contender
07-02-2008, 12:10 AM
As posted in a earlier post I recently completed a rebreather class for the Optima. Before this training I was somewhat against the use of rebreathers, probably due to the fact that I did not trust or understand them. However, after finishing the class my outlook is different.
The first day of training consisted of lectures and getting familiar with the unit by putting it together, no in water time.
On day 2 we were to see nothing but water time. After going over all the predive checks and prebreathing the loop we hit Ginnie Main Spring. It is here that I thought my rebreather diving would be over on the day it started. I did not have a firm grasp on how to manage the counterlungs properly and wanted nothing more than to bolt to the surface from 15 feet. However, I had one thing keeping me from bolting, the lecture I give my open water students about panic control and solving problems underwater. Buoyancy control and trim were at best a total disaster this day.
Day 3 was marginally better. We spent the day at Troy springs doing " boom scenarios", the instructor said boom something is wrong...fix it. If you have never felt the feeling of being frustrated, you will if you take this class. In between these drills we had to swim a course mapped out by cave line, which tested our ability to maintain control during depth changes while flying the breather manually. I will tell you that controlling buoyancy by breath does not work here. After about 3 hours in the water, we spent about 30 minutes on the loop on land gathering breathing rates.
Day 4 was spent at Blue Grotto with about 3.5 hours in water. This was the day that our performance was expected to pick up a notch. Our instructor laid out a course for us to swim continously with ascents and descents, with the expectation of the "boom scenarios". The scenarios were plentiful and the addition of many open water students plowing the bottom and getting in the way added a degree of difficulty to the training. This day was also spent controlling the PO2 manually. My partner and I survived.
Day 5 was the day we were looking for, the last day. We did our final dives at Forty Fathom Grotto, with less than good visibility. We flew the breather manually for most of this dive as well, and added some more skills to the mix. We practiced some stuck solenoid drills and flying the breather in semi-closed circuit mode. I will tell you that it was nice being 130 feet deep and not worring about keeping a constant watch on the pressure gauge. Everything ended well with only a small amount of deco considering the time we spent at depth.
During these 5 days of training we were expected to perform better each day. I have only touched on the basic skills that were covered, there were many more such as shooting lift bags, proper bailout, etc. During this class I learned to respect the rebreather, and more importantly to know my PO2 at all times. My plans are to dive the rebreather as much as possible so that I can eventually phase out open circuit gear, I understand that I can't completely do away with open circuit.
My partner(Gene Sutton) and I worked hard to meet the standards set forth by the instructor. The first day or two we felt like total failures, but it got better. We passed and have both become better divers because of this class. Our instructor, who is my regular dive partner and demands no less than 100% was Doug Marcinek. Dive buddy or not, if you can't perform you will not get a card from him. If any of you other divers are looking for a great Optima class I would give Doug a call, you can find his contact information on Dive Rite's website. Dive safe and have a great 4th of July.
The first day of training consisted of lectures and getting familiar with the unit by putting it together, no in water time.
On day 2 we were to see nothing but water time. After going over all the predive checks and prebreathing the loop we hit Ginnie Main Spring. It is here that I thought my rebreather diving would be over on the day it started. I did not have a firm grasp on how to manage the counterlungs properly and wanted nothing more than to bolt to the surface from 15 feet. However, I had one thing keeping me from bolting, the lecture I give my open water students about panic control and solving problems underwater. Buoyancy control and trim were at best a total disaster this day.
Day 3 was marginally better. We spent the day at Troy springs doing " boom scenarios", the instructor said boom something is wrong...fix it. If you have never felt the feeling of being frustrated, you will if you take this class. In between these drills we had to swim a course mapped out by cave line, which tested our ability to maintain control during depth changes while flying the breather manually. I will tell you that controlling buoyancy by breath does not work here. After about 3 hours in the water, we spent about 30 minutes on the loop on land gathering breathing rates.
Day 4 was spent at Blue Grotto with about 3.5 hours in water. This was the day that our performance was expected to pick up a notch. Our instructor laid out a course for us to swim continously with ascents and descents, with the expectation of the "boom scenarios". The scenarios were plentiful and the addition of many open water students plowing the bottom and getting in the way added a degree of difficulty to the training. This day was also spent controlling the PO2 manually. My partner and I survived.
Day 5 was the day we were looking for, the last day. We did our final dives at Forty Fathom Grotto, with less than good visibility. We flew the breather manually for most of this dive as well, and added some more skills to the mix. We practiced some stuck solenoid drills and flying the breather in semi-closed circuit mode. I will tell you that it was nice being 130 feet deep and not worring about keeping a constant watch on the pressure gauge. Everything ended well with only a small amount of deco considering the time we spent at depth.
During these 5 days of training we were expected to perform better each day. I have only touched on the basic skills that were covered, there were many more such as shooting lift bags, proper bailout, etc. During this class I learned to respect the rebreather, and more importantly to know my PO2 at all times. My plans are to dive the rebreather as much as possible so that I can eventually phase out open circuit gear, I understand that I can't completely do away with open circuit.
My partner(Gene Sutton) and I worked hard to meet the standards set forth by the instructor. The first day or two we felt like total failures, but it got better. We passed and have both become better divers because of this class. Our instructor, who is my regular dive partner and demands no less than 100% was Doug Marcinek. Dive buddy or not, if you can't perform you will not get a card from him. If any of you other divers are looking for a great Optima class I would give Doug a call, you can find his contact information on Dive Rite's website. Dive safe and have a great 4th of July.