Northwest Dive Club

I wonder if this thing is any good:

The DVD is targeted for any diver who is thinking about getting into technical diving or who would just like to re-enforce or review those skills that may or may not have been part of their technical diving curriculum.

link

Obviously, not a replacement for real training in the water, but it could be a good primer or refresher tool.

Gonna need an experienced tech diver to make that call!

Cal -

BTW, is your avatar REALLY you???

diver-dad wrote:Gonna need an experienced tech diver to make that call!

yeah; says only instructors and shops can order it?

Hi Calvin,

I have a copy of the DVD and did find most of the information and videos to be very good. I thought the section on handling multiple stage cylinders was especially good.

The only part of the video I did not really agree with showed how to exit using a guideline with no mask. In the video, the no-mask diver's buddy pulled him off the line and swam him towards the exit. In all of my cave training, I was taught that you would never pull a diver off of the line. Exiting with the line and no-mask or no lights is not that difficult (having done that at least 12 times during training).

I do not believe you need to be an instructor or shop to order a copy, and would be happy to loan my copy out.

Scott (Boydski) Boyd

Please do not order the DVD from this page unless you are a Instructor or Dive Store.

but maybe they don't enforce that?
thanks for the offer, dude! movie night anyone???

Can be ordered here:
http://5thdx.purehost.com/store/index.p ... 91146e5cf5

Along with some others.

The reason the masked diver avoided touch contact with the line to get the no-mask diver "out" (of the simulated overhead) is because touch line following takes FOREVER. Typical mask to blind times in my tech class are 1:8

You can potentially run out of gas before you exit the overhead. So if one person has a mask and one does not, the masked diver leads the no-mask person out expeditiously - without resorting to touch contact. Touch contact is reserved for silt-out and/or double no-mask exits, where your pretty much screwed.

CaptnJack wrote:The reason the masked diver avoided touch contact with the line to get the no-mask diver "out" (of the simulated overhead) is because touch line following takes FOREVER. Typical mask to blind times in my tech class are 1:8

You can potentially run out of gas before you exit the overhead. So if one person has a mask and one does not, the masked diver leads the no-mask person out expeditiously - without resorting to touch contact. Touch contact is reserved for silt-out and/or double no-mask exits, where your pretty much screwed.

Hi Richard,

I understand Andrew's reasoning behind the expedited exit, I just don't happen to agree with it. My experience exiting caves with no-mask or no lights (often while sharing air) was that on each of the twelve times I have had to do this, we always exited faster than we came in, with plenty of air left over.

Andrew certainly has much more experience than I do, so its just a difference in philosophy. Personally, I'd rather be on the line as I'm very comfortable exiting that way and if my masked buddy has an issue on the way out, he's in touch contact and already on the line, so doesn't have to search for it.

YMMV,

Scott (Boydski) Boyd

diver-dad wrote:Cal -

BTW, is your avatar REALLY you???

Yep, it's actually me!

Roger doger.

A story for you all...
I remember following line around the dock area at Cove 2 for Tech1 with Andrew (walking not in the water). I think it took us 1.5 minutes with our eyes open. Then we put hats on over our eyes and had to repeat the exercise. I think Laurynn and I took 10 or 12 minutes to complete the circuit in touch contact with each other and the line. Of course he had put in a couple of extra crossing lines and a confusing jump that some other team had installed behind us.

Regardless, even diving 1/6ths that's just too slow for me and was enough to convince me that most anything to speed up your exit is a good thing. If one of you has a mask (or lights), you should trust that they can visually follow the line and manage your joint gas supplies better than you can maskless. Otherwise you run the real risk knowing exactly where you are (on the line) but running out of gas.

I'm only Tech1 and have no cave training to date, so maybe my opinion will change after December.

Obviously, this is one of those issues that you can't learn (completely) from a DVD and the internet. So while I recommend the DVD, don't dive beyond your training and experience. YMMV

Personally, I found Andrew's Intro to Tech DVD better. The Tech1 DVD was a bit slow for me. The bottle rotating being the real sleeper section for my 1 bottle certification.

Have we met Scott?

we took a wreck workshop at fifthd where they basically turned up the game on us until we broke, and we broke really badly with it came to following a line in zero viz. we put down 400 ft of line, then turned around, closed our eyes and tried to follow it out. somehow one of the placements slipped and we now had slack line to deal with -- and everyone on the line started doing the same bad thing which was start passing the slack line backwards (next time, i think the #1 should probably try to keep tension on the line backwards for the team and find some way to tie-off and take up the slack). it took us nearly 60 mins to run through 400' of slack line with our eyes closed... ~7 feet per minute...

...

lamont wrote:we took a wreck workshop at fifthd where they basically turned up the game on us until we broke, and we broke really badly with it came to following a line in zero viz. we put down 400 ft of line, then turned around, closed our eyes and tried to follow it out. somehow one of the placements slipped and we now had slack line to deal with -- and everyone on the line started doing the same bad thing which was start passing the slack line backwards (next time, i think the #1 should probably try to keep tension on the line backwards for the team and find some way to tie-off and take up the slack). it took us nearly 60 mins to run through 400' of slack line with our eyes closed... ~7 feet per minute...

I was a part of that little cluster-party ... busted our chops, but learned a lot. The dive was 92 minutes, the debrief (where we discussed what went wrong) was nearly an hour.

FWIW - I also have a copy of the Tech DVD ... happy to loan it out, or host anyone who wants to watch it.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

7ft per min was about our walking speed around the Cove 2 pier with hats over our eyes.

I'd love to check out the DVD. Maybe next time we dive together I can grab it from one of you (Bob or Boydski).

I gotta reasonably open schedule this month Calvin (intentionally so) ... let's go diving!

... Bob (Grateful Diver)