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Skills, Skills, Skills

Yesterday was spent on what is likely to be our last dive before Christmas, doing skills. We worked on S drills, which Lew had no problems with the drills, but no surprising I did. It would appear my body does not like me reaching behind my head to hit and close all three valves with out some pain in doing so.

Once we completed that, on to the tour which was rather uneventful but interesting to say the least. We were down to about 90 feet, and surprisingly there was little to see this trip. It would appear that the bottom has been covered with wood chips, and nothing else of interest.

On our return we do some lift bag work. We used the lift bag to do our ascent, the first reel jammed…so we reverted to the second reel….which worked fine….well until 20 feet then things jammed up. So we finished the last three minutes on the line…but the reel was bogged down.

Water temperature was cool….at surface and depth it was in the mid 40′s, while visibility was any where between 30 – 10 feet.

Congratulations to our New Divemasters

As term one comes to a close at Canada Dive College, the class has been successful in completing their Divemaster training.  The course overall was not that difficult, however Tony made sure that all students had an opportunity to practice all the skill sets expected of them, many times to ensure there was a strong basis to their knowledge in this area.As term two is just around the corner, Canada Dive College is going to be ramping up the Instructor training course for March, when the IDC course starts, and the IW for OWSI is scheduled for 31 March – 1 April.  Also beginning in January is the TEC Deep with one student.

More to follow…

Divemaster Skills Training

The second to last day of the fall term, had the Canada Dive College student’s out working on some Divemaster/IDC Instructor skills.  The day once again started off fashionably late as we awaited the arrival of one of our students, alarm clock problems again….oh well.  So, the plan was made and briefed in the warmth of the classroom, and then off we went.
The Open Water skills went by thankfully with little problems, as we worked on the Controlled Decent from Open water dive 2, out of air, mask flood and clearing and then the CESA.  Once on the surface we continued working on more Open water skills such as remove and replace the weight belt at the surface.  Once completed that we went into the rescue phase of an unresponsive diver on the surface…which started off rough and then improved with more practice.

More to come tomorrow.

Another Day of Decco Diving

Another outstanding day diving in the Sechelt Inlet with Tony and Canada Dive College. The mission was planned out, with two groups.  Group one consisting of Tony, Lew and Sean did their first penetration forward on the Chaudiere.  The group entered the ship from the port side first cut out.  The insert was pretty tough, lots of silt but the group worked out the problems for a successful penetration, and returned to the ascent line in time for the correct decompression stops complete with there deco bottles.Group 2 consisted of Bob and Ken, their plan was to enter the third cut out on the port side, from the bow.  Once the cutout was located the group tied off and entered what turned out being the aft section of the forward crews heads.  The penetration went through the heads to Burma road, and turned left heading aft….though once the turn was made it was obvious it would not be safe to continue any further so the group turned the dive and exited the wreck, in time to meet their decompression requirements.

Another great day diving!!

In Search of the Sea Whip

Date Line 8 Dec 2006

Canada Dive College was out doing a fun dive off Tuwanek on Friday, after completing the first three dives of the TDI Decompression course….and we decided to go in search of the Sea Whips of Tuwanek. The dive plan depth was 165, though the contingences were worked out for 175, and times from 20 to 25 minutes.
It was close to 10 in the morning when we arrived, and began dressing for the days dive. Once suited up, (twin 80′s plus a slung 80 and another slung 40) we proceeded to the water. We made a short surface swim out, pretty much perpendicular to the beach and descended into about 100 feet of water. About 2 minutes of swimming we ended up at the 170 foot mark…and sure enough there they were….the Sea Whips of Tuwanek.

Once our planned 20 minute bottom time was up, the dive turned and we proceeded back to shore…and out 20 minutes of decompression stops in order to be safe for surfacing. Overall it was a great dive!

HMCS Chaudiere Day 2

After our first penetration and decompression dive on the Chaudiere, we decided to come back for round two. Our dive profile was as follows….

130 for 25 with approximately 20 minutes or so of hang time on 50% Nitrox at various depths starting at 50 feet in order to clear our decompression obligations. We did two penetrations in the bow, and one through the bridge during today’s dive. Things were coming fast and furious….overall it was an amazing dive!!

We have an excellent dive planned for tomorrow down in Tuwanek. We are going to search out the Sea whips, and the plan has us at 165 for 20 minutes, with 17 minutes or so decompression obligations in order to make back to the surface.

If you are not busy tomorrow, you should come on down to the Beach and enjoy the action!