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Tuwanek Beach Photography Dive

This evening was spent off the beach in Tuwanek working out some things with the new pieces for my camera.  The dive plan was to head down to the octopus den to see if our big boy was still home, and then to slowly work our way up the slop to shallow water.

Sure enough as we arrived at the den area, our boy was home…so we took a couple of images, and then made the turn to head up the slop.  Along the way we found some interesting fish and crabs to take pictures of as we passed along.

Visibility was easily 70 – 100 foot right from the shore down to depth.  Overall a great dive!!

NOTOX gas switching

This seems to be one of the big searches that brings people to the web site.  I have had many people ask me what is NOTOX and where is the definition found.  Well, it is certainly in the DSAT Tec Deep book as well as the Tec TRIMIX also from DSAT.  I thought I would include the definition as it is found in the DSAT Tec Deep instructors manual.

NOTOX;

N -  Note your name and the maximum depth on the cylinder labels

O -  Observe your actual depth and compare to the MOD

T -  Turn on the valve, Check the cylinder preasure

O -  Orient the second stage by pulling it from the retaining bands.

X -  eXamine your team mates – follow the hose form their mouth to the stage bottle.

So that is the NOTOX switch.  Remember “one of the most common preventable causes of technical diver deaths is switching to the wrong gases for the depth.” So get out there and get tec diving!!  Not trained, let me know, I will be more then happy to do your training for you.

It’s….BACK!!

So, there I was out in Tuwanek doing and Underwater Navigators course with a student….so I had to include a trip to my favourite Octopus den. Guess who was home!!  That is right he is back!  I have not been able to find him over the past 2 weeks…and I was there just Wednesday and nothing.

So, if you want to find yourself a nice big Pacific Octopus…be sure to visit the left island in Tuwanek…I am sure you will not be disappointed!!

Deco Procedures : Sechelt

UWE started up another Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures course on the 9th of Sept.  Neil and Mike came up from Vancouver to work on this course, so we had two very full days of training.  We were able to tackle the academic work for the two courses…plus touch on some of the work on the DSAT Gas Blender course.

Tuesday was spent working out equipment for configuration, once that was completed it was out to Tuwanek for 2 skills dives.  S Drills, V drills, donning and doffing stage cylinders, with and without masks, and don’t forget bag drills and SAC rate calculations.  It was close to 7 pm when we were leaving Tuwanek…on the way back to Suncoast Diving, for some gas mixing and more knowledge reviews.

Wednesday morning was spent completing the remainder of knowldege reviews, analyizing gas, and prepping the boat.  We were out on to the water for 12, and off to Tuwanek point, where the first dive of the day had us on an extended range gas switching no decompression dive.  The main purpose of this dive is to utilize the NOTOX switch as well as introducing the second stage bottle.  Finally, we dropped in for a 30 minutes skills dive, with surprise skills, S Drills, V Drills…and donning and doffing of stage cylinders!!

Overall this was an excellent 2 days of training, Neil and Mike completed the Advanced Nitrox section of their trianing…now we just need to do some decompression dives!! Stay Tuned!!

Dive 5 to HMCS Chaudiere

Jeremy was out on his first full Decompression dive on Saturday, and he did an awesome job!  The dive has been in the planning stages for a good three weeks, but getting the stars aligned, and the moon right took some times and everyones schedules had to work out…so this Saturday it was….and off we went.

With the dive plan made, gas analyzed, we were out on the water by noon, and some 25 minutes later we were tying up to the mooring buoys on the Chaudiere.  We went over the dive briefing one more time, decompression tables set up…and we started to gear up.  Once everything was in place we did our roll in, slung our decompression bottles….took a second or two to catch our breaths….it was time…ready, lets go!

We descended down the line and once at the 60 foot mark we staged our first deco bottle….and the second bottle was dropped at the 75 foot mark.  Everything was set, so off the boat we went and dropped down under the ship in to the 146 – 150 foot mark, much to my surprise there was a lot of vegetation there with tons of prawns jumping around.  We puttered around at depth, got comfortable….and set up for our first penetration.

At minute 8 we slide up to the first cut out on the port side and slowly made our way up into what can only be 1 mess.  To our right is the doorway that takes you on to Burma Road or 3 deck, with a quick descent into the Forwards crew heads….and back down and out the cut out back into 130 feet of water.  Another 20 minutes or so of exploration followed with two more penetrations for the fun of it.

We found ourself about 2 minutes behind on the Deco schedule, though thankfully our computers cleared with plenty of time and gas remaining.  All went well!!

Jeremy has one more dive left and he is going to be a full fledged rookie Tec Diver!!

Downloads Updated

UWE wants all to know that the Downloads section has been updated with the latest MAC Dive version, and PDI Tec Rec trianing video.  Be sure to stop in and download your favs!!