Your decompression experience at Truk Lagoon...

[mcpowell]

So I’m interested in your experience when diving the wrecks of Truk. I am in the beginning stage of planning a trip in late 2019 or 2020. Currently I have my AOW, which I realize has a lot of limitations. Before I go, I want to take an advanced nitrox class, a decompression class, and a wreck penetration class. From my cozy corner here in the States, I feel like I don’t want to travel to the other side of Earth just to skim over the top of a wreck for 11 minutes each.

My Dad was a WWII veteran who served as part of the occupational force immediately after the surrender of Japan. This promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for me, so I want to make the most of it. I have always been interested in World War II history.

1) If you have been to Truk as an AOW diver, did you find yourself limited by your bottom times and wishing you could stay longer or were you able to see what you needed/wanted by staying within the NDL’s?

2) If you dove Truk as a technical diver, what’s a common time for your decompression dives? I’m sure the boat crew doesn’t want you staying down an exceedingly long time as I assume they want to move on to the next site. Did you dive with 100’s, 120’s, twins?

3) Is there some sort of published dive plan for most of the wrecks? I have found a list of the ships and their descriptions online, but the list is more from a historical perspective than a diver’s. For example, a wreck may be sitting in 130’ of water, but could all the interesting stuff be at 80’ and not really require much, if any, decompression? The information I have found may say a wreck has “x” weaponry, and “y” points of interest, but it doesn’t really say how accessible those features are to divers.

 

[doctormike]

I went as a technical open circuit diver with Pete Mesley (Lust4Rust). I went with two of my dive buddies who were single tank recreational divers, and they had a BLAST. There is plenty to see at recreational depths, and you don't absolutely need deco or CCR training to enjoy Truk. Of course, you will get a lot more out of it if you have more options, but most of these wrecks are huge with massive relief, so the depth to the sand isn't a limiting factor. I did relatively light deco, but some of the CCR groups did longer dives exploring the engine rooms, etc... basically, you plan your dives according to your training and skills.

I did it land based, which I really enjoyed. What's good about that is that you have your own small group every day, each with your own little boat, so you can do deeper or shallower wrecks depending on what the group wants. There was a single tank rec group, an OC tech group, CCR groups, etc... I haven't done the liveaboard, which I hear is great, but one issue that I would have is that everyone has to dive the same wreck on a given day (although not sure if they send small boats out to other wrecks on request). In any case, land based is really set up to allow you to have a customized experience. On the last few days, it was just me on my own private little boat with a guide!

 

[WetPup]

Experience diving from Blue Lagoon Resort.

1. Not as AOW, but you will not be staying within your NDL's at Truk. You need to let go of that mindset and get comfortable with deco diving before you go. Every dive in Truk is a deco dive.

2. Even if you're on a single tank open circuit, there's probably going to be another diver in your group on twins in my experience. The boat waits till the last person is up. Yes, they'll try to make sure all the people on each boat are roughly diving the same setup, but that doesn't always work in practice. There can be a lot of sitting around on the boat at the end of the dive waiting for others. Unless you pay for your own private boat.

3. Not really. You plan your own dive and dive your own profile. We generally went down as a group and the guide would show us around inside the wrecks, but given our different air consumption rates and deco profiles, we didn't come up together. I strongly recommend that you get comfortable with partially diving on your own at the end of a dive. Yes, we had a guide, but he was just that, a guide. He was not there to be your buddy.

 

[doctormike]

My experience at blue Lagoon was very different than that. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I was with Pete Mesley’s group. We always had boats grouped by experience and dive plan. I never saw a mixed Deco and recreational boat.

And certainly, not every dive at Turk needed to be a deco dive. As I said, my single tank recreational buddies had a fantastic 10 days of diving.

 

[mcpowell]

My plan is to dive with the Odyssey. I expect I’ll only be doing this once, so I’d like the nice accommodations. It appears they offer up to 5 dives per day, so you can go on all of them or pick and choose. I think 5 dives a day would get a bit exhausting after a few days, so I’ll likely be selective. From what I read, it appears hanging out waiting for other divers to finish wouldn’t be the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever done.

I do like the thought of having the flexibility to plan deco dives; I’m sure I will still be doing open circuit unless a rich uncle decides to leave me his CCR.

 

[Akimbo]

We had about half the divers on my Odyssey trip diving singles and staying within NDLs. I dove open circuit doubles and stayed in NDLs about 3/4 the time.

 

[bamafan]

I had the same experience as Akimbo above. You can certainly do it on a single tank but I recommend doubles and some deco training. I see you are in Georgia. I honestly would go to North Florida / Cave Country and take a cavern class and then an AN/DP class as I think it would greatly increase your enjoyment. On the Odyssey they let you do what you want. I sidemounted two lp 108's that they would overfill to 3300 or so. Most of my dives were well over 3 hours. The water is warm so even in a 3 mil / rash guard you aren't uncomfortable. I recommend the Odyssey over a land based operation as I did a few dives with Blue Lagoon and had Rob McGann from the Truk Stop Hotel take me to the Oite. If you can swing the Oite and are comfortable in the 200' deep range I highly recommend it. It was the best dive of the whole trip.

 

[Kevrumbo]

1) If you have been to Truk as an AOW diver, did you find yourself limited by your bottom times and wishing you could stay longer or were you able to see what you needed/wanted by staying within the NDL’s?

2) If you dove Truk as a technical diver, what’s a common time for your decompression dives? I’m sure the boat crew doesn’t want you staying down an exceedingly long time as I assume they want to move on to the next site. Did you dive with 100’s, 120’s, twins?

3) Is there some sort of published dive plan for most of the wrecks? I have found a list of the ships and their descriptions online, but the list is more from a historical perspective than a diver’s. For example, a wreck may be sitting in 130’ of water, but could all the interesting stuff be at 80’ and not really require much, if any, decompression? The information I have found may say a wreck has “x” weaponry, and “y” points of interest, but it doesn’t really say how accessible those features are to divers.

1) For a regular Truk Odyssey Liveaboard recreational itinerary, you can view a fair interesting portion of the wrecks on an external survey tour, and with an optional limited penetration traverse -but with the recommendation of having at least AOW basic Nitrox, and optional Deep & initial beginning Wreck diving specialties as well. You will have an option to do the San Francisco Maru on the last dive day of the week, but you'll only get maybe 8 to 10min of bottom time on Air at 42 to 45msw, with Dive Guides standing-by and spare cylinders of Nitrox36 hanging shallower on the uplines.

2) For the deeper wrecks of the Fourth Fleet Anchorage ranging from 45 to 63msw deep, my bottom times on Open Circuit double backmount & sidemount Alu 11L cylinders & stage tanks were from 45 to 60min long, with total deco times approaching 140min max. These dives were conducted with Rob McGann at Truk Lagoon Dive Center/Truk Stop Hotel in 2010-15 (Rob has since moved back home to Florida and teaches cave diving now). Unless you are on a special Tech Diving Charter aboard the Odyssey Liveaboard, they may not be agreeable in letting you do several long runtime dives over a week's itinerary. Another option while onboard the Odyssey is to arrange an "a la carte" fully guided dive tour (i.e. The Dive Guide in backmount doubles and Hogarthian long-hose overhead configuration will lead you on a through traverse penetration, and do the requisite decompression profile along with you) on the wreck of your choice with Truk Lagoon Dive Center -they will come with for hire doubles & deco bottles to pick you up on Odyssey- call first and ask if they still offer this service. . .

3) Klaus Lindeman's books provide a fair overview on level of difficulty, suggested profiles and places to see on selected wrecks. However these published books & dive guide slates are more than thirty years old and don't reflect the present condition of the wrecks today (i.e. All are in the state of imminent & active collapse. . .). Dan Bailey's big coffee table book also has a good account of the history of the wrecks, as well as dive guide directions on what to see & look for. . .

Amazon.com: World War II Wrecks of the Truk Lagoon (9780911615067): Dan E. Balley: Books

Hailstorm, the dive guide: Wrecks in Truk Lagoon, silhouettes, photos, and descriptions: Klaus P Lindemann: Amazon.com: Books

 

[RyanT]

Just another option to consider. Extended Range Dive Services is offering a trip (see link below). These guys are awesome instructors and they can provide some additional training on the trip (if you wish) to get the most out of it.

Foreign Travel

 

[WetPup]

Yeah, my experience was very different then. We had one guy on our boat totally thrown in the deep end so to speak. He was only AOW certified, had literally zero deco diving or wreck penetration experience, and he got put on the same boat with half a dozen of us on various single/double setups with a guide who just took it as a given that every dive would be a deco dive and guided us accordingly. No discussion of dive plans beforehand, but there was the dive whiteboard that was updated at the end of each dive day with "here's what we're diving tomorrow, plan your dives tonight" and then a 30 second "here's a layout map of the wreck, have a final look before you get wet" on the boat ride to the wreck. That may be different to what others have experienced, but when I was there, it was very much a case of "we expect you to know what you're doing and you're on your own to plan your dives".