it was his turn to call the deco :). The deco was uneventful, and we hit the surface on schedule. Back on the boat for surface, and a hearty breakfast, and a surface interval resting off Lyness before going in for the second dive of the day, the Koln.

The Koln is s very different story to the Koenig. It is one of the smaller cruisers, although well equipped for her time. She was bristling with guns and capable of laying mines. She had thick plating for her size, and was capable of an amazing 29 knots. Unfortunately, she is now fairly well broken up, so there are plenty of opportunities for swim throughs and wreck penetration if conditions allow. The teams had been rearranged so that Howard and I were diving together. Now this is always a little dangerous. If you consider me to be the "middle" member of team Foxturd in terms of caution, Gareth is the angel on my left shoulder, and Howard is the anti-Christ on my right shoulder. When all three of us are diving together, there seems to be a natural balance between caution and adventure. Remove Gareth from the equation and it all goes horribly wrong. All of a sudden the little evil whispers in my ear from Howard seem very tempting, and things can get a little crazy.

Sooooo, Howard and I jumped din together with the intention of spending the entire dive inside the wreck. With scooters. What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, nothing. We had a stunning dive, and all the lining in was done according to Mr Kerslake's beasting, slowly and carefully, with the line tight and secure. We located an appropriate hole and secured the scooters outside the wreck. We then lined in for maybe 5 minutes before we located a hatchway that led deeper in the wreck. We were placing tie-offs every few metres, but the visibility warranted it. Lining in like this is a slow process, but we lined in for maybe 15 minutes before turning around and coming out again. We went further into any wreck than I have been before, and it was amazing to see parts of the wreck that have not seen daylight for 90 years. Deeper inside the wreck, things become a little more preserved, and ladders and companionways are more obviously recognisable. There is more rust and sediment, as it is not disturbed, and you have to be careful as a poor fin stroke can turn 5 metres of visibility into 0. We had a fantastic time, and I could hear Howard's calm slow breathing behind me, and see his torch signals in my line of sight, so everything was well with the world. The way out was much faster, with Howard pulling off the tie -ins for me and keeping the line tight as I reeled in the line as fast as possible. Back outside the wreck and Howard and I were laughing our heads off with the fun of it. We stowed the reel and got back on the scooters.

We scootered around a complete circuit of the wreck in a few minutes, passing all the other divers on the boat. We then scootered up to the top of the wreck. Scootering over the top of the hull, we could see some large holes that looked incredibly tempting, but I just did not have the gas to think about it. I called minimum gas and we ascended to do 10 minutes of O2 deco before heading for the surface. Probably the best dive of the week for me, I was smiling all the way through.

Tomorrow was to be another penetration dive, one I was really excited about. Having located, on Monday, the hole in the Markgraf I swam into last year, the three of us were going to swim directly to that hole and penetrate the wreck, to see how far it goes......

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 4

2007-09-14T16:07:00.003Z

[b]Day 3[/b]

Dive 5: Freesia. 40 Metres. 38 minutes Bottom Time. 40 Minutes Deco Time. 21/35 and 50%
Dive 6: Hessonite. 40 metres 20 Minutes Bottom Time. 20 Minutes Deco Time. 21/10 and Oxygen

Tuesday was our day for diving outside the flow. We wanted to explore some lesser known wrecks, and experience the visibility that the waters are famous for. The plan was to dive the Freesia, a little known wreck in approximately 40 metres of water. It was originally a 40 metre long trawler, sunk in 1922.

Now, this was a little way outside the flow and frankly, the weather was blowing its nadgers off. I guess the words "Natural protected harbour" didn't really register with us when we said to the skipper "Yeah we're happy to go out". Unfortunately, a later chat with the skipper revealed that he would go out even if a flaming horseman was riding next to the boat screaming" Doomed, you're all doomed" - the invincible will handle far more of a rough seas and the divers will usually bottle it before the boat has any issues. So, off for tha 3 hour steam we went, with the boat rocking and rolling. Remarkably few people were ill, but there were definitely a few people, including myself, who were feeling sub-optimal. One interesting point for me is that we passed right next to the Kitchener memorial, the memorial for the world war one general famous for the "England needs you!" posters, who died when the HMS hampshire he was on in the area struck a mine and sank in 68 metres of water. She is a protected wreck so diving is a no-no, but the history is fascinating, and it seems you can go nowhere in Orkney without an amazing story revealing itself

After a long three hours, I handed over my tech1 card to a disapproving GLOC, grabbed an X-Scooter and jumped in to solo it. It approximately 15 metres I could see the bottom clearly 25 metres below me. At the bottom of the shot line the viz was a good 25-30 metres, the water was blue rather than green, and the sands were white. I can't imagine anything better abroad. I fired up the X-Scooter and began to explore the wreck. It was fairly flat, but it was stunning to be able to see an entire wreck from one position, select where you want to go, fire up the scooter, and just be there. I was having a great laugh, although the other divers on the boat were having a more difficult time, as there was no real slack, and a very noticeable surge at 40 metres. Mary and Roy discovered the telegraph still on the wreck, but we were not equipped to lift it so moved on. There were big brass flanges lying around, enormous boilers, and plates lying on their side. Lots of life, with dead men's fingers, a few congers and lobbies, and a couple of edible crab. There was also a bent prop shaft, with the single blade of a propeller remaining. There were also some small pieces of pottery lying around.

I racked up 30 minutes on the bottom at about 39 metres, which gave me 20 minutes to do. As Gareth and Wilbo had dropped in about the same time as me, I scootered over to them, stowed the scooters, and began the ascent. Deep stops at 27 and 24 metres were followed by a gas switch at 21 metres. I also fired a bag up from 20 minutes of uneventful deco before all three of us broke the surface at the same time. Howard and David had managed to miss the wreck despite having scooters to move them around, and had done a minimum gas ascent 15 minutes earlier, so were available to help everyone get back on the boat.

Everyone was amazed by the light and the visibility, but everyone was also a little tired when they got back own the boat - apart from me. Lesson of the day was that in good visibility, a scooter is definitely a valuable and useful tool. In poor visibility, they are just a waste of time. However, when you can see for a distance on the wreck, and use the scooter as a tool to get you to a point you have already identified, they are superb. They also greatly reduce the working level when you are diving outside slack. I can see the attraction, but I just don't do enough diving in good visibility to warrant getting one.

On to the second dive.....

The second dive was a known wreck in 30-40 metres of water, which had never been located. The wreck was the Hessonite, a fishing trawler sank 80 years ago believed to be in that area, but the precise site of the wreck has never been located. We were happy to do a scenic dive, with the possibility of diving a new wreck. The teams were re-arranged for the second dive, as Gareth and Wilbo wanted to use the scooters. This left Howard and I to dive together. Howard was feeling a little tired after the first dive, so we were going to do excess amounts of O2 deco to clean him up a little at the end of the dive. I got into position at the exit, with Howard just behind me. Unfortunately, he misinterpreted a signal from the skipper and we jumped in for 20 minutes on HMS seabed. Sigh. We descended quickly, again in absolutely stunning visibility. At 35 metres of depth, with a good 6-7 metres below us clearly visible to the seabed, I levelled out - I was breathing 32% and the mix was getting a little hot for going any deeper. Howard levelled out next to me and we had about 20 minutes of drifting over a fairly bland sea. This was completely excess for the type for the dive we did, but it gave Howard some O2 time to liven him up, and I always enjoy O2 deco as it makes me feel all nice :)

Back on the surface we were first up, and in the end we were the lucky ones. All the divers who had been dropped in the right location were swept close the cliffs in quite a swell, and Invincible struggled to get close enough to them to pick them up without them swimming out a little. This meant everyone was pretty wasted by the time they were picked up, with us on the verge of jumping in and towing them out from the cliffs with the scooters. In the end everyone was safely picked up, and to our delight Fiona had cooked up a storm for us to eat. I managed to munch my way through a huge plate of food, and then, as Invincible started the 3 hour steam through a raging sea back to the flow, I said goodnight to everyone, crashed into my pit, and slept like a baby. I woke up three hours later when Ian turned the engine off :)

Plan for the next day was two deco dives, the Koenig and the Koln, another two cracking wrecks. The obligatory fettling began.....

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 3

2007-09-14T16:07:00.001Z

[b]Day 2[/b]

Dive 3: SMS Markgraf. 44 Metres. 44 minutes Bottom Time. 45 Minutes Deco Time. 18/45 and 50%
Dive 4: Tabarka. 15 metres, 40 Minutes Bottom Time. 5 Minutes Deco Time. 21/10

We gassed up with 18/45 and 50% for the Markgraf Dive. Wilbo was feeling a little off colour this morning, so decided not to do the Markgraf, but Dave, Gareth, Howard and I were good to go. I kept pretty much to myself whilst getting ready, as I wasn't really in the mood for any banter, just wanting to get the wreck out of the way. I was defintiely a little tense, but did not feel unduly stressed or worked out, so decided to go ahead with the dive. We jumped in and rocketed down the shot line at 20M per minute, forming up as a four when everyone had arrived. We checked gas and time, and then decided over the hull to the seabed. We swam along the wreck, which was in good visibility but very dark, until we reached the stern, with the massive rudder still in place and very impressive. I wanted to find the hole I had swam into the previous year, which was up at the bows at the opposite side of the wreck, so we got into line and boogied along the entire length of the wreck, going through some really cool swim -throughs on the way and passing other dives, including Roy and Mary, who whose lights could be seen deep inside the wreck. They were obviously enjoying themselves :)

Reaching the bows, we stopped for a few minutes whilst Gareth took some great pictures, and the bows were a great sight disappearing into the gloom. The bows on the Markgraf are probably the best preserved of the three battleships at scapa. We lingered for only a few minutes, as I was really keen to find the hole. And find it we did. We swam along the side of the wreck and after about 2 minutes I saw a massive opening. I signalled to Dave to hold position whilst I investigated. There was an overlap of plates, so you could swim "along" the wreck, but actually just inside it, for nearly 7-8 metres, before the hole went black and became a solid wall. Just before the end of this passageway, there was an opening that led into the wreck which just opened into a massive space. I could see immediately that I had been here fore. The hole "in" must have been where I managed to swim deeper into the wreck in my panic to get out. Of course, in decent visibility, it was all too obvious how JW and I had done what we did - anyone could have. I wanted to investigate the deeper hole further, but decided that today was not the day for lining into this hole, as I had discussed this in advance with the team, and we were nearing the planned end of the bottom time. I had satisfied myself that I had put my demons to rest and the wreck no longer held any nervousness for me, so I put this down as a great dive. The plan would be to come back later in the week at which point I would line into this hole and investigate it, as on trimix it looked really interesting rather than frightening!.

When I came out of the hole and greeted the team, we were a minute or so away from calling the dive anyway, so I thumbed it. We broke into two teams of 2, with GLOC calculating the deco for one team and me running the numbers for the other team. There was a smooth ascent to 21, at which point a bag went up from either team and then we began the 30 minutes of deco. We hit the surface, at which point Howard announced he wasn't surprised people get lost in there, as it was bloody massive and dark. I went great. I had faced my demons, and the Markgraf had turned from something I had been somewhat apprehensive of, into one of my favourite wreck dives. I couldn't wait to go back later in the week.

In addition to TFT, everyone on the boat had a successful dive. Roy and Mary had spent much of their time actually inside the Markgraf, and enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Once everyone was back safely on board, we steamed off towards the Tabarka, as the wind, as promised by the skipper, had indeed died down, and conditions were improving. We did make one change to the planned week, with a decision to dive outside the flow for just one day. With the weather being so changeable, we didn't fancy risking two days being blown out, so agreed with the skipper to dive the Freesia and Tommeline, at 40 and 30 metres respectively.

The plan for the afternoon was the Tabarka.

The Tabarka was a 2624 ton steamer sunk in Burra sound as a block ship. Today, all the planking has rotten away, but the structure of the ship remains - making for a fascinating dive. Added to the open structure, the area is reknowned for it's good visibility as the flow washes the wreck through and keeps the area mercifully free of silt. This is a stunning wreck in good viz. Last year we were unfortunately forced to dive it in almost nil visibility, which removed much of the grandeur of this amazing swim through, so we really had no idea what to expect this time. This is a negative entry dive as you don't have time to mince about the surface unless you fancy diving in the shipping lanes. Or the Atlantic Ocean. So it's suck the air out of you wing, deflate your suit, and then jump in as a 12. Then get down as fast as you can to the wreck before the current takes you past it and you slam into the Doyle like wile. e. coyote. This time, when we jumped in, we could see the wreck from the surface 13 metres below us. niceeeeee. When we got down to the wreck, I immediately found an opening, and then barrelled into the wreck to get out of the current. The rest of Team Clone followed inside and we then separated into a team of two and a team of three and began exploring the wreck. The visibility was about 20-25 metres on the horizontal, and the wreck was as stunning as usual. It was a little diver soup at the beginning, but soon thinned out as people found holes to explore. I managed to weasel myself into the propeller shaft and swam along it, which was great fun. There was one part I struggled to get through, until Dave came up behind me and basically shoved me into the hole. For those that have not dived the Tabarka, this has to be one of the best wrecks in the UK. It is essentially one massive swim through, where you can see sunlight filtering through the ribs of the wreck, enormous boilers and engine room with easy access. It's basically wreck penetration for dummies, as everything is well open and accessible. It's tremendous fun, and always a highlight of a week in scapa.

Everyone had a great time, and after about 30 minutes of slack things started to pick up so we canned it. I bagged up for Dave and I and we did a nice slow ascent, covering a massive amount of ground in the ever increasing pace of the current. You could see everyone had had a great time by the smiles on the boat when everyone was dekitting. A very successful day. The next day, we were due to go out of the flow, so after a fairly pleasant meal unfortunately served by the dimmest and least experienced waitress in the universe, we decided to call it a night and head back to the boat. Howard surprised me with a cigar and malt whisky to celebrate our diving the Markgraf, which was very civilised, and then we analysed the gases and assembled out kit before calling it s night.

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 2

2007-09-14T16:05:00.001Z

[b]Day 1[/b]
Dive 1: Kronprinz WIlhelm. 36 Metres. 45 minutes Bottom Time. 30 Minutes Deco Time. 18/45 and 50%
Dive 2: F2 and Barge and Bottle Run. 40 Minutes Bottom Time. 5 Minutes Deco Time. 21/10 and Stage of 32%

As usual, I was up and about at 0530, never been one for sleeping in. I went outside to see what the weather was doing at 6am and got quite a surprise. In most of the UK, we fail to recognise how lucky we are with the weather. It can be "a bit rainy", "a little overcast", or in extreme cases, "not very pleasant". In Orkney, when you open the door in the morning, the weather kicks you in the balls and headbuts you as you fall over. It then mocks you as you beg for mercy and stomps away back over the hills with the knowledge of a job well done. The weather here is strange. It can be blowing it's nadgers off one moment, and perfectly calm the next. This was the case this morning. A beautiful sunrise was interspaced with the occasional howling gale.

The skipper arrived at 0730 and we discussed the plan. He told me the weather was looking like a gale force 8. I was disheartened by this, but he assured me that this doesn't really bother the invincible, and the divers would bottle out before the boat would, so the plan was still on to do the Kronprinz. We kitted up as the boat steamed towards the big German Wrecks. No-one managed to leave themselves tied to the boat, but there was one close call, with Wilbo managing to get within 2 feet of the ladder before Fiona whispered that most divers traditionally take their fins with them when they go diving. Whoops. Things were to get no better for Wilbo on the second dive when GLOC told him that although ratio deco required no complicated dive computers, timers and depth gauges were certainly approved in the DIR ethos, and some people actually considered them fairly important to the process of calculating deco.

For those that have not been to Scapa, the Kronprinz is a World War One era battleship, the pride of the German High Seas Fleet. At 28,500 tons in weight and 575 feet in length, she was armed to the teeth with 12" guns and armoured with 12" plating. Due to the weight of her turrets (600 tons a piece) she turned over when she was scuttled and came to rest upside down on the seabed some 38 metres below. There are numerous blast holes in the hull to explore, and one can view the superstructure, main and side armaments and plenty more if you descend to the seabed and swim along the length of the ship.

The Kronprinz blessed us with about 8 metres of Viz, more than enough, especially as we had 1 metre when I dived it last year. This made for a very pleasant dive, although Dave struggled with being underweighted throughout the dive, which added to his stress levels and was noticeable in the amount of gas he consumed during the dive. The wreck is superb, and we got a good view of the 12 inch guns under the plating, on two enormous turrets. Once again, I found the sheer thickness of the armour plating lying around simply staggering, amazing when you compare this with the paper thin materials used in modern warships. These were not modern ships with high tech intelligent weaponry. These were clearly ships designed simply to both give, and absorb, enormous kinetic wallops, until one of them gave up. When compared with the almost flat rubble that makes up many of the wrecks off the South coast, these wrecks, with their 10-15 metres of imposing height above the seabed, are simply stunning.

We had a great dive, and I ran ratio deco for Dave and I. This is simple on the big ships, as you simply swim up the hull and go from 38 metres up to the 21 metre stop - still on the hull of the wreck. By he time we hit 6 metres, we could see the sea rocking and rolling above us with the heavy swell, and I could certainly feel the SMB wanting to get away from me. Because of this, we decided not to dwell too long in the shallows and got up as fast as was safely possible. The boat picked us up nice and quickly as usual. We were first up, due to Dave discomfort during the dive, so we were able to assist everyone else as they got back on the boat. The climb up Invincible's ladder can be a pain when the sea is a bit lively. Today is was a bit lively to the tune of gale force 8.

Diane got back on the boat with a grim look on her face. The neck seal had held well, but the wrist seals were "sub-optimal" - they would be redone later. Adding to the list of failed equipment was a ripped wrist seal for Nick, and a holed suit for Roy. Everyone was getting wet in the cold, but seemed to be grinning and bearing it.

The Tabarka was blown out; the skipper reckoned it would be daft to try it in the force 8 gale that was now blowing. However, the F2 and barge would be fine as it would be a little more sheltered.

The F2 was a German WW2 escort vessel. She was 249 feet in length and weighed 790 tons. She sank near Lyness in 1946. In the 1960's, a barge was being used in the salvage of the F2. Some of the machine guns from the F2 had been transferred when the barge sank right next to the F2 in a storm. Now they make an interesting double wreck, with the advantage of the fact that a diver can drift off the wrecks and onto the bottle run, an area of the flow where countless naval ships had been tied up over two world wars, and as a result the seabed is littered with detritus thrown overboard from these ships.

Dave and I jumped in on a 15 metre dive with full twin sets and a stage as well. We had a great dive, the F2 was absolutely covered in sea life, and we spent nearly half an hour inside the barge ferreting around the machine guns lying around inside. The barge is quite open and makes for a good ferret around. We watched Gareth taking photos and Howard and Wilbo playing hooligans on their scooters for a while, and the decided to leave the wrecks. We then drifted onto the bottle run and spent ages digging around. We found some great bottles to be taken home and cleaned up, and Dave kept finding abandoned dive kit, which he dutifully put in his goodie bag to clear the sea floor. He also picked up a massive lobster and a massive crab, but let them go as we had no real way of cooking them, so there was no point taking them up. We were both giggling away during the dive, having a great time. We ran up a runtime of 90 odd minutes and then called it a day as we were starting to get cold.

Back on the boat, we were the last up this time, so everyone was around to help us bring our swag back on the boat. That evening, there followed a MASSIVE fettling session. Several suits were repaired, various seals were repaired, a torch battery, and various cheaper items! No-one had dropped anything yet, but the kit seemed to be starting to self destruct! Luckily, Stromness has plenty of beer, so half the team got shitfaced whilst the other sorted out the kit and gas for the following day. Sigh.

There were two "dumb shit" moments. GLOC managed to completely bork the deco, and cut the deco two minutes short without realising it. He felt shit about it, but we had a good natter and worked our where the error had been made. Lessons learned. Dianne took the blue ribbon prize for the "dumb shit" award, by leaving a burning candle in a wooden cabin with the curtains fluttering, whilst she went for a shower. Luckily, David wandered past and wondered what the flame was for, and promptly blew it out. Doh. Everyone had a good laugh in the evening.

The plan fore the next day was something I had been waiting for. The Markgraf. We had decided to re-arrange the team for this. Gareth, David and Myself would dive as a 3, and Howard and Wilbo would dive as a 2. In the afternoon, we were planning to dive the Tabarka. This is perhaps my favourite wreck dive, so with the weather forecast suggesting that the wind and rain were going to die down by the morning; this was shaping up to be an interesting day indeed.

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 1

2007-09-14T16:04:00.000Z

[B]Part One....[/B]

The Go with the Flow 2007 Tour Trip Report

the chimps all arrived at my house on Thursday evening, to be greeted with an evening meal cooked by the fair hand of my good lady wife, and two cars to pack. We loaded the cars at my house at 10pm on the Sunday, and it was touch and go as to whether we are going to have to take three cars. As it was we had to leave 5 stages behind, leaving only ten for the 5 of us to share. We all then decided to get an early night. I checked the spare room carefully, but despite apparently drilling through the walls all night with a hammer drill, there appeared to be no damage to the room Howard was in. We could not understand it, but jumped in the cars at 0430 and began the long trip up to Scotland

The trip up to Scrabster was, as you can imagine, a riot with all the chimps in tow. Howard's car was "dragging it's arse up the motorway like a dog with worms". Gareth's was not a great deal better, and had all the acceleration of an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping. It was especially slow when Gareth was actually driving it, and speeded up considerably when someone else got behind the wheel. Howard, as usual was driving like someone had set fire to his arse, and we made good progress throughout the day. The banter was flowing thick and fast, as was the coffee to keep us conscious after the 4am start. Travelling up to Scrabster usually forms part of the holiday, as it's a good laugh, but it is a hell of a way, 718 miles and 13 hours.

We arrived in Scrabster, where I had booked us all into the ferry inn for the night before the ferry. This turned out to be one of my better decisions as we all managed to get shitfaced with only a 1 minute walk to the Ferry in the morning. Closely following us, Diane (Ms Diane, Lady Di, Chimp Bitch) arrived shortly after, followed by the Two Nics. A fairly heavy drinking session ensued, which give that neither Dave nor I are heavy drinkers, rapidly became quite messy.....

In the morning, we all had a great breakfast, with the exception of Howard, who had spent the night apparently drilling into the walls again.

We arrived at the ferry terminal in plenty of time to greet the people from week one. I was particularly looking forward to us. We bumped into SteveS who assured us that the week1 group had had a great time, with good viz. The two groups on the boat had kept largely to themselves so there was little unpleasant politics. 3 of the week1 group had decided to bail early and gone home on the Friday night ferry, depriving us of the ability to ask them how they got on. Never mind, eh. The ferry across from Scrabster was a little lively. It was as windy as I had seen it, and the skipper of the ferry apparently agreed as he didn't go past the old man of Hoy to my disappointment, but rather went through the flow itself, past Lyness and up towards Stromness this way. As we went past the entrance to the flow, we could see the carnage out in the open sea and decided the skipper was probably wise. The chimps were getting a little out of control on the ferry - we all have a form of primate attention deficit disorder. Luckily, Diane provided a variety of toys and games, which kept the chimps quiet and out of trouble; at least until they figured out that they couldn't eat, fight or have sex with any of the toys provided. Then, once again, chimp induced carnage ensued. After giving all of toys with pure altruism, Di was rewarded with the words "are you going to take all this shit with you, or leave it here".

The weather, frankly, was appalling. Driving rain and a serious wind. Ian the skipper was there ready to greet us, and watched in amused bewilderment as we proceeded to unload a phenomenal amount of kit. 12 divers on the boat, with 20 twin sets and Christ knows how many stages and oxygen bottles. We got all the kit stowed away, and began the traditional mad fettling session. Some amusing highlights were GLOC pouring the water out of his Argon bottle prior to deciding to run his suit off his stage bottle instead, and Markosis compensating for ill-fitting twin set bands with rubber bands and duct tape. Diane was genuinely upset that someone pointed at a stage with a suicide clip on it and asked if it was hers.

One moment that amused me was collecting the "in case of emergency" forms provided by the skipper to be filled out by us all. On Gareth's some subtle editing had added the words "unfeasibly small penis" to his lists of distinguishing marks. Howard's could not be edited by the author of this piece, as he had already filled out his form with the words "my drowned and bloated carcass could be identified by my enormous schram, red and scarred".

The mandatory trips to Scapa Scuba were made to pick up low pressure hoses, fix Howard's dry suit, and pick up various shiny things. Dave and I then settled down to complete the main task of the evening, which was to change the wrist and neck seals on Diane's suit. This turned into a bit of a drama as the neck seal was a swine to get off, but the wrist seals amusing "popped off" with almost no effort, leaving no residual glue anywhere, which I found a little worrying. Howard's Salvo promptly committed suicide as the battery cables snapped off. Scapa Scuba essentially refused to touch, so Dave set about it with a soldering iron, a blow torch and a nail. Howard looked worried...

The Minnerva

2007-07-11T09:03:00.000Z

Text by Chimp 5

I don't get to go Trimix diving as much as I'd like so was recently delighted when the Foxturd guys agreed to my request to become an Honorary Chimp and go diving with them. They went one better and have made me a full chimp with the designation "5" This trip was the first time we'd go sea diving although we have dived in quarries before.

The Minerva was a long ride in the boat in the sort of sea that's on the edge of being uncomfortable but Smudge's boat, the Scimitar made light work of the seas and we arrived at the site in a little over 2 hours. Finding slack was a bit difficult which resulted in us being ready for longer than I would have liked, fully kitted up, in the sun and with a rolling boat is not the most fun, but diving is like that sometimes, I guess.

Garf, Gloc and I hit the water and got to the shot. I was to be number 1 (so they could both keep an eye on me I expect ) and set off down the shot. This was hard work in the current and I took longer than would have been ideal. We eventually arrived at the wreck and took a moment to settle and sort things out, then set off on a tour. Along the way we saw several fish, crabs and the occasional lobster till we arrived at the bow so we turned and headed back towards the stern. Near the stern was a nice little swim through the back along the starboard rail area. Garf spotted a really nice jelly fish. The number of HID lights at times gave the wreck the feeling of being a War of the Worlds set

I knew I was nearly at minimum gas and was about to check when the dive was thumbed so we headed of for a largely uneventful deco run by Garf, I shot the bag, although at times the current carried us along for a bit, then stopped before taking us away again. It was disconcerting in a mild way to see the string heading up to the surface at an angle of 45degrees.

For a whole bunch of reasons we decided that was enough diving for the day so headed back to Weymouth. We met up with Howard Payne, David Stern and some of Howard's club for the evening and had a top meal and continued the rich vein of banter that had punctuated the day already.

A huge thank you to Smudge & Helena for making us feel very welcome, to Marianne (MJH) for organising the gig and to my fellow chimps for having me.

I look forward to the photos imminently

Taking Underwater Pictures

2007-05-31T17:05:00.001Z

Some of you who frequent this blog may have noticed that I do a little underwater photography and I thought I would pass on some thoughts about how to get the most out of being underwater and taking pictures.

First off, other than you have a camera, you are underwater, and the normal laws of physics apply underwater, there is little in common between underwater photography and topside photography! The main point to note is that underwater photography in the UK means a lack of light. The human eye is incredible in compensating for reduced light levels and it is only when you look through the viewfinder do you notice that the shutter speed of 1/60 at 15m has now dropped to 1/4 at 25m! In addition to this, the eye compensates for colour reduction without realising it too, and it is only when the image is reviewed on the surface do you note that the colour is gone!

Equipment

Last January I was going on a trip to Tenerife and although I had 10 years plus of topside photography I had never taken a camera underwater, and I wanted to start. After researching the idea, I had my heart set on an Ikelite rig for my S2. After totting up the costs I realised that spending over 2 grand on something I might not like or enjoy was pretty daft, so bought an Olympus 5050 with Epoque 0.56 WA adaptor from Alan James Photography in Bristol. I then spent the rest of 2006 using this rig with some pretty good results. After I started doing more deep stuff, and also taking pictures of friends scootering around, I was seriously hankering for a housing for my S2. £350 later from Belgium my Aquatica housing arrived. £500 later I had an 8” dome port, gears and extensions. Another £1000 got me my 2 x Ikelite SS200 strobes from the USA plus some ULC buoyant arms from Cameras Underwater in London. The new rig now weighs somewhere in the region of 10kg on the surface and -1kg in the water.

If you are starting out in underwater photography and you own an SLR, I would personally hold off being a housing for your SLR until you have got your buoyancy nailed and you are used to using a camera underwater whilst maintaining awareness of your buddy, your environment and your gas. If you have got this nailed and you have £3k to spare, go and buy an underwater housing for your SLR, you won’t look back.

Basic Techniques

The most important bit is to get as much light as possible. Most of the shots that I have taken so far have been without strobes and so I have relied on natural light. Using the Olympus 5050, I could take advantage of the f1.8 lens and 200ISO to get the most out of the shots. Move to 400ISO and the image is very grainy and can only really be viewed in mono. Using the SLR I don’t have lenses which are as fast (the 10-20mm max aperture if f.35) but the noise levels in the shots are far less and therefore I can shoot about the same shutter speed but have a much larger and cleaner image. Whereas I would struggle to get a useable shot at 400ISO on the Olympus, the S2 at 1600ISO is perfectly acceptable for wreck/technical diving type images. If I wanted to get finer detail I would use a strobe and bring the ISO down to 100.

Another issue that is linked to light levels and depth is colour loss. Once you are past around 10m, images become very green and you need either a strobe or torch light to bring the colours back. Alternatively if the image is too green but you have sorted the balance out, then you can convert to mono which is what I do with a lot of my images. There are 2 ways to compensate for this colour shift if you do not have strobes; the first is to white balance the camera before you take the shot using a something which is white and ‘fooling’ the camera that this green tinted white surface is in fact white, the second method is to shoot in RAW which means the camera stores all the information but doesn’t have any final image, this is done in computer software topside.

If you are shooting natural light, always try to shoot down light such that it is over your shoulder into the subject’s face. As I said above, your eyes are very good at compensating and so if you shoot into sun the image will just show a big shadow from the areas being shaded as can be seen in this shot below; I really needed a strobe for this shot.

Photoshop Techniques

As I said above there is an issue with colour shift towards green when in UK waters. This means that the red and blue are absorbed quicker than the green, leaving you with a green image. There are some techniques which you can use in Photoshop to counter this. First off, shoot RAW and then use the grey scale dipper to get a neutral grey. This will get you very close to where you need to be and then you can play with levels after that. Otherwise, you can use the ‘Levels’ tool which can be found in most photo imaging programmes and adjust the light levels across the image. The following example uses PS CS for screenshots.

All levels.jpg, this is the original file. Taken in 15m at NDAC, Chepstow. As you can see this is quite green and fairly low contrast. This shot was taken at about 2m camera to subject.

Bring the black point (left hand arrow) and white point (right arrow) in until they meet the histogram. A histogram shows the dispersion of light quantities over differing intensities and colour channels. Here we are looking at the red channel, left is pure red, right is pure white (if this was all-levels, the left would be pure black). What we are trying to do here is make what light we have fill the whole spectrum. In the red channel you can see there is a lot of light missing, so we need to spread the light levels across and pick up the lost dark red.

Red Levels

Green Levels

Blue Levels

As you can see, as you spread the available light across the full spectrum, the image starts to get its full colour back again. However, the image is still a little flat so we add some contrast using the curve tool.

This makes the darker bits darker and the lighter bits lighter, the human eye likes contrast as it makes it easier to define edges and shapes.

RAW Images

This is what you can do with RAW images and why I will now always shoot photos in RAW if I can!

If you have any questions regarding my underwater photography or if you want some tips or help, drop me an email via my website which is listed at the top of this blog on the right handside.

New Member Joins Team

2007-05-31T11:12:00.001Z

Mal Bridgeman has joined Team foxturd, as he wants to get more trimix diving in. As honarary chimp, his duties will consist of ensuring banana stock never runs too low, and also ensuring Howard makes it to the divesite on time now and again.

Anyway, we welcome him to the team. Mal is an instructor and trimix diver, and I'm sure we will all be learning from each other in the near future.

so welcome!

Tech1 Ratio Deco - Explained

2007-04-13T09:55:00.002Z

Ratio Deco at the Tech1 Level.

Firstly, a few caveats. I have put some thought into all of this so please don't skip them. I expect they will be obvious to everyone on YD, but perhaps not to the person who googles Ratio Deco and stumbles across this post.

1. This post does not represent Ratio Deco as taught by GUE, FifthD or indeed any other agency. It is my interpretation of what I have been taught. Thus, any errors are my own.
2. Ratio Deco usually forms only a small part of a larger course and requires a rounded grasp of specific skills that allow Ratio Deco to be utilised safely. Thus, before using Ratio Deco I can only recommend you seek such training. Please do not dive the profiles suggested in this post without undertaking such training. You could end up hurt or dead.
3. Ratio Deco works in conjuction with a specific set of variables. There are no rules, only guidelines. Use them at your peril.

A few myths dealt with

It's mystic sorcery and "secret" information - well it aint anymore if it ever was
It's complicated - keep reading, it's so simple it's dissapointing once you learn it!
It requires lots of training - The skills required to handle RD do take time to learn. RD itself takes about 15 minutes on Tech1

OK. Now that's out of the way, are you all sitting comfortably, good, then I'll begin....

Has anyone read AndrewG's article on Ratio Deco? The man may be a diving God, and may no more about decompression than most people on the planet, but by God he's a terrible writer. Or perhaps I am simply insulting him and it's written in a such a fashion to enocurage people to take courses and have the concepts clearly explained. The only documentation on RD I have been able to find on the web has been obfuscated by crepuscular logic and an involute style which, frankly, gets on my tits. I thought it might be useful to post some information about ratio Deco that demystifies it, and allows for a more informed debate and discussion on the topic.

So, what is Ratio Deco.

Garf's Definition - the Wordy one

Ratio Deco is defined as being a set of rules that allow an individual or team to calculate the amount of mandatory deco and ascent rates based on the average depth they have been at and the length of time they have been at the bottom.

Garf's defintion - The easy one

If we know how deep we are and how long we've been there we can work out the deco on the way up in our heads without the need of a computer.

"Ratio" refers to the fact that, for a given depth, there is a ratio between the length of time a diver spends on the bottom portion of a dive and the amount of decompression they will have to do on the way to the surface. "Deco" refers to the fact that this process is managing the ascent portion of the dive, including all deep stops, ascent rates, and shallow stops.

Other definitions

"Bottom Time" - The time that passes from the time we arrive at the bottom to the time we leave the bottom. Notice does not include the descent portion of the dive.

"Bottom Gas" - 21/35 or 18/45 Only. The two are interchangeable and the decompression required stays the same. Handy huh

"Decompression Gas" - 50% Only.

The Pre-requisites

In order to make Ratio Deco work for us, there are a number of things we need to be able to do, and a few things we must have with us.

Firstly, we need to be able to control our rate of ascent. I don't mean stop ourselves from rocketing to the surface, although that's a handy skill. I mean we need to be able to change our rate of ascent on demand. For Tech1 level diving, we need to be able to ascent at a constant 3 metres per minute where necessary, 6 metres per minute where necessary and 9 metres per minute where necessary. If we cannot do any of that, don't go near Ratio Deco.

Secondly, we need to have with us standard gases. The ratio deco I am going to explain in this post works when we use either 21/35 or 18/45 as backgas and 50% as deco gas. And that's it. Mess up the standard gases, and it all goes to ratshit. With some confidence and experience behind you, you could alter the deco to compensate, but I am a long way from that in my diving and for the sake of simplicity and safety let's just say that the standard gases are the rule. There are other standard backgases, and other standard decompression mixes, but we are not interested in them at the Tech1 level.

Thirdly, we need to understand something of the limitations. During the course of this post, I am going to explain that Ratio Deco is anot a rigid set of rules, but needs to be adjusted based on variables such as depth. For the sake of this post, I am going to say that the guidelines I give out are good to 48 metres and 40 minutes. Deeper or longer than that and the ratio we are going to use starts to become a little wooly, and needs to be adjusted until we reach the next "set point", which I shall explain in a moment.

Concept One : The Set Point: Calculating Decompression Required.

forget about Rebreathers, this is a different type of set point. The set point is the starting point for calculating Ratio Deco. At the tech1 level, we use 45Metres as the set point. As you increase in knowledge, you may use 66M as a set point and so on.

So, for Tech1, we use 45M. At this set point, we assume that there is a 1:1 Ratio between bottom time and decompression. That means for every minute we spend on the bottom, we spend a minute decompressing. There, wasn't that nice and simple. Minute on the Wreck, minute going up. easy.

Now, there are other Ratios. for example at 66 metres, the gases all change and the ratio is 2:1. for every minute on the wreck we need to do 2 minutes deco. Now I'm not going to get into that here becuase, frankly, I'm not trained to do it.

Let's go back to our 1:1 ratio at 45M. We do a 30 minute dive to 45M (average depth), we need to do 30 minutes decompression. Nice. However, what if our average depth was greater or less than 45M. Well for every 3 metres (or part) shallower than the plan, we take 5 minutes off the deco. for every 3 metres (or part) we add 5 minutes.

So, calculating the amount of decompression we need to do is very simple indeed. Look at the average depth and the time, and compare to 45 Metres.

Example 1: 38 metres for 40 minutes - We're 2 lots of three away from 45 (rounded down) so it must be 10 minutes less than 40 - 30 minutes.
Example 2: 47 metres for 25 minutes - We're above the 45M setpoint by part of a three so it must be 5 minutes more than 25 - 30 minutes.

So, you can see that it's very easy indeed to calculate the decompression in the 30 to 48 metre range. It get's a little more complicated if you go deeper as you are moving between the 1:1 Ratio at 45 metres and the 2:1 ratio at 66 metres, so the question arises of what do you do in the middle. That is a question I sort of know the answer to, but am not qualified to post, and it's outside the scope of what I want to cover in this post anyway. Let's stay at 48M or below to keep things nice and simple.

Portions of the Dive.

Let's go back to our 30 minute dive to 45 Metres. We now know that we have 30 minutes decompression to do on the way up, but how do we do it. Where do we do our stops, and how long should each stop be.

Well, the areas of the dive can be broken down as follows;

Bottom to 80% of Average ATAS = Lower Portion of Ascent.
80% of ATAs to 21M = Deep Stops
21 metres = Gas switch
21M - 9M = Intermediate Stops
6M - surface = Shallow Stops

Or, just for Janos, a pretty chart...

Now, let's deal with each portion of the ascent in turn.

Bottom Portion of Ascent

At this point, we are still ongassing. So, there's no reason to hang about with slow ascent rates. We use 9 metres per minute as it's quick enough to get us out of dodge, but slow enough so it can be brought to a stop comfortably. We want to get up to 80% of our ATAS at 9 metres per minute because if we do it any slower then we are going to bugger up our decompression by ongassing too much. It is critical at this point not to hang about. Once the decision is made to leave the bottom, we leave.

We need to get up to 80% of our ATAS before anything changes. Why 80%. Becuase it's around this area that we stop ongassing and start off gassing. Now, as with everything in DIR, it's not perfect for all oaccassions, but it's about the best standard you can apply to all situations, which is really what the entire concept of DIR is all about. so 80% of our ATAS. How the hell do we work that out. Sounds complicated. Here's the trick...

Let's say we're our average depth was 45 metres. convert that to ATAS =5.5. divide by ten = 0.55. Mutiply by 2 = 1.1. Take that off the depth in metres. 45 Metres - 1.1 ATAS = 34 metres. So, 80% of the ATAS when we have been diving to 45 Metres is 34 metres.

Let's do another example. We've been to 42 metres. Thats 5.2 ATAS. Multiply by 2 = 10.4. Call it 11. Take that off the depth in metres. 42 - 1.1 ATA (11m) = 31 metres.

Repeat that above excercise a few times and you'll find you can do it in a heartbeat without thinking about it, and it's the most complicated bit of maths we have to do in the whole excercise.

Now, just to make things a tad more complicated, we always round to the nearest three, becuase then it's a bloody doddle to do 3 metres per minute up to 21M. So if our 80% is at 34M, we'd actually go up to 33. If our 80% was actually 31 metres then we'd stop at 30M. See how that works?

So, taking our 30 minute dive to 45 metres. We leave the bottom after 30 minutes and we ascend at a rate of 9 metres per minute until we hit 33 metres. This probably takes us about 75 seconds.

Deep Stops Portion of Ascent

OK, so we hit 33 metres and we are now in the deep stops portion of the ascent. At the Tech1 level, this is simple. We do 1 minute stops every three metres. Looking at this another way, we can just do 15 seconds move, 15 seconds stop, which looking at it yet another way, could be done as a 6 metre per minute ascent, which is actually what we do. So all we have to do at this point in the dive is slow down from 9 metres per minute to 6 metres per minute, and then ascend at that rate until we hit 21 metres.

Now, this is an area where I could go on for ever more. The deep stops change if you go beyond Tech1 levels, and all of a sudden the maths gets a little more complicated with longer stops and changing ascent rates, but that's for another day. On our nice, simple 30 minute dive to 45 metres, all we have to do is slow down the ascent rate until we hit 21 metres.

21 Metres - the Gas Switch and first intermediate stop

21 metres is where the work begins. Here we have to switch the team from their back gas onto the decompression gas of 50%. We also need to put up a bag, and work out how much deco we have to do.

Let's get going. The gas switch. The procedure for that is another post, and I never would have believed this until trained to do it, but switching the entire team from backgas to decompression gas takes about 10 seconds. Backgas regulators are clipped off. Now, the roles come into play. Typically one person sends up a bag from 21 whilst another person is running the deco.

The first intermediate stop depth is 21 metres, however we stop at 21M for at least 3 minutes regardless of how much decompression is actually required. why do we do this. We do this to open the Oxygen Window. Now, I've read and know at least 4 different versions of what the words "Oxygen Window" actually mean, but all of them seem to agree that it's not a bad idea to spend at least 2-3 minutes at the depth where you switch to your decompression gas containing a higher partial pressure of O2. Obviously, several compartments are still ongassing, and also you have a limited gas supply, so you don;t want to stay there forever, but 3 minutes as a minimum for Ratio Deco as I am explaining it.

Shaping the Decompression Curve - Intermediate Stops.

Ahh, Howard it putting up the bag, I'd better work out what deco we are going to do before he finishes or he'll only take the piss. Well, we did 30 minutes at 45 metres. That means we have 30 minutes of Decompression to do. so where do we do it

Well, we need to do half our decompression in the intermediate stops, and half in the shallow stops.

Let's take our dive, 30 minutes at 45 metres. We have 30 minutes of decompression to do. that means we have to do 15 minutes at 21-9 metres (see table 2) and 15 minutes at 6-0 metres (see table 2).

Now, our intermediate stops are alwasy the same. They are

21M
18M
15M
12M
9M

That means we have five stops to do. If 50% of our deco is therefore divisible by 5, it's simple. We have 15 minutes to do in the intermediate stops. So we would do the following

21M - 3 minutes
18M - 3 minutes
15M - 3 minutes
12M - 3 minutes
9M - 3 minutes

Now how bloody simple is that.

There is an endless debate about whether you should do a linear curve as I have described above, or whether you should minimise the stops in the middle and load the start and end. This would mean you maximise the deco from the partial pressure of 50% and then start to push the gradient, and ignore the stuff in the middle. This becomes more apparant when the deco is NOT divisible by 5, becuase then the divers have a choice about where to do the stops.

Let's look at a few examples of that.

Let's say we have 18 minutes to do in the intermediate portion. I'd probably do

21M - 4 minutes
18M - 4 minutes
15M - 2 minutes
12M - 4 minutes
9M - 4 minutes

but we could also do

21M - 4 minutes
18M - 3 minutes
15M - 3 minutes
12M - 4 minutes
9M - 4 minutes

There is no right or wrong, and different people do different things. It becomes far more regimented at the Tech2 and Tech3 levels, but at the Tech1 level, you will get away with pretty much anything. Howard has put the bag up now. we'll wait until the clock hits three minutes at 21M and then move through the intermediate stops. We'll actually move a little faster so we are moving for 30 seconds and stablisiing for thirty seconds. Up we go to 6 metres.

Shaping the Decompression Curve - Shallow Stops.

Well, here we are at 6 metres. We had 30 minutes of decompression to do, 15 of which we did in the intermediate stops, and 15 of which we need to do here. We have a few options here. We could just do 15 minutes at 6 and then ascend over 5 minutes. If the surface conditions did not allow this we could do 18 mins and then a 2 minute ascent. Team foxturd take the best of both world, and would do the 15 minutes at 6 and then attempt a 5 minute ascent. But we're in no rush to get to the surface.

That was easy, wasn't it.

The simple example

45 metres. 30 minutes.

We thumb the dive and leave the bottom. We need to get to 80% of the ATAS. Let's see, thats 5.5 X 2 taken away from 45. That's means 34 metres. Let's call it 33.

We go up to 33 at 9 metres per minute. It takes just over a minute. We slow down to 23 metres per minute and it takes us another 4 minutes to get to 21 Metres. We started at 45 metres so its the 1: 1 ratio. We did 30 mins so we have 30 mins deco to do, 15 in the intermediate stops and 15 in the shallows.

We then switch gas and bag up.

15 minutes is divisible by 5, which makes the deco easy...

21M - 3 minutes
18 M - 3 Minutes
15M - 3 Minutes
12 - 3 Minutes
9M - 3 Minutes

Now we are at 6 metres. We have 15 minutes to do so we do them and then ascend as slowly as possible

The complicated example.

Here we are on the Salsette. We have been swimming around and over things so the average depth is actually 42 metres. We have been on the bottom for 28 minutes. Gareth hits minimum gas, so we thumb the dive. We leave the bottom immediately on thumbing the dive.

Up we go at 9 metres per minute. 80% of the ATAS from 42 metres is 5.2 *2 = 10.4 taken away from 42 = 11 metres, so lets call it 31 metres. Actually, we call it 30. It takes us a minute and a bit to get there.

At 30 we slow down to 3 metres per minute. It takes us a further 3 minutes to get to 21 Metres. During which time I'll have probably worked out the deco.

Now we gas switch and put a bag up. We do 3 minutes at 21M.

We did 42 metres for 28 minutes. thats 3 metres less than 45 so take off 5 minutes. We have 23 minutes deco to do. Sod that, let's do 24

Half of 24 is 12, divided by 5 is not possible so let's do the following

21 M = 3 Minutes
18 Metres = 2 Minutes
15 Metres = 2 Minutes
12 Metres = 2 Minutes
9 Metres = 3 Minutes

Up we go through the intermediate stops.

Now we are at 6 metres. We have 12 minutes to do

Let's keep things simple. 12 minutes at 6 and then ascend as slowly as possible.

Dive Over.

Now wasn't that painless?

Comparisons with Dive Models

The nearest model to ratio deco for the sake of comparison is gradient factors of 30/85

Taking our two dives,

the 45 metre /30 min dive would give us a runtime of about 66 mins (with a 3 minute ascent from 6m), as compared to a runtime of 63 mins from decoplanner.
the 42 metre / 28 min dive would give us a runtime of about 59 mins (with a 3 minute ascent from 6M), as compared to a runtime of 53 mins from decoplanner.

It will be closer or further away depending on the depths and times. Ratio deco is not perfect, it suits some dives better than others.

Summary

DIR is not about a perfect configuration, or a perfect set of standards. It's about providing a kit configuration and set of standards that can be applied everywhere. It may be a good fit in some situations, and a poorer fit in others, but there is so much advantage in having the standard that DIR divers who think through all the standards just have to accept this.

Ratio Deco, like everything else in DIR, does not provide the perfect option for all scenarios. However, it does provide an option that fits all scenarios to a greater or lesser degree. Learning where these degrees are is all part of the education process. If we dived to 54 metres, I probably wouldn't be happy with 1:1, but would start padding it out.

Whilst on the subject of padding, the question may arise where one person in the team wants to do more deco. It doesn't matter why. The most conservative person always wins. Of someone wants to extend the stops, that's what we do, no discussion, no arguments.

One interesting point is that if you always round up the deco to the next ten minutes, it all becomes ridiculously easy. Lets say we have 30 minutes deco to do. That's 15 in the intermediate stops and 15 in the shallows. I get to 18 metres and signal 3. If we follow the rule of always rounding up the deco to the next ten minutes then the team know from that one signal exactly how much deco I am planning on doing at each stop, and the total amount of deco we have to do. However, that is making the assumption that you don't mind doing a few extra minutes deco.

We do not really have to worry about carrying enough deco gas becuase using this form of ratio deo and using twin 12s means we will not be able to get into the position of not having enough deco gas unless we lose our AL80 deco bottle. If that happens, Ratio Deco also allows for a lost deco gas. We can just double the stops and deco out on the back gas. At the Tech1 level, it just works in terms of gas logistics.

Now, just on a closing note, for the love of God don't go out and do this without training in all the other elements I have mentioned. However, I hope it has been useful information and an interesting read

Dive safe everyone

Garf.

DIR Minimum Gas - Explained

2007-04-13T09:51:00.001Z

Minimum Gas
The DIR concept of “minimum gas” is the unbreakable rule by which we plan our dives. Minimum gas represents the minimum amount of gas carried by each diver that will allow the diver to get themselves, and another diver, to the next available gas source. For a short shallow dive, this might mean a direct ascent to the surface. For a longer dive with mandatory decompression stops, this might mean the ascent to a depth where it becomes appropriate to switch to another gas. Minimum gas is an absolute. It is never violated during the bottom portion of the dive, and once minimum gas is reached, the only option is to call the dive and ascend immediately.

Gas Rules
This is how we plan our gas to be used. Let’s say our minimum gas is 70 Bar in our twinset, and we start the dive with 220 bar. That means we have 150 bar of usable gas. With that 150 bar, we then apply a gas rule. That rule might be thirds (when the dive MUST return to a starting point), halves (when it would be useful for the diver to return to the start point but not essential) or all useable gas (where the diver can just ascend from wherever they are and be picked up). The “All useable gas” rule is often applied in UK waters where the boat can just come and get us, but we might apply halves if the skipper wants us to return to a shotline. The beauty of the gas rules is that if we get back to our starting point early, and ahead of minimum gas, we can just recalculate our halves, or thirds, and go off again.

Calculating Minimum Gas

The fundamantal principle. At all times, a DIR diver enough gas to get themselves, and a team mate, to the next available gas source.

OK, so in order to know how much gas we have available for the dive, and in order to know our safety factor, we have to be able to calculate minimum gas. I’m going to run through two examples, a thirty metre dive where we can ascend directly to the surface, and a 45 metre dive, where we have to ascend to 21M to do a gas switch

30 Metre Dive

To calculate min deco, we make several assumptions.

• Firstly, we assume an ascent rate of 9M per minute to 50% of the depth, then 3 Metres per minute after that.
• Secondly, we assume a SAC rate of 30 Litres per minute for both divers. This might seem high to some people. But, in an incident, SAC rate can hit 100. Even if it then settles down, it’s going to average out significantly higher than your normal rate
• We assume one minute at the bottom sorting out whatever has gone wrong and getting moving

So, here we are at thirty metres, and all hell breaks loose so two divers have to ascend directly to the surface on one diver’s backgas.

50% of 30m = 15 metres
So, from the bottom

1 Minute resolving Issue
2 Minutes to get from 30M to 15M (plan on 9m/min but most people achieve around 7m/min)
1 Minute to get from 15M to 12M
1 Minute to get from 12M to 9M
1 Minute to get from 9M to 6M
1 Minute to get from 6M to 3M
1 Minute to get from 3M to the surface

This means a 8 minute ascent time.

Now we need to know the average depth. For the dive above, I would call the average depth 10 Metres or 2 Bar

8 minutes of Gas for 2 divers = 16 minutes of Gas required
Depth consumption Rate = 2 Bar X 30 Litres = 60 Litres Per minute

16 X 60 = 960 Litres of Gas Required

Therefore minimum gas for this dive would be 960 litres of gas, or 40 bar in a set of twin 12 litre cylinders.

So, on a 30 metre dive, with both divers using twin 12s, we know we need to leave the bottom before we hit 40 bar to ensure that if there is a total loss of gas for one diver, we can safely and slowly ascend to the surface. This might be far more conservative than other measures due to the slow ascent rate, but it is very comforting to know we can ascend at this rate and still know we have enough gas.

If we have a 220 bar fill in the twinset, and are going to be picked up by the boat, this gives us 160 bar to use during the dive which is nice.

Some people might find the maths a little baffling, but others might just see it immediately. Once you run a few of them through your head you can do it simply enough. We would do this before we hit the water if it was a known depth, or at the bottom of the shotline if it was different than expected.

Now, these figures are always the same, so you could work out the min gas required for each depth, or write them on a slate. However, this defeats the true strength of the calculation, and it is strongly encouraged that DIR divers learn to do this in their heads. Here’s the reason. Let’s say you reach the seabed, and the depth is shallower or deeper than you planned, you can just recalculate minimum gas on the spot and make the most of the gas you have with you without risking safety. That last factor is the real winner for me, and the calculation is simple enough after a while.

Let’s take the calculation a little deeper, shall we say 45 metres?

45 Metre Dive

On this dive, we are at 45M and we are carrying a stage of 50%. Remember that Minimum gas is supposed to get you and another dive to the next available gas source, which in this case is 21M where we would switch to the 50%.

We use the same SAC of 30 Litres Per minute.

80% of the ATAs (or 75% depth) in this case is 34 metres, but for simplicity we deal in multiples of 3 metres, so we will call it 33 metres.

This, then is the ascent profile

1 minute at 45 metres resolving issue
2 minutes to get from 45 to 33 (its more than 9 metres so has to be 2 minutes travel)(upto 80% = 9mtr/min)
1 minute to get from 33 to 27 (80% to 21m = 6mtr/min)
1 minute to get from 27 to 21
1 minute to allow for gas switch

This gives us an 6 minute ascent to the gas switch

Now we need to know the average depth. For the dive above, I would call the average depth 33 Metres or 4.3 Bar.

The calculation, then…

6 minutes of Gas for 2 divers = 12 minutes of Gas required
Depth consumption Rate = 4.3 Bar X 30 Litres = 129 Litres Per minute

12 X 129 = 1548 Litres of Gas Required.

In a set of twin 12s this would equate to 65 bar. Again, we will round this up to be 70 bar. Assuming a 220 bar fill, and again using the gas rule of all available gas, this means we have 150 bar of gas to play with before we have to leave the bottom.

So that’s minimum gas a la DIR.

Remember that you “could” always get up a lot faster than this, but why not plan for a nice controlled, slow ascent, rather than planning for a race up to the surface.

In addition, the numbers here are exact, but in the case of a different bottom depth, it would be advisable to use easier numbers e.g. 4.5 instead of 4.3 (working this through min gas would still be 70bar rounded up).

Finally, as the depths increase, the time spent at 1.5x your normal SAC during the ascent is not realistic and also becomes penalising and so those DIR divers doing Tech 2+ depths use a different average SAC rate than 1.5x

Finally, just a reminder of the Golden Rule

At all times during a dive, we carry enough gas to get ourselves, and a buddy or team mate, to the next available gas source. This rule is never violated.

Hope this has been useful to someone

Garf

(updated due to standards change by Wilbo)

Baker - Clearing up the Confusion about Deep Stops

2006-12-11T21:22:00.000Z

Baker's Article on deep stops aims to clear up some of the nonsense that was flying about around the subject. some divers were using deep stops as a mechanism for avoiding DCS, rather than doing "proper" decompression.

Baker explains why the deep stops are effective, and how they can best be included as part of a decompression plan

Clearing up the Confusion about deep stops.

Pyle - The importance of deep stops

2006-12-11T21:09:00.000Z

Another Classic and a a great Read. Richard Pyles Article on the importance of introducing deep stops into the ascent

The Importance of Deep Stops

The Depth and Gas Dilemma

2006-12-11T20:57:00.000Z

This is a superb article. A little dated, it hails the beginning of the new era of deep diving using exciting new gas mixtures such as trimix. However, it provides a very good analysis of what happens to a diver as they descend deeper, explains Oxygen Toxicity, and gives divers interested in decompression theory a solid grounding

The Depth and Gas Dilemma

The Oxygen Window

2006-12-11T20:52:00.000Z

a term often bandied around, the Oxygen window. An excellent article by Johnny Brian, MD

Gas Exchange, Partial Pressure and the Oxygen Window

Oxygen Seizures - Mechanisms

2006-12-11T20:39:00.000Z

A scary one this. What happens to your body when you undergo a hyperoxic seizure.

The Mechanics of Hyperoxic Siezures

Wienke - Decompression Theory

2006-12-11T20:35:00.000Z

An excellent introduction to the concepts in decompression theory, by Bruce Wienke.

Bruce Wienke's Excellent Paper on Decompression theory

M Values - Explained

2006-12-11T17:29:00.000Z

A classic Article you can probably find anywhere, and most people have read, but it is excellent. Erik Baker's paper on M values, which is crucial to the understanding of traditional models of decompression

Eric Baker Explains the concept of M Values

Bubble Mechanics

2006-12-11T17:26:00.000Z

Ovewr at TeamFoxturd Central, we like simple things. Take howard, for example.

Moving on, here is a simple and accessible explanation of how bubbles work, and how the ascent rate of a dive can affect their behaviour.

bubble Mechanics

VPM for dummies

2006-12-11T17:22:00.000Z

Whilst traditional Haldanian models of decompression are simple enough to get your head round, the maths involved in more modern bubble models is mind boggling. here, then is a simple guide for those of us that want the information without the pain

VPM for dummies

Management of PFOs

2006-12-11T17:18:00.000Z

A hot topic this one, here is an excellent article on PFOS by Bernhard Meier, MD; James E. Lock, MD.

the mechanics of a PFO are explained, as well as the potential treatments, and links to plenty of other articles about the subject

PFO Article

Scooters

2006-12-02T19:08:00.000Z

Over the Stoney weekend recently I was fortunate to dive every serious make of Underwater Scooter including Magnum Gavin, Short Bodied Gavin SLA, my own Gavin Mini G, Silent Sub and the newest X- Scooter Sierra.

It was a great weekend and we were fortunate to have our friend Rob Dobson who has just taken delivery of two X-Scooter Sierras down. It meant the Garf, Gloc and I were able to scooter dive as a team, me on the Mini G and the guys on the two X's. Garf has always been adamant that he doesn't see the point of scooters. He seemed to have changed his mind somewhat by the end of our dive! It was a great end to what had been a hard week, and I have to say that it was the X- Scooter that impressed and surprised me the most. The Gavin's and the Silent Sub were as serious and dependable as you'd expect - but the little X's were quite a revelation.

When you have a good look over an X Scooter there are lots of clever refinements that make you wonder whether the other guys have been resting on their laurels somewhat. Firstly, the X's have a single piece nose cone with just one twin face and barrel O ring at the motor end. This removes one potential point of failure which all the other suffer from (ie an O ring at the nose cone) and this really is just an issue of manufacturing laziness / economy on the part of the other manufacturers. It a lot cheaper just to use a piece of tube and then put a machined nose on the end rather than manufacturing a one piece item. Lots of other clever refinements are abound: The way the battery pack secures into the nose cone, the weighting pouch system for trimming the scooter out, a floodable brushless motor, the neat webbing strap on the barrel, the ring in the nose for threading the towcord when towing and above all an ergonomically designed handle that actually fits your hand in the plane in which these towcord scooters are designed to be used

Nickel metal hydride batteries reduce the size and weight of the scooter to surprisingly manageable proportions - it really is just like picking up a small stage cylinder which is definitely a big plus when you're wrestling with a load of other heavy technical shit. It also means you can take the scooter on a dive where you'd leave a Gavin behind if you doubted whether the viz would be good enough and then when you got to the bottom of the shot and found it was poor, you could just thread the towcord through the nose ring and clip it to your hip D-ring like a stage and carry on the dive. You certainly wouldn't and couldn't drag something of Gavin proportions around for a whole dive if conditions didn't work out - you'd just thumb the dive.

Downsides? X's now have a throttle shifting pitch control which means you can adjust the speed "on the fly" unlike Gavin's and Subs where you have to come off the throttle and turn the knob in the centre of the prop blades at the back of the scooter. This is great and it adds a lot of convenience, but it seems to be a fairly complicated mechanism and I wonder how reliable it is.?That said - Gavin relays aren't exact renowned for being faultless other. Other Gripes: The motor whilst it seems to provide roughly the same outright speed as a Gavin or Sub - doesn't seem to have quite the grunt. I reckon with a few stages and X would be slowed down quite a lot - but for a no stage or one deco bottle dive it would be fine.

In use the X's are a joy: Incredibly well balanced, quick turning and maneuverable - both Garf and Gloc were looking very relaxed by the end of our dive and you certainly couldn't say the same for me the first time I used my Gavin.

At around £2,000 in a compact Pelican case here in the UK - they're at least £500 cheaper than the other scooters mentioned here and I reckon as a fun and Tech1 level dive scooter - they're pretty perfect. For serious exploration or a dive where you're running thirds - look elsewhere - not least because of the NiMh batteries - the issues surrounding which are well documented elsewhere.

X Scooters - More Fun Than Sex With A Fat Bird! Feel free to use that in your marketing boys - the milk of my human kindness just overfloweth :-)

Anatomy of the GUE Valve Drill

2006-11-30T16:55:00.000Z

This article outlines the process and reasoning behind the DIR valve drill, as understood by myself. firstly, a caveat. This is my interpretation of the valve drill, and my thought process behind it. If you want to learn how to do it officially, then you need to take a GUE course, or speak to a GUE instructor.

Process summary

The basic valve drill involves closing and opening all three posts on a twin set starting with the right post, then the isolator, then the left post.

Process Details

1. Signal to your team you are going to perform a valve drill
2. Wait until your team is in place and then continue
3. Purge Backup regulator
4. Shut down the right hand post whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team
5. when the post is shut down, breathe down the regulator until it "locks".
6. Remove the regulator and replace with your backup regulator
7. clip off your primary regulator on the right chest D ring
8. Open the Right post
9. Unclip the primary regulator and purge it
10. Remove the backup regulator from your mouth and replace with the primary regulator
11. Shut down the Isolator whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team
12. When the Valve is closed, Re-open the isolator
13. Move your torch to your right hand
14. Shut down the left hand post whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team
15. When the post is closed, purge the backup regulator until it "locks"
16. Open the left post
17. Move the torch to your left hand.
18. Check the position of your right hand post
19. Check the position of your isolator
20. Move the torch to your right hand and check the position of your left post
21. Signal that your drill is complete

Looks like a lot of steps, but it really should not take you any more than a minute or so to go through the drill in a nice slow fashion, and I've seen people do it a great deal quicker than this. The trick is to go through the drill slowly and carefully again and again until the movements become muscle memory rather than conscious action. At that point, you can begin to speed up the drill until it becomes both smooth and fast.

Anatomy of the process

Now that we understand the steps we have to take in order to complete the drill, let's look at each step in a little more detail and explain some of the reasoning behind it.

1. Signal to your team you are going to perform a valve drill

OK, so we are diving in a two or a three. We signal to the rest of the team that we are going to do a drill. This means a clear point at all the other team members indicating "You!" and "You", then pointing at your mask indicating "watch me", and then a turning motion with both hands indicating valve drill, hence "You! Watch Me!" "Do a Valve Drill!". this is critical as the rest of the team need to know what is going on so that they are ready if there is a problem. A problem could be you shutting down both posts and leaving yourself out of gas, or something going wrong with your kit. In either situation they need to be ready to step in, and critically, they need to be doing nothing else but watch so that they are not doing any other drills at this time.

2. Wait until your team is in place and then continue

If you are swimming in a line, you need to give your team time to get into a triangle formation all pointing inwards so that they can see you, and see your valves. This is important so that they are in the correct position to donate a long hose if they need to, and so that they can follow your movements on your valves. so have patience and let them get ready before you get going. Once you are all in position, you maintain eye contact with your team. This is done to ensure that firstly, you are keeping your head up during the drill and not getting absorbed in what you are doing, to keep your head up so that you maintain trim, and also so that you maintain situation awareness in case another member of the team has a problem themselves. you are only doing a drill, and need to keep an eye on your team at all times, including when you are doing drills.

4. Shut down the right hand post whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team

The signal for manipulating a valve is a clear "Attention!" signal, which consists of a controlled side to side motion with your torch beam. this must be a controlled and relatively slow motion, very different from a "I need assistance URGENT" signal which is a very quick motion with the torch. The signal is continued until the valve is closed. The signal should be given so that all other team mates can see it, and if you are diving in a team of three it is important that you do not get caught in the trap of only signalling to one person.

5. When the post is shut down, breathe down the regulator until it "locks".

This one creates a little discussion, but there are a couple of reasons why we breathe down the regulator. Firstly, it is a check that we have shut down the correct post and indeed are breathing the correct regulator. Most important, it depressurises the regulator. If A post or hose has a small leak, then turning off the post might leave the hose bubbling for some time. The hose needs to be depressurised in order to stop the bubbles. If the bubbles stop after you depressurise the hose, you have found the leak. It will also allow a team member, in a real situation, to reseat the first stage if necessary. finally, it is continual training against panic when you suck on a regulator and nothing happens. It becomes instinctive after several hundred drills - regulator locks, take it out and replace with a backup. this seems obvious, but what you are removing is the initial "Oh shit!" when the regulator locks.

6. Remove the regulator and replace with your backup regulator

The critical word here is "Remove". we do not spit out the regulator and replace it. We remove it with our hand and KEEP it in our hand until we are breathing successfully from another reg. This is so that we do not have to suddenly search for it if the regulator we wish to breathe off fails. It also means we do not have a regulator dangling around. there is a principle in DIR that a regulator is either in our hand, in our mouth, or clipped off. We never leave a regulator hanging as then we do not know exactly where it is. so, in this step, we remove our regulator with our right and then, whilst holding on to that regulator, we place the backup regulator in our mouths.

7. Clip off your primary regulator on the right chest D ring

In the last step, we were left in the position of breathing off our left post, and holding the primary regulator in our right hand. Now, we clip off the regulator onto our right chest D ring. This keeps it neatly stowed away whilst we continue our drills and continues with the ethos that we always know where the regulator is. we clip it to the right chest R ring as opposed to the left because we have a policy of not clipping anything across the body. this again is muscle memory. We do not get into habits of clipping across the body because sooner or later we would clip something across the `long hose and trap it.

8. Open the Right post

So, with the primary clipped off and breathing off the backup, we now reach back and open up the right post, remembering to keep our eyes at all times on our team. We open the post until it is fully open.

9. Unclip the primary regulator and purge it

We now unclip the primary regulator from the right chest D ring and give it a purge. This is to ensure we have turned on the correct regulator and that we are going to get gas from it when we attempt a breathe, which we are shortly to do. Note that we keep hold of the regulator during the purge process and continue to keep hold of it to the next step.

10. Remove the backup regulator from your mouth and replace with the primary regulator

As with the earlier step, we remove the backup rather than spitting it out. We now have the backup regulator in our left hand, and the primary regulator in our right hand, so we replace the primary regulator in our mouth and begin to breathe from it. We can now let go of the backup regulator.

11. Shut down the Isolator whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team

We now close down the isolator valve, and as with the earlier steps, we continue to keep our eyes on our team, and clearly signal with the torch in our left hand. We continue to close down the valve until it is fully closed.

12. When the Valve is closed, Re-open the isolator

We do not have a regulator to breathe down with the isolator, so once we have fully closed it, we fully re-open it again. Simple.

13. Move your torch to your right hand

Having finished with the right post and isolator, the next post we are going to deal with is the left post. However, we have an issue here because we hold the torch in a Goodman handle in our left hand. Now this is where some smartarse will say “ahh but I can still manipulate the valve with my left hand”, but what that person would also do is send erratic light signals all over the place as they do so, which could easily be misinterpreted as a problem. So, we don’t do that. What we do is switch the torch to our right hand by sliding it out of the Goodman handle, and grasping the torch in our right hand by the barrel of the light head. This means we can hold the torch and continue to give signals with it, and frees up our left hand to manipulate the left post.

14. Shut down the left hand post whilst simultaneously signalling you are manipulating a valve to your team

Remembering to keep our eyes on our team, and continually giving a clear side to side attention signal, we now reach back with our left hand and shut down the left post until it is fully closed.

15. When the post is closed, purge the backup regulator until it "locks"

Now that the post is closed, we reach to our backup regulator with our left hand, and purge it until it empties. This will depressurise the hose for exactly the reasons we described earlier. Once the regulator has stopped bubbling, we know we have shut down the correct post.

16. Open the left post

We can now open the left hand post. We open the valve fully, and then give the backup regulator a purge to ensure it is functioning correctly again.

17. Move the torch to your left hand

We now slide our left hand back into the Goodman handle of the torch.

18-20 – The flow check

We have essentially finished the valve drill now, but we need to just do a flow check to ensure all posts are back in their correct positions. This is a general DIR policy. Whenever anyone, including yourself, has been manipulating the valves, we do a flow check at the end to ensure all the valves are where they are supposed to be. In the case of the valve drill, all posts should be back in the open position. So we reach back with our right hand and check that the right hand post and the isolator is open. We take the torch in our right hand and check the left hand post is open, and then finally place our left hand back in the Goodman handle and we have completed the flow check.

21. Signal that your drill is complete

As the drill is now complete, we give a signal to the rest of the team that we have completed it and are ready to move on to the next person’s drill, or continue with the dive. There are different ways we do this, but the way our team does this is to give a circle with the torch indicating “OK”. The other team members return the signal. This gives the other team members the information that you are happy, but also you are getting a confirmation from them that they are satisfied that you have put all of your valves back where they are supposed to be. If you had made a mistake and left a post closed at any point, they could intercept you at this point and rectify the situation for you.

And that is my anatomy of the GUE valve drill.

Photoshoot of Scooters at Stoney

2006-11-26T20:58:00.000Z

by GLOC
As you will soon come to realise, I am the artistic side of Team FoxTurd, Howard providing the humour and Garf the questionable looks. I dabble in land photography, mainly portrait and street photography but since Jan '06 I have been partaking in underwater photography.

Here are some photos that were taken at the DIRx Gig over the weekend 18/19 November.

I also did a couple showing some skills including the OOG donate

I will hopefully upload most of my photos from this year to this blog for all to see.

I am seriously looking at getting a housing for my Fuji S2 SLR as I find there are some issues concerning the Olympus 5050 which I currently use.

Farewell to the VR3

2006-11-26T11:30:00.000Z

By Garf

The time to sell the VR3 has arrived. I always said I would keep it until DIR gave me a tool to enable me to dive without it, and Tech1 gave me those tools. To be honest, once you have learned all the shortcuts for calculating CNS, Minimum gas, and specifically Ratio Deco, and once you have plugged the numbers generated by ratio deco through a few pc programs to satisfy yourself it's sound, then the arguments for using computers do become a little weak.

That's not to say the VR3 is not a great tool. It has served me well for a couple of hundred dives, and without Ratio Deco, there is no way I would be selling it on. It has always worked flawlessly, and if truth be told, got me out of a few tricky spots, and I could never criticise the unit itself as it is a great piece of kit.

However, the simple truth is that the real strengths of the VR3 are somewhat undone by the DIR approach. The ability to program multiple gases, even whilst underwater, to cater for whatever mix you are diving becomes somewhat irrelevent if you dive using the same standard gas mixtures everytime. The facility for deep microbubble stops is not necessary if we start our deep stops at 80% of the average ATAS. Hell, there's even a fast calculation to work that out. The "time to surface" calculation that I loved with the VR3 is unecessary becuase at any point throughout the dive I can look at the dive time and know exactly how long it is to the surface anyway. If I choose to pad that out to make it more conservative, well there's no difference between padding out the VR3 and padding out Ratio deco, neither are going to do you any harm by making them more conservative.

What I never understood about Deco on the fly was that you only need to know your bottom time and the average depth, and away you go. There is no complicated calcuoations to perform in the water, and once you know how it all works it is a pretty appealing methodology, as there are three people in the water any one of whom is a complete backup for the deco, all of whom are checking to ensure nothing daft is being done. As long as you follow those protocols it's a great system.

So, the VR3 has gone on ebay. The sale was accelerated in the end by a need for some urgent cash after spending a ludicrous amount of money on Tech1, but it was definitely on the way out. There was nothing wrong with the VR3, I would never stand and critice one, or the owner of one, becuase they are a great piece of kit. The simple truth is that I simply cannot see a need for it anymore.

Decompression Theory References

2006-11-23T22:44:00.000Z

This is all the Information We have on decompression theory and practice. OBviously the first of you smartsrses to comment on this - I am still building it, but have about 30 links to add!

Decompression Theories
Eric Baker Explains the concept of M Values
bubble Mechanics

VPM for dummies

Medical
Bernhard Meier, MD; James E. Lock, MD, "Contemporary Management of PFO"

Deep Stops
Richar Pyles Article about the benefits of Deep Stops

Bernhard Meier, MD; James E. Lock, MD

Team foxturd

Diving Incident and Safety Resource Centre (DISRC)

Cognitas Report Into Incident Reporting in the UK is Published

Garf now teaching for GUE

Garf back in the water

DIR Rules. Explained

GLOC's PFO and where things are now

Course report: GUE Recreational ITC, November 2009 High Springs Florida

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the differenceRobert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915)

We all know that GUE instructors are amongst the best educators in the dive industry, but what exactly does it take to become a Fundamentals instructor?

Wreck History Week on MV Halton with Bob Anderson and Kieran Hatton

Howard and I are going back out...

Part 4 - Malta

Part 3 - Malta

Part 2 - Malta

If Carlsberg Made Normoxic Wrecks...Malta Would be the Place...Part 1

The Chimps Spring Tea Party - 18 April 09 - NDAC

First Dive with the MDE Manifold

The new MDE manifold and valve - initial thoughts

The press cuttings and Wilbo is shown diving a CCR!

Wilbo and GLOC make ITV West News

Team Foxturd members help break world record for the most number of divers ironing underwater at the same time in aid of the RNLI.

Team Foxturd Takes Part in Guiness World Record Attempt at Extreme Ironing

Merry Christmas from Team Foxturd

EuroTek 2008 - What a great Weekend!

Extreme Ironing

Updated Images of Life Site

Wilbo takes Tech 1

Garf turns to the dark side

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 6: The Final Day

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 5

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 4

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 3

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 2

Tech 2 Course Report: Day 1

The chimps tackle T2

TFT's "Nuts Deep in Rust" Narvik Tour 2008

Dive team identify Orkney wreck

Team Foxturd Preferred Suppliers

The Badger Loses His Virginity (on the DIR-UK boat)

Team Advil Take A Trip To The Mother Ship - Florida 2008

Badger passes Tech1

Why we wear our stages on the left

Losing weight for fat middle aged bastards

Unexplained DCS theory

GUE Cave 1 – The Journey To Heaven’s Gate

TFT expands

We're Back on for Tech 2

GLOC does the Red Sea on MV Tala

Cave 1 for the Chimps

Commitment to Training

The DIR Head to Toe Check

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 7

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 6

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 5

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 4

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 3

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 2

The Chimps Do Scapa - Part 1

The Minnerva

Taking Underwater Pictures

New Member Joins Team

Tech1 Ratio Deco - Explained

DIR Minimum Gas - Explained

Baker - Clearing up the Confusion about Deep Stops

Pyle - The importance of deep stops

The Depth and Gas Dilemma

The Oxygen Window

Oxygen Seizures - Mechanisms

Wienke - Decompression Theory

M Values - Explained

Bubble Mechanics

VPM for dummies

Management of PFOs

Scooters

Anatomy of the GUE Valve Drill

Photoshoot of Scooters at Stoney

Farewell to the VR3

Decompression Theory References

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken (1915)