BluewaterSail
Happy in Doubles
A year ago I posted how GUE Primer changed my life. Now its time to report on my next step, which has been slowly materializing.
I just got back from Malta where I attended a Fundies class with John Kendall. I actually had already taken Fundies in singles and have gotten a Rec pass. My purpose in being in this latest Fundies was to get some training with doubles and canister light. I have done half a dozen doubles dives, but have never had a proper introduction. Rather than a private Doubles Primer, joining the fundies class gave me a great introduction to the new gear in a team environment. Under the circumstances, the fees were adjusted to be basically equivalent to what Primer would have been. I am really happy that John suggested this, as I had a great time. And I was not at all expecting a tech pass, so there was no self-imposed stress that goes with a pass/fail course.
The class was at Techwise, which is a dept. of Divewise in Malta. The staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. Lots of things were going on at the same time, for example Phil Short was in to do an instructor trainer course, and regular OW and AOW courses were underway, but somehow, everything worked out, and everyone got what they needed. I highly recommend Malta for wreck diving on every level, and this dive operation in particular, but that's not the subject of this post.
I arrived in Malta a day early, with the plan of doing a couple of fun dives, and sorting out what exposure protection and weighting I would use for the course. I was lucky that I was able to do these dives with H, who was to be my teammate for the course, and a great guy. Well, I knew that my weighting was not sorted, as I was very head heavy in the European 12l steel tanks that they have there. At home I had done a few dives in AL80 doubles with a little weight on a belt, and it felt very comfortable. I figured that with the extra weight of steel, I shouldn't need the extra lead. But something was very different. It was tolerable on fun dives, where I generally kept moving, and it was not imperative to be perfectly in trim. I was not quite sure what to do about it, so I just tightened the crotch strap a little, to lower the tanks and hoped that John could help. Back at home, I have no trouble balancing out steel or alum singles, or AL80 doubles, but these particular 12l steel doubles were beyond me.
First day of the course is theory, land drills, and swim test, and checking the gear. I expected to fly through the gear check, as I have been through it before. But John recommended that I raise my chest D-rings just a little, and it actually did make it easier to hit the D-rings first try! Also, he felt that my clipping off of primary reg and SPG would be smoother if I used smaller boltsnaps. So I swapped them out. I do believe he was right on that too. I like the way that he reviewed the kit of me and my teammate. He emphasized things that would make a difference now, and things that could be done without a large expense. He has a very practical approach.
Then on day 2 we had the first 2 dives. I have to admit that dive #1 of the course was hell.
If it didn't end when it did, I would have called it just a couple of minutes later. When I tried to hover, I stood on my head or almost flipped over, unless I compensated a lot with body position and various movements. I felt like I was a new diver again, trying to deal with those tanks. Doing all of the little propulsion exercises, with hovering in between, was immensely tiring. Between dives one and two, John prescribed a 2 kg tail weight, and the lengthening of the harness and more tightening of the crotch strap. During this readjustment session, we also took the pads off of the shoulder straps and the cinch thing out of the crotch strap, which I never quite got the hang of. My Infinity now only has the harness cinch and one pocket, left out of all of its original fancy doodads. He also told me that a small size backplate would help someone with my shape, but of course that wasn't an option there.
I never saw or used a tail weight before. It was just what I needed! It went clunk clunk clunk when I walked. I felt like a cow with a bell.
Dive #2 felt much better. I could hover long enough to watch a demonstration, but afterwards I lengthened the harness even more, and tightened the crotch strap correspondingly. I never lengthened the harness past where I could reach the valves, of course. It never felt quite as comfy as a set of AL80s, but I could manage. Now I think that I could handle this sort of balancing act should I encounter it again. Tail weights are magic! So I am glad to have had this experience with a magician present!
We started almost all of the dives with precisely controlled and timed descents, and ended all of the dives with precisely controlled and timed ascents. 3 meters movement, stop move. This is really hard to do, especially while air sharing and caring for an smb, timing it, all of the time in eye contact with the team. We were doing pretty well together towards the end, but always ended up a little slow on the total because it took a little while to get settled on the new depth and start to time again. But it was really good practice. I know that this kind of control will be important once I advance to deco dives.
Each dive had some practice of what we did on the previous one, with the addition of a new skill(s). I think that on each dive, we both improved in both personal skills and working together.
We each did a fairly long no-mask swim, which we both handled quite well as leader and follower.
I am new to the doubles valve drills. I need to practice a bit more, because I kept trying to turn the left valve the wrong way. Also, I sometimes did clumsy things with my light. I wasn't expecting to become an expert during the course, just to get some hints on the correct ways. Which I very much did.
One new skill that was not in my previous fundies was a surface rescue, which involved ditching the gear of the victim and the rescuer. I found this really interesting, even though I have taken mainstream Rescue. I did not have any experience from the Rescue course with dealing with a victim in a drysuit, and I also learned much more efficient ways of removing my BP/W. This was to not pull back on the harness straps, rather pull on the clipped off second stage and the wing inflator.
I really like John's style. He is calm, casual and smiles a lot. And is willing to repeat things and re-explain things with great patience. I am a slow learner when it comes to connecting brain and muscle, (my muscles do what they want in spite of what my brain tells them to do) and I make lots of mistakes, but he kept being patient and telling me that it was not as bad as I thought it was. During the video debriefings, his commentary was supportive, helpful, and often hilarious. We really did have fun in this course, while learning a lot.
The result was that my teammate got a tech pass, and John gave me a very short list of items, which when accomplished will result in my tech pass. The items to work on are basically root causes for some trim and propulsion issues. John is really good at noticing details, and understanding what affects what.
My only not fun times were dealing with my unbalanced dive #1, and also when the battery on my Xen bottom timer died while I was supposed to be controlling speed and position on a descent. On that one I signaled to my teammate that my bottom timer was broken, and that he needed to take over control. It worked out fine, but it shook me up a bit not to have a depth gauge to look at. I have taken that as a warning to pay very close attention to the Xen battery level. A Xen is not a Uwatec.
In fact I had so much fun in John's fundies class that I will be popping over to England sometime soon, to do some drysuit training with him when the drysuit that I just ordered arrives.
Thank you to all of my Scubaboard mentors who got me to this point!
Linda
I just got back from Malta where I attended a Fundies class with John Kendall. I actually had already taken Fundies in singles and have gotten a Rec pass. My purpose in being in this latest Fundies was to get some training with doubles and canister light. I have done half a dozen doubles dives, but have never had a proper introduction. Rather than a private Doubles Primer, joining the fundies class gave me a great introduction to the new gear in a team environment. Under the circumstances, the fees were adjusted to be basically equivalent to what Primer would have been. I am really happy that John suggested this, as I had a great time. And I was not at all expecting a tech pass, so there was no self-imposed stress that goes with a pass/fail course.
The class was at Techwise, which is a dept. of Divewise in Malta. The staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. Lots of things were going on at the same time, for example Phil Short was in to do an instructor trainer course, and regular OW and AOW courses were underway, but somehow, everything worked out, and everyone got what they needed. I highly recommend Malta for wreck diving on every level, and this dive operation in particular, but that's not the subject of this post.
I arrived in Malta a day early, with the plan of doing a couple of fun dives, and sorting out what exposure protection and weighting I would use for the course. I was lucky that I was able to do these dives with H, who was to be my teammate for the course, and a great guy. Well, I knew that my weighting was not sorted, as I was very head heavy in the European 12l steel tanks that they have there. At home I had done a few dives in AL80 doubles with a little weight on a belt, and it felt very comfortable. I figured that with the extra weight of steel, I shouldn't need the extra lead. But something was very different. It was tolerable on fun dives, where I generally kept moving, and it was not imperative to be perfectly in trim. I was not quite sure what to do about it, so I just tightened the crotch strap a little, to lower the tanks and hoped that John could help. Back at home, I have no trouble balancing out steel or alum singles, or AL80 doubles, but these particular 12l steel doubles were beyond me.
First day of the course is theory, land drills, and swim test, and checking the gear. I expected to fly through the gear check, as I have been through it before. But John recommended that I raise my chest D-rings just a little, and it actually did make it easier to hit the D-rings first try! Also, he felt that my clipping off of primary reg and SPG would be smoother if I used smaller boltsnaps. So I swapped them out. I do believe he was right on that too. I like the way that he reviewed the kit of me and my teammate. He emphasized things that would make a difference now, and things that could be done without a large expense. He has a very practical approach.
Then on day 2 we had the first 2 dives. I have to admit that dive #1 of the course was hell.
If it didn't end when it did, I would have called it just a couple of minutes later. When I tried to hover, I stood on my head or almost flipped over, unless I compensated a lot with body position and various movements. I felt like I was a new diver again, trying to deal with those tanks. Doing all of the little propulsion exercises, with hovering in between, was immensely tiring. Between dives one and two, John prescribed a 2 kg tail weight, and the lengthening of the harness and more tightening of the crotch strap. During this readjustment session, we also took the pads off of the shoulder straps and the cinch thing out of the crotch strap, which I never quite got the hang of. My Infinity now only has the harness cinch and one pocket, left out of all of its original fancy doodads. He also told me that a small size backplate would help someone with my shape, but of course that wasn't an option there.I never saw or used a tail weight before. It was just what I needed! It went clunk clunk clunk when I walked. I felt like a cow with a bell.
Dive #2 felt much better. I could hover long enough to watch a demonstration, but afterwards I lengthened the harness even more, and tightened the crotch strap correspondingly. I never lengthened the harness past where I could reach the valves, of course. It never felt quite as comfy as a set of AL80s, but I could manage. Now I think that I could handle this sort of balancing act should I encounter it again. Tail weights are magic! So I am glad to have had this experience with a magician present!
We started almost all of the dives with precisely controlled and timed descents, and ended all of the dives with precisely controlled and timed ascents. 3 meters movement, stop move. This is really hard to do, especially while air sharing and caring for an smb, timing it, all of the time in eye contact with the team. We were doing pretty well together towards the end, but always ended up a little slow on the total because it took a little while to get settled on the new depth and start to time again. But it was really good practice. I know that this kind of control will be important once I advance to deco dives.
Each dive had some practice of what we did on the previous one, with the addition of a new skill(s). I think that on each dive, we both improved in both personal skills and working together.
We each did a fairly long no-mask swim, which we both handled quite well as leader and follower.
I am new to the doubles valve drills. I need to practice a bit more, because I kept trying to turn the left valve the wrong way. Also, I sometimes did clumsy things with my light. I wasn't expecting to become an expert during the course, just to get some hints on the correct ways. Which I very much did.
One new skill that was not in my previous fundies was a surface rescue, which involved ditching the gear of the victim and the rescuer. I found this really interesting, even though I have taken mainstream Rescue. I did not have any experience from the Rescue course with dealing with a victim in a drysuit, and I also learned much more efficient ways of removing my BP/W. This was to not pull back on the harness straps, rather pull on the clipped off second stage and the wing inflator.
I really like John's style. He is calm, casual and smiles a lot. And is willing to repeat things and re-explain things with great patience. I am a slow learner when it comes to connecting brain and muscle, (my muscles do what they want in spite of what my brain tells them to do) and I make lots of mistakes, but he kept being patient and telling me that it was not as bad as I thought it was. During the video debriefings, his commentary was supportive, helpful, and often hilarious. We really did have fun in this course, while learning a lot.
The result was that my teammate got a tech pass, and John gave me a very short list of items, which when accomplished will result in my tech pass. The items to work on are basically root causes for some trim and propulsion issues. John is really good at noticing details, and understanding what affects what.
My only not fun times were dealing with my unbalanced dive #1, and also when the battery on my Xen bottom timer died while I was supposed to be controlling speed and position on a descent. On that one I signaled to my teammate that my bottom timer was broken, and that he needed to take over control. It worked out fine, but it shook me up a bit not to have a depth gauge to look at. I have taken that as a warning to pay very close attention to the Xen battery level. A Xen is not a Uwatec.
In fact I had so much fun in John's fundies class that I will be popping over to England sometime soon, to do some drysuit training with him when the drysuit that I just ordered arrives.
Thank you to all of my Scubaboard mentors who got me to this point!
Linda
