What should I have done?

[do it easy]

We do T1 dives without surface support all the time. Its nice to have, but not 100% required for less than lifethreatening deco exposures (~20 mins).

I'm not up to date with GUE classes- what are the boundaries of a Tech 1 dive?

 

[dsteding]

I'm not up to date with GUE classes- what are the boundaries of a Tech 1 dive?

150 fsw, one deco bottle. Not sure on deco limits.

 

[rjack321]

I didn't say what I would do, and in fact I have taken a chamber ride or two because someone corked and I had to follow them up. And what if you are planning to use o2 to shorten your deco?

This is the DIR forum and that would probably be a Tech2 dive. Which is a profile needing support IMO.

The vast majority of Tech1 dives (130-170ft) use 50% as a single deco gas (in an AL40).

Keeps your rock bottom reasonable and is plenty adequate for 20-30mins of deco.

 

[jeckyll]

... I've recently gone through this flurry of wanting to do skills dives because fundies is coming up. ...
(right now I am just getting ready for fundies)...

I know this is getting a bit off topic, but I don't get the whole 'training for fundies' thing. I'm taking fundies because I want someone to show me how to do things correctly. Why would I want to try and learn that before the course so I can 'pass'.

The logic behind it is questionable IMO as follows:
1) If you can learn the skills without the course, why take the course
2) If you can't learn the skills without the course, don't practice something shown to you by someone who is not your fundies instructor. If your regular buddy is good enough to demo and teach you all the skills, see #1.

I've been trying to get in at least 3 dives a week for the last few weeks to ensure I'm comfortable in the water and in my doubles. That's about it.

If I take the course learn much and don't get a 'pass' *shrug* mission accomplished, I learned alot. If I take the course, learn much and pass, same thing, mission accomplished. If I take the course and don't learn a dahmn thing, well then Dan Mackay's got some 'splainin to do

That not a criticism of your diving Doug, or of any of your buddies, it's just me explaining why I haven't been specifically 'practicing'. I know some folks taking this course with me have been out with cameras and DIR buddies doing all kinds of 'we've got to pass so let's see what we are doing wrong' type of dives and I think that's missing the point.

But I may be totally wrong. I'll find out starting Thursday and will let you know

Bjorn

 

[Blitz]

Didn't know that, thanks for the info.

 

[do it easy]

150 fsw, one deco bottle. Not sure on deco limits.

OK that helps put the deco obligation in perspective.

 

[TSandM]

Bjorn, I think you have the perfect attitude for taking the class. If you didn't want to learn something from the instructor, why bother? I wasn't out there before Rec Triox practicing anything but Fundies skills which I didn't have nailed already.

 

[dsteding]

I know this is getting a bit off topic, but I don't get the whole 'training for fundies' thing. I'm taking fundies because I want someone to show me how to do things correctly. Why would I want to try and learn that before the course so I can 'pass'.

I see people doing that a lot. I'd say I'm not "training" for fundies. What I am doing is making sure I have the skills Steve taught me in his "back to basics" workshop back in October together as much as possible.

I'm approaching it with an open mind, I'm okay with fumbling through things at times. But I do want to go into the class with a solid platform in terms of buoyancy and trim, and a basic understanding of keeping my buoyancy under control when task loaded.

The rest I'll leave to Steve. Pertinent to this thread, I have a feeling the three of us are going to learn much about diving, not the least of which will be team awareness and working together underwater. If I got anything from Lynne's rec triox experience with the same instructor, it is the concept that GUE is really working to produce divers that think and solve problems underwater, because ultimately failures have a way of being completely different then what you practiced (which is a bit contrary to some of the internet understanding of the training).

 

[jeckyll]

Lynne & Doug:

Looks like we are all on the same page then

Oh and as far as:

because ultimately failures have a way of being completely different then what you practiced

I believe the JJ phrased it was "...emergencies have an annoying habit of not going as planned". I had that as my sig for a while because it is so true

However, I also believe that:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. <Dwight D. Eisenhower>

 

[rjack321]

OK that helps put the deco obligation in perspective.

Tech1 limits....

Basically...
20-30 min deco obligations which might be accumulated anywhere from 100 to 170 ft.

More than 30 mins and you don't have the backgas reserves to complete the dive if you lose the deco bottle. (since that would then be 60 mins on backgas right there) - oi that's a long time to hang at 20 and 10ft.

Long shallow dives (80-110ft) would use O2 for deco. Deeper (120+ft) dives use 50% to keep the rock bottom to a managable level. Doing appropriate stops from 110 up to 20ft with an OOA buddy would take a huge amount of backgas. To go from ~150ft up to 70ft takes about 65cf for rock bottom.

On a Tech1 dive you'd typically have about half of your deco obliation finished by the time you arrived at 20ft (the stop which was hypothetically blown in this example). So anywhere from 10 to 15 mins of deco remain when your buddy corked.

Tech 2 starts at >170ft dives with >30 min deco obligations. 2 deco gases are required to manage these exposures. And at the very least a tended boat is needed to manage an injured diver. In water support may not be used on every T2 dive ever done, but its a very, very good idea to mitigate exactly this circumstance.