OP
Hopping my way to full cave...
- Thread starter Manatee Diver
- Start date
Please register or login
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.
- You can make this box go away
Caveeagle
Contributor
OP
In Miami to make attempt number 2 at AN/Helitrox. I have my sidemount gear and took some Bonine we will see how this shakes out. Though apparently it has been Lake Atlantic for the past week hopefully it holds until Sunday.
OP
Day 1 restart went well, I don't feel completely in trim, but it is good enough to move forward.
Since day 2 will be off a pontoon boat, I put together a hang rope. 25 foot rope, rings at around 12 feet and the end, so you never need to have more than a single tank out of the water at a time.
Since day 2 will be off a pontoon boat, I put together a hang rope. 25 foot rope, rings at around 12 feet and the end, so you never need to have more than a single tank out of the water at a time.
OP
Day 2 in the books, absolutely exhausted.
OP
Well finished and passed the course.
It was exhausting and sidemount off a boat wasn't exactly fun but with the help of the crew it was doable.
It was exhausting and sidemount off a boat wasn't exactly fun but with the help of the crew it was doable.
OP
AN/Helitrox with James Blackman of Miami Technical diving
This course was delayed a couple of times. But we finally completed it Independence Day (or Treason Day for the Brits like James) weekend 2020, with the first weekend being in early June.
AN/DP Day 1(June):
Was originally supposed to be a theory day followed by shakedown dives in the Keys but we got blown out so we did all the book work including the exam. Only missing the trick question on the DP exam.
AN/DP Day 2:
I head down to the Keys. Since I wanted to do the course in doubles this would be a shakedown dive. Seas wasn't too bad based on my previous standards being 2-3 with the occasional 4. The crew helped me get the doubles on, and my deco bottle on. After this point the dive was a disaster. I back roll into the water, but I just couldn't get stable, I was constantly turtling onto my back. And at one point my inflator just pulls off the hose, thankfully I had a redundant bladder so I just reached down and used that to get neutral and then make my way back to the surface. We fix this, but I just couldn't get stable so I called the dive. And then I got sea sick, which worried the captain as I had raspberries with breakfast.
Conclusion was that I should do the course in sidemount since I have very comfortable in sidemount. I will attempt backmount again once I get full cave and a water leg so I can spend sometime in the Ginnie basin sorting it out.
AN/DP Day 3 (July):
Back at it, did some gear prep and left for Key Largo for another go at it. Another shallow reef dive to shake things down and do basic skills. It was Lake Atlantic all weekend, but I still took Bonine just in case.
Dive 1:
My first time diving off a boat with sidemount. I figured at the very least I should get the inflator side/short hose bottle on first. I run safety clips/leashes, so it only required some minor modifications. I didn't do my necklace, and didn't run the hose behind my head until after I did the bungie. I then would run the hose around the back of my head, followed by the necklace. The crew then handed my long hose bottle at the swim step, followed by deco bottle. This wasn't all that different except I wasn't grabbing them off a bank and the water tasted horrible.
We did a bunch of drills I honestly forgot all of them, but they included air shares, deco bottle don/duff, valve shut down drills, mask remove/replace, etc. Nothing really new. He really only noted two issues, I was using cave protocol and following behind him rather than being beside him. And he noted that I couldn't stuff my long hose, as I didn't want to rest it in the sand. Not really surprising I didn't do too many drills where I donated, and when I did I was in Ginnie, so I could find safe places to do it.
I noted that my trim was off, which I fixed on the second dive my moving the lead weight further down the central weight pocket. Getting back to the boat was easy, hand up the bottles and climb aboard.
Dive 2:
Getting in the water was much the same. Not too many tasks to get down since I got most of the skills done in the previous dive, so this dive was mostly swimming around the North North Dry Rocks. Which isn't a bad reef for Florida. We did ultimately redo deploying the long hose and stuffing it, along with the no mask swim, and SMB deployment.
Get back to the boat and the captain, a rather good looking woman, said I had "A little sausage."
Other than that sexual harassment, the rest of getting back on the boat was the same as last time. James said everything went well, I felt more in trim, we dropped off our tanks for fills, and we headed back to his home in Miami. I was pretty exhausted, and I think I even got a little nap on the way back.
Day 3 Dive 1:
First dive on Trimix, requested 21/35 ended up getting 20/34. James mentioned that I would have more deco than him since I was using a standard gas vs the best mix he was running. But to me it also illustrated the beauty of standard gasses. I was too tried to think the previous afternoon, when he said the hard bottom at 145fsw, I was like great 21/35 is good to 150fsw. Deco gas was planned for 80% but we ended up with 74% per the tester.
Dive Plan on Multideco on the trip down:
145fsw for 30 minutes with a total runtime of 65 minutes
128cuft of back gas required, and 13cuft of deco gas.
Shearwater with the actual gasses was pretty similar I think 68 minutes (I don't have one in front of me to redo it). Of course planning and reality never really meet. We calculated our turn pressures and max TTS.
And then we load up on the boat, I talked with the captain to see what was the best way to handle things on this boat (a pontoon boat), we actually had another amputee diver on board, but he was on a recreational profile but had aspiration on going tech so we imparted what we had figured out so far. I didn't end up bringing the tank hang line I made the night before as the captain said that often there was current and they made it harder. Procedures for this boat was a little different, we first let all the recreational divers splash first, and then the rest of the technical divers. James splashed with my deco bottle as we decided that would be easier. I made my way to the front of the boat, took my leg off into my bag, and then put on my harness. Then sat on the bow of the boat the crew brought my HP100s and helped me get clipped up. Pretty similar procedure as the last boat except now I had my longhose tank on when I splashed, but I kept the long hose in the bands. I front flopped into the water. There was a mild current so I pulled myself down to about 20 feet and got everything configured with bungees and hoses around my neck. And put my HP50 on my hand. And then I did a bubble check on him, and we proceeded down to the wreck where he handed my deco bottle off to me.
Pretty uneventful dive, we went down the leeward side of the wreck, and swam along the sand to the props and rudder. Never did get down to 145fsw max depth was 137fsw. I didn't see the need to crawl down into the sand when I could see it just fine. We saw a small reef shark and made our way into the well deck to get sheltered from the current. Making our way through some of the internal compartments of the wreck that were within the light zone, like the snoopy corridor, the Galley, and such. Those were a little interesting in sidemount, but nothing as hard as having to do line drills in the Catacombs.
Eventually we came back to our mooring line, and it was time to do some more skills. We hid our deco bottles in one of the hatches near the mooring ball. And we first did oral inflation, that was pretty easy. Followed by lift bag alternate inflation. That was a little interesting as it was the first I've actually did a lift bag, but I got it figured out pretty quick and was able to demonstrate the skill. Folded up the lift bag and stowed it and time for the final skill. He replaced the tired dive tow at depth with a similar more relevant skill of a toxed diver tow, same distance but you also have to manage buoyancy and the divers reg. He first demonstrated it on me, and then I did it. Another new skill for me, as I haven't taken rescue yet (scheduled for this summer but no idea if it will happen due to COVID). But other than having to be a bit more aware of random wreck structures he said it was good.
We retrieved our deco bottles and headed up the line for deco. It wasn't as long as it was planned for, we did the TDI MODS gas switch protocol, which is a little different from what Chris teaches but it was close enough that I just went with it. No jon lines, so it was 20 minutes of switching arms holding the mooring line was we inched closer to the 20foot stop. Thankfully except for a brush when I first got up to 30ft, there was no sea lice or jellies. So thankfully deco was uneventful.
Getting back on the boat was more interesting, I really wish I had brought the hang line I made, I think it would've been easier. But the captain climbed down the ladder to help pass tanks up. And we got them all up and them myself. Also it is a little harder to communicate after switch backing to my back gas, as your voice is squeaky from the helium.
Dive Profile:
Dive time: 72 minutes
Bottom time: 66 minutes
Average Depth: 71 fsw
Max Depth: 136 fsw
Well this went on longer than I expected, part 2 coming soonish.
This course was delayed a couple of times. But we finally completed it Independence Day (or Treason Day for the Brits like James) weekend 2020, with the first weekend being in early June.
AN/DP Day 1(June):
Was originally supposed to be a theory day followed by shakedown dives in the Keys but we got blown out so we did all the book work including the exam. Only missing the trick question on the DP exam.
AN/DP Day 2:
I head down to the Keys. Since I wanted to do the course in doubles this would be a shakedown dive. Seas wasn't too bad based on my previous standards being 2-3 with the occasional 4. The crew helped me get the doubles on, and my deco bottle on. After this point the dive was a disaster. I back roll into the water, but I just couldn't get stable, I was constantly turtling onto my back. And at one point my inflator just pulls off the hose, thankfully I had a redundant bladder so I just reached down and used that to get neutral and then make my way back to the surface. We fix this, but I just couldn't get stable so I called the dive. And then I got sea sick, which worried the captain as I had raspberries with breakfast.
Conclusion was that I should do the course in sidemount since I have very comfortable in sidemount. I will attempt backmount again once I get full cave and a water leg so I can spend sometime in the Ginnie basin sorting it out.
AN/DP Day 3 (July):
Back at it, did some gear prep and left for Key Largo for another go at it. Another shallow reef dive to shake things down and do basic skills. It was Lake Atlantic all weekend, but I still took Bonine just in case.
Dive 1:
My first time diving off a boat with sidemount. I figured at the very least I should get the inflator side/short hose bottle on first. I run safety clips/leashes, so it only required some minor modifications. I didn't do my necklace, and didn't run the hose behind my head until after I did the bungie. I then would run the hose around the back of my head, followed by the necklace. The crew then handed my long hose bottle at the swim step, followed by deco bottle. This wasn't all that different except I wasn't grabbing them off a bank and the water tasted horrible.
We did a bunch of drills I honestly forgot all of them, but they included air shares, deco bottle don/duff, valve shut down drills, mask remove/replace, etc. Nothing really new. He really only noted two issues, I was using cave protocol and following behind him rather than being beside him. And he noted that I couldn't stuff my long hose, as I didn't want to rest it in the sand. Not really surprising I didn't do too many drills where I donated, and when I did I was in Ginnie, so I could find safe places to do it.
I noted that my trim was off, which I fixed on the second dive my moving the lead weight further down the central weight pocket. Getting back to the boat was easy, hand up the bottles and climb aboard.
Dive 2:
Getting in the water was much the same. Not too many tasks to get down since I got most of the skills done in the previous dive, so this dive was mostly swimming around the North North Dry Rocks. Which isn't a bad reef for Florida. We did ultimately redo deploying the long hose and stuffing it, along with the no mask swim, and SMB deployment.
Get back to the boat and the captain, a rather good looking woman, said I had "A little sausage."
Other than that sexual harassment, the rest of getting back on the boat was the same as last time. James said everything went well, I felt more in trim, we dropped off our tanks for fills, and we headed back to his home in Miami. I was pretty exhausted, and I think I even got a little nap on the way back.
Day 3 Dive 1:
First dive on Trimix, requested 21/35 ended up getting 20/34. James mentioned that I would have more deco than him since I was using a standard gas vs the best mix he was running. But to me it also illustrated the beauty of standard gasses. I was too tried to think the previous afternoon, when he said the hard bottom at 145fsw, I was like great 21/35 is good to 150fsw. Deco gas was planned for 80% but we ended up with 74% per the tester.
Dive Plan on Multideco on the trip down:
145fsw for 30 minutes with a total runtime of 65 minutes
128cuft of back gas required, and 13cuft of deco gas.
Shearwater with the actual gasses was pretty similar I think 68 minutes (I don't have one in front of me to redo it). Of course planning and reality never really meet. We calculated our turn pressures and max TTS.
And then we load up on the boat, I talked with the captain to see what was the best way to handle things on this boat (a pontoon boat), we actually had another amputee diver on board, but he was on a recreational profile but had aspiration on going tech so we imparted what we had figured out so far. I didn't end up bringing the tank hang line I made the night before as the captain said that often there was current and they made it harder. Procedures for this boat was a little different, we first let all the recreational divers splash first, and then the rest of the technical divers. James splashed with my deco bottle as we decided that would be easier. I made my way to the front of the boat, took my leg off into my bag, and then put on my harness. Then sat on the bow of the boat the crew brought my HP100s and helped me get clipped up. Pretty similar procedure as the last boat except now I had my longhose tank on when I splashed, but I kept the long hose in the bands. I front flopped into the water. There was a mild current so I pulled myself down to about 20 feet and got everything configured with bungees and hoses around my neck. And put my HP50 on my hand. And then I did a bubble check on him, and we proceeded down to the wreck where he handed my deco bottle off to me.
Pretty uneventful dive, we went down the leeward side of the wreck, and swam along the sand to the props and rudder. Never did get down to 145fsw max depth was 137fsw. I didn't see the need to crawl down into the sand when I could see it just fine. We saw a small reef shark and made our way into the well deck to get sheltered from the current. Making our way through some of the internal compartments of the wreck that were within the light zone, like the snoopy corridor, the Galley, and such. Those were a little interesting in sidemount, but nothing as hard as having to do line drills in the Catacombs.
Eventually we came back to our mooring line, and it was time to do some more skills. We hid our deco bottles in one of the hatches near the mooring ball. And we first did oral inflation, that was pretty easy. Followed by lift bag alternate inflation. That was a little interesting as it was the first I've actually did a lift bag, but I got it figured out pretty quick and was able to demonstrate the skill. Folded up the lift bag and stowed it and time for the final skill. He replaced the tired dive tow at depth with a similar more relevant skill of a toxed diver tow, same distance but you also have to manage buoyancy and the divers reg. He first demonstrated it on me, and then I did it. Another new skill for me, as I haven't taken rescue yet (scheduled for this summer but no idea if it will happen due to COVID). But other than having to be a bit more aware of random wreck structures he said it was good.
We retrieved our deco bottles and headed up the line for deco. It wasn't as long as it was planned for, we did the TDI MODS gas switch protocol, which is a little different from what Chris teaches but it was close enough that I just went with it. No jon lines, so it was 20 minutes of switching arms holding the mooring line was we inched closer to the 20foot stop. Thankfully except for a brush when I first got up to 30ft, there was no sea lice or jellies. So thankfully deco was uneventful.
Getting back on the boat was more interesting, I really wish I had brought the hang line I made, I think it would've been easier. But the captain climbed down the ladder to help pass tanks up. And we got them all up and them myself. Also it is a little harder to communicate after switch backing to my back gas, as your voice is squeaky from the helium.
Dive Profile:
Dive time: 72 minutes
Bottom time: 66 minutes
Average Depth: 71 fsw
Max Depth: 136 fsw
Well this went on longer than I expected, part 2 coming soonish.
Nice writeup. How different was instr gas vs your gas? Even having lived down there I don't understand the 80% preference, especially with the appreciation you have for std gas.AN/Helitrox with James Blackman of Miami Technical diving
This course was delayed a couple of times. But we finally completed it Independence Day (or Treason Day for the Brits like James) weekend 2020, with the first weekend being in early June.
AN/DP Day 1(June):
Was originally supposed to be a theory day followed by shakedown dives in the Keys but we got blown out so we did all the book work including the exam. Only missing the trick question on the DP exam.
AN/DP Day 2:
I head down to the Keys. Since I wanted to do the course in doubles this would be a shakedown dive. Seas wasn't too bad based on my previous standards being 2-3 with the occasional 4. The crew helped me get the doubles on, and my deco bottle on. After this point the dive was a disaster. I back roll into the water, but I just couldn't get stable, I was constantly turtling onto my back. And at one point my inflator just pulls off the hose, thankfully I had a redundant bladder so I just reached down and used that to get neutral and then make my way back to the surface. We fix this, but I just couldn't get stable so I called the dive. And then I got sea sick, which worried the captain as I had raspberries with breakfast.
Conclusion was that I should do the course in sidemount since I have very comfortable in sidemount. I will attempt backmount again once I get full cave and a water leg so I can spend sometime in the Ginnie basin sorting it out.
AN/DP Day 3 (July):
Back at it, did some gear prep and left for Key Largo for another go at it. Another shallow reef dive to shake things down and do basic skills. It was Lake Atlantic all weekend, but I still took Bonine just in case.
Dive 1:
My first time diving off a boat with sidemount. I figured at the very least I should get the inflator side/short hose bottle on first. I run safety clips/leashes, so it only required some minor modifications. I didn't do my necklace, and didn't run the hose behind my head until after I did the bungie. I then would run the hose around the back of my head, followed by the necklace. The crew then handed my long hose bottle at the swim step, followed by deco bottle. This wasn't all that different except I wasn't grabbing them off a bank and the water tasted horrible.
We did a bunch of drills I honestly forgot all of them, but they included air shares, deco bottle don/duff, valve shut down drills, mask remove/replace, etc. Nothing really new. He really only noted two issues, I was using cave protocol and following behind him rather than being beside him. And he noted that I couldn't stuff my long hose, as I didn't want to rest it in the sand. Not really surprising I didn't do too many drills where I donated, and when I did I was in Ginnie, so I could find safe places to do it.
I noted that my trim was off, which I fixed on the second dive my moving the lead weight further down the central weight pocket. Getting back to the boat was easy, hand up the bottles and climb aboard.
Dive 2:
Getting in the water was much the same. Not too many tasks to get down since I got most of the skills done in the previous dive, so this dive was mostly swimming around the North North Dry Rocks. Which isn't a bad reef for Florida. We did ultimately redo deploying the long hose and stuffing it, along with the no mask swim, and SMB deployment.
Get back to the boat and the captain, a rather good looking woman, said I had "A little sausage."
Other than that sexual harassment, the rest of getting back on the boat was the same as last time. James said everything went well, I felt more in trim, we dropped off our tanks for fills, and we headed back to his home in Miami. I was pretty exhausted, and I think I even got a little nap on the way back.
Day 3 Dive 1:
First dive on Trimix, requested 21/35 ended up getting 20/34. James mentioned that I would have more deco than him since I was using a standard gas vs the best mix he was running. But to me it also illustrated the beauty of standard gasses. I was too tried to think the previous afternoon, when he said the hard bottom at 145fsw, I was like great 21/35 is good to 150fsw. Deco gas was planned for 80% but we ended up with 74% per the tester.
Dive Plan on Multideco on the trip down:
145fsw for 30 minutes with a total runtime of 65 minutes
128cuft of back gas required, and 13cuft of deco gas.
Shearwater with the actual gasses was pretty similar I think 68 minutes (I don't have one in front of me to redo it). Of course planning and reality never really meet. We calculated our turn pressures and max TTS.
And then we load up on the boat, I talked with the captain to see what was the best way to handle things on this boat (a pontoon boat), we actually had another amputee diver on board, but he was on a recreational profile but had aspiration on going tech so we imparted what we had figured out do far. I didn't end up bringing the tank hang line I made the night before as the captain said that often there was current and they made it harder. Procedures for this boat was a little different, we first let all the recreational divers splash first, and then the rest of the technical divers. James splashed with my deco bottle as we decided that would be easier. I made my way to the front of the boat, took my leg off into my bag, and then put on my harness. Then sat on the bow of the boat the crew brought my HP100s and helped me get clipped up. Pretty similar procedure as the last boat except now I had my longhose tank on when I splashed, but I kept the long hose in the bands. I front flopped into the water. There was a mild current so I pulled myself down to about 20 feet and got everything configured with bungees and hoses around my neck. And put my HP50 on my hand. And then I did a bubble check on him, and we proceeded down to the wreck where he handed my deco bottle off to me.
Pretty uneventful dive, we went down the leeward side of the wreck, and swam along the sand to the props and rudder. Never did get down to 145fsw max depth was 137fsw. I didn't see the need to crawl down into the sand when I could see it just fine. We saw a small reef shark and made our way into the well deck to get sheltered from the current. Making our way through some of the internal compartments of the wreck that were within the light zone, like the snoopy corridor, the Galley, and such. Those were a little interesting in sidemount, but nothing as hard as having to do line drills in the Catacombs.
Eventually we came back to our mooring line, and it was time to do some more skills. We hid our deco bottles in one of the hatches near the mooring ball. And we first did oral inflation, that was pretty easy. Followed by lift bag alternate inflation. That was a little interesting as it was the first I've actually did a lift bag, but I got it figured out pretty quick and was able to demonstrate the skill. Folded up the lift bag and stowed it and time for the final skill. He replaced the tired dive tow at depth with a similar more relevant skill of a toxed diver tow, same distance but you also have to manage buoyancy and the divers reg. He first demonstrated it on me, and then I did it. Another new skill for me, as I haven't taken rescue yet (scheduled for this summer but no idea if it will happen due to COVID). But other than having to be a bit more aware of random wreck structures he said it was good.
We retrieved our deco bottles and headed up the line for deco. It wasn't as long as it was planned for, we did the TDI MODS gas switch protocol, which is a little different from what Chris teaches but it was close enough that I just went with it. No jon lines, so it was 20 minutes of switching arms holding the mooring line was we inched closer to the 20foot stop. Thankfully except for a brush when I first got up to 30ft, there was no sea lice or jellies. So thankfully deco was uneventful.
Getting back on the boat was more interesting, I really wish I had brought the hang line I made, I think it would've been easier. But the captain climbed down the ladder to help pass tanks up. And we got them all up and them myself. Also it is a little harder to communicate after switch backing to my back gas, as your voice is squeaky from the helium.
Dive Profile:
Dive time: 72 minutes
Bottom time: 66 minutes
Average Depth: 71 fsw
Max Depth: 136 fsw
View attachment 596444
Well this went on longer than I expected, part 2 coming soonish.
This is why I'm a proponent of staying current and comfortable in both sm and bm. I started bm, then moved to sm and pretty much never dove bm for a long time and got rusty and uncomfortable. Now I make sure I stay up to date on both. To me sm on a boat sucks and is a major reason to stay comfy in bm.
OP
He was running a higher oxygen content (26% IIRC), so less inert gas in his mix, so less deco.
80% is the preference in the area due to higher sea states that they might encounter, and that was in this bottle. I appreciate standard gases but I am not beholden to it, so I will accommodate local practices where practical.
Similar threads
