Mr Chattertons Self Reliance Article...

[gmeyer]

Hi all,

I am the DM in Blackpatch's comments. He has come a very long way in a short period of time and hopefully my rankings of "self sufficiency" have made an impact.

Blame me for the interpretation of some that solo is good. I make certain all I dive with have it clear in their head and skills that they are ultimately responsible for their own safety. This does not mean that they are without assistance when diving in buddy groups. Buddy diving is by far the most appropriate way to stay safe during recreational diving. Self sufficiency actually increases the positive effects of a good buddy.

Have I done solo dives? Yup. Are they the norm? No.

Besides...it's nice to feel someone in rubber close to you!

Now you see, that there was a dern good joke!

Cheers

 

[danvolker]

Hi all,

My names Pete and I am a new diver (Certified in August 2012). 6 open water with 22 deep tank. (I will get into the deep tank number a little later on) Reason 6, is down to the fact that I live in Alberta and don't get to the mountains very often because of a ridiculous work schedule. (Poor excuse I know)

I have read the "Who is responsible for what" Article by Jim Lapenta and I find myself in total agreeance with Jim as to the responsibilities of each individual.

Having just read John Chatterton's excellent article on Tech Diving and Self Reliance, I find myself very much in agreeance with John also.

A little bit about me:

I have been climbing for 16 years now, all sorts of different climbing, including Single pitch Traditional leading and Multipitch.
I have climbed Alpine style in Groups and as part of fast moving slab ascents in the middle of weather fronts. Mountaineering in the Alps and in Scotland both in the Summer and the Winter. I have free climbed in Wales on a few slab routes of long length and height.
I have bouldered in Fontainbleau and my on my beloved Gritstone Crags.

The reason I mention all of the above is that, just like Diving, Climbing is a Solitary Sport enjoyed in the company of others. (I say this because, even though you may have a belayer or spotter, depending on the climbing type, they cannot be relied upon to get you out of the position you have placed your self in or to save your life in the event of an emergency) that said, Climbing is also just as friendly.
Climbing (once again dependant on the type) is equipment and training intensive, you don't train, you lose the ability to rig systems quickly, effectively or safely. Example: Rigging "In The System" when you needed to be "Out of The System" purely down to not practising a skill set enough.

Back to Diving:
On the Open Water course I was instructed time and time again to "practice, practice, practice because no one is coming to get you". Familiarize your self with equipment until operation and placement become's part of the muscle memory pattern.You have to be able to get yourself out of the situation that has arisen, either as a result of your actions or through those that are outside your sphere of immediate control. Maintain a good buoyancy control.

So I took all of this information, with my newly found "AWESOME SET OF SKILLZ!" and ignored everything:

Example:
Diving in Jasper. Lake Annette. First time in Dry Bag. Trouble Equalizing. "I am doing this dive, no ****ing matter what " Attitude.
DM (A very good friend of mine) instructs me not to touch another diver under the water.
DM, with reservation (because I was Gung Ho, which he quickly sorted), leads me to the underwater Cairn. Skills review. Reg retrieval, BCD removal, entanglement drills, weight ditching, Mask clearance, Mask removal. Buddy breathing. Buddy tow, emergency buoyant ascent...ETC.

The only one I had an issue with is the mask removal, I rip the mask, cold water hits a previously warm space. Dive Reflex. I have a hood on and gloves. A little water goes down my nose. Breathing irregularly, mask back on, trouble sealing due to gloves and Hood. I get the bloody thing back on but cannot clear. At this point, my DM taps me on the head and assists. I put my hands in the air and surrender to the assistance. Although I was in a seriously uncomfortable position I never touched my DM. Just was not going to happen. The reason: I was so annoyed with requiring assistance. My thoughts had turned to "well, what if there was no one to help?" I realised, right then and there, I had broken every rule I had been taught.

My "AWESOME SET OF SKILLZ!" ego trip shuffled out of the door with a serious kick in the Ass.

At the end of the dive I felt very annoyed with my performance on the mask drills. Determined to do better I got my DM to show me, to give me constructive criticism as to points of improvement throughout the whole dive. I returned to Edmonton and got straight in the Pool and started ripping my mask off in every position first without a Hood on then with hood then with 7mm gloves. I got that problem nipped in the bud pretty quickly.

Along with organising my mask drills I worked on getting my buoyancy sorted along with differing propulsion techniques, V -Drills, S- Drills, Entanglements. etc,etc,
Now every-time I get into the pool I treat it as a training dive and practice every one of the skills taught on the OW and on my Stress and Rescue (if it is at all possible)

As John and Jim have both said, my DM was available for assistance, but was not there to save my ass. I had to do that.

As a new diver I was guilty of the following points (Plus many more probably)

Failing to correctly plan my dive and dive the plan.
Putting too much reliance on another human being.
Ill prepared, mentally and skill wise.

Now, when I dive I take planning exceptionally seriously.
I dive my plan and do not deviate from it.
My contingency plans are strictly adhered to and reviewed thoroughly with my buddy pre dive.
Even though I am in the company of another Human Being, in my head I plan the dive to include them, to help them if necessary , but I am always cognisant that I am the one who will get me out of trouble.

The reason for this post is, I think, that new divers believe a DM / DCS / Instructor is there , exclusively to save your ass and they are NOT. I read this quite a lot on ScubaBoard.

Is it a failing on the part of the training agencies ?
No I wouldn't say so. Purely because I am a new diver.

I think that people in general are "Coddled" in to a position of comfort and require that position of comfort in every part of life, so they place far too much reliance on another Human Being to assist when they should not, necessarily, have been in that position in the first place, either because they don't have the Mental drive for it or the Skill set or both.

I do not yet know which path I wish to travel down within the sphere of Diving, Technical Wrecks have always appealed for the physical size, historical aspect, Human essence and the commitment required. We will see. I am in control of my own Ego enough to say I am NO WHERE NEAR where I need to be to make those kinds of dives.

Once I am confident in my progressed abilities, possibly another 100 to 150 dives as an OW Diver, I will seek the critique of other Instructors so they can tell me exactly how I need to improve to get to where I wish to be within Diving.

Take from the above ramblings recreational divers (if there is anything to take at all):

Technical divers plan everything, they have to, life utterly depends on it.

Don't RELY on another human being to save your life.
Do it yourself: If the answer to that statement is "How"? then why are you in the water?

Stay safe all and hopefully some of this made sense.

Pete.

Pete,
Well thanks to the last couple of posts, I finally bothered to go back to your original post...quoted here.
Given the main content of your original post, I can see how you might have become annoyed at the derailment it suffered.
Given the backgrounds of many posters that ran into this fray, I imagine you can see how your mention of Chatterton's article was a lot like waving a carat in front of some horses or donkey's.... My big ears went up, and all I was considering was the big carat. Apologies for that

Regarding "your" topic, let me make a few comments from my perspective.

• I like team diving, but my buddy(s) is/are there for accidents or emergencies that each of us considers highly unlikely. We don't dive hand in hand, and are not dependent on each other every second of the dive.
• When you hear GUE's talking, you may think they are too dependent on each other. I think this is due to the shift in thinking from individual to team, and the shift is something that is hard to describe. At no point is a GUE taught to abandon personal responsibility for anything on a dive--if anything, they work tirelessly to develop what YOU would call solo skills. Skills that would prevent them absolutely from ever needing a buddy. Things like Valve shutdowns are practiced constantly for Fundies ( the basic skills GUE course which preceeds any tech or cave training). Here you are practicing for solving a highly unlikely gear failure, and you are solving this yourself. When GUE divers practice this on recreational dive, their buddy would WATCH them do the practice, in case some strange problem develops in the drill, and temporary gas needs to be offered...but this is part of a practicing and drill related activity. Being able to handle a gas share as so simple it is completely instinctive, much like walking, was one of the basic skills that has already been drilled into these divers...And this will help each for the safety of the more advanced drills like the valve drills---whether for double tanks or for single tank.
• If you were watching an Exploration team of WKPP or GUE divers ( not the students or a group practicing) on a real exploration dive, you would see the mission proceeding in a manner not so dissimilar to the way a very good solo tech diver might approach the exploration. If they are trying to spot something they have not found yet, two buddies may even spread apart 20 feet or even much further--given good vis, scooters, and lights for signaling and getting attention when desired. Still, they would always KNOW where their buddy was--and this is something of a different skill from what the elite solo tech diver would be expected to have. You do not see the 2 or 3 exploration GUE/WKPP divers sticking 2 feet apart when searching for something, with a proximity borne out of a concern for a gas failure. Usually a tight formation is more for high speed travel in a known direction, and it just expedites getting from point A to B as quickly as is possible. I don't think much of this translates from what you see when you have a bunch of practicing GUE's in the water near you.
• What you will see with the practicing GUE's, is a concentration on perfection of skills, where this is exaggerated to a level RARELY SEEN ELSEWHERE IN DIVING. To some, this can be to the point of exasperation, with what they see as too much interest in minutia. If your ultimate plans are to explore something as spectacular and challenging as a wreck like Chatterton would write about, then all of this makes good sense, in this perspective.
• When you plan on diving and penetrating a real shipwreck that sank accidentally, then this will be a place where you can expect all levels of chaos inside the wreck--entanglements, areas with no structural integrity, and many areas inside the wreck that will effectively try to reach out and kill you. For this, where accidents can practically be expected( bubbles cause ceiling to give way, and a hundred other potential incidents) having a team diving with you can be a powerful tool to use, to mitigate each potential sudden catastrophe with. I say this here not to push team over solo, just to suggest one reason why I like team for this.
• When mention get's made to "Every Man for Himself" , or "my air is my air", this DOES pull DIR and GUE in to the conversation, because it is a caricature of our opposite...a carrot I find almost impossible to not go chasing after

Sorry again for the derail. I hope to hear much more about the path you are on, and how it progresses. Let me know if you get an interest in doing some of our Palm Beach dives.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Solo diving is clearly not DIR, side mount diving is not DIR, rebreathers are not DIR.

This is getting way off topic, and I'm not exactly a spokesman for DIR ... but the above comment isn't exactly correct.

By definition, solo diving is not DIR ... since DIR is based on diving as a team.

But sidemount and rebreathers are a different matter. They are neither "DIR" or "not DIR" ... they are outside the scope of a DIR standardized configuration, but my understanding is that there are times when both are considered an appropriate tool for a specific mission ... and are used by DIR teams. Within that context, they have standards for both sidemount and rebreather.

DIR is more about attitude and approach than equipment. People get way too hung up on the gear ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[nakatomi]

But sidemount and rebreathers are a different matter. They are neither "DIR" or "not DIR" ...
[...]
DIR is more about attitude and approach than equipment. People get way too hung up on the gear ...

Bob, I agree on people getting hung up on the gear itself and I don't mean to nit-pick, but if you can't take a single course for the agency that's getting mentioned all the time, those configurations are probably not really compatible with the core principles of DIR.
And you're right, it's not just the equipment but the procedures and the idea at the root of the concept. But really, those procedures as outlined in the Fundamentals of a better diving and in the SOP aren't really compatible with side mount and rebreathers. Just as an example, it's just not possible to donate the regulator you're breathing, when you're on the loop of your CCR or the short hose of a side mount tank.

But by all means, I actually like the concept behind DIR. Also I would love it if this concept was more open for adaption to all the changes we've seen in the diving world over the past decade.
Who knows, eventually it might happen?
What completely ticks me off for the time being is that some people make it their religion and are so intensely radical about it, that they accept no other opinions, let alone alternatives and make it their goal to destroy fruitful discussions like this one. Quite honestly, are we not even allowed to think outside of this DIR-box without being told off? That's not right.

Just a few words to the original poster, since Dan was so kind to remind us about how this whole thread got started in the first place.
My advice is pretty simple. Don't worry to much about your performance, your fears, just dive as much as you can and try to gain experience. You'll most likely encounter setbacks and nasty moments, we all did and do, that's part of the learning process. Just make sure to take it slow and easy, dive with the right people, folks that are like-minded and who don't push you beyond your comfort zone. Oh, and of course have fun in the process, that's what it's all about.

Oliver

 

[DaleC]

I think he's trying to say that, since it's inconceivable that a sidemount diver would run out of gas (since no single failure can do it), it's unnecessary for two sidemount divers to discuss how to go about sharing gas.

I'll bet the guy who recently died in Calimba would have loved to share gas with somebody.

I would not say it is inconceivable but it would pretty well come down to planning to ignore going OOA once in order to go OOA twice. Unless I've lost my mind, that's a crazy thing to do and I would get dogpiled if I were to suggest such a strategy anywhere else on SB. As someone who believes in team oriented diving, wouldn't you want someone to point the error of that out; or do you suggest ignoring it because buddies talking about a plan trumps all, even if the plan is poor?

My take on Johns article is that planning to share air on a deep technical dive is poor planning. If that's the fall back plan then perhaps one should think again.

Lynne, why bring up Calimba. It appears this was a case of someone solo diving and ignoring either line procedures or cave gas planning procedures - nothing to do with any of the issues pertaining to this thread.

 

[TSandM]

I think planning to share air on any dive is poor planning (with the possible exception of shallow reef dives at resorts or off liveaboards, where one doesn't have the option of planning a bigger gas supply). But I also recognize that there can be situations where sharing gas (sometimes briefly) is a very reasonable solution -- for example, if you have an issue with a gas switch. I don't think there is anything wrong with going over air sharing procedures, since, with the explosion of sidemount configurations, for example, people are managing their gear quite differently.

In medicine, I like to say that it's important to consider the most likely diagnosis, but also the most disastrous . . . We plan and drill around a number of extremely unlikely problems which, albeit rare, have potential for disaster if they occur. I've got about 150 cave dives or so now (need to add them up) and have yet to have a lost line, lost buddy, or lights-out experience except when planned and more or less artificially created. Does that mean that I'm not glad we drilled those things in my classes?

 

[DaleC]

No, I think the fact that you drill has embedded a healthy respect/fear of allowing such situations to develop. I think perhaps, John may have had similar incidences that shaped his healthy respect/fear of having to air share at depth. Perhaps he recognizes just how dangerous the reality could be.

 

[drrich2]

My take on Johns article is that planning to share air on a deep technical dive is poor planning. If that's the fall back plan then perhaps one should think again.

Perhaps it's not the only fall back?

If the point of that section of the article were that despite buddy diving those doing very deep technical class dives should also dive with a fully redundant gas supply sufficient to return them to the surface, given that a buddy may be unreliable (e.g.: buddy separation), then I think the opposition to it would be far less.

Nobody has a problem with better individual preparedness. And despite having that, also being familiar with your buddy's gas sharing capability, to provide an additional avenue of redundancy, while hopefully all the more unnecessary, then does no harm.

Richard.

 

[DevonDiver]

What really needs to go wrong for a 'foolproof' gas sharing plan to become unworkable? One thing... panicked breathing (in excess of calculated 'stressed SAC'). It happens.

 

[DaleC]

If the point of that section of the article were that despite buddy diving those doing very deep technical class dives should also dive with a fully redundant gas supply sufficient to return them to the surface, given that a buddy may be unreliable (e.g.: buddy separation), then I think the opposition to it would be far less.

Nobody has a problem with better individual preparedness. And despite having that, also being familiar with your buddy's gas sharing capability, to provide an additional avenue of redundancy, while hopefully all the more unnecessary, then does no harm.

Richard.

I think Johns intent was that it isn't a matter of "should also" but rather "must". There are technical divers who plan to operate as autonomous units and part of that may be that they do not bring adequate reserves for themselves and another diver.

Some may argue that they dive a different way (ie: a team that shares all resources) but that "agreement" only exists within that specific team. What John said is that, within his group, divers are expected to be self sufficient and that an outside diver should not expect him to violate his planning for them.

I don't think one way is better than the other, personally, as I can operate in both (though I would never let someone else carry my reserve gas). The disagreement comes when one team expects another team to play by their rules. That's the whole argument in a nutshell. John is saying "this is how I dive-this is what my teammates expect. Others are mad that he isn't diving "their way". Well, who cares. As long as you're not abandoning your team mates and plan under water and then turning to a complete stranger to bail you out, how would his strategy effect anyone else.

Remember the context is deep technical diving wherein no one accidentally finds themselves. At that point gas plans and bail out options should not just develop as the dive progresses.