This looks like a great local board! Thanks John for letting Curt (silentscuba) and I know about this board. We are located in Mill Creek and are both very active divers. I look forward to participating here.
mel
Hi to all
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John Rawlings
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 5781
- Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:00 am
Hey, Mel!
It's GREAT to see both you and Curt here on the board!
For the rest of you, Mel was my TDI instructor when I went through my KISS rebreather training. The training was outstanding, and I would recommend it to anyone considering a KISS unit. I know that several of you were fascinated by the KISS Classic when you attended the presentation on the Warren case/Lake Crescent at Calvin's office, and if you ever decide to "make the leap" to CCR, Mel would be an excellent choice as an instructor.
For anyone interested in such things, here's a copy of a post I made on another board shortly after completing the training. It'll let you know a bit about what to expect when you move on from recreational to technical and/or rebreather training - challenging, but most definitely worth it!
"Well, I just completed the training for the use of the KISS Classic Closed-Circuit Rebreather.....one word: INTENSE!
The sessions actually started before the actual class, with two students sitting in the instructor's living room over a two day period assembling the KISS unit piece by piece, slowly but surely, under the watchful eye of the instructor. Gordon Smith (the KISS designer) intended each owner to be able to assemble and maintain their own unit, and putting it all together is a good means of understanding how it all works and why.
The "actual" class commenced Tuesday night with a lecture and Powerpoint presentation. As I said above, there were two of us students. The primary instructor was Dr. Mel Clark, the author of the TDI manual for the KISS Classic and Sport KISS rebreathers. The assistant instructor was Dan Crowell, Commercial Diver and Captain of MV Seeker. If that sounds familiar, think "Andrea Doria". The Seeker has taken hundreds of divers out to the Doria as well as other wrecks off the East coast and Dan is world renowned. He came out from New Jersey specifically to teach with Mel because he sought his own instructor rating for the KISS. So.....two instructors.....both of them famous and world renowned .....NO PRESSURE THERE ON THE STUDENTS AT ALL!
Dan's buddy, Gary Szabo of "Lost at Sea Productions", came out with him to film the training and the dives as part of a training film they are making on the KISS unit, so we'll someday be privileged to watch ourselves stumbling around topside and underwater as we attempted to learn the unit. If any of you ever watch it, please be kind....remember we were "newbies" to Rebreather diving and I'm sure we looked it!
For the next three days it was up at dawn, analyze the gases, assemble the units, do all the pre-dive checks, and dive....dive....dive, (2 or 3 one hour-long dives per day), then post-dive checks and maintenance. Finally the day would end with a fine dinner (lovingly prepared by Mel's husband, Curt) and a couple more hours of lecture and Powerpoint. Let me TELL you, my 50 year old body was (ahem) "disinclined" to willingly participate in night lectures in a dark room after an intense day of diving AND a good meal!
We dived at Mukilteo City Park, the Mukilteo hotel site, Seacrest Cove 2, and boat dives down by Point Defiance (Z's Reef) with Porthole Charters. At one point on our 3rd dive of the day at Seacrest I was SO cold and my shivers were painfully SO obvious that Dan checked to make certain I wasn't convulsing! We had just switched over to open circuit bail-out and I was no longer breathing the warm, moist air you get from a Rebreather - my body was most certainly NOT pleased with the sharp contrast!
Every dive involved drills, drills and more drills - at any given time one of the instructors would suddenly give you the signal for Hypoxia and then watch as you went through each of the immediate steps required to deal with the situation. A few minutes later the signal for Hyperoxia would flash out and the student scrambling would commence. Suddenly the sign for Hypercapnia would appear and you'd again need to react instantly and correctly to that. Drills on lost masks.....drills on stage bottle hand-offs.....drills on switching to bail-out open circuit.....drills on dealing with "caustic cocktails"......drills on maintaining your PO2......drills on rescue......drills on lift-bag deployment......drills on low or no visibility.....SHEESH, by mid-course I felt like I was doing drills in my sleep only to wake up in bed at 1:00 AM and realize that I actually HAD been!
The final exam was almost an anti-climax.....sitting in a nice warm room on a soft couch with a pen and a calculator felt not unlike good sex after all of the cold water drills we had been through. I've never really "savored" a test, but I did this one. It seems that all of the lectures, examples, hands-on and drills had sunk into my thick head and the answers just seemed to flow onto the page. I was confident and was well-pleased with my score when we discussed the results afterward.
We celebrated "graduation" up at Paine Field with a few drinks, a nice dinner, and a TON of yarns spun by some of the biggest bull-shitters around, (myself included!). It was a really, really good time and I'll remember it for a long while.
Mel referred to the training as "boot camp".....but I teased her that it was more like "The Bridge on the River Kwai".....only COLD! I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a KISS Rebreather."
e-mail me or PM me if any of you have any questions or would like to chat about it.
- John
PS - December 2nd = back in the water for me!
It's GREAT to see both you and Curt here on the board!
For the rest of you, Mel was my TDI instructor when I went through my KISS rebreather training. The training was outstanding, and I would recommend it to anyone considering a KISS unit. I know that several of you were fascinated by the KISS Classic when you attended the presentation on the Warren case/Lake Crescent at Calvin's office, and if you ever decide to "make the leap" to CCR, Mel would be an excellent choice as an instructor.
For anyone interested in such things, here's a copy of a post I made on another board shortly after completing the training. It'll let you know a bit about what to expect when you move on from recreational to technical and/or rebreather training - challenging, but most definitely worth it!
"Well, I just completed the training for the use of the KISS Classic Closed-Circuit Rebreather.....one word: INTENSE!
The sessions actually started before the actual class, with two students sitting in the instructor's living room over a two day period assembling the KISS unit piece by piece, slowly but surely, under the watchful eye of the instructor. Gordon Smith (the KISS designer) intended each owner to be able to assemble and maintain their own unit, and putting it all together is a good means of understanding how it all works and why.
The "actual" class commenced Tuesday night with a lecture and Powerpoint presentation. As I said above, there were two of us students. The primary instructor was Dr. Mel Clark, the author of the TDI manual for the KISS Classic and Sport KISS rebreathers. The assistant instructor was Dan Crowell, Commercial Diver and Captain of MV Seeker. If that sounds familiar, think "Andrea Doria". The Seeker has taken hundreds of divers out to the Doria as well as other wrecks off the East coast and Dan is world renowned. He came out from New Jersey specifically to teach with Mel because he sought his own instructor rating for the KISS. So.....two instructors.....both of them famous and world renowned .....NO PRESSURE THERE ON THE STUDENTS AT ALL!
Dan's buddy, Gary Szabo of "Lost at Sea Productions", came out with him to film the training and the dives as part of a training film they are making on the KISS unit, so we'll someday be privileged to watch ourselves stumbling around topside and underwater as we attempted to learn the unit. If any of you ever watch it, please be kind....remember we were "newbies" to Rebreather diving and I'm sure we looked it!
For the next three days it was up at dawn, analyze the gases, assemble the units, do all the pre-dive checks, and dive....dive....dive, (2 or 3 one hour-long dives per day), then post-dive checks and maintenance. Finally the day would end with a fine dinner (lovingly prepared by Mel's husband, Curt) and a couple more hours of lecture and Powerpoint. Let me TELL you, my 50 year old body was (ahem) "disinclined" to willingly participate in night lectures in a dark room after an intense day of diving AND a good meal!
We dived at Mukilteo City Park, the Mukilteo hotel site, Seacrest Cove 2, and boat dives down by Point Defiance (Z's Reef) with Porthole Charters. At one point on our 3rd dive of the day at Seacrest I was SO cold and my shivers were painfully SO obvious that Dan checked to make certain I wasn't convulsing! We had just switched over to open circuit bail-out and I was no longer breathing the warm, moist air you get from a Rebreather - my body was most certainly NOT pleased with the sharp contrast!
Every dive involved drills, drills and more drills - at any given time one of the instructors would suddenly give you the signal for Hypoxia and then watch as you went through each of the immediate steps required to deal with the situation. A few minutes later the signal for Hyperoxia would flash out and the student scrambling would commence. Suddenly the sign for Hypercapnia would appear and you'd again need to react instantly and correctly to that. Drills on lost masks.....drills on stage bottle hand-offs.....drills on switching to bail-out open circuit.....drills on dealing with "caustic cocktails"......drills on maintaining your PO2......drills on rescue......drills on lift-bag deployment......drills on low or no visibility.....SHEESH, by mid-course I felt like I was doing drills in my sleep only to wake up in bed at 1:00 AM and realize that I actually HAD been!
The final exam was almost an anti-climax.....sitting in a nice warm room on a soft couch with a pen and a calculator felt not unlike good sex after all of the cold water drills we had been through. I've never really "savored" a test, but I did this one. It seems that all of the lectures, examples, hands-on and drills had sunk into my thick head and the answers just seemed to flow onto the page. I was confident and was well-pleased with my score when we discussed the results afterward.
We celebrated "graduation" up at Paine Field with a few drinks, a nice dinner, and a TON of yarns spun by some of the biggest bull-shitters around, (myself included!). It was a really, really good time and I'll remember it for a long while.
Mel referred to the training as "boot camp".....but I teased her that it was more like "The Bridge on the River Kwai".....only COLD! I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a KISS Rebreather."
e-mail me or PM me if any of you have any questions or would like to chat about it.
- John
PS - December 2nd = back in the water for me!
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
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John Rawlings
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 5781
- Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:00 am
Ah, yes.....but worth it!Sasquatch wrote:All I can say is...wow!
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
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Joshua Smith
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 10249
- Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:32 pm
That's amazing. Welcome to the board, Mel and Curt! I have a long way to go before I try CCR, but I do plan on getting there. And from what I've seen, the KISS is mighty appealing- I like the triple redundancy and the manual nature of the controls. I'm actually pleased to hear the training is so intense! Reading about it, I kept flashing back to my first dive ever- I did a resort dive in Mexico, and for the pool orientation, they sent me a 16 year old stoner kid from California: "just, like, totally breathe and you'll be fine, dude..."
Maritime Documentation Society
"To venture into the terrible loneliness, one must have something greater than greed. Love. One needs love for life, for intrigue, for mystery."
"To venture into the terrible loneliness, one must have something greater than greed. Love. One needs love for life, for intrigue, for mystery."
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scubagrunt
- Avid Diver
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:50 pm
thanks!
Hey thanks to all for the warm welcome. If anyone is interested in seeing what the rebreather training is like i have a meg/kiss classic/kiss sport class sept 5-10. Feel free to stop by and check it out! Call me (425-418-7426)or Curt (425-418-1425) if you are interested for directions. Also if anyone is interested in rebreathers (or tech diving) just let us know and we will talk your ears off! Happy to show off the units too!
mel
mel
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John Rawlings
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 5781
- Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:00 am
Re: thanks!
I'd like to encourage any of you that are interested in rebreathers or tech diving to take Mel up on this offer to visit. It would be a great way to see how things go in a technical/RB training environment as well as a chance to "talk tech" with other local divers heading in that direction.scubagrunt wrote:Hey thanks to all for the warm welcome. If anyone is interested in seeing what the rebreather training is like i have a meg/kiss classic/kiss sport class sept 5-10. Feel free to stop by and check it out! Call me (425-418-7426)or Curt (425-418-1425) if you are interested for directions. Also if anyone is interested in rebreathers (or tech diving) just let us know and we will talk your ears off! Happy to show off the units too!
mel
Quite an invitation!
- John
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
http://www.advanceddivermagazine.com
http://johnrawlings.smugmug.com/
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Joshua Smith
- I've Got Gills
- Posts: 10249
- Joined: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:32 pm
I am very interested in all this tech/ rebreather voodoo- I'll give you a call and see if I can come observe at some point. Thanks for the invite!
Maritime Documentation Society
"To venture into the terrible loneliness, one must have something greater than greed. Love. One needs love for life, for intrigue, for mystery."
"To venture into the terrible loneliness, one must have something greater than greed. Love. One needs love for life, for intrigue, for mystery."