Sam and Sally Panicked Underwater

samsally

Panic – A sudden overwhelming fear (with or without cause) that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, anxiety, confusion and often causes wildly unthinking behavior.

We’re going to review a panic scenario, how it was handled and the outcome, as well as an analysis of the situation that occurred and how it could have been prevented. Everything about this story is true, excluding the location and names of the divers…

Early summer morning somewhere tropical and sunny, Sam and Sally made their descent to a maximum depth of 60M/220FT, breathing a suitable trimix for the dive on their closed circuit rebreathers. Sam and Sally gave each other the “OK” signal once they hit depth and swam along the bottom. Roughly 5-10 minutes into the dive, Sam inhaled a mouth full of water and began coughing. Sam quickly bailed out to his 6L/40FT3 cylinder of AIR and felt narcosis coming on strong. Sam found the problem after tracing his hands along the rebreather; the loop connection to the head became disconnected, flooding the entire unit. Meanwhile, Sally heard Sam’s coughs and recognized he switched to open circuit. Sally started swimming towards Sam then he suddenly and frantically started kicking towards the surface. Sam panicked. Sally didn’t think twice and chased after him yelling, “Sam! Slow down! Sam!!” as she tried to grab a hold of his fins while ripping off her personal deep bailout regulator from her necklace hoping to give it to him. Sally panicked. Fortunately, Sam slowed down, allowing Sally to catch up to him around 15M/50FT where she realized he did not need her bailout… Sam reconnected his loop and cleared the water out of his rebreather, then recovered the unit. Sally did not realize Sam depleted his deep bailout gas, nor did she realize he flooded the unit on the bottom… Sam recognized he had to switch back to open circuit since his rebreather was deficient and gave Sally the “thumbs up” signal as he started making his way towards shallow water. They both had some decompression obligations and 6L/40FT3 of oxygen each. Sam and Sally found a sand patch at 6M/20FT to finish out their decompression time then surfaced. Sam never switched back to open circuit and stayed on the loop.

ANALYSIS – A number of things went wrong throughout the course of this scenario. Both Sam and Sally are lucky to have completed this dive without suffering any injuries, or even death. By reviewing the course of action throughout the scenario we can take a closer look at how all of this could have been prevented in a step by step sequence…

  • Sam and Sally should have planned for adequate bailout (volume / mix) for the dive. If Sam’s bailout was suitable for the depth, narcosis would not have been an issue and he should not have been faced with the fear of running out of gas while making a safe ascent. This is why we execute proper planning – to avoid situations like this!
  • Sam and Sally very seldom practiced emergency scenario skills. The two of them have a lot of diving experience and did not feel the need to do “skills dives” to stay current. Unfortunately, their complacency snuck up on them during this event, allowing panic to take over versus fluent muscle memory reaction to the situation.
  • In the midst of panic, Sally made a major mistake by trying to give Sam her personal deep bailout gas while making a rapid ascent chasing after him. If Sam had taken it from her and she had an issue; Sally would not have a safe back up option for herself. Sally is lucky she did not suffer any injuries by ascending so quickly.
  • Sam made a mistake by getting back on his rebreather after he flooded the unit. His ego took over and he wanted to prove he could finish the dive on the rebreather versus open circuit. Never let your ego compromise your safety. At the end of the day, there should have been enough open circuit gas for Sam to finish the dive without putting himself in jeopardy.
  • If you’re wondering how the loop became disconnected to begin with, don’t worry – we’re saving it for last… Sam used this rebreather all week during the trip without breaking it down at the end of the day and setting it up before diving. Over the course of the week in transit from his hotel room to the dive boat, the connection slowly loosened up. If Sam and Sally followed the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding rebreather maintenance, completed checklists and more; all of this could have been avoided. Sam failed to follow any form of checklists and blindly used his rebreather throughout the trip until his complacency finally caught up to him.

Too often after events such as this, divers feel they gained a higher level of competence in the water. Survival does not always mean competence. Dive after dive, this team rationalized their short cut of carrying improper bailout because nothing bad happened to them before this event. Sam and Sally allowed their short cut of inadequate bailout and lack of attention to their life sustaining equipment to become the norm for their dives and when a real emergency occurred, their plan B was not sufficient enough to get them out in a safe manner. They knew it and panicked. Luckily, they survived without injury.

Instead of going by the saying, “practice makes perfect,” consider a revised version: Practice makes better. It’s important to apply safe diving practices on every single dive and keep emergency scenario skills quick and fresh. Do not get complacent and never allow your ego to convince you that practicing skills is not important. Continue working on them regardless of how much experience you gain. In the event of a true emergency, your reaction should stem from muscle memory and become mechanical without any fear and hesitation. Plan your dives accordingly and remember, panic has a way of setting in and taking over, just as you see with Sam and Sally.

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201

Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com

Web: https://www.tdisdi.com

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TDI Hollis Explorer Sport Rebreather Course

Hollis Explorer Rebreather Course

TDI and Hollis Explorer Rebreather Course Information

We are proud to be offering some of the first training programs on the new Hollis Explorer Sport Rebreather. In 2013 we’re pairing up with Hollis to conduct Explorer Instructor and qualified diver level courses around the nation. Space is limited; don’t miss the chance to join us in one of these events!

For more information on the Explorer Click Here


Course Schedule & Information

Click here to sign up for one of our courses >>

  • April 13-14 in Williston, FL
  • June 19-21 in Dive Alabama, AL
  • July 19-21 in Dutch Springs, PA
  • Aug 09-11 in Haigh Quarry, IL
  • Nov 10-12 in Williston, FL

To register for any of these courses, please fill out the course registration form and write in the location of the course you wish to attend. Space is limited – Do not make travel plans until you have received confirmation from TDI.

Additional requirements may apply. Please review the information below to find out more.

Price: $695

Includes: tuition, use of Hollis Explorer Sport Rebreather during course, and certification fee.

NOT included:: course materials, gas fills, scrubber, bailout cylinder, bailout regulator, dive site fees, equipment rental (ie: mask, fins, appropriate exposure protection, weight, last minute items, etc.), travel expenses, food, accommodations, and personal comfort items.

Course Duration: 3 days, includes 4 open water dives

Hours: 8:00am – 6:00pm (be prepared to stay to stay later if necessary)

What to bring: Copies of certifications, mask, fins, appropriate exposure protection, completed TDI Generic CCR eLearning progress report, TDI EAD tables, TDI deco tables, Hollis Explorer manual (download), Hollis Liability Release, if necessary; a current (within 12 months) Medical Statement signed by a physician stating you are fit to dive.

Instructor Level Programs for the Hollis Explorer Sport Rebreather

TDI Instructor and Instructor Trainer programs will be conducted on an “as needed basis. Contact John Conway or Lauren Kieren to schedule a course.

Instructor Candidate Prerequisites

  1. Minimum age 18
  2. Provide proof of:
    • Certified TDI EXPLORER Diver
    • Certified TDI Nitrox Instructor, or equivalent
    • 100 verified logged dives, 50 using nitrox
  3. Assist with at least one complete TDI Explorer Rebreather Diver course to the satisfaction of the TDI instructor trainer
  4. Provide proof of a minimum of 25 logged rebreather dives on a Explorer Rebreather, with a minimum of 30 accumulated hours
  5. OR

  6. If the candidate is already a certified TDI SCR or CCR instructor, in place of #4 above, provide proof of a minimum 10 verified logged Explorer Rebreather dives with a minimum of 15 accumulated hours

Contacts for this Course

Lauren Kieren – Training & Membership Services
Lauren.Kieren@TDISDI.com
Main Line: +1 (207) 729-4201 EXT 204
Toll Free: (888) 778-9073 EXT 204
Toll Free Fax: (877) 436-7096

John Conway, Hollis Rebreather Training Director, Explorer Instructor/IT
Jconway@aupgear.com cell: 904-994-6586

What Bailout is Best for You? Rebreathers

What Bailout is Best for You? Rebreathers

By Mark Powell

Bailout

Photo provided by Pete Nawrocky

A rebreather is a fantastic tool that can be used to extend the range of what is possible in terms of exploratory diving. For deeper and longer dives, rebreathers can significantly reduce concerns over gas usage. That is, unless there is a problem. If you are unable to use the rebreather for whatever reason and need to bail out then the rebreather becomes a very expensive BCD. Not only that, but you are right back to all the limitations of open circuit gas volumes as you need enough bailout gas to get you safely back to the surface.

For dives without any mandatory decompression stops, this is relatively straightforward. As there is no decompression obligation we simply need enough gas to be able to ascend to the surface. A stage cylinder can provide plenty of air for the ascent. However, as we progress into decompression diving, the amount of gas required becomes more of an issue. The advantages of a rebreather include the fact that you can do much longer dives due to avoiding the limits of open circuit gas volumes. Together with the optimized mix that the rebreather gives you, this means that many divers will do longer dives than an equivalent open circuit diver. However, in the case of a bailout, you need to carry enough open circuit bailout to ascend and decompress safely. This means that even though you may not be planning on using those stage cylinders, you still need to carry them, just in case.

When performing any gas calculating, including calculating the amount of bailout gas you need to carry, the divers breathing rate is a key element of the calculation. Whatever your average breathing during a dive, you can guarantee that if you bailout your actual breathing rate will be much higher. There is always a reason why you have bailed out, even if it is only an imagined reason; whatever the reason, it is bound to increase your stress levels and hence your breathing rate. One of the situations where you would definitely bailout, and not return to the loop, is where you have a carbon dioxide breakthrough. In this case you would definitely not return to the loop and would need to do the entire ascent on bailout, but more importantly, you would have an even higher breathing rate. For these reasons TDI recommends using a breathing rate of at least 45 l/min (1.0 cf/min) until the first deco stop when calculating bailout gas requirements. In reality, even this rate may be exceeded for the first few minutes of a carbon dioxide breakthrough.

For deeper dives the volume of bailout gas to be carried can quickly become very significant. For dives below 80m (260 ft) this can become problematic, and the additional cylinders can introduce problems with drag and can, in themselves, become an issue due to the effort required to swim with them. TDI believes that each diver should carry enough bailout gas to be able to get them to the surface. An alternative approach is team bailout where the divers between them carry enough bailout gas to get one team member to the surface. This is not a technique to be used without specific training and unless you are diving within a well-practiced team. For most rebreather dives this means that the limiting factor for the dive is not scrubber duration, exposure to CNS or anything else related to the rebreather itself but rather the amount of bailout that can be carried.

The gas selected for the bailout cylinders requires some thought. As they will hopefully not be required, rebreather divers tend to use a standard set of bailout cylinders and gasses that will be used for repeated dives. The first bailout bottle needs to be breathable at the maximum depth as the diver may well have to bailout on the bottom. It is common to use a first bailout that has a higher partial pressure of oxygen than the setpoint being used on the rebreather. This is to optimize the decompression ascent. Subsequent bailout gases are chosen by balancing out the decompression requirements and the gas planning requirements.

Another technique that is sometimes used, and is starting to appear in some planning tools, is to modify the decompression model so that a different approach is used for a bailout ascent rather than a normal ascent. When ascending normally the diver may well want to use deep stops or some form of bubble model approach. However, during a bailout the diver may want to get shallower slightly faster than they would otherwise have liked in order to reduce gas management problems.

Until rebreathers with built-in redundancy of all features or bailout rebreathers become common place, we will still need to plan for bailout. Until that point, rebreather divers will still ultimately be limited by the restrictions of open circuit gas calculations and the ability to carry sufficient bailout.

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201

Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com

Web: https://www.tdisdi.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TechnicalDivingInt

 

Dress for the Occasion – The Versatility of Sidemount

One of the most attractive aspects of side-mount diving is the versatility of your gear configurations, allowing the diver to be comfortable and confident in their setup. We’ve illustrated 3 basic configurations to help visualize the idea of sidemount and the benefits that come along with it.

Whether you are diving a single tank, doubles or tech you will enjoy these mutual benefits of sidemount configurations.

  • Lower profile for confined spaces
  • Less drag with a more streamlined profile
  • Easy trim
  • Adjust the gear to your body shape
  • Enter and exit the water with or without your tanks
  • Easier access to valve(s), keeping it in-sight
  • More manageable and less load bearing for disabled divers or divers with limited or restricted back and body movements
  • Easier to carry your gear for longer distances

Additional benefits to diving sidemount with doubles or technical configurations include:

  • All the points above
  • Longer dives
  • Redundant gas supply

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201

Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com

Web: https://www.tdisdi.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TechnicalDivingInt

 

Sidemount Diving: It’s Not Just for Caves

By Steve Lewis

Sidemount-Diving-Not-Just-for-caves… but we should remember, that is where it started!

Perhaps typical of divers who use and teach sidemount today is the phrase, “it’s not just for technical divers anymore!” And the truth is that sidemount is a truly versatile kit configuration that in the past few years has stormed into just about ALL areas of technical diving (even rebreather divers side-mount their bailout bottles!), as well as gaining favor with sport divers who have no intention of pushing ANY limits whatsoever. However, it’s worth remembering that for all the flexibility and adaptability that sidemount configuration offers to tech and sport divers, it started as some weirdness that only crazy cave divers got up to.

My personal introduction to “sidemount” was as a kid dry-caving in the UK. We were not divers, but we had access to small cylinders filled with air – probably three or four litre steel tanks about the size of the bottles you’d find on most rebreathers these days – and there were a couple of short sumps between us and the best parts of the caves we were playing around in. We strapped a tank to the side of a climbing harness, put the regulator in our mouths, and walked/crawled through the sump. And believe me, the reality was a lot less dramatic than the description. The sumps – a part of the cave completely underwater – were probably no longer than we could have covered holding our breath, and the cave we were exploring, at least the part we were exploring, was a very well-travelled passage. Nothing at all note-worthy.

The point being that if we’re looking for the spot to place a commemorative plaque celebrating the beginnings of sidemount “diving” in caves, we could easily argue for the Mendip Hills, in England’s West Country. In fact, that area has been – and remains – the focus for “real” cave diving and true exploration since the late 1930s.

But, if the birth of sidemount cave diving took place in England, the technique was raised to adulthood in the area of North Florida famous for its karst landscape, fresh-water springs, pioneering explorers, and organized clubs and associations promoting ecology, preservation, understanding, and formal dive training.

Within a generation, SM (sidemount) cave diving, as taught and promoted in Florida’s cave country, has evolved from a somewhat marginal extreme undertaken by a tiny percentage of trained cave divers, to a level where today, in some systems, close to 100 percent of the divers playing in the cave are configured in sidemount gear. In short, it has grown to the point where the question, “Who does that crazy stuff?” seems to have morphed into, “Who isn’t doing it?”

So, if we know who – everyone or close to everyone – let’s find out why and how.

Why use SM in a cave? Well, the traditional answer would be that a sidemount configuration allows a diver access to areas that would simply not be open to them if they carried tanks on their back.

Configured correctly, SM gear is extremely streamlined: that is, when hoses are optimal lengths, nothing is left hanging off the diver to simulate being a Christmas tree decoration, and primary bottles run along the diver’s lateral line without their noses pointing to the floor and their backsides in the air. The diver’s in-water top-to-bottom profile is much smaller than when wearing doubles, a single or a rebreather. It’s true that her side–to-side profile will be wider (incidentally giving a very comfortable lateral stability), but the way sidemounted tanks are attached to the diver’s harness allows them some latitude to move out of the way when side-to-side space gets restricted.

Indeed, a skill taught to SM students, during even a very basic orientation class and certainly in a SM cave diving program, is to unclip the rear snaps and swing one or both cylinders around so that while the tanks nose remains attached, the bottoms now face forward. This gives the diver a very long, narrow profile.

In short, for smaller, tighter spaces, sidemount rocks.

By the way, this last technique is NOT no-mount diving. No-mount is an extremely advanced technique used to explore very tight passages. The diver pushes a SINGLE, unattached cylinder ahead of them through small passages. Doing this offers access in very limited space, but is hugely risky for several reasons, not the least of which is that the diver has zero back-up gas and may have to exit without being able to turn around. For the record, John Chatterton famously used this technique to explore the U-Who wreck.

A lot of sidemount’s popularity is due to the wide-spread availability of purpose-bought SM harnesses. In sidemount’s adolescent years, sidemount cave divers used stab jackets (traditional sport BCDs) as the core of their SM kit. These were highly modified with bungee, bolt-snaps, sewn loops of webbing and added DRings to the point where when modifications were completed, the end-result was barely recognisable as a shop-bought piece of sport diving kit.

This DIY approach certainly seemed to restrict the growth and popularity of sidemount diving. A change came when mainstream equipment companies started to sell integrated wing and harness rigs custom-designed for sidemount cave diving. The leader on this score was Dive Rite, a cave-oriented manufacturer based in North Florida but with distribution world-wide. Currently, Dive Rite sells several models of SM harness each designed for a slightly different purpose and are probably the best-known and most popular SM brand. But they are no longer alone, and several other companies have one or two models on the market including Hollis, Oxychek and OMS.

This sudden explosion of available, well-built, purpose-designed harnesses – and the accessories such as CAM bands and various length LP and HP hoses that make rigging for SM much less of a DIY project than it was just a handful of years ago – has helped fuel the growth of SM cave diving. But there is certainly something else at play.

Lamar Hires, president of Dive Rite, describes it as a life-style choice. “Using SM to explore tight spaces is a mission-specific decision,” he says, “But a lot of divers are uncomfortable carrying a set of double cylinders, and for them, SM offers a lot less stress because cylinders can be carried to the water one at a time!”

And a straw-poll of a lot of SM cave divers turns up that the number one reason for being configured the way they are is convenience and comfort, rather than something “mission specific.”

The ‘HOW’ of SM cave diving is what’s taught in a TDI Sidemount Diver course. Most of the techniques and procedures are the same as a “regular” cave course with kit configuration being one major difference. Another is the slightly more complex system employed to manage gas volume. With two independent cylinders as opposed to two cylinders joined by an isolation manifold, the diver has to switch regulators during her dive to distribute gas consumption “evenly” between each tank.

In all TDI overhead programs, the Rule of Thirds and related modification of it are hammered into students’ minds with constant repetition. The simple mantra of “one-third in, one-third out, one-third (plus an additional reserve) for contingencies” holds true for SM cave diving, but there is a twist on account of the need to swap regs during the dive.

There are a couple of protocols that are taught but one that is popular goes like this:

Given that gas-matching and volume requirements are worked out and agreed with the rest of her team, the diver begins her dive breathing from Tank A. When she has consumed ONE SIXTH of her available volume, she switches regs and begins to breathe from Tank B. She continues to breathe it until she has consumed ONE THIRD of her available volume, at which point she switches regs once again. She is now back to breathing from Tank A. When she has consumed ONE SIXTH of its volume (which adds up to a total of ONE THIRD of the available volume in EACH cylinder), she signals turn the dive. But she keeps breathing from Tank A until she has used an additional SIXTH. At which point she switches regs for the last time. Let’s use some simple numbers to illustrate the point (and we’ve avoided using pressures or actual volumes to make this work for both imperial and SI unit users, and the asterisk indicates the tank being breathed from).

START OF DIVE (* DENOTES ACTIVE TANK) *TANK A = FULL; TANK B = FULL
FIRST REG SWITCH TANK A = 5/6 FULL; *TANK B = FULL
SECOND REG SWITCH *TANK A = 5/6 FULL; TANK B = 2/3 FULL
TURN DIVE *TANK A = 2/3 FULL; TANK B = 2/3 FULL
THIRD AND FINAL REG SWITCH TANK A = 3/6 FULL; *TANK B = 2/3 FULL
CONTINUE UNTIL EXIT… TANK A = 3/6 FULL; * TANK B = AT LEAST 1/6 AT EXIT

Using this technique, the difference between the two tank volumes during the critical phases of the dive are never more than one-sixth of the starting pressure. In the event of an OOA situation at the maximum penetration, the OOA diver can be given a cylinder containing 2/3 of the starting volume… enough to get them out if proper gas management rules are followed. As the exit progresses, the gas buffer, the contingency, gets wider and wider. Using this method, there are only three regulator switches. Most other options require more.

Obviously, there’s much more to be said about SM cave diving – that’s what a course is for – but we hope this has at least reminded you where the SM “craze” started: wet rocks and holes in the ground, like so many of the innovations in diving today!

Have fun, and dive safe.

Below are a few of the TDI sidemount/cave courses offered.
TDI Sidemount Diver >
TDI Cavern Diver >
TDI Intro to Cave Diver >
TDI Full Cave Diver >

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201

Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com

Web: https://www.tdisdi.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TechnicalDivingInt

 

 

Beneath The Sea with SDI/TDI/ERDI and the 4th Annual Tech Party

Join us this weekend at BTS

We’re gearing up again for one of the largest consumer dive shows in America. That’s right, Beneath The Sea is just around the corner and we are super excited. This year, the BTS show will be held at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ from March 22nd thru March 24th, 2013. And as you’ve come to expect, there will be lots of great stuff to see, seminars to attend, and, that’s right, the highly anticipated Tech Party with TDI.

This year’s Tech Party hosted by TDI and BTS will be at the Embassy Suites main Bar/Lobby area on Friday night. It starts at 9pm and runs until midnight. Hurry up and get there for the free beer and appetizers, as its first come, first serve.

Not a Tech Diver, but have been thinking about making the jump? Then this party is a must attend for you. Come with questions and mingle with many of the industry leaders. This will be a great opportunity to inquire about an Into to Tech course and hear first hand from technical divers. But make sure you do it soon, because Tech Divers are like fisherman, their stories may exaggerate as the drinks flow.

Before you get your party on, make sure and stop by TDI booth #516 and get the skinny on our Members update and Public Safety Event. This year, Buck Buchanan will be discussing Surface Support in Dive Team Operations and Brian Carney and Joe Stellini will be giving the Members Update. See you there.

Public Safety Presentation with Buck Buchanan

Members Update

  • Time: 4-5pm Friday, 22nd
  • Place: Bergen Room Embassy Suits
  • Speaker: Brian Carney/Joe Stellini
  • Topic: Find out what is new with SDI/TDI
  • Cost: FREE
  • Register: Contact Joe.stellini@tdisdi.com
  • Who can attend? Open to all members, active and non active.

TDI Tech Party

  • Time: 9-midnight Friday, 22nd
  • Place: Embassy Suits main Bar/lobby area
  • Cost: FREE

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201
Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com
Web: https://www.tdisdi.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PublicSafetyDiving

Continue Your Dive Education this Winter

winter-coursesIt’s snowing, and the thermostat on your wall reads 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14.44° Celsius) outside, but you still want to get your scuba “fix” and learn more to increase your education and advancement.

There is no reason to put your training on hold during the winter months. SDI, TDI and ERDI have several courses that can help you continue with your education without ever having to get in the cold water. Courses like nitrox, CPROX 1st AED and gas blender do not require any underwater skills and are primarily theory-based courses with some practical work for completion. ERDI’s Diver 1 tender and contaminated water all have awareness level ratings that allow the non-diver to learn more about what the team’s training may involve.

SDI’s computer nitrox and TDI’s basic nitrox are two of the most popular courses in continued education. Because they are based on theory regarding gas mixtures, there is really no underwater skill set that can be made a requirement for course completion. The key elements are to know your gas mixture and plan your dive based on maximum operating depth and time. To make things even easier, both of these courses are available online.

CPROX 1st AED is a course that is not specific to diving and one that everyone should take, so you can invite your family, friends or co-workers to take this course as well. Everyone should have exposure at one time or another to some kind of first aid training. CPORX1st AED has training that could be invaluable in case of an emergency at home, in the work place or on the street. The course is Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Oxygen administration combined into one program. Your students will learn how to use what is at their disposal to treat and stabilize victims until medically trained professionals arrive.

There are also wide arrays of courses that focus on gas mixing as well as equipment maintenance. TDI’s Gas and Advanced Gas Blender teach the art of blending gas mixes from basic nitrox to gases used in technical dives that include helium as well and safety around oxygen and different blending methods. O2 Service Technician, Equipment Specialist and VIP (Visual Inspection Procedures) are courses that basically assist people in the maintenance, handling and care of scuba equipment and tanks. These courses are really terrific for those that want to go beyond the diving portion of the sport and understand how things really work.

So just because it is snowing outside, it does not mean you need to put a halt to your scuba training… then again, SDI also has a wonderful ice-diving course that goes well with our dry suit diving course if the place you really want to be… is underwater!

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201
Email: Worldhq@tdisdi.com
Web: https://www.tdisdi.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TechnicalDivingInt

Preparing for Success: Tips, Checklists, and Suggestions to Make Your 2013 Dive Season the Best Yet!

ChecklistAmong the constant surprises that accompany the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new dive season are the number of divers who seem totally unprepared to dive!

Most of us – especially those who live in places where winter temperatures dip below “I’m comfortable standing outside dressed in a light hoodie and long pants” – take some sort of hiatus from regular diving during the cooler months. While it’s perfectly fine to drop out of the groove for a few weeks or even a few months, a common mistake seems to be thinking that a break like this does not have any effect on our abilities. Simply put, it’s unrealistic to think we can pick up the pace and intensity exactly where we left off.

While it may be a little late to suggest a New Year’s Resolution, perhaps it’s a good time to think seriously about making a few New Dive Season Resolutions. Here are some suggestions of what to add to your list.

Your first resolution should be to start the new season in better physical shape and a positive frame of mind.

It’s said that to be successful at technical diving we have to balance the physical aspects of the sport with the mental challenges that go along with them. So it follows that any “workout” regimen that exercises both will have its benefits.

A good starting point is to get an all clear for diving from your family doctor. The Diver’s Alert Network (DAN) recommends that divers get an annual physical from a health professional familiar with the rigors of diving and diving medicine. This may be a tall order for the rank and file, but it is a good plan to tell your doctor or nurse practitioner (or whoever is running your tests for you) the type of activities your diving entails. This will include lifting heavy gear, swimming against high flow and current, cold, sun, etc.

DAN medics are constantly researching ways to keep divers a little safer; one study being carried out in Europe is worth noting, especially for those of us with a few miles on our treads.

As we age, one ‘side-effect’ is that our blood vessels become less elastic. This is thought to be a factor in several issues including heart disease. Diving, and the resultant increase in nitrogen partial pressure, also has a temporary effect on the elasticity of a diver’s blood vessels, similar to the aging process. Therefore, diving – especially deep diving — may exacerbate any pre-existing health condition related to this issue. While there’s a fair amount of speculation informing the advice, it seems like a great additional check for those with either a pre-existing condition, a high-risk profile, or those who are simply older, to have some form of stress test to help identify any factors that might come into play while participating in technical dives.

Of course, an active lifestyle, regular exercise and a health-conscious diet all help to keep us in shape for diving, especially when local conditions make it hard to keep our fins wet for weeks or months at a time.

Any aerobic activity is recommended (given the OK from your doctor), but certainly one of the best is swimming. Most divers enjoy the water – now that’s not a surprise, is it? – and many find that a regular date at the local pool helps to maintain and increase cardio-vascular fitness. Pool time is also invaluable to work on scuba skills. Check to see if your local SDI/TDI facility opens its pool to customers or dive club members during the less active dive months, or if there are club dates for the local municipal pool; even a couple of hours in the water can help keep skills “game ready.”

Maintaining mental “match fitness” may sound a little more challenging, but staying physically active is something recommended by the medical profession. Of course, one of the mental challenges divers have to be ready and “in shape” for is staying focused and coming up with the right solution – or at the very least a workable one – when something hits the fan at depth. We can simulate this type of event – which seems to help when the real thing rears its ugly head – but when we are not actually diving, what’s a viable alternative?

The role and positive contribution of “targeted visualization” to help competitive athletes in this regard is widely accepted, and although technical diving is not an Olympic sport, we can certainly gain some pointers from pro sportsmen and women.

Visualization coupled with familiarity with our kit really does help maintain a mental edge. Sitting on the sofa watching TV while doing regulator switches and practicing bailout procedures might get you locked up in some states – or at least locked out of the bedroom if your significant other is a non-diver – however, several well-known technical instructors swear by the benefits of “dry-land role playing” during inactive and active dive periods. The thinking is that it helps to maintain muscle memory and a deep, lasting familiarity with the configuration and position of one’s kit. All of which may help to sway the outcome in the diver’s favor when something fails at depth.

Speaking of equipment and failure, one of the most useful things to do to get ready for the upcoming season is to make the effort to maintain and prepare every piece of kit in your dive locker while there’s some slack time.

In addition to making arrangements for tanks, regulators, and anything else that requires at least an annual check by a factory certified or qualified tech, this is a great time to cast a critical eye over every o-ring, hose, valve and connector on your rig (even cave line, cable ties and the like need replacing occasionally). Replace anything that looks worse for wear, lubricate everything that needs it, and get the voltmeter out to check on batteries and fuel cells to find out how well they’ve done on their holidays.

Finally, if you do not currently use a checklist to help your gear assembly, gear packing, and pre-dive procedures, consider developing one, or download ours here >SDI-Diver-Checklist. The value of a physical checklist to aid CCR divers has been well-documented and well-promoted following Rebreather Forum 3.0 held in Orlando last May, and now several technical diving professionals are calling for open-circuit divers to follow suit.

The TDI pre-dive check, START*, goes part-way to meeting a basic need, but there is value in creating a personal checklist for packing and assembly now during a dry spell to help eliminate that sinking feeling when you arrive at a dive site missing a vital piece of kit. Even something as simple as making a note of the basic hand-signals used in technical diving, and having that as a printout to share with your buddies, would be a smart move.

A smart man once said that the secrets to success are to Plan, to Organize, to Check and Check Again. And as simple as that may sound, it’s a great policy to adopt if you’re looking for the simplest way to get yourself and your kit ready to take advantage of what looks like the best year ever for great diving.

Dive safe and dive often!

*START is an acronym developed by TDI to remind divers to check: S-DRILL including a check to make sure that ALL regulators and inflators work, no hoses are trapped, everything is connected, and there are no bubbles where bubbles do not belong; TEAM, which is about team readiness and understanding of the full dive plan; AIR, which means gas volumes, gas limits and gas toxicity have all been taken into account; ROUTE, which is not just a call to identify safe entry and exit points, but also to plan the dive around a series of waypoints to help keep it on course; and TIME, which is a final check on the dive and ascent schedule as well as contingencies.

Contact SDI TDI and ERDI

If you would like more information, please contact our World Headquarters or your Regional Office.

Tel: 888.778.9073 | 207.729.4201
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