My AN/DP/Helitrox course

[lowviz]

BwaHaHa! That, my dear, is the last horse out of Dodge.

Near and dear to my heart. Who you gonna call in the middle of the night in Brielle? GhostBusters?

 

[lowviz]

Uh Huh. The hell you did, Lisa.

AN as a stand-alone course. It needs a re-write, but even so...

Edit: Call/Txt/PM me, we talk about it...

 

[lermontov]

Your idea of following the reg fails the second the wrong reg is put on a bottle. Permanently marking bottles works because those bottles should ONLY ever have the gas they are marked for in them.

That ok if you have a lot of bottles that can have a variety of mixes in them and you use them for that specific gas, most people dont so when they change a gas they change the % MOD etc. what do you do when you travel to a third world country and you cant take your permanantly bottles with you and the bottle you got today isnt the bottle you get tomorrow
I'm not clear how you sequence/ plan your dives but once i analyse my gas i put a reg on it and then mark them both and then it goes on the boat -not sure how you can put the wrong reg on it if its marked after I put it on the bottle - the reg isnt a dedicated reg for gas type eg a green reg goes on the o2 i put a reg that is suitable for purpose and thats it

maybe im missing something how does a wrong reg get put on a bottle

 

[Mathieu Vincent]

I have not taken the class. I have the manual and TDI's description in preparation for taking the class somewhere. I am disappointed in the manual, which is required material for the class. So returning the manual would be counter productive, no matter what I feel about the manual.

TDI publishes class content with required student performance, and certs instructors on it. They also may allow additional content. I am happy TDI allows additional content. I am disappointed with their provided and required content for this class. Their provided and required content for AN seem like Intro to tech plus nitrox/O2 math. That seems short for letting me strap O2 and 50% on my body and go diving.

In the dive class market I like TDI AN/DP. Just AN by itself seems to have some required skills shortcomings. That totally give me freedom to not learn them if my instructor does not add them. I just think that is not the best way for the class to be defined by TDI.

Unless there is a secret addendum in the instructor manual that says:
"If AN is taken by rebreather divers for O2 access, the standards are as published, as they will be on the loop or learn bailout safety in their rebreather class. If taken alone by non-rebreather divers, add 'how to avoid breathing a deadly gas underwater' from DP and all the depth and gas switch stuff to go with that."

I went straight from deep/nitrox to helitrox and it wasn’t to much.

I prefer to AN/DP due to the cost effectiveness and the Helium perk! (;
But you need to found an instructor... they are more rare!!

 

[lowviz]

I'm not clear how you sequence/ plan your dives but once i analyse my gas i put a reg on it and then mark them both and then it goes on the boat -not sure how you can put the wrong reg on it if its marked after I put it on the bottle

GUE/UTD/DIR diving is totally 'team centric'. You don't get to bitch or complain. This is how WE do it. IMHO, there is some beauty in that.

You have problems with that? Take my path, shut your mouth and watch them. They have skills.

Me? I'm totally solo and 70 y/o. Old but not bold. Ain't dead yet...

 

[lermontov]

What do you do when the reg blows the first stage on the boat? Grab a fresh roll of tape? Scrub the dive? Or break the "tape matches the bottle" system?

well fair enough - id follow the hose back to the bottle - however unless you've got permanently marked bottles that same argument can apply to any stickers you put on bottle. From what i can ascertain your arguing for permanently marked gas gas designated bottles. That might be valid reasoning but virtually every dive op I've been with dont have it and those that do only mark for 50% or 100% everything else is a stick on/ write on system

 

[lowviz]

That might be valid reasoning but virtually every dive op I've been with dont have it and those that do only mark for 50% or 100% everything else is a stick on/ write on system

This is all about >you<.

Some protocols enforce a stricter standard for the survival of their own kind. Bees, they keep together and don't bitch about life. Very interesting to observe.

 

[rddvet]

That ok if you have a lot of bottles that can have a variety of mixes in them and you use them for that specific gas, most people dont so when they change a gas they change the % MOD etc. what do you do when you travel to a third world country and you cant take your permanantly bottles with you and the bottle you got today isnt the bottle you get tomorrow
I'm not clear how you sequence/ plan your dives but once i analyse my gas i put a reg on it and then mark them both and then it goes on the boat -not sure how you can put the wrong reg on it if its marked after I put it on the bottle - the reg isnt a dedicated reg for gas type eg a green reg goes on the o2 i put a reg that is suitable for purpose and thats it

maybe im missing something how does a wrong reg get put on a bottle

You do what you want to do. Nobody's telling you you can't. But you need to realize that some pretty experienced divers (experienced in both ow and cave diving) are giving you reasons why it's not a good idea to RELY on marked regs. Nobody's saying it's stupid to use a marked reg. They're only saying no matter what any reg should be traced back to it's source. It just seems you don't want to hear that. If you're marking your regs and tracing them, then great. If you're just relying on the markings, then maybe you should reconsider. But at the end of the day you're the one doing the diving. If you're buddy's ok with how you do things, then you're good. It's just not how most agencies recommend it be done

 

[rddvet]

You guys/gals do a lot of things 'right'. I borrow/steal a lot from you. If you could ever shake off the 'buddy problem' that you have, I'd sign up.

My cylinder signage used to say a couple of things including MOD. IMHO, This now says it all in my world:

View attachment 592108

GUE/UTD/DIR diving is totally 'team centric'. You don't get to bitch or complain. This is how WE do it. IMHO, there is some beauty in that.

You have problems with that? Take my path, shut your mouth and watch them. They have skills.

Me? I'm totally solo and 70 y/o. Old but not bold. Ain't dead yet...

I don't really follow your comments. You realize most of the people you're talking to aren't GUE divers. They may have fundies cards, but this isn't a GUE/DIR issue. Appropriately marking bottles and appropriately tracing a reg back to it's source is taught by many (if not all but I can't confidently say that) agencies. You do also realize that there are alot of GUE/DIR divers that dive solo regularly. It's just not advertised because the GUE/DIR mentality is to work as a cohesive team for safety. They don't pull people's cards for solo diving.

 

[Manatee Diver]

My cave instructor teaches tracing regs, and he isn't a DIR instructor at all. Although nearly everyone in cave country is DIR adjacent.