What to do to start wreck diving?

[judestudio]

I am going through my AOW and nitrox at the moment and my dive club is organizing a wreck diving trip later in the year, I was told I'm not ready to penetrate though I can cruise along and hang around on the outside

So I want to know, what do one need to do to get trained for wreck diving? Is this a "tech" course?

 

[Jimmer]

If you're referring to wreck penetration, then yes it is a tech course. Anytime you're dealing with an overhead environment, either physical such as a wreck, or virtual such as decompression, tech training is required. My suggestion would be to talk to other memebers of the dive club and find out what path they took that worked for them, and what instructors they trained with.

 

[judestudio]

Question no. 2, how advance do you need to be to start a tech course?

 

[Jimmer]

Well my advice to you on that question, is to let your potential tech instructor evaluate you. Look into taking a course like GUE fundamentals, or Intro To Tech from NAUI or TDI. That will give you a really good idea of the skills you need for a tech course, as well as equipment configuration and give your instructor an opportunity to evaluate you.

Jim

 

[JohnW]

I was told I'm not ready to penetrate though I can cruise along and hang around on the "outside"

Remember that a great deal of fun can be had on the outside of a wreck also. If there is a current stay close to the wreck and check out all the cool stuff & critters up close. If the water is calm and clear get back about 40 ft or so from the wreck and take whole panorama in, this is sometimes cooler than actually going inside.

Although penetrating a wreck is awsome experiance, it's not for everyone. Taking Baby steps is the best coarse of action. Penetrating a wreck before you are ready can be both traumatic and costly. All the Training agencies have a intro to wreck type course (Padi actually calls it Wreck). The course will teach you the fundimentals within the light zone (like cavern) and give you just enough information to get into trouble if you do not follow the guidelines, but will start building you experiance. Hope this helps.....

 

[MBH]

It will be a lot easier on you if you'll take it one step at a time. If you haven't already done so- get your trim straightened out first, then work on your buoyancy without any other task loading. Spend as much time in the water as possible and just work on your buoyancy while you hold trim. For me the hardest thing to do is keep still. (my right foot has a mind of it's own at times)

When you get to where you can hold your trim and depth inside about a 4' window then you can add some minor task loading. Simple stuff like taking off your mask, putting it back on, then clearing it. Checking and clipping off your spg, switching between your long hose and back up reg. deploy your back up lights and then stow them. If you'll learn to do simple task loading without corking or drifting all over the place you will have a tremendous advantage and your wreck instructor will be tickled pink to work with you.

Don't worry about running a reel, your instructor will teach you how to do that, as well as learning about line traps, non silting kicks, air share exits, and a whole lot more.

 

[judestudio]

Cool! A whole new array of diving I see. Great stuff, that'll be what I'm going to work towards after AOW, thanks guys!

 

[MattL]

Allso get your self a backplate and some jet fins this is were youll haft to start with tech diving so get it now you dont need a wing that can take dubs just a singal is fine and if the wreck is slow and sunk with divers in mind you can to swim thews with a singal tank train is still need for this but you dont need dubs and want not but as said before trim and buoyancy are key in this type of diving and lean frog kicks ect.
Iv been coming out of a wreck in a silt out becouse someone didnt have good trim and buoyancy and jack my viz up
oh one more thing is you need to look at there seem to be a war out there with dir guys and non dir guys so look at both sides and have fun besafe so on and so on take it slow this is not a race.
IM if you like for more info if you like i live in socail

 

[Gilldiver]

I am going through my AOW and nitrox at the moment and my dive club is organizing a wreck diving trip later in the year, I was told I'm not ready to penetrate though I can cruise along and hang around on the outside

So I want to know, what do one need to do to get trained for wreck diving? Is this a "tech" course?

All of what these other posters have said is true, but it only goes a part of the way. What you need is a diving Mentor who will take their time with you to show you how all the training gets applied in the real world.

Let's put it this way, High School and College "Trained" you but how much have you learned to apply that training from your first jobs?

A diving mentor is an experienced diver, and that DOES NOT mean a diver with all the cert cards, it is a diver with time in the water and has been there and done that.

From your posts it looks like a few mentors are right in front of you as they are telling you that you are not ready. So, go back to them and ask them to help you get ready. They should tell you to go get some training and then come back to us for help in getting the experience to use that training.

Last, and this never gets mentioned on boards like this as some think that the diving training, buoyancy etc., is all there is to wreck diving, start studying how ships are designed, what types of engines and other technology was used at differing times as they were developed. Once you know how they were built you should start being able to figure out how they have fallen apart.

If you do this you may find that you will start reading the wreck. You will be able to say if this is here and the bow is that way, that should be right over here. Or, if the boilers are here and the engine is there, then the bow (or stern) is that way. If you can read the wreck and get lost, most of the time you can navigate back to you entry point by having figured out where on the wreck you started and knowing just about where you are now. And if you can't get back to the line, that is where the training comes in on shooting a bag and doing an independent accent.

 

[judestudio]

All of what these other posters have said is true, but it only goes a part of the way. What you need is a diving Mentor who will take their time with you to show you how all the training gets applied in the real world.

Thanks again, very constructive advises. Yes, the person who tells me to lurk outside is actually the person who's training me on AOW, it'll be ideal if he would train me into wreck diving. From what I gathered, wreck diving is another learning curve here. Good to know how to get started, so thanks!