Trimix Class Report

[ppo2_diver]

I started looking into a trimix class a few months after finishing my initial tech diving class. I did a few tech dives after certification and I didn't like the feeling of deep air. It left me tired after the dives and with little memory of what actually took place on the dive. So I started looking around for trimix instructors in the Chicago area. There weren't too many. After talking to them, I decided to do the TDI Entry Trimix with Greg Such of Shipwreck Adventures (www.shipwreckadventures.com) out of Two Rivers, WI. Greg has a very good reputation as a competent tech diver and instructor.

The first thing Greg required of me was a fun dive for him to evaluate my skills (or lack thereof). So I got a group of buddies together and went out on his boat to dive the Car Ferry Milwaukee in Lake Michigan just off shore out of Milwaukee, WI. After seeing me dive, he deemed me worthy of trimix training. We were set to start the official class.

Classroom Work:
Greg lives in Two Rivers, WI. I live in Naperville, IL. The two cites are about 3 hours apart. However, Greg was very willing to come to the place where I work to do the classroom portion of the classes. This was about a 2 hour drive for him. It was more proof to me that he was willing to go out of his way for his students. More proof came during our trimix dives.

Open Water Work:
Our trimix dives were to be conducted at Wazee Lake in Black River Falls, WI. Now if you have never been to Black River Falls, WI, you aren't missing much. If you have never dove Wazee Lake, you aren't missing much either. I've done about 15 dives there and have never seen a single fish. Plus, it is very cold!!! I've done ice dives in 35 degree water, I've been in Lake Michigan with water temps below 40 degrees. But for some reason, every dive in Wazee Lake is always cold for me. Even when the water temps are 55 degrees. I hate diving there. Mostly because my wife isn't there to warm me up after the dives and Greg refused to cuddle with me to warm me up. I guess there are some things what he won't do for his students.

Greg requires his trimix students to do 7 dives, 3 more than the standards state. Our first two dives were shallow dives (100 feet) to do basic skills. Greg likes to evaluate the skills in shallow water in order to address any problems we might have before taking us deeper. We did the usual stuff, valve drills, OOA drills, shooting a bag, no mask and breath hold swimming and managing deco stops. Our mix was supposed to be on 30/30 and deco on 50% O2. But the dive store (here in the Chicago area) that I got my first fill from used balloon grade He and my fill analyzed at 33% O2 and 11% He. I'll need to talk to them for a refund on 20% He that I didn't get.

Our next two dives were to 140 feet where we got cold again and did some more skills while on deco. Our bottom mix was 21/35 with 50% O2 on deco.

The next set of dives were to 150 feet on 21/35. The first dive was to utilize a bottom stage. I used a bottom stage during my initial tech training in shallow water, but never actually dove one on a real dive. I was a little anxious to take an AL80 down to 150 feet, but was assured that I could easily switch to my necklace if I drained it. After 15 minutes on the AL80, I still had 1500 psi left when we switched to back gas and started our ascent. The second dive was to utilize 50% and 100% O2 for deco and 21/35 for back gas. Again more skills while on deco.

The last day only had one last dive for the class. No skills, just a fun dive. Unfortunately it didn't go that way. Our plan was to go to 180 feet for 15 minutes on 18/45 with 50% and 100% O2 for deco. We took our time getting down to 180, swam around for a few minutes and started our ascent. The first gas switch went pretty well. Our switch at 20 is when the s**t hit the fan. We performed the gas switch, but somehow as I'm top clipping my 70 foot bottle to my hip d-ring, I dropped it!!! All I could do was sit there and watch my bottle drop into the darkness. If I had a hammer, I would have been hitting myself on the head with it repeatedly. So now I'm thinking about the phone call I'm going to have to make to an already angry wife that I'll be late coming home because I need to make another dive to try to retrieve my bottle. Greg, being the great guy he is, was able to retrieve the bottle for me. Saving me from another dive. I owe him a case of beer for that. This dive left me feeling like a complete idiot.

Even with the bottle mishap, I still passed the class. One thing Greg said was that he would be willing to go diving with me at that current level of training. That says allot about him. He stands behind his teaching abilities and wouldn't sign off a diver if he wouldn't be willing to dive with them himself. That really means more to me than getting a card. Knowing that someone I respect will be willing to dive with me goes a long way. Hopefully I'll get the same response from Brando and Scot when I take their DIR-F course next month.

Overall, I thought the class was one of the best classes I've ever taken. Greg confirmed all of the things that I knew I still have to work on. The biggest thing is my mid-water buoyancy while task loading and to fine tune my procedures. Things like stowing the light cord when not in use and making sure the valve is turned off before top clipping a spent bottle (and not dropping it).

I would highly recommend Greg to anyone who seeks high quality technical diving education. I would also recommend every who can come to the Milwaukee, WI or Two Rivers, WI areas to dive on his charter. He is very good and a nice guy as well. If you do take a class with Greg, I will warn you to be very careful about accepting his graduation present!

 

[MikeFerrara]

Nice report. I did my advanced trimix with Greg'. I wish I could say that there weren't any humbling moments but this is your report not mine. LOL

There's tons of fish there. They just don't hang out at 200 ft. Was this a normoxic class? If your deepest was 180, you didn't get to go see Jimmy then?

Greg also runs a charter that's a first class oporation and there are some great dives in the Two Rivers are. Maybe he'll see the plug and give me a discount. I sure could use it about now.

 

[brianstclair]

Thanks for the report - I always enjoy reading those and am glad when someone posts one! Sounds like it was a great class.

Brian

 

[H2Andy]

Now if you have never been to Black River Falls, WI, you aren't missing much.
If you have never dove Wazee Lake, you aren't missing much either.

dang it! wish you'd told me that before i booked my vacation with Friendly Moose
Divers at Wazee Lake...




awesome report... sounds like a good class... the good classes are the ones
where you walk away with an idea of what you need to work on to get better

i'll be taking Trimix probably late this year, so good to read your experience, thanks
for sharing

 

[PerroneFord]

Thank you for the class report. I'll be interested to see how your skills fare in DIR-F. I always wonder if the pass in DIR-F is good enough for other agencies to think you're ready for their technical program. At least in terms of skills. Experience is another matter.

I thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to do anything fancy in mid-water with my deco bottle in Nitrox class!

I do have a question if you woudln't mind. Perhaps for PM. When diving in water this temp, can you tell me a bit about your drysuit and necessary undergarments? I hope to do some basic freshwater diving up in the lakes next year, but really don't know what kind of exposure protection I'll need.

Thanks very much.

 

[H2Andy]

hey, Perrone, empty your PM account, i can't reply to you

 

[MikeFerrara]

Thank you for the class report. I'll be interested to see how your skills fare in DIR-F. I always wonder if the pass in DIR-F is good enough for other agencies to think you're ready for their technical program. At least in terms of skills. Experience is another matter.

I thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to do anything fancy in mid-water with my deco bottle in Nitrox class!

Greg makes his classes do some number of open water ascents (no refernce). Of course you're required to keep on schedule, one team member will be shooting a bag and of course there are all the gas switches because this is done with a real decompression obligation. Divers need to do this while maintaining position realative to eachother. there were three people in my class and we basically did those ascents in a star formation so every one could see every one else. This requires the same skills needed to do the timed ascents that they have you do in DIRF only with additional tasks of course and greater potential consequesces if you botch it. In Gregs class once you're above 100 ft you're fair game for his antics (surprise drills). In case you haven't seen or been in the DIRF yet, this excersize (timed ascent) usually results in divers bouncing all over the water column because most have never had to do such a thing and most can't. In the DIRF that I audited, it was at the end of that excersize that the instructor demonstrated shooeting a bag. I don't think the mastering of bag shooting is a requirement of DIRF but you'll have to do it in open water during deco in Gregs trimix class.

I haven't taken DIRF but I've tagged along with one and watched part of another. Unless Greg really changed something I can't see any one who's passed his trimix class having any trouble in a DIRF. In fact, I can't see any one that he even allows into the trimix class having any trouble passing a DIRF. While the skills introduced in a DIRF are new to a lot of recreational divers they are skills that one should have a handle on before starting technical diving. That's GUE's stance and I don't think that Greg thinks any differently on the subject.

What I'm using a lot of typing to say here is that I think the skill requirements to pass this trimix class is a good bit above what it takes to pass a DIRF and that's as it should be for obvious reasons.

I don't know if he still is but at one time Greg was also a member of the Ozark Cave Diving Aliance (OCDA) which is one of those die-hard DIR exploration groups. I don't know what they've been up to but he was also involved with a Great Lakes based DIR oriented wreck exploration group...I don't remember the name.

I don't know how his class would compare to a GUE tech2 but that would be a more valid comparison.

 

[PerroneFord]

Ok, that makes sense. I think Tech1 does Triox, and Tech2 does normoxic. So this would seem to support what you are saying here.

And yes I have taken DIRF. The timed ascent and descent drills weren't new to me, but I hadn't done them successfully either. I was not able to shoot a bag in DIRF. I've now progressed to that on my own. I'll be working on that each dive now as well as my midwater stops.

Thanks very much.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Ok, that makes sense. I think Tech1 does Triox, and Tech2 does normoxic. So this would seem to support what you are saying here.

And yes I have taken DIRF. The timed ascent and descent drills weren't new to me, but I hadn't done them successfully either. I was not able to shoot a bag in DIRF. I've not progressed to that on my own. I'll be working on that each dive now as well as my midwater stops.

Thanks very much.

GUE has a seperate triox class. Tech one goes to 160 or so? Normoxic...check on that and tech 2 goes the rest of the way(hypoxic?).

 

[PerroneFord]

It was explained to me, perhaps incorrectly, that Tech1 incorporated the TriOx class.



Technical Diver Level 1

Purpose

The Technical Diver Level 1 (Tech 1) course is structured to prepare divers for the rigors of technical diving and to familiarize them with the use of different breathing and decompression mixtures. Tech 1 training focuses on expanding the fundamental skills learned in the DIR Fundamentals course (or elsewhere), and is designed to cultivate, integrate, and expand the essential skills required for safe technical diving. This will include problem identification and resolution, and building the capacity for progressively more challenging diving. In this class, students will be trained in: a) the use of double tanks/cylinders and in the potential failure problems associated with them; b) the use of Nitrox for accelerated and general decompression strategies; c) the use of Helium to minimize narcosis; and d) the applications of single decompression stage diving with respect to decompression procedures.

The class will focus on enriched air and TriOx (Helium enriched gas), as flexible and beneficial breathing gases for dives in the 40 foot/12 meter to 150 foot/45 meter depth range, and provides an excellent foundation on which divers can build their technical diving experience and prepare for GUE's Technical Diver 2 course (Tech 2).