Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
I wil be diving Truk in early Feb 2014. I looking for input or suggestions if I should take up technical diving before doing this trip. This trip from what I know is a lot of deep diving. I will be diving from the Odyssey. I would love to hear any suggestions anyone has.
Diving from Odyssey, you can do almost everything within recreational limits. Any of the tech divers doing the deeper dives will generally be taken over to those dives on a smaller boat.
That being said, you can definitely benefit from the skills learned during an Intro to Tech class, including finning techniques. Also, because of the amount of bottom time you will be enjoying, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures can help take the edge off your diving. Using a high mix on your safety stops will help with the off gassing. And of course, a good wreck diving class wouldn't hurt.
Heed the advice of the captain and crew. Make sure you drink LOTS of fluids when you get onto the boat and throughout your trip. We had someone get skin bends, probably from dehydration.
I'm jealous and cannot wait until I can get back and spend some time diving in Truk.
I just did Truk in December on the Odyssey and I am cave and trimix certified. I got to Truk a few days early to do a few land based dives. We stayed at Blue Lagoon and used their onsite dive shop for a couple of days. Once on board the Odyssey my dive buddy and I wanted to do the Oite destroyer and the captain was very accomodating and arranged it with the Truk Stop. Blue Lagoon is a nicer resort as far as the grounds go and it is where the Odyssey pics up from. But from a diving stand point I would definately stay and use Truk Stop on my next visit for a land based operation. Also in my opinion the Oite is a must dive if you are comfortable in the 200' range. As far as the Odyssey it is great. Other than the dive on the Fumitsuki they let us do any thing we wanted. They about flipped out when I wanted to go into the engine room of the Fumitsuki which is relatively shallow compared to the Oite which we penetrated. The diving on the Odyssey can be as challenging as you want it or you can just swim around the outside of the wrecks even on a recreational cruise which we were on. As far as doubles go if you are diving in the groups then unless you are really bad on air consumption then they are not really necessary except for the added safety margin. The crew all dive single aluminum 80's. A class teaching you proper buyonacy and finning techniques would be good if you are planning on doing any penetrations as the wrecks are silty and not in the best of shape. I would recommend a good dive computer if you are planning on diving doubles because even with a single al 80 you will be in deco. Also a good understanding of deco and your computer is definately necessary. As the week progresses the wrecks will get deeper with the grand finale being the San Francisco Maru. I think I hit about 180-190' on that dive. I was diving sidemount and on that dive my "backgas tanks" were air as well as 2 aluminum 80's of 30% nitrox for deco. I did not dive trimix as helium is $6 /cu ft and Oxygen is $2/cuft on the Odyssey. The water is warm and clear so the long deco times were not bad. In fact on alot of the wrecks you can deco coming up the kingpost so there is plenty of life to see.
In short the crew of the Odyssey as well as the boat are great. The diving is excellent and I can't wait to go back you will have alot of fun. As stated before I would recommend an intro to tech / cavern class type class at a minimum for anyone before they go there as it will only make you a better diver and you can enjoy the wrecks better if you plan on going inside any of them which everyone ends up doing to some degree. I would no go to Truk and try to dive a completely different setup that you are not familiar with (i.e. doubles) as the trip is one that you will want to spend time enjoying not figuring out a new setup. But if you have time and want to really see the wrecks then doubles definately has the advantage in my opinion. If you want any more information like a list of the wrecks we dove (other than the tech charters )they dive the same wrecks in the same order every week I will be glad to give them to you. I also have my dive log that when I get home I can look at and let you know the depths we dove as well as the run times.
Have fun and dive safe as you can definitely easily dive beyond your ability in Truk if you are not careful.
I might take a class on intro to tech. Your points are very well taken. If anything I think I would bring my 40 cu ft pony bottle and suck on that. I do UW Photography so just trying to figure out ways of getting the most bottom time in safe way.
They have 30's on board. You can call the office number I think it in Jacksonville Fl.. As accomodating as they are I bet they will fill it with nitrox. You can ask but I also bet it is already stage rigged. I never used a 30 on the Odyssey just on the Oite with the Truk Stop.
You can do the San Francisco on a 100 and have 17-20 minutes of bottom time with plenty left over for your ascent and deco stops. Make sure you hit the forward holds and get some pictures of the deck gun before the tech divers silt up the whole thing.
We have just come back from Truk as well and loved it. Then saw the reason why we should do a Tech course. We used a single 15 litre (125cu ft) and a 7 litre (55 cu ft) sling tank and went to 55m without any air issues and sufficient to do the dive, deco on the single with the sling as a reserve only. Also had a 50% Nitrox cylinder at the 5m mark below the boat for additional 3 min deco after we completed our normal air deco (as a safety margin). That being said next time I would dive twin independant (are they set up for manifolds there). We dived through Blue Lagoon.
Agreed if one is not careful diving well beyond ones capability and understanding is easy there. If you are going to >40m you really need to have a good understanding of the additional risks and understand deco procedures as you WILL need them to get to the deeper wrecks. Very easy to be at 40m for 20-30 min and require a deco ascent. If you dont have a computer you are now in trouble.
Also if you exceed your certification and get bent you are NOT covered by dive insurance, which can be very expensive indeed.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
.
