Doc Wong's Tech One Reports

[cys]

One sure way to make the swim test easy is to join a local masters swim club. Most masters swimmers are there just for the workout and not to compete. Nothing like a coach to set you on the right technique path. I had to do my fundies swim kicking on my back as I had near zero swimming technique. It's comforting to see that I had company . Now what seemed a huge hurdle is the equivalent of a "warm down" swim. I never imagined that would be the case. One of the best things fundies did was show me how much I sucked at (surface) swimming.

I haven't seen this mentioned on the underwater swim, but three cleansing breaths just before doing it is helpful, if it hasn't been disallowed... For me the uw swim was the best part.

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[lamont]

joining masters is an excellent idea for making any GUE swim test completely trivial...

i think the main things to work on, though, would be:

1. breathing: just practice taking breaths and blowing bubbles through your nose + mouth at the side of the pool until it is totally comfortable (even after a few years of diving i still found it not the same thing)

2. less kicking: notice that people on kickboards go really slow? good swimmers may have an effective kick, but swimming is more about the arms and arms have smaller muscles that consume less oxygen. kicking like crazy during a swim test will not help you go significantly faster and will tire you out and possibly give you a side-ache. long-term its good to refine your kick, short term to pass a GUE swim test its best to focus on the arms and less on the legs.

3. good hydrodynamics: your body should be as close as possible to straight-like an arrow and chin down. you do want to kick enough to keep to your feet up and body flat. get your head into the water and look down. when you breathe, roll to the side rather than up. its good to practice hydrodynamics by pushing off the wall and seeing how far you can glide.

4. reach: strokes should be longer to get more power. get your hand out in front of you and pull all the way back. this helps speed up backstroke as well.

5. learn crawl/freestyle: its the fastest, most efficient stroke. learning the breathing patterns takes a little while though. i had a hard time getting just one length of the pool to begin with.

6. less splashing: noise and splashing is a sign of inefficiency and struggling. slow down and practice making less noise and splashing. instead of trying to increase how fast your strokes are, try to increase their length and power and slow down to speed up.

those tips and a little practice will do it.

 

[Kevrumbo]

The Total Immersion program uses several 'tricks' that reduce resistance. Three phrases summarise the goals in terms of body postures and actions that can be visualised by the swimmer:

-Balance your body better in the water.
-Make your body longer.
-Swim on your side.

These are the core ideas behind the Total Immersion Strategy.
The article in the link above is somewhat technical, but keep in mind the three concepts above as you read through it (or just skip down to the summary). . .

 

[Adobo]

6 pages worth of swim test discussion. I think we need the anti-DIR folks back.

 

[dsteding]

6 pages worth of swim test discussion. I think we need the anti-DIR folks back.

Wow, we've stayed on topic.

What we need is a report from Doc to nudge us in a new direction. I think he's off either recovering or diving . . .

Tech 2 is going on up here right now with Bob Sherwood, and then there is another Bob Sherwood Tech 1 class starting Monday. Lots of West Coast training right now.

 

[Rainer]

Any update?

 

[DocWong]

Hi,

Todd, Greg and I just finished our T1 class last week with Beto Nava and Jarrod Jablonski!!!!! It was an unbelievably incredible experience. Thanks to Beto and JJ.

Each day was a step up in knowledge and skill and each day the challenged increased. I had a day where I felt "I'm not worthy, send me back to Fundies, I'll never get this" but fortunately that was only a short and transitory state of mind. For example, in the water I "thought" I was a good team member or team captain and boy did I have a lot more to learn! This and a multitude of other skills I was good, but not near where I needed to be. I was asked to perform tasks that I would have considered impossible for me to do just a few shorts months ago!

Each 12-14 hour day started with our own team meeting (between the 3 of us), then lecture, briefings or land drills followed by the dives and ended with video reviews and lectures into the evenings, then a separate team meeting afterwards.

During this incredible few days of diving we were asked

While Beto did 95% of the teaching, having JJ there to also answer my multitude of questions was quite a treat! I asked anything and everything thru the 6 days. It was like everything I always wanted to ask about tech diving but was afraid to ask, I asked. Boy did I get some incredible answers.

I particularly liked the detailed lectures on deco which covered the history of deco, the researchers and how GUE/WKPP applied that info to tech diving and in particular how one can do a 24 hour dive with all that deco (I don't aspire to every to that kind of diving but was curious).

The final day Experience Dive was quite a treat. We were assured that we would be unmolested which was true, but when my Primary Light failed, I flicked my power switch on and off a few times and almost turned around to admonish Beto, but alas, it was a real failure. ;-) Boy did I feel different in the water! I thought I was pretty comfortable in the water before, but now I could feel that I was already diving on a whole new level of comfort, fun and competence.

I thought T1 would be a well worthwhile challenge and had some high expectations on what the class would be like. In the end T1 with it's well thought out curriculum and spot on instruction transformed my diving and my team mates and exceeded our expectations!

Looking back now at where our skill levels were and where the bar is for passing Tech One, and how far we improved we took a monumental leap in our skill and competency level! Even so, the bar for passing was still beyond our reach, so the three of us got a Provisional Passes.

Knowing now where the bar is for passing, we consider this a huge success! As we did for Fundies, we'll continue to practice on the few points we need to work on and get checked out sometime this year.

As with Fundies, finishing it was only a beginning and I'm sure that will be the case with Tech One. I'm really looking forward to more diving!

So thanks JJ, GUE and Beto and Susan (did our video) and to BAUE for making this all possible!

All dives are fun, some are just more "entertaining" ;-)
Live Long, play hard, be safe, deco, don't push the tables and do deep stops!

For photos go to: BAUE Gallery :: T1 Oct 2007

 

[Kevrumbo]

Congrats on your accomplishment Doc Wong!
(BTW, did JJ have an opinion on what could have been a cause behind the undeserved hit a while back?)

 

[DocWong]

Congrats on your accomplishment Doc Wong!
(BTW, did JJ have an opinion on what could have been a cause behind the undeserved hit a while back?)

Thanks, with our Provisional rating, we've still got about 20% to go, but almost there. Already my diving has changed a lot. Holding a 20' or 10' stop and not varying more than 18" either way is now pretty natural...at least while not task loaded. We've still got to be able to ascend, stay on our deco schedule, be exact in our buoyancy and trim while being extremely task loaded. That's the fun part.

On the hit I took awhile back, I ended up not really needing to ask JJ the cause or his opinion on it. As I went thru the lectures on deco, it was pretty appaent to me what happened.

First off, the deco algorithms are not a guarantee that you'll not get bent, even for Minimum Deco. Individual physiology comes into play in addition to environmental factors such as hydration, exercise, etc. For me I thnk it was being just at the limit of minimum deco, not being as well hydrated as I usually am, not quite enough sleep, and a decent amount of heavy lifting after the dive (3 large scooters, doubles climbing down a ladder and a variety of deco bottles).

Also it was quite enlightening to finally get a better understanding ofM values, Oxygen Windows, the difference between Bulhman, VPM and RGBM and much more. Oh yea, and Ratio Deco!

I haven't had any hint of DCS since with any of my recreational and tech dives but did get a PFO check in the past. Unfortunately it wasn't the gold standard TEE (Trans Esophogeal Echocardiogram), but the less invasive TTE (Trans Thoracic Echocardiogram). We're looking into another PFO check which should be cheaper and less invasive called the TCD or TCE (Trans Cranial Doppler or Echo). TCD/TCE is showing promise to be as valid as the TEE and would tell you if you have any shunting of venous blood which include cardio or pulmonary.

 

[boomx5]

We're looking into another PFO check which should be cheaper and less invasive called the TCD or TCE (Trans Cranial Doppler or Echo). TCD/TCE is showing promise to be as valid as the TEE and would tell you if you have any shunting of venous blood which include cardio or pulmonary.

Nice write up Doc. Do you have much info on the TCD or the TCE? I've been wanting to get a PFO check but didn't want the TEE because of how invasive it is.