I died because of my slate - looking for articles/info on slate abbrev.

[flareless]

Flareless -- according to your profile you have <50 dives. Is this still correct? Are you really taking a technical course with such little experience?

Hey SB, yes I'm almost at 50 dives and I've been getting out every weekend making multiple dives to get my experience level up. I've been focusing on the basics; boyancy and breathing as well as fine tuning my drysuit skills and organization of my kit (minus deco bottles of course). I've been told by a number of my instructors that I'm a natural in the sport (I could snorkel practically before I could walk) and have little problem adjusting to new gear and situations. Having said all that I'm taking it very slow.

DSAT also has an Apprentice Tec level with a minimum required 50 dives. This level allows you to make extended, gas switch no stop dives. I've pretty much got the prerequisites for this level. I must say though, that I intend to continue my training and progress to the DSAT Technical Diver level (and beyond in the years to follow).

I've also asked my instructors to be very hard when grading my performance and to outright flunk me if they find a skillset which I just can't seem to grasp. So far it's been working out ok for me and apparently to their satisfaction. We haven't yet begun our in-water training and I still have a few weeks to practice and get my numbers up prior to getting Tec-wet.

I reallize the huge danger in Technical Diving but I'm very honest with myself when it comes to the "can I do this" factor. I plan to limit the variables which occur in the dives I do so as to increase the comfort level of my dives (eg: no 40 minute dives at 160 feet with deep penetration into a wreck). There's plenty of time for that as time goes by. I know that knowledge and confidence are no substitute for experience and I'm proceeding cautiously on that premise.

 

[Jason B]

This level allows you to make extended, gas switch no stop dives.

Why take a class that allows you to do gas switches but no deco stops? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the class is about. What is extended no stop diving?

 

[Xizang]

switching to a higher o2 gas to extend the no-decompression limit on a given depth. there is no deco obligation

 

[Jason B]

switching to a higher o2 gas to extend the no-decompression limit on a given depth. there is no deco obligation

So you are saying that I could go down with say 32% to 110ft, stay for say 25 minutes, then switch to a higher O2 gas and somehow extend my bottom time (and not tox)?

This is a PADI course?

 

[ianr33]

So you are saying that I could go down with say 32% to 110ft, stay for say 25 minutes, then switch to a higher O2 gas and somehow extend my bottom time (and not tox)?

No

It means you can bounce down to 150 on air,then come up to ,say,70 feet and switch to 50%. Get a nice long NDL dive that way.

And it makes absolutetely ZERO sense to me as well

 

[Rainer]

No

It means you can bounce down to 150 on air,then come up to ,say,70 feet and switch to 50%. Get a nice long NDL dive that way.

And it makes absolutetely ZERO sense to me as well

Chilling.

 

[Flightlead]

This is one of the weird things with the DSAT course: they seem to want bottle markings with gas mix, max depth, diver name, fill date, filler name, name of fillers pets, weather duing fill, type of analyser used, favourite colour, etc.

The deco bottle needs just the max. depth in great big numbers that everyone can read. The rest of the information is not needed underwater. Then you know that when you get to 21m you switch to the bottle that says "21". When you get to 6m you switch to the bottle that says "6 OXYGEN" (ok, that's extra info).

Of course this all becomes easier if you use - yep, standard gasses. Then you always make your switches at the same depths and have less to remember during the dive.

I would mention that while this class is taught as a DSAT class there is a lot of the (typical in the PADI world) "this is what the book says, this is what you really do" stuff. I put my name, and the MOD on the bottle. Thats it. MOD goes top, left, right, bottom just as you say.

btw, I did not know this but according to the PADI standards your can pass this class doing all your skills vertical on the water, rather than horiztonal. whiskey tango foxtrot?

 

[Flightlead]

One thing I've seen, when a teammate is confirming the correct bottle, they'll look at the markings (numbers) on the bottle being shown to them and give the OK or not based on that. However, unless you take a moment to really follow the hose with your eyes from the diver's mouth around to the bottle, they could be showing you a different bottle than the one with the reg in their mouth. When I confirm the correct gas switch, I make sure that my teammate is actually breathing from the bottle they are showing me.

I always point at the bottle and then trace the hose with my finger. if it went behind the divers head, I would touch it. however to date, we have held the hose out in front of us at arms length.

 

[Flightlead]

I'm still a little confused about the mistaken gas switch that "killed" you. Were you below the MOD of the gas you switched to, and if not, how were you "harmed". (I just got lost in the narrative, not trying to be argumentative.)

ron, I said "killed" partly tongue in cheek. I did not switch to the gas I was supposed to according to our schedule. given that this was a training dive, all gases were breathable at the depths we were at. however if one pretends that we were using typical deco gases at typical deco depths we could have toxed out maybe.

I'm not really dead.

 

[Flightlead]

Why take a class that allows you to do gas switches but no deco stops? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the class is about. What is extended no stop diving?

I think the real purpose of this class is to get you up to scratch on the skills and knowledge needed (book and in water) to then go on to the next step, actual dec diving to 165' on with with accelerated deco using up to 100%

however they chopped it into two courses for whatever reason. so, they have to have SOME benefit for the first part of the course to sell it separately (btw, there is one book, chaps 1-4 are the apprentice tec, 5 and 6 tec 1). it also makes it easier to say "ok you passed this course, now go practice xyz for a while".

personally (I know my instructors are listening) I view this as one course with a mid-term