Wreck Diver Certification (Blindfolded reel-in)

[lizardland]

Doing something once means nothing. Training is there to allow you to fail safely and you failed safely. Do it again until you get it.

Line laying is a skill and not an easy one. It's something you need to practice so it's hard to take anything meaningful from doing it wrong once. Things I'd concentrate on:

- route choice. Zigzagging all over the place isn't a good idea. Every tie off is time on the way out so try and maintain the straightest route that avoids line traps. If you want to go and look at something off the main route then line out and reel back to where you branched off when done rather than leaving line all over the place. If it took significantly longer to exit than it did to go in then your route choice was poor.

- placing a line is faster than wrapping it for when it comes to reversing on the way out. But remember a moving line is a line getting abraded so sometimes wrapping makes sense.

- reeling in works better as a two man job. One reels in, the guy in front maintains tension and undoes the wraps.

- if you churned through all your gas on the exit drill then you really need to understand why. That means you used twice as much on the way out as you did on the way in. That is seriously not good and you need to figure it out. Reptition is the best way to understand where it is going wrong.

- I would absolutely not be winding the reel back in if I was silted out and found myself alone. If you cannot confirm that everyone who came in with you is on the line in front of you then leave the line in place. Different situation if you were diving solo, then it comes down to how much you care about losing a reel. But if you were diving with others and you are winding the line back in without knowing 100% they are in front of you then that's a death sentence. And if they are in front of you and they aren't helping with the winding back in then you need to have a word with them.

Screwing something up the first time doesn't matter. What's important is how it goes the 10th or 20th time.

 

[Wibble]

TBH perfect buoyancy, trim and propulsion is always the correct answer in overhead.

That and a rebreather providing ‘unlimited’ gas to keep the lizard brain at bay.

 

[lizardland]

That and a rebreather providing ‘unlimited’ gas to keep the lizard brain at bay.

A rebreather brings its own issues. If you're in a situation where you can't see the way out then what do you do when you can't see your ppo2? SCR your way out? Just pray that whatever O2 addition system you're using will keep up while you're blind? (A level of faith most of us aren't willing to accept in normal circumstances)

Not so much an issue in wrecks but clay in a cave will turn the water to soup. I've been in many a sump where a misplaced fin will make you think someone has just poured brown paint over your mask.

 

[boulderjohn]

Line laying is a skill and not an easy one.

Assuming the course has not changed since I retired, the lack of true skill building in laying and retrieving line is a glaring weakness in the course. If you plan on running line in a future wreck penetration, I suggest you either work hard independently or you take a cavern course, where the line work is more extensive.

 

[lermontov]

first of all dont beat your self up- try to to look at difficulties/errors on your course as a way of exposing any weakness in you're skill set - then you know what to work on more

reeling in through a silt out is not unusual - its rare to get absolute zero vis, maybe in oily water, one mans terrifying silt out is another mans normal, its just a matter of stress threshold, which will increase in time.

Dont sweat it, using a reel, working in silt out, keeping bouyancy, all skills in themselves and trying to master all three in one go is unrealistic. Take time out to practice.

My only concern is who was watching you SPG? hope the instructor was !

 

[NauticalNick]

first of all dont beat your self up- try to to look at difficulties/errors on your course as a way of exposing any weakness in you're skill set - then you know what to work on more

reeling in through a silt out is not unusual - its rare to get absolute zero vis, maybe in oily water, one mans terrifying silt out is another mans normal, its just a matter of stress threshold, which will increase in time.

Dont sweat it, using a reel, working in silt out, keeping bouyancy, all skills in themselves and trying to master all three in one go is unrealistic. Take time out to practice.

My only concern is who was watching you SPG? hope the instructor was !

Yes they were. Ended up surfacing with < 30 bar (dive was <8m). The terminal tie-off on the line gave me hell (small end loop on the line so did some sort of tie-off that I don't know the name of) so I completed it in the last minute before they were going to stop the test.

 

[J-Vo]

Cavern, Intro to Cave, Full Cave, Stage Cave, CCR Cave, CCR Cave TRIMIX, and Cave DPV in my card collection and I was never once asked to pull the reel/spool blind. Leave it behind and come back later if it's important.

The line is your buoyancy reference in blackout. When your reeling it in you lose that reference making the situation even worse. Additional, following the line is faster than pulling it in and a blackout situation is time synsative for gas management.

 

[tursiops]

May

Yes they were. Ended up surfacing with < 30 bar (dive was <8m). The terminal tie-off on the line gave me hell (small end loop on the line so did some sort of tie-off that I don't know the name of) so I completed it in the last minute before they were going to stop the test.

Maybe you missed the post that explained your "test" is NOT part of the PADI Wreck class and can't be used as a basis for pass or fail in the class. You could have refused to do it and still gotten your cert.

 

[johndiver999]

I have no experience in any of this, but I am curious as to how a diver who is blindfolded is going to be expected to maintain good buoyancy control without relying upon tactile information - like touching the bottom, sides or top?

Do you just put a lot of tension on the line and try to keep it in front of you while you reel? I would think that if you are in a total silt out, you could sorta crawl on the bottom, its not like you are going to mess up the vis?

 

[gamon]

You could have refused to do it and still gotten your cert.

Yeah ok. Just like the guy who tells the cop he doesn't have to show ID because he did nothing wrong and the traffic stop was unlawful. The cop will acknowledge his error and happily wave the motorist on his way, possibly thanking him for pointing out his transgression so he won't do it again.

@tursiops Suggesting a student disobey his instructor and refuse to do a skills test will most likely not result in a desirable outcome. If you'd like a more complete explanation of how people tend to think and act and why a student taking your advice and refusing to follow the direction of the instructor would likely fail the course then we can discuss it in private but but not here.