Wednesday opened with another fun dive saw some monster lobsters! They were as wide as my fist, and since this was a marine preserve, did not bother to hide as we came by. Unfortunately, the previous days swells had stirred up particulate, and I did not bring my strobe! Swimming through the kelp was fun I was sidemount so did a lot of swimming on my side as well as in trim. We did not find the sharks, guitarfish, or bat rays, but one of the other swim teams did. My left wrist leaked again. WHY?!?!?!
We all practiced picking up unconscious divers from the bottom. This was executed very safely both rescuer and victim had an assigned dive buddy to help in case of problems. G was very thoughtful about my almost-drysuit . . . I did not wear a hood, so no leaking neck seal. After everyone rescued each other, we reassembled to tow a diver to the boat, stripping gear as we went . .
LESSON LEARNED: you must explain your gear to your buddy specifically for removal. While I had pointed to and mentioned the four disconnect points on my Nomad XT (chest quick disconnect, two shoulder strap quick disconnects, and the waist-crotch buckle), my rescuer could not ascertain them in the water. As for the inflator hose mounted on the bottom, the rescuer had no problem feeling for the inflator It was where they expected to find it. The fact it was upside down did not seem to matter.
After cleanup and lunch, we went back down to the chamber where we set up some first responder scenarios. Then, as chamber folks were readying the chamber for our demo, we put a CPR victim (mannequin) on a gurney. We towed the victim down the hill, and out to the end of the dock. Then, on signal, we hit the gurney with the team of three doing CPR, mask hold, and bagging, while the other two support people took the role of the paramedics who would have delivered the victim. Moving rapidly up the hill, we got to the chamber, got the victim into the chamber and dived to 30 feet.
Imagine what it is like to be inside the hot fill of a scuba tank. As we dived, the temp got warmer as the third group to dive, it went to 90F. Admittedly, I LOVED IT! Theres a damp chill in the air next to the ocean, and for once I was warm!
However . . . what goes down, must come up. As they released pressure, it got cooler and cooler, and a fog appeared . . .chilling me to the bone.
Everyone else was Ahhhh.
After dinner, we were back in the classroom where we looked at the various tables so many dive DCIEM, NAUI, Navy, etc. We ran three hypothetical dives The first two went to 100 feet, with 1 hour 10 minute SIT. After the second dive, we looked for: How long of a SIT is needed to do another dive to 100 feet and still be within the No Decompression Limits? The tables ranged from an astonishing 29 minutes to the longest of 9 hours. The take away from this is that if you are going to dive a table, stick to the table, dont switch tables. We also had some discussion of the algorithms used in dive computers. Basically, it is all theory, and really, everything depends on the individual.
We all practiced picking up unconscious divers from the bottom. This was executed very safely both rescuer and victim had an assigned dive buddy to help in case of problems. G was very thoughtful about my almost-drysuit . . . I did not wear a hood, so no leaking neck seal. After everyone rescued each other, we reassembled to tow a diver to the boat, stripping gear as we went . .
LESSON LEARNED: you must explain your gear to your buddy specifically for removal. While I had pointed to and mentioned the four disconnect points on my Nomad XT (chest quick disconnect, two shoulder strap quick disconnects, and the waist-crotch buckle), my rescuer could not ascertain them in the water. As for the inflator hose mounted on the bottom, the rescuer had no problem feeling for the inflator It was where they expected to find it. The fact it was upside down did not seem to matter.
After cleanup and lunch, we went back down to the chamber where we set up some first responder scenarios. Then, as chamber folks were readying the chamber for our demo, we put a CPR victim (mannequin) on a gurney. We towed the victim down the hill, and out to the end of the dock. Then, on signal, we hit the gurney with the team of three doing CPR, mask hold, and bagging, while the other two support people took the role of the paramedics who would have delivered the victim. Moving rapidly up the hill, we got to the chamber, got the victim into the chamber and dived to 30 feet.
Imagine what it is like to be inside the hot fill of a scuba tank. As we dived, the temp got warmer as the third group to dive, it went to 90F. Admittedly, I LOVED IT! Theres a damp chill in the air next to the ocean, and for once I was warm!
However . . . what goes down, must come up. As they released pressure, it got cooler and cooler, and a fog appeared . . .chilling me to the bone.
Everyone else was Ahhhh. After dinner, we were back in the classroom where we looked at the various tables so many dive DCIEM, NAUI, Navy, etc. We ran three hypothetical dives The first two went to 100 feet, with 1 hour 10 minute SIT. After the second dive, we looked for: How long of a SIT is needed to do another dive to 100 feet and still be within the No Decompression Limits? The tables ranged from an astonishing 29 minutes to the longest of 9 hours. The take away from this is that if you are going to dive a table, stick to the table, dont switch tables. We also had some discussion of the algorithms used in dive computers. Basically, it is all theory, and really, everything depends on the individual.
