Solo tech diving article

[Nemrod]

Why would you side mount in open water?

Has anyone ever considered teaching without a BC? If students could handle themselves without a BC--non BC dependent---then when the BC is added they would not be contantly using it as a crutch for poor bouyancy skills. Just a thought since I rarely use the damn things unless I am forced to. Same thing with guages--don't use them in the pool training. Force the students to calclate air useage and then add the guages only at the end of the class. This might alleviate equipment dependency and the described guage fixation phenomena. Consoles should be agaisnt the law anyway. You don't need all that stuff anyways. N

 

[nova]

Why would you side mount in open water?

Has anyone ever considered teaching without a BC? If students could handle themselves without a BC--non BC dependent---then when the BC is added they would not be contantly using it as a crutch for poor bouyancy skills. Just a thought since I rarely use the damn things unless I am forced to. Same thing with guages--don't use them in the pool training. Force the students to calclate air useage and then add the guages only at the end of the class. This might alleviate equipment dependency and the described guage fixation phenomena. Consoles should be agaisnt the law anyway. You don't need all that stuff anyways. N

First question, side mount for shore diving is just sweet, as is side mounting for wreck penetration.

as far as teaching without BCD. well ,that's the way I was taught (1978) . horse collar and CO2 pull. Like every other good idea the BCD came from the cave diving community.

as far as consoles , new divers need these. a diver with 200 or 300 dives under their belt probably doesn't. But every diver needs to know what the starting pressure of a dive is

 

[Scuba]

First question, side mount for shore diving is just sweet, as is side mounting for wreck penetration.

Off topic, but anyways. Will you expound on shore diving, surf conditions in particular?

Like every other good idea the BCD came from the cave diving community.

Yes, specially SCUBA. Aren't we lucky Costeau was a caver!

 

[nova]

Off topic, but anyways. Will you expound on shore diving, surf conditions in particular?



Yes, specially SCUBA. Aren't we lucky Costeau was a caver!

back mount comes in handy for deep scuba, But anyone who side mounts knows how easy it is to dive the shallows, rivers and reefs with this system.


and costeau was then, this is now. The very first scuba dive in the U.S. of A was solo in a cave . I bet you can't name the system?

so much history lost...........

 

[Scuba]

back mount comes in handy for deep scuba, But anyone who side mounts knows how easy it is to dive the shallows, rivers and reefs with this system.

I was looking for some analisys of the positive and negatives with this rig compared to backmount. Maybe some of you familiar with both systems can start a thread on this topic.

and costeau was then, this is now. The very first scuba dive in the U.S. of A was solo in a cave . I bet you can't name the system?

so much history lost...........

From what I've read now, about then, Lt. Cmdr. Francis Douglas Fane brought the first two aqualung units into the U.S.A to Little Creek, Norfolk Amphibious Base, Virginia, where it was tested by the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team. He got the units from Emile Gagnan, co-inventor with Jacques Costeau, but not co-fame. Who dove it first in what environment? Was this a case of the first solo USA SCUBA dive or first bad buddy dive?

What's your info?

 

[nova]

I was looking for some analisys of the positive and negatives with this rig compared to backmount. Maybe some of you familiar with both systems can start a thread on this topic.


From what I've read now, about then, Lt. Cmdr. Francis Douglas Fane brought the first two aqualung units into the U.S.A to Little Creek, Norfolk Amphibious Base, Virginia, where it was tested by the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team. He got the units from Emile Gagnan, co-inventor with Jacques Costeau, but not co-fame. Who dove it first in what environment? Was this a case of the first solo USA SCUBA dive or first bad buddy dive?

What's your info?

damn. now I have to go through my library again. I'll post the time and place with refferances when I get them?Hint ,it's the W in WKPP

 

[Scuba]

damn. now I have to go through my library again. I'll post the time and place with refferances when I get them?Hint ,it's the W in WKPP

According to some of those guys, their God invented diving before God invented water.

 

[nova]

According to some of those guys, their God invented diving before God invented water.

my mistake about the W, looks like it was devils hole nevada, by Walter S. Chamberland, June 1950.

 

[Scuba]

There are some interesting articles on divinghistory.com. The one by Lee Somers claims Lt. Cmdr. Fane imported the units about 1947. On navyseals.com there's an obituary for Fane where its claimed the units where imported in mid 1949. At any rate. Fane went on to train scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, who in turned went on to train those who started the first sports SCUBA training program, still in existence today, the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructors Association in 1954. Some of who'm went on to form NAUI in 1960. So it appears Lt. Cmdr. Fane taught the U.S.A how to SCUBA dive.

I Googled Walter S. Chamberland and couldn't find anything about him. It would be interesting to know if there was a seperate, fairly simultaneous development that has an impact to this day. Interesting, and sorry for the full thread hi-jack. Anyone feel free to say - enough.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Has anyone ever considered teaching without a BC? If students could handle themselves without a BC--non BC dependent---then when the BC is added they would not be contantly using it as a crutch for poor bouyancy skills. Just a thought since I rarely use the damn things unless I am forced to. Same thing with guages--don't use them in the pool training. Force the students to calclate air useage and then add the guages only at the end of the class. This might alleviate equipment dependency and the described guage fixation phenomena. Consoles should be agaisnt the law anyway. You don't need all that stuff anyways. N

First of all, every agency that I'm familiar with lists the required equipment which includes a BC with a power inflator and an SPG. Actually a lot of dive instruction is done as if there was no BC. Students spend most of their time practiving and demonstrating skills on their knees. The problem is that buoyancy control with a BC is a core skill. The whole thing is taught as though buoyancy control is an afterthought and the bc hasn't been fully integrated into training yet. We want to teach trim, good finning technique and all otherr skills mid water and wiith control.

Sure there was diving before the BC but if you had to wear a heavy wet suit you were negative at depth because of suit compression...meaning that if you wanted to stop moving foreward you'd either have to point your fins at the bottom and kick or land on something. Gee, just like so many divers still do. but it makes a mess out of any place with a little silt (which is about everyplace I dive). Trying to get down those silty cave passages with no way to stay clear of the bottom was a real pain which is how the bc got invented in the firstplace. Prior to that they used plastic jugs on strings and just about anything they could think of.

I wouldn't teach without guages because gas management, too, is a core skill. There's no need to fixate on the guages. Unfortunately gas management along with buoyancy control and trim are rarely taught very well. Students, too often, only spend a few minutes trying to hover and swim neutral and are told to surface with 500 psi. Newly certified overweighted divers go off to gain experience and usually don't get much better even over many dives because they haven't been taught the basics they need to build on.