Northwest Dive Club

Just signed up for GUE T1 in Mexico for this March!! I will be taking it with instructor Guy Shockey and teammate/fellow board member dewmercer

Smart guys, doing it in Mexico. You'll be able to get much more in-water time without thermal stress.

LCF wrote:Smart guys, doing it in Mexico. You'll be able to get much more in-water time without thermal stress.

Mexico was chosen out of necessity. It was the only time it fit into my schedule, and I'll be damned if I wait another year for tech. During the summer I plan to be working, and I was planning on taking C1 next November-ish time. The holidays are when a lot of people are going to either FL or MX, so I was thinking about trying to tag along on one of those trips and do my C1 training then. I didnt want to have to take that time frame up with T1

Have you priced helium down there lately? I haven't been to MX in awhile but last time I was there helium was insane. Although I suppose its only a few dives, how bad can it be.

Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

CaptnJack wrote:Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

I'm curious about what you meant by this. Like, if you plan on tech diving in cold water, you should take your tech training in cold water?

Joshua Smith wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

I'm curious about what you meant by this. Like, if you plan on tech diving in cold water, you should take your tech training in cold water?

Yes, thats what he was getting at. I am a huge fan of that too, as is DAve, as is Guy Shockey. These are the only dates and locations that work for everyone though. We still opted to use drysuits (we were given the choice). We tried pretty damn hard to schedule it up here before resorting to MX. I have the feeling we will be fine though. I have heard Guy is a great instructor

Mortuus wrote:

Joshua Smith wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

I'm curious about what you meant by this. Like, if you plan on tech diving in cold water, you should take your tech training in cold water?

Yes, thats what he was getting at. I am a huge fan of that too, as is DAve, as is Guy Shockey. These are the only dates and locations that work for everyone though. We still opted to use drysuits (we were given the choice). We tried pretty damn hard to schedule it up here before resorting to MX. I have the feeling we will be fine though. I have heard Guy is a great instructor

I wouldn't worry about it much. You're already a cold water diver. Where people get into trouble is usually where they have a lot of warm water experience and try to do a big cold water dive. A guy died on the Doria that way a few years ago. He had some tech experience, but it was his second or third drysuit dive.....

Joshua Smith wrote:

Mortuus wrote:

Joshua Smith wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

I'm curious about what you meant by this. Like, if you plan on tech diving in cold water, you should take your tech training in cold water?

Yes, thats what he was getting at. I am a huge fan of that too, as is DAve, as is Guy Shockey. These are the only dates and locations that work for everyone though. We still opted to use drysuits (we were given the choice). We tried pretty damn hard to schedule it up here before resorting to MX. I have the feeling we will be fine though. I have heard Guy is a great instructor

I wouldn't worry about it much. You're already a cold water diver. Where people get into trouble is usually where they have a lot of warm water experience and try to do a big cold water dive. A guy died on the Doria that way a few years ago. He had some tech experience, but it was his second or third drysuit dive.....

The big difference I'd see is between the dexterity of a bare hand, and a rubber glove with thick liner. Things like manipulating (and finding!) valves is going to be a bit different when you're back in cold water.

Joshua Smith wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Personally I'm a big fan of training like you fight, but to each his own.

I'm curious about what you meant by this. Like, if you plan on tech diving in cold water, you should take your tech training in cold water?

Kinda. I mean having ambient light on a wall at 150ft in Coz (on 21/35 even) with bare hands is really nothing like using a reel with dry gloves at 148ft to find the Bomber from the shotline just 10ft away. They are completely different experiences. If someone just wants to dive warm water the former is ideal. If you want to come home and 'dive into' local technical diving I dont think the wall in Coz kind of experiences are going to relate very well. For open water divers, the typical recommendation is for resort course divers to go with a local instructor and generally have a "refresher" type experience before diving in the PNW. Seems to be even more valid for technical divers, especially since after a 5 or 6 day intro deco course you'll have at most 3 or 4 supervised decompression dives. YMMV

All true. But for anyone with decent PNW experience, I dont think translating tech skills from warm to cold will be very hard. They already know how to do valve drills and have some experience with spools and reels, I assume. So they are familiar with these things in a cold water environment. Anyway, even though every one of my C cards was earned right here, and even though I had some great classes, the bulk of my "learning"- the really cool "lightbulb" moments, as well as the "come to Jesus" ones- all happened in the first 10 dives or so after a class. I think thats where the rubber meets the road.

Assuming I pass (DAve is already NAUI tech through Scott Christopher), I will definitely be taking the tech dives slowly upon getting back for those reasons. Maybe do some walls in the sound first before heading over to the lake. With my existing Puget Sound/Lake Washington experience though, I dont think it will be entirely more difficult upon my return. We shall see though!

Mortuus wrote:Assuming I pass (DAve is already NAUI tech through Scott Christopher), I will definitely be taking the tech dives slowly upon getting back for those reasons. Maybe do some walls in the sound first before heading over to the lake. With my existing Puget Sound/Lake Washington experience though, I dont think it will be entirely more difficult upon my return. We shall see though!

I'm sure you'll be fine. Its my nature to be leery even though you're not my type

Mortuus wrote:Assuming I pass (DAve is already NAUI tech through Scott Christopher), I will definitely be taking the tech dives slowly upon getting back for those reasons. Maybe do some walls in the sound first before heading over to the lake. With my existing Puget Sound/Lake Washington experience though, I dont think it will be entirely more difficult upon my return. We shall see though!

As long as your treat your first few tech dives in the PNW as continued training dives, you'll be fine. Also, you could dive dry in MX with your gloves attached to get the feel of it there before coming back here.

spatman wrote:

Mortuus wrote:Assuming I pass (DAve is already NAUI tech through Scott Christopher), I will definitely be taking the tech dives slowly upon getting back for those reasons. Maybe do some walls in the sound first before heading over to the lake. With my existing Puget Sound/Lake Washington experience though, I dont think it will be entirely more difficult upon my return. We shall see though!

As long as your treat your first few tech dives in the PNW as continued training dives, you'll be fine. Also, you could dive dry in MX with your gloves attached to get the feel of it there before coming back here.

We are diving dry. That includes gloves. I am only using wetgloves temporarily right now while I get a new ring system. Taking out a ring system and subsequently putting it back in (assuming we wanted to dive wetgloves in MX) would be an unnecessary hassle. And based on my extremely limited experience, the removal/replacement of ring systems puts unnecessary strain on the seals. Thats how I tore my second to last one. All I did was remove the ring, and when I stretched the latex back over the ring to replace it, it tore. I prefer to just leave the ring system in once it's there

The DC rings (in particular) stretch out the seals and make them not seal well. I wouldn't put your gloves on in MX however, that would be silly and defeat the vacation. I would dive them as is for now, have new seals installed installed right before your trip and cut them to seal well to your bare wrist minus rings. The rings flopping around will make the wrists leak. Then cut them back a little once you put rings back on at home once you return. Getting seals replaced to have the best tool for the job at the time is the least of your expenses.

I think if you are already familiar with this environment, and you are smart enough to ease back into it (rather than immediately go do a 170 foot Lake Washington dive after class), there are big advantages to taking the classes in warmer water. There is no reason to add thermal stress to all the other stresses involved in a class like this. The guys I saw do T1 in the Red Sea got a lot of bottom time -- whatever they had trouble with, they had time to practice until they got it right. They weren't being driven out of the water by just simply being cold.

The downside is additional expense -- but that may be worth it, if you weigh it against the likelihood of a provisional, and having to bring the instructor in again for checkouts (or travel to him).