Shadow Diver on the U869 narrated by John Chatterton

[Force-E Divers]

Hey, check out this cool video just posted by our friends at Duck Diver Productions. It is a video by Shadow Diver, John Chatterton. He takes us through his first trimix dive on the U869. Very cool.

 

[tplyons]

Awesome! I just started reading the book Shadow Diver! This is really awesome!

 

[sportxlh]

Great video (and a great book): thanks for posting!!!

The Last Dive is also a semi-related book and pretty interesting as well.

 

[ganu76]

While I have Shadow Diver saved to my Kindle, I have yet to read it. I *have* read Deep Descent and The Last Dive, both of which mention Chatterton's extensive diving history, with the latter actually focusing on the efforts to identify this very U-boat (previously known as the U-Who).

Absolutely thrilled to see video from a book I set down just last week!! Thanks, OP.

 

[HowardE]

Megan and John worked really hard on this. its great!

 

[Gene]

Wunderbar! Great to see this footage and hear John's narration.
John's "house-keeping" moment during this video would be many divers worst nightmare.
"Hitler's Lost Sub" remains my favorite Nova episode and seeing this footage reminds me of my best wreck dive to date -- the U-853.

 

[boulderjohn]

I really enjoyed this. One perhaps unintended benefit of this video might be helping less experienced divers realize how different such a wreck dive is from the sanitized artificial reef dives that most people know, and hopefully helping them reconsider a dive for which they might not be prepared.

 

[Force-E Divers]

Thanks for all the comments and we are happy you enjoyed the video! A little birdie told me there will be more videos coming soon. So, stay tuned for another post from us or subscribe to the Duck Diver Productions YouTube channel.

We agree that artificial wrecks are much, much different from natural wrecks, but both have their hazards. John Chatterton taught an Advanced Wreck Diving class for Force-E recently, and his students (some of which were Force-E staff) had an amazing time. Their eyes were opened to new ways of configuring their gear, approaching and exploring wrecks and diving in general. They walked away with more confidence and better diving skills that can be incorporated into all types of diving. He doesn’t teach very often, but if anyone is interested in a class we can try and put something together.

 

[t-mac]

Thanks for posting. I've read Shadow Divers and a number of other books that touch on this. I too have to laugh at the housekeeping comment and the quip at the end regarding the stage bottles and being a little nervous. Incredibly understatated! One diver had already died on the wreck and Chatterton was nearly making up trimix as he went along -- tables cobbled together from unpublished sources and gas mixing in the garage. This was really brand new stuff and there was every reason to believe you might die. A little nervous, really?! You can be excused.

Anyway, everyone with an interest in diving should read this book. I can't wait for more video.

 

[Force-E Divers]

Thanks for posting. I've read Shadow Divers and a number of other books that touch on this. I too have to laugh at the housekeeping comment and the quip at the end regarding the stage bottles and being a little nervous. Incredibly understatated! One diver had already died on the wreck and Chatterton was nearly making up trimix as he went along -- tables cobbled together from unpublished sources and gas mixing in the garage. This was really brand new stuff and there was every reason to believe you might die. A little nervous, really?! You can be excused.

Anyway, everyone with an interest in diving should read this book. I can't wait for more video.

You are very welcome. It seems that most of you are happy that we shared, so we’ll keep doing it! JC is a regular (and sometimes an instructor) in our Pompano Beach store and we have the pleasure of hearing about some of his experiences first hand. Even he admits that moments like that can be nerve racking. Of course, his “little bit nervous” would be most of our nightmares!

Cheers,