Class Report: UTD Wreck 1, October 2009

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Blackwood

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I’ve now had a good night sleep, and have had some time to reflect on the last three days. The same crew from my UTD Overhead Protocols class converged on an unsuspecting San Diego for three days of intense training. This would be UTD Wreck 1.

The students:
Andy - advanced trimix diver, full cave diver and UTD technical instructor,
Kim - advanced trimix diver, and
Marc - technical diver.

The instructor:
Andrew, Unified Team Diving founder and Training Director.

Brief course overview: wreck 1 is an essentials of wreck penetration course. It’s not “here’s a reel, now go explore the Britannic.” It covers gas management and planning, navigating, running line, team work, and the actual mechanics of MOVING through a wreck (which I’ve come to realize is easier said than done). There are very strict limits. No deeper than 100 feet, no required stage deco (in fact, no longer than NDL), no further than 1 400’ reel, no more than 60CF of penetration gas. Not specifically mentioned in the standards, but also no jumps. Required gear includes the standard UTD affair: back inflate BC, bottom timer, paddle fins, etc., in addition to at least one 400 foot reel, one 100 foot spool, a pre-loaded SMB on a separate spool, and a set of doubles for each dive (we’d be doing six).

Now that the restrictions are out of the way, here’s what we actually used: dives 1-4, we used one set of doubles and a stage bottle. Dives 5 and 6, Andy used one set of doubles and a stage bottle; Kim and I used two sets of doubles. For every dive, each of us also had an Oxygen bottle and we did 5 minutes of cleanup at 20 feet. However, we didn’t break MDL.

Rather than continue in prose, I’m going to shoot out a list of bullet points of my biggest recollections from the class. Please forgive the lazy formatting.

Day 1, Dive 1:

  • External survey
  • Marc leading, Kim #2, Andy #3
  • Fluster cuck
  • I (unfamiliar with the wreck) tie in at the wrong spot (not where we would be entering were we actually penetrating). I screw up the secondary tie. Team misses it. AG cuts the line. Andy donates his reel. I screw up the second secondary tie. Team misses it. AG cuts the line. Team cleans up and ascends. Total run time ~20 minutes.
  • Upon surfacing, AG heard saying to (captain) Danny: that was a disaster!
  • Debrief: there were two things AG hated about the dive. The obvious was my tie (double wrap, choke back, and wrap again, so it’s not line on line friction) and my team not catching it even though they both checked it. Also, I had backup lights on, as did Kim. In Andrew’s words (paraphrased), “You can get away with almost anything back in Redondo in 20 feet of water. When we get to real diving, this kind of stuff will kill you. Get your game faces on.”
Day 1, Dive 2:


  • External survey
  • Kim leading, Andy #2, Marc #3
  • This dive went pretty smoothly. Kim tied in closer to our desired entry point, though her secondary and primary were too close together and not really conducive to dropping our bottles (they’d have been hanging in midwater).
  • Though we all had oxygen, the course limits are for no-deco dives, and with some of us on air, that gave us about 30 minutes on the UTD table. 15 minutes in as we were passing the superstructure, I signaled Andy in the #2 position. “Question: turn?” Andy misread my signal as a command, relayed it to Kim in #1, and we turned. We got back to the primary tie in 5 minutes.
  • Debrief: AG was pretty happy. Everything was fairly smooth except for the mistaken communication (which came up again later).
Day 2, Dive 1:


  • Internal penetration
  • Andy leading, Marc #2, Kim #3
  • Plan is to find a better spot to tie in and drop our bottles. On this dive, we are using stage bottles as transportation gas to and from the wreck. We’ll penetrate on backgas only, to 1/3 maximum. We’ll be using the same tanks on the next dive, though, so doing a total volume calc with Kim’s setup (double 80s and an 80 stage) we decide upon 40CF maximum penetration gas. We’ll enter the wreck near the stern, and go straight down the main passageway (known as Burma Road) until we hit our turn pressure. Then we’ll come back.
  • All went pretty much according to plan. Andy found a good spot where we all had room to drop our bottles on structure between the primary and secondary ties. The platform was about 10 feet below our entry, so we make a quick ascent and head on in.
  • My first thought: well this is different.
  • Andy elects to run line along the right wall which, given that the wreck is sitting on its port side, is in fact the floor of the hallway. As such, there aren’t a whole lot of tie points, but Andy is able to make due. 15 minutes in, I signal Andy. I tap my bottom timer and say “15.” I was trying to avoid the same miscommunication we had earlier so I didn’t give the turn signal, but we turned anyway. Out we go, down to collect the bottles, back to the upline, deco, done.
  • Debrief: two things: “why did you turn when you turned”, and “the line laying sucked.” First, “why did you turn when you turned?” Similar miscommunication, really. Even though I knew now from experience that exiting would be quicker than the penetration, I wanted to make sure Andy was aware of our bottom time (since he was running line and looking for tie off points, I figured I’d be helpful). AG: You really, really have to make your communications count. Second, “the line laying sucked.” Although Andy was trying/planning to run line along the right wall (floor), it was somewhat barren, and he ended up running more of a zig zag pattern down the hallway. With visibility, it would be easy enough to follow. But line isn’t there for when you have visibility. It’s there for when you don’t. Coming out blind, every zig or zag the team would have to jump the line and switch hands, etc.. Not exactly easy, nor quick. In the future, we are told to try to be methodical with our line laying. Think not of the way in, but the way out. And don’t cross over openings in the wreck where other teams may come in and foul the line (or get caught in it). If you come to an opening, run the line around it as best you can.
  • AG: “The floor is on the right and the ceiling is on the left. Which do you think will have more tie points?” Me: “The floor?” AG (amused): “How many floors do you walk on with tie points?” Me (indignant): “I don’t walk across many ceilings either.” General laughter, AG: “The ceiling is littered in tie points. The hardest part will be choosing one of many, not finding them.”
Day 2, Dive 2:


  • Internal penetration
  • Marc leading, Kim #2, Andy #3
  • Plan is similar. I’ll tie in where Andy did last dive, we’ll drop the bottles, and I’ll run line along the left wall (ceiling), but we’ll turn right into the engine room, and explore around and down (across) it.
  • Holy crap, I’m a hoover. When I was #2, my gas consumption was okay. Not stellar, but still okay. When I’m running line, however… wow. It’s probably a combination of newness, environmental stress, and being evaluated, but I could not get my breathing under control. I could tell that I was sucking it down and somehow couldn’t get myself to calm down.
  • Along the way, I came to an opening on the wall (ceiling) where I was running line. I knew not to run it across the opening, attempted to run it down along the edge of the door, but succeeded only in running it diagonally across the opening. My team signaled me, I looked back and saw the mess and fixed it. We made it to the engine room, but barely. Actually, I made it to the engine room, and Kim was able to stick her head inside, but Andy was still back on Burma Road when I checked my gas, saw that I was at my turn pressure, and called it.
  • Debrief: pretty much the same as Dive 1. The line laying sucked. Communication, however, was good.
  • My first thought: even though I turned after 8 minutes, this is starting to be pretty cool.
Day 3, Dive 1:


  • Internal penetration
  • Kim leading, Andy #2, Marc #3
  • Boy is it nice to be in the #3 position. They call it the ‘rocking chair’ for a reason. You watch your team, yes, but don’t have many duties to speak of. So you just follow behind and enjoy the wreck.
  • Plan: tie in, drop deco bottles (Kim and I are diving without stages today, and Andy will be penetrating on his stage for the first dive), enter, go down a level, keep going straight, come back up, and keep going straight.
  • All went fairly well. I saw a lot more of the wreck than I had on the previous dives. We accomplished everything we intended to do (the down and the up). We left the reel inside the wreck to facilitate getting in a little bit further on the next dive.
  • Debrief: mostly good, but Kim’s line laying in the area where we went down a level needs work. She pretty much went straight across the room (line in mid water), and it would have been better (again, thinking about a blind exit) had she spun around and ran it vertically down the wall. AG picked up a milk crate and went over some of the tradeoffs of how to run line in three dimensions. Very educational.
Day 3, Dive 1:


  • Internal penetration
  • Andy leading, Marc #2, Kim #3
  • For our final dive, we decided to re-attempt Day 2, Dive 2. We’ll go in, pick up the reel (which we left near the right turn into the engine room), explore the engine room, and continue the penetration (gas/time providing).
  • For this dive, I’m on 18/45 (dives 1 and 2 were air, 3 and 4 were EAN26, 5 was EAN32). What difference clear-headedness makes, even in 80 feet of water. (25/25 is probably ideal for this wreck, but I used what I had).
  • Well executed. We got in quickly by virtue of the existing line, Andy grabbed the reel, and we moved into the engine room. He tied on the right side of the door, and made a right turn into the room, teeing again towards the wall. We then went down (which is actually across) and spiraled around the room. It was really, really cool. I’ll note that there is an entrance to the engine room from open water, and likely divers on single al80s fresh out of their wreck specialty go in here, but it seems somehow more rewarding doing it the “hard way.” We played around until Andy hit his turn pressure, and then made our way home.
  • What a difference a few days makes. Upon surfacing, AG heard saying to (captain) Danny: that was more like the Swiss (Andy’s heritage) execution I wanted to see.
  • Debrief was more or less: good job. We talked a little about how the line running was, and we all agreed it was pretty decent. Andrew then re-iterated what Wreck 1 is, and we discussed a little bit about where to go from here.
Among the gems of the class was Andrew’s candid discussion on how he does certain things. Since all of the students are deco trained, Andrew described our class as “not Wreck 1 101” and “Wreck 1 plus.” As discussed above, we used stage bottles and deco bottles, and had long discussions on how to plan staged wreck penetrations, how best to drop bottles (if you wish), etc..

There is often discussion on dive forums about what the best training is for wreck penetration. “Is it cave training?” I can’t answer that question since I’m not cave trained (though I likely will use my UTD overhead training to add Cave to my bag of tricks), but I can say without equivocation that I feel prepared to dive at (and below) my current training level. I feel that I can use progressive penetration to learn a wreck, while always maintaining a backup continuous guideline back to open water for when the excrement hits the air conditioner. I feel prepared to plan and execute dives in this wreck as well as others I’ve never seen. To all of them I’ll give the respect I’d give an armed killer in a dark alley. Wreck penetration is easy… until it isn’t.

Overall, I’d say it was a challenging class, and rewarding. While the Yukon is sort of a “cheater” wreck given that it’s been sanitized for divers (no moving doors, gaping holes cut in the hull at regular intervals), it has taken a few lives and deserves all the respect of an overhead environment. It’s a wonderful training ground for the more foreboding silt ridden monsters that litter the western seaboard. To anyone wishing to push their skills from open water to closed, I’d recommend UTD, AG and this class series. Thanks for reading (pictures to follow).
 
Cool
Not sure I understand how you were messing up the primary ties but its a tough thing to describe.

As far as the communication goes, if you hit time just thumb it. If you are coming close to time and the leader is still pushing in, thumb it for them. Ditto gas. Stuff like, "Question? gas ok?" is almost impossible to clearly relay back and forth in a relatively confined overhead.
 
what would you consider a jump in the wreck course when there is no 'main line'?
 
I find your comment about clear-headedness very interesting. I still wonder if things would have gone significantly differently in my Cave 2 class if I hadn't been at 100 feet on Nitrox.
 
what would you consider a jump in the wreck course when there is no 'main line'?

Wreck example of jumps:
Dive 1: Lay a main line down the center hallway
Dives 2+: Jump off mainline into side rooms.
 
Cool
Not sure I understand how you were messing up the primary ties but its a tough thing to describe.

Correct way: double wrap, choke back against itself.
What I did: double wrap, choke back against itself, wrap again.

Doing it right, any tugging on the line as I'm running it up ahead will cause the line to rub against itself rather than the jagged rusted metal tie point. Line on line friction: good. Line on tie point friction: not so good. In essence, by wrapping again after I choked the line, I negated the choke (and its purpose).
 
what would you consider a jump in the wreck course when there is no 'main line'?

Pretty much what Richard said.

The next course in the series teaches wreck exploration, including main-line placement and jumps (as well as throwing stage decompression into the mix).
 
Correct way: double wrap, choke back against itself.
What I did: double wrap, choke back against itself, wrap again.

Doing it right, any tugging on the line as I'm running it up ahead will cause the line to rub against itself rather than the jagged rusted metal tie point. Line on line friction: good. Line on tie point friction: not so good. In essence, by wrapping again after I choked the line, I negated the choke (and its purpose).

Still a bit confusing but I think its just the definition of a "choke"

Primary:
Girth hitch the reel to the station
2 wraps

Secondary:
2 wraps
then over or under the line coming into the station from the primary tie and reverse direction (is this a choke?)
you want the slack in the incoming line along with angle of the outgoing line to the 3rd station to be such that there's little or no sharp metal or rock to abrade against. This is ideal but often a bit unrealistic - there's sharp stuff everywhere if not metal than barnacles and such.
 
then over or under the line coming into the station from the primary tie and reverse direction (is this a choke?)

Yah, sorry. That's the terminology I've been using for years.

Top down view of a tie point (this may be even more confusing... heh):
 

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Thanks for the review Marc. I don't think I'll ever get into overhead environments, but there is always something to learn from these reviews. Thanks for taking the time.

Henrik
 
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