I purchased my Prism in late May but couldnt start my class until the beginning of July. During this waiting period Elliott kept telling me that my diving is going to change forever once I move to a rebreather. I am very happy to say that he certainly seems to be correct.
Over the last few weekends I have been fortunate to take my basic rebreather class 1-on-1 with Elliott Jessup. Elliott is the Northern California UTD instructor and I have taken several tech classes from him in the past (Overhead Protocols, Tech 1 and Tech 2) and very much liked his approach to teaching. He is also a NAUI tech instructor. As the Prism is an eCCR this class was conducted through NAUI, not UTD. Anyway, on to the details of the class.
Prior to the class starting, Elliott provided me with a lot of good reading material so I could get up to speed for the class. On our first day, we spent about 4 hours going through the academics. Although we covered everything, Elliott was very flexible in his approach and was able to gauge the areas where we need to discuss a little further and those areas where I was familiar with the material. This ability to read the students needs is a common theme with Elliott and his teaching. He doesnt have a rigid approach, but rather can adjust (and push!) where needed to ensure maximum learning and enjoyment.
The next day was gear review and pool work. Again, Elliott knew that I was more of a hand-on learner so he let me run with the assembly and then we went back through and talked about each component and he gave me some tips on assembly. We also went through the Hollis assembly and operational checklists in detail. We then talked about weighting and trim for both the pool and the ocean. I thought we were going to have a lot of trial and error to getting the weighting and trim worked out. But, unbelievably to me, with Elliotts help, weighting and trim were nailed the first time (in the pool and in the ocean). This was a big relief for me as moving from a DIR OC approach to RB I was afraid a RB would make me swim like a seahorse. I now know its absolutely possible to trim out a RB.
Diving the RB in the pool very much reminded me of my first time on OC. Just being underwater and breathing was a blast! The first dive in the pool was just a test run to get the feel of the rebreather. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that I could get neutrally buoyant and swim around in trim with my standard frog kick. From all I had read I was expecting to be yo-yoing around like crazy. That came later as I tried to ascend. I quickly learned that the only lever you have for control ascents is venting (in my case through the nose). This lever should be fine, except that every time I felt like my ascent was running away from me I ended up waaay over venting and dropping back to the bottom. I wasnt too frustrated by this as I could see how, in time, you could get this dialed in and controlled.
Given my unexpected comfort level, we decided to run through all the required drills during the next pool dive. Again, these went very smoothly. A RB valve drill is MUCH easier than in doubles. J Actually, other than ascents, the only thing that threw me was unplugging and replugging the QC to the ADV and MAV. I just wasnt use to having CL over my harness and generally fumbled a bit with things. I was able to consistently find the ADV and MAV, but finding the D rings under the CL to clip my bailout too was a real pain. Again, I just think that will come in time as I get more familiar with the new setup.
The next day we headed down to Monterey to the Breakwater (the Norcal training site) for my first open water dives. We took our time setting up and went through all the checklists in detail. We then suited up and did our gear checks, pre-dive checklists and headed into the water. After doing our bubble checks we descended into 15-20 feet of water. At first I thought I wasnt weighted correctly, but it turned out that I wasnt even close to optimum loop volume. After venting my loop a bit, I was able to initiate a nice slow descent which quickly turned into a speed descent that was then arrested and reversed by the addition of gas to my wing and drysuit...apparently the buoyancy yo-yo is relevant to both ascents AND descents. J Anyway, I eventually descended and got myself sorted. We then proceeded to run all the drills again, including a bailout ascent. Again, I felt like Elliott was really able to read the situation. He could tell when I could handle additional drills, when I needed a break, and when I needed to repeat a skill. We ended up spending a little over 3 hours in the water that day. By the end, I knew that I was completely hooked.
Over the next two weekends we repeated the same pattern, but we moved location from Breakwater to Point Lobos and by the last two dives we added our scooters. J Point Lobos, Scooter and Rebreathers are magical combination!!! What a blast. At the same time, its clear to me after taking this class that awareness is the most critical skill of all. There are so many ways to get yourself in trouble on a rebreather. On our last dive, the conditions were so good we could have stayed down long-enough to rack up significant deco. Throughout the course I dove the Prism manually and I believe this has created a habit of PO2 awareness, but again, this is another area where awareness is key. I also think I will really have to fight the urge to go too far too fast. Prior to moving to a RB most of my dives were 130+ feet. Thats going to be a no-go for awhile as I build up experience. Sure I could do it until something went wrong.
Anyway, if you have read this far, sorry for all the rambling. I am just very excited about moving from OC to CC and look forward to many many hours of diving my RB! If anyone is considering a Hollis Prism and is looking for an instructor I HIGHLY recommend Elliott Jessup. He is a rock solid diver and a talented instructor.
Over the last few weekends I have been fortunate to take my basic rebreather class 1-on-1 with Elliott Jessup. Elliott is the Northern California UTD instructor and I have taken several tech classes from him in the past (Overhead Protocols, Tech 1 and Tech 2) and very much liked his approach to teaching. He is also a NAUI tech instructor. As the Prism is an eCCR this class was conducted through NAUI, not UTD. Anyway, on to the details of the class.
Prior to the class starting, Elliott provided me with a lot of good reading material so I could get up to speed for the class. On our first day, we spent about 4 hours going through the academics. Although we covered everything, Elliott was very flexible in his approach and was able to gauge the areas where we need to discuss a little further and those areas where I was familiar with the material. This ability to read the students needs is a common theme with Elliott and his teaching. He doesnt have a rigid approach, but rather can adjust (and push!) where needed to ensure maximum learning and enjoyment.
The next day was gear review and pool work. Again, Elliott knew that I was more of a hand-on learner so he let me run with the assembly and then we went back through and talked about each component and he gave me some tips on assembly. We also went through the Hollis assembly and operational checklists in detail. We then talked about weighting and trim for both the pool and the ocean. I thought we were going to have a lot of trial and error to getting the weighting and trim worked out. But, unbelievably to me, with Elliotts help, weighting and trim were nailed the first time (in the pool and in the ocean). This was a big relief for me as moving from a DIR OC approach to RB I was afraid a RB would make me swim like a seahorse. I now know its absolutely possible to trim out a RB.
Diving the RB in the pool very much reminded me of my first time on OC. Just being underwater and breathing was a blast! The first dive in the pool was just a test run to get the feel of the rebreather. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that I could get neutrally buoyant and swim around in trim with my standard frog kick. From all I had read I was expecting to be yo-yoing around like crazy. That came later as I tried to ascend. I quickly learned that the only lever you have for control ascents is venting (in my case through the nose). This lever should be fine, except that every time I felt like my ascent was running away from me I ended up waaay over venting and dropping back to the bottom. I wasnt too frustrated by this as I could see how, in time, you could get this dialed in and controlled.
Given my unexpected comfort level, we decided to run through all the required drills during the next pool dive. Again, these went very smoothly. A RB valve drill is MUCH easier than in doubles. J Actually, other than ascents, the only thing that threw me was unplugging and replugging the QC to the ADV and MAV. I just wasnt use to having CL over my harness and generally fumbled a bit with things. I was able to consistently find the ADV and MAV, but finding the D rings under the CL to clip my bailout too was a real pain. Again, I just think that will come in time as I get more familiar with the new setup.
The next day we headed down to Monterey to the Breakwater (the Norcal training site) for my first open water dives. We took our time setting up and went through all the checklists in detail. We then suited up and did our gear checks, pre-dive checklists and headed into the water. After doing our bubble checks we descended into 15-20 feet of water. At first I thought I wasnt weighted correctly, but it turned out that I wasnt even close to optimum loop volume. After venting my loop a bit, I was able to initiate a nice slow descent which quickly turned into a speed descent that was then arrested and reversed by the addition of gas to my wing and drysuit...apparently the buoyancy yo-yo is relevant to both ascents AND descents. J Anyway, I eventually descended and got myself sorted. We then proceeded to run all the drills again, including a bailout ascent. Again, I felt like Elliott was really able to read the situation. He could tell when I could handle additional drills, when I needed a break, and when I needed to repeat a skill. We ended up spending a little over 3 hours in the water that day. By the end, I knew that I was completely hooked.
Over the next two weekends we repeated the same pattern, but we moved location from Breakwater to Point Lobos and by the last two dives we added our scooters. J Point Lobos, Scooter and Rebreathers are magical combination!!! What a blast. At the same time, its clear to me after taking this class that awareness is the most critical skill of all. There are so many ways to get yourself in trouble on a rebreather. On our last dive, the conditions were so good we could have stayed down long-enough to rack up significant deco. Throughout the course I dove the Prism manually and I believe this has created a habit of PO2 awareness, but again, this is another area where awareness is key. I also think I will really have to fight the urge to go too far too fast. Prior to moving to a RB most of my dives were 130+ feet. Thats going to be a no-go for awhile as I build up experience. Sure I could do it until something went wrong.
Anyway, if you have read this far, sorry for all the rambling. I am just very excited about moving from OC to CC and look forward to many many hours of diving my RB! If anyone is considering a Hollis Prism and is looking for an instructor I HIGHLY recommend Elliott Jessup. He is a rock solid diver and a talented instructor.
