Class report: Rec 2

[TSandM]

Peter and I, along with my buddy Kirk, rjack's wife Melody, and dherbman, spent the last three days taking 5thD-X's Rec 2 class from Joe Talavera.

The short version: It was a VERY good class. A definite step forward to better skills at a higher standard, but a manageable one. There was specific skill and conceptual learning, but also a lot of perspective and philosophy. Joe is a superb teacher and has a keen ability to read people well. Taking this class and practicing what we were shown will improve both the safety and the enjoyment of our dives.

The long version: This was a lot like the old Fundies you read about, in doubles with failures and so on, but with a distinctively Talavera twist.

We started out on Saturday morning with some lecture and dry runs. Three of our class were in doubles, and two were in singles, so the class naturally broke up into two teams. We covered basic failure management in doubles, and the singles divers participated, since they would be diving at times with people in doubles, and need to know their roles as team members. We went through bag-shooting, which I had of course done in Fundies, but Joe had some slightly different procedures (which ended up completely flummoxing me -- Beautiful example of the rule of primacy. I learned it one way, and I don't seem to do very well at changing that!)

Into the water, and we were to go down to 30 feet and tie off a lift bag, and then do S-drills and valve drills. This was our first lesson in team communication issues -- We got the bag shot and tied off, but then it became apparent that we had all heard our instructions somewhat differently. We ended up doing our drills in about 8 feet of water, which made them rather more difficult than need be, but we muddled through. I pop wheelies while trying to do valve drills, and Joe had some excellent advice about keeping my head up and eye contact with my buddies while I'm doing them, rather than dropping my head, which makes me start to tilt head down, which then causes me to rear up to try to keep my balance. It's all subtle body english in trying to stay stable, and I think that actually improved as we went on.

Joe then visibly joined us (he'd been lurking before -- he does that well) and we went through bag shooting. This is a skill I'm actually pretty proud of -- I do it quickly and pretty well, at least with visual reference to the bottom. But I hold everything in my left hand, and Joe wanted it in the right, for good reasons -- that leaves the left hand free to adjust buoyancy if necessary. Putting everything in my right hand was unnatural and awkward, and I ended up doing a very poor job of the skill, and losing six or eight feet of depth in the process. In fact, I just never came to terms with this change, and on the last day, wound up with the bag in one hand and the spool in the other, wondering how I was going to get the regulator out of my mouth to fill the bag. I got so confused that I took the reg out on an exhale, and then realized I had nothing in my lungs to fill the bag WITH! Sometimes I can be amazingly stupid underwater.

Anyway, after the bag shoot and ascent, we redescended and went for a short dive. The dive had parameters for time and depth, none of which I, as leader, followed very well. We swam out ten minutes, and just about when we turned the dive, the failures started. We actually did okay with them -- we had post failures, and then somebody went OOA and we had to thumb the dive and ascend. The idea was teamwork -- somebody calling deco, somebody else doing the bag shoot, and adjusting the responsibilities according to what had happened during the dive. (For example, if Kirk's supposed to do the bag shoot, but he's the OOA diver, that responsibility should go to somebody else.) Keeping track of three people, sharing air, and dealing with an SMB was more than we could manage, and we didn't hold our stops well or keep our ascent controlled. We surfaced pretty chagrined, and swam in for a break.

The second team went down and had similar challenges. They did S-drills, shot bags, and had a short dive with an OOA to end it. They also had simlar problems.

We had a very short break (let's put it this way -- As a woman, the time it takes me to get out of my gear, my gauges, my dry suit, into the restroom, out of the restroom, back into dry suit, gauges and gear is enough time for Kirk to go have a leisurely lunch somewhere) and Joe was waving us back into the water.

Then we did mask-off ascents, and I got my butt royally chewed for being ambiguous and timid about signalling when I was leading my maskless buddy up. Joe: "I KNOW you can do better than that, because I know what you do for a living!" When it was my turn to be maskless, things actually went quite well, because I've been trying to lose that "rattle", so I've had Kirk do a lot of swimming me around with my mask off, and we're very used to it now.

Another short "dive", and we did better at maintaining depth and time, and a little better at failures. It's hard to keep track of who has lost what -- situational awareness of what the team has, what's working and what's not, and where the resources are.

Back to the shop, and lecture on gas planning and gas management. This was material from the mini I'd just taken, but it was fine to go over it again, and it was new to several of us. We had a brief review of the video, which was about all any of us could take, and we broke for the night.

Day 2 dawned grey and rainy and cold. We did our lecture/dry run portion under Kirk's canopy, with the rain driving in sideways. Several of us had just donned our dry suits when we got there, as the best raingear we could wear! We talked about team positioning, and where you would use various strategies, and then light discipline and how best to communicate among the team depending on what positioning had been adopted. Then we went over toxing diver rescue procedures, and little did I know how much of a challenge THAT was going to be.

Into the water, and tie off the lift bag again, and do bag shoots as a warmup. This time, I did the skill beautifully -- smooth and quick, and with no buoyancy loss at all. Of course, Joe wasn't in the water yet, so he didn't get to see my one moment of competence in the entire three day class Up to the surface, and meet up with Joe, and go down to start drills.

Toxing diver. Kirk died, and I almost blacked out from overbreathing. Turns out when a large man wearing dual 130s turns over on his back, a small woman has little hope of unturtling him. A very determined but inept small woman will keep at it until she's so hypercarbic that the world starts greying out . . . Toxing diver was amusing. I couldn't get Kirk off the bottom, Melody took me flying to the surface, and Kirk looked pretty danged competent, but was apparently trying to drag the reg out of Melody's mouth the whole time. This is NOT an easy skill.

Following this floundering, we did another dive -- 60 feet, ten minutes out, ten minutes back. We had some minor navigation issues, like reaching the boundary line (beyond which we are not to go) about six minutes into our planned 10, but we found a dendronotus iris nudibranch at that point, so all was good. We turned the dive and Kirk had a left post failure. It was broken, so we agreed to ascend. Now, the purpose of the ascents on the second day was to get a feel for moving briskly to the first stop, and then being able to arrest the ascent and control the shallow portion. So, we move up to 30 feet and stop, at which point I go OOA. I signal Kirk, who, amazingly enough, refuses to donate (remember, he's got no backup reg any more!). I have a "duh" moment and turn to Melody. Apparently, my OOA signal was way too small, and she fails to recognize it. I do it again, and she gets it this time, and tries to donate, but somehow the loop of her long hose gets caught on her isolator knob and she can't free it. I'm sitting there thinking, "Wow, I'd really like something to breathe. In fact, I'm beginning to NEED something to breathe. Actually, pretty soon, I'm going to put my own reg back in my mouth . . . " And, of course, in the process, we've dropped about eight feet. Finally get the air-share established and the ascent back under control, but if I remember correctly, we now completely forget that somebody is supposed to shoot a bag. It was not an elegant execution by any means.

We surface to freezing rain, and swim in for our short break while team 2 has their chance to shine. Before I even get out of the restroom, Joe is waving us back into the water. We hustle in and go out to do our second practice dive. I'm leading this time, and my primary light fails on descent. We were supposed to cover light failures, but we hadn't gotten there, so I was fairly proud of the fact that I stowed my light and deployed my backup expeditiously. We did a pretty good job of getting down to depth and maintaining it, and keeping track of time. We had the usual sequence of failures (am I EVER going to remember to purge the backup reg when my left post fails?) ending in a broken manifold for Kirk, which put him on my long hose, and left Melody to shoot the bag in midwater, which turns out to be much easier to say than to do. Another chaotic, poorly managed ascent. By now, I'm getting paranoid!

We surfaced to WAVES! The wind had picked up, and there was lightning in the distance, and waves were breaking over my head as we surface swam back to the float. It was a relief to descend to pick up the lift bag, and swim back in underwater.

 

[TSandM]

Part 2:

Back to the shop to talk about minimum deco and NDLs. I do have to say that, at the end of this class, I feel far more comfortable about operating without a dive computer. The rules are actually pretty simple, and they make sense. The table is easy to memorize, and actually more conservative than the NOAA tables. Adjusting for 32% is also easy to do. If you are checking your pressure every five minutes, as we were to do, you have the depth and time information in your head to know what your average depth is, to plan your NDL time around (and you should have some plan for what you are going to do, depth-wise, before you go down, because that determines your gas planning).

We then adjourned to stuff ourselves with warm, nourishing Mexican food at a nearby restaurant, and headed home to prepare for the following day's dives.


Day 3 was a boat charter day. The weather was clear and cold, and the previous day's storm had brought a lot of new snow to the mountains, so the view was spectacular, out across the Sound at the Olympics, or back toward shore at the shiny Cascades. To my enormous relief, the water was very calm, as I had dreaded trying to get back on a boat in doubles in the waves we had swum across the day before.

The boat was late, and when it finally arrived, had a starter problem that necessitated replacement, so we were far later getting started than we had hoped. We motored briskly out to the first dive site, the Possession Point wall. We were told to expect surface current, but that it would die off as we went deeper. The first team went in (the singles divers) and had a very nice dive, but ended up quite a ways from where we expected them. As we were waiting, Kirk was telling us that he had done this site and gone north from the dropoff point, and that's where the best wall structure was. So we formed a dive plan that involved Melody leading and heading north from the dropoff until we went over the lip of the wall.

Well, as Joe says, no plan survives contact with the water. We got in the water and were a little slow to start down, and drifted a ways from the top of the underwater ridge on which we were dropped. By the time we got down to the ridge, we were in blowing current . . . headed SOUTH. Kicking north into it was all I could do, and I stayed right down on the bottom and did as much pull and glide as I could manage. I kept thinking that any minute we would find the edge and it would slow down, but we kicked for over 15 minutes into the current. This was the first of many errors we made. We should have recognized that the plan we had made was not executable, and revised it to drift, instead of fighting. We finally did find the edge of the dropoff, and headed down, and Melody made the very good decision not to proceed as deep as we had originally planned, figuring we were all heavily CO2 loaded from the exertion. We poked around a little bit, still heading north, and then Kirk thumbed the dive. I had a feeling I knew why, and it turned out to be true -- we had a misunderstanding about how the total dive time was to be calculated, and he was trying to obey the rules Joe had set us. I knew what the problem was, but you don't argue with a thumb, so we started up. I had asked to shoot the bag from midwater, as it was something I'd never done. I started trying to get it out of my pocket at 40 feet and it wouldn't come . . . I was struggling with it, and falling behind the team's ascent. I finally got it out and got it shot, but by this time, I was rushing to catch up with everybody and trying to spool up line, with the predictable result that I lost control of the ascent at ten feet, and for the first time in my life, ended up going feet first to the surface.

This was amusing in a sick way. I'm basically hanging from my feet, because they're buoyant and the doubles most emphatically are not. I'm trying to do a somersault or swan-dive maneuver, as I was taught in my drysuit class and have never practiced since, since I've never had the problem, but my fins are out of the water and have essentially no leverage. Finally, another "duh" moment, and it occurs to me that if I inflate the dickens out of my wing, my head will end up on the surface. Everything solved, although I gave the guys on the boat a few tense moments as they watched the struggle. How to impress your dive buddies!

I'm back on the boat and seriously contemplating claiming ear problems to avoid having to go in the water again. All three of us rated that dive as a 2 or 3 on a 10 scale. We weren't very happy with ourselves at all, and it was all our own fault for failing to adapt to conditions.

We sailed over to the Possession Point Ferry, where the boat anchored. In case you don't know it, anchor lines are our friends. We made our descent on the anchor line because of the surface current, and the viz was so good we could see the wreck when we were about forty feet above it. By the time we got to it, there was almost no current at all. This wreck is spectacularly beautiful, covered with a dense carpet of white plumose anemones, and playing host to enormous schools of shiner perch, pile perch, and herring. In addition, the remaining spars are refuges for many rockfish and habitat for tons of various species of nudibranch. Peter's team also found an enormous ling cod, which our team didn't encounter.

This dive went smoothly, and the ascent went okay. Melody and I went up the anchor line, worrying about the current. For some odd reason, it seemed to be there, and both of us finned like crazy to try to keep position. Kirk, who scorned the crutch, sat just a few feet from us, perfectly horizontal and hardly finning at all, and I kept looking at him and wondering why a malicious universe would create a currentless pocket for him to sit and look so blasted competent in. Joe later pointed out to us that in mild current, it can be far easier just to face into and fin into it than it is to hang onto the anchor line, although one does run some risk of losing the line that way.

At any rate, it was a nice dive to finish the class with.

We then went out for pho for dinner, which was perfect, as we were all quite chilled. Joe gave us his evaluations, which interestingly enough were almost not at all related to skills, but more addressed issues with attitude and the mental side of diving. I need to be more assertive and have more confidence in myself; Peter needs to decide that practicing skills is worth while. Each of us got a message of this kind.

This class was precisely what I hoped it would be. The material and skills are, at least to me, perfectly reasonable expectations for people planning dives in the deeper recreational ranges. They were a stretch for me, but a manageable one. I was stressed and sometimes discouraged, but never frightened or completely demoralized. The emphasis on team skills, communication and resource management was new and very welcome. There were many small pointers to make things we were already doing easier or smoother. And Joe does a superb job of exactly what their website says they want to do: Providing a friendly and supportive atmosphere in which to expand skills and knowledge.

Plus, he's great fun.

The best moment of the entire class for me was having my husband turn to me in the car on the way home and say, "So, when are we going to do Rec 3?"

 

[limeyx]

Part 2:

Back to the shop to talk about minimum deco and NDLs. I do have to say that, at the end of this class, I feel far more comfortable about operating without a dive computer. The rules are actually pretty simple, and they make sense. The table is easy to memorize, and actually more conservative than the NOAA tables. Adjusting for 32% is also easy to do. If you are checking your pressure every five minutes, as we were to do, you have the depth and time information in your head to know what your average depth is, to plan your NDL time around (and you should have some plan for what you are going to do, depth-wise, before you go down, because that determines your gas planning).

Wonder how long it will take NetDoc or Charlie99 to show up and "re-educate" you
You do know you're going to die by doing this, right?

I'm back on the boat and seriously contemplating claiming ear problems to avoid having to go in the water again. All three of us rated that dive as a 2 or 3 on a 10 scale. We weren't very happy with ourselves at all, and it was all our own fault for failing to adapt to conditions.

I have absolutely not ever, not never been in any kind of position like this! (Not even in DIR-F, *and* tech1 day 3 for instance It's definitely easy to get worn down on these classes -- I have no idea how the instructors manage to do it so cheerfully and maintain that slight demeanour of "You guys suck at this, you're lucky you aren't being demoted to Rec 1

This dive went smoothly, and the ascent went okay. Melody and I went up the anchor line, worrying about the current. For some odd reason, it seemed to be there, and both of us finned like crazy to try to keep position. Kirk, who scorned the crutch, sat just a few feet from us, perfectly horizontal and hardly finning at all, and I kept looking at him and wondering why a malicious universe would create a currentless pocket for him to sit and look so blasted competent in. Joe later pointed out to us that in mild current, it can be far easier just to face into and fin into it than it is to hang onto the anchor line, although one does run some risk of losing the line that way.

This was definitely something Gideon tried to drum into us -- kicking gently into the current is waaay easier than fighting with it. Just line up "behind" the anchor line, 3 abreast and face into the current. That way you can see the line and you dont get exhausted. of course, we entirely failed to actually *do* this on most of the dives

I keep forgetting to purge the backup on a left post failure also ...

 

[rjack321]

I'm back on the boat and seriously contemplating claiming ear problems to avoid having to go in the water again. All three of us rated that dive as a 2 or 3 on a 10 scale. We weren't very happy with ourselves at all, and it was all our own fault for failing to adapt to conditions.

You partially adapted, by leveling off before hitting 100ft while huffing and puffing, that's a good start!

Successfully managing the worst issue is paramount. As you get more comfortable with those solutions you have more brain power left to modify and adapt the smaller details. It comes, trust in the force...

 

[Adobo]

Let me re-state what my expectations were when I took this same class..

I thought Rec 2 was going to be 3 days of hanging out with the guys, shooting the breeze and doing some diving. You know, vacation style. Since your experience with the class seem to be not too different than mine, I'm sure you can imagine just how much shock I was in after the first day.

 

[Ben_ca]

Great report there Lynne... and how many doubles dives did you get in before the class? What else did Peter say? Does he think this class was beneficial to a "non DIR" diver?

 

[Ben_ca]

I thought Rec 2 was going to be 3 days of hanging out with the guys, shooting the breeze and doing some diving......

Like what we do almost every weekend?

 

[limeyx]

Like what we do almost every weekend?

Heh, same here. It usually goes.

"Hey, do we have enough singles to get in 3 dives on Sat?"

Followed by 1/2 the week scrambling around getting fills

By the time we get up at 7am and drive to the beach

"Hmmm, maybe we should only do 2 dives today,"

by the time we've fought the surf entry and exit

"It's lunchtime, let's go home"

 

[dsteding]

Great report there Lynne... and how many doubles dives did you get in before the class? What else did Peter say? Does he think this class was beneficial to a "non DIR" diver?

Peter is still a "non-DIR" diver? Let's see, Essentials, check, Rec 2, check, BP/W, check, long-hose, check, can light, check, Jet Fins, check . . .

Uh oh, time to run and hide.

Hey Peter, can I get my light back?

 

[rjack321]

Heh, same here. It usually goes.

"Hey, do we have enough singles to get in 3 dives on Sat?"

Followed by 1/2 the week scrambling around getting fills

By the time we get up at 7am and drive to the beach

"Hmmm, maybe we should only do 2 dives today,"

by the time we've fought the surf entry and exit

"It's lunchtime, let's go home"

Not when "the diver who shall not be named" is around though huh?