February 1999, during one of my visit to cave country in north Florida, as I was assisting cave courses, since I was working toward my Cave Instructor rating. I felt catching a cold...
Georges Gawinowski 1998
Coming from France where I was used to dive on air, after hours and days of diving I start feeling week and tired Air diving was not the best options for theses dives but it was cheaper than Nitrox...
I run into an IANTD Nitrox diver magazine that was left at cave excursions. (feb 99 April 99). Tom Mount was talking about Antioxidants: Alpha Lipoic Acid. At the time IANTD used to sell Antioxidants vitamine for divers! I was sold, bought a case and started to take a pill a day. Was it a placebo, was it real? but after few days I felt better and kept diving on air...
Today, between Covid, water quality (humain and chemicals pollution)... I still protect myself with plants specially ones that will boots my immune system before an intense week of teaching cave diving.
"Promoters of Echinacea say that the herb encourages the immune system and reduces many of the symptoms of colds, flu and some other illnesses, infections, and conditions".
Your body will be stronger thanks to this blend of organic botanicals (Andrographis herb, Elder berry, Yarrow herb, Echinacea angustifolia root, Fresh Echinacea purpurea flower & root, Myrrh gum resin, Prickly Ash bark, Fresh Wild Indigo root and leaf)."
On my our last post we talked about Herbals Extract that can be used to improuve heatlh today lets focus on Essentials oils.
Personnaly I use them in my classroom when I teach and during my pre cave dive visualisation. It is important to create an heathly environnement while revieing mentally our dives.
Essential oils are often used in aromatherapy, a form of alternative medicine that employs plant extracts to support health and well-being...
However, some of the health claims associated with these oils are controversial.
This article explains all you need to know about essential oils and their health effects.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are compounds extracted from plants.
The oils capture the plant's scent and flavor, or "essence."
Unique aromatic compounds give each essential oil its characteristic essence.
Essential oils are obtained through distillation (via steam and/orwater) or mechanical methods, such as cold pressing.
Once the aromatic chemicals have been extracted, they are combined with a carrier oilto create a product that's ready for use.
The way the oils are made is important, as essential oils obtained through chemical processes are not considered true essential oils."
Everybody wants to have a healthy immune system. Our herbal immune tonic formulas are better than “an apple a day. . .” for supporting a healthy immune system. In addition to our popular immune formulas we have a large selection of single extracts and a few teas that support normal immune system function.
Echinacea is a very popular herb, and people commonly take it to help combat flu and colds. It is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family – Asteraceae. It is also known as the American coneflower.
Your body will be stronger thanks to this blend of organic botanicals (Andrographis herb, Elder berry, Yarrow herb, Echinacea angustifolia root, Fresh Echinacea purpurea flower & root, Myrrh gum resin, Prickly Ash bark, Fresh Wild Indigo root and leaf).
The weather has been an issue for us cave divers in North Florida this winter. Most of the cave systems in the Suwanee river basin like Peackock springs, Little River and Madison springs are flooded because of rain showers coming from Georgia. Plus we've had a good amount of rain here locally. What happens during a flood? How to get back on track carefully, and how to access the cave systems as we have not cave dived for a while?
Some "rest" for the environment
"Many cave systems have become highly dived tourist destinations. Unfortunately, this has led to environmental concerns. Several kinds of surface fish (mollies and tetras) now follow divers into Mexican Cenotes and eat the troglobitic crustaceans encountered along the way! This obviously has a very negative effect on the populations of cave fauna"
Jill Yager, Cave diving Articles and Opinions, NSS/CDS
Since the flood we had in December, Peacock state park is empty. I went and treck the trails and I was surprised to see how nature seems to be relieved. From the quietness of the park, the birds and squirrels seem really to enjoy when human beings are not around.
What about the aquatic life, I am not really sure what effect a flood has when tannic water rushes into the spring waters. Does it bring nutrients for the aquatic cave animals such as cave shrimp, amphipods, isopods... it probably benefits for them since floods have probably always been part of nature.
Cave divers must access the environment for a first dive after a flood
When I was part of the Line Committee we used to jump after a flood to evaluate conditions, our evaluation always started at the surface.
- How is the visibility in the basin and sinkholes?
- Is there any current on springs and siphons?
- How is the visibility in the caverns and in the caves?
- Debris such as trees, and leaves on the floor.
- Evaluated the structure of the system, walls, ceiling floor; are there any rocks on the ground that were not here before.
- Line conditions: slack on lines, buried lines, lines under trees or branches.
- How visibility could be affected when several teams are going through.
Always take your time to assess the caves system conditions; we think we know it well but it looks totally different after a flood.
Use caution and common sense! Safe Cave diving!
Cave divers used to be aware of the cave environment. Nowadays, because of the number of cave divers growing worldwide the increasing "traffic" damages the fragile cave systems. We, cave divers, and especially cave Instructors, must become ambassadors, showing a good example. Our technique, respectful cave awareness can be passed on to the next generations.
In the article we will talk about different things that can help reduce cave damage.
- Clean water
- Training and practice
- Know our motivations
- Visualize
- Proper equipment configuration
Clean water
Water is vital for humans and for animals, and plants. When we visit cave country and for the people living n the area, it is so important to minimize our impact with water. We have a tendency to use too much of this precious element, on our daily routines. The use of detergents and chemicals, herbicides and fertilizers, drains back into our aquifer. We have the choice to change our behavior for better water.
We all remember that we must be trained in order to cave dive ; correct training means that we are aware of our techniques, behavior and practice the skills regularly.
The NSS/CDS issued awareness information brochures a while back to remind the essential tools that a cave diver must be aware of.
Buoyancy control and trim seem obvious but so many times we all see divers on their knees doing a primary tie or working on their equipment. This should not happen when one develops the proper way of doing. Repetition will help develop that patten. A cave diver should always be in trim and have a very low impact on the floor, walls and ceilings.
Practice reel techniques, buoyancy control and emergency skills will help the diver to reach that goal.
Proper Kick techniques.
There are different kick techniques. Even though the modified frog kick is one of the main kicks, remember what Tom Mount wrote in the NACD chapter of Safe cave diving about the 37 cave techniques, described by Sheck Exley, to be used in the cave environment. We should evaluate the environment, think and act accordingly. A good example is the pull and glide. It should be used only when it is needed or to practice this technique in places where it has been used before. Know our motivations
This is such and important criteria to take into consideration. What do we really want or expect in a cave dive? Goal oriented dives may direct our thoughts and behaviors in a way that is not always favorable for the environment. We may push our limits physically and mentally to the point where our technique could start to fall apart. We may stage a cave and put tanks not at the right place only to favor our exploration and goals.
Good judgement is extremely important as it will dictate the way we cave dive. Visualize
Visualizing a dive is an important tool that cave divers should practice. Athletes in different sports are using it frequently, it seems to me that cave divers still have trouble to get used to the idea.
Visualization centers the thoughts on the present moment, on our real motivations and not on the things we think we want to accomplish.
It helps also to increase mastering a skill and to know the cave system a little better, by creating a picture in our head about the where and how to go, visualization helps to take our activity seriously. Keep the old NACD slogan "The Art Of Cave Diving" in mind! Proper equipment configuration
WDT dive training cave diver at Peacock spring
It is a commun practice for cave divers to use always the same gear configuration and I agree with it. It is helpful for muscular memory and to react positively during an emergency situation.
Sometimes we may have to adjust or change our equipment if the cave configuration changes. Let's adapt to circumstances and let's try not to close our mind.
It is especially true when we dive caves with:
- restrictions
- lower ceilings and wide tunnels
- restricted tunnels and high ceilings
- chimney
- silt
- Flow or no flow caves.
Sometimes back mounted is the way to do it, or Sidemount may be a better way, or a rebreather may be even better.
Let us be Ambassadors of our cave systems. Let us help to protect the fragile environment so the next generations will be able to enjoy them as we do. Let's not take the caves for granted, and bring consideration to protecting our waters and caves. Georges Gawinowski
The Teric has all the features divers have come to love in our computers and more. It is our most compact unit, yet it is also our most feature rich unit. The Teric comes with AMOLED full color display that is very easy to read even in adverse conditions. The Teric has 4 buttons. We've applied situationally adaptable logic to our menus and buttons making the Teric very intuitive. It is also very configurable. You can configure one of the 4 buttons to give you a single press access to different tools like compass, stopwatch, countdown timer, etc. It is AI compatible and can monitor up to two pressure transmitters in two different tanks. It has Recreational, Gauge, OC Tech and CC/BO modes with up to 5 Trimix and nitrox gases. But it also has an all new Freediving mode with configurable sampling/ logging rates and improved ascent and descent indicators. There are haptic and audible alarms that can be disabled to prevent annoying other divers in the vicinity. The Teric uses a wirelessly rechargeable battery and ships with a wireless inductive charger. Add to this the Shearwater Bluetooth communications protocol for downloading logs and updating firmware and you have a fully enclosed unit with reduced flooding risks since the user will never need to open it up to connect a cable or change a battery. Like the NERD 2, the battery can be replaced at one of our authorized service centers. We expect battery life to be 5 years. Finally, we've built it up with a robust hardware set with plenty of room for firmware improvements and new features. You can order the Teric at Cave diver training
On our last article, we talked about how to increase safety and self-sufficiency for Technical diving. We noticed that lack of self-awareness could be an hidden cause in diving accidents and fatalities. Over 20 years of experience have brought light on the analysis of these issues ; we will discuss today about our responsibilities as divers and trainers to increase self sufficiency.
Awareness and Responsibility
The lack of awareness of the former student now certified diver, in matter of important constraints as part of the act of diving, disables him/her from facing responsibilities, Virtually remaining a student instead of becoming an autonomous diver who hides behind a quasi-ideal image of the training, of the instructor or of the supervision of the dive center. Neither the ones nor the others have the mission to take care of the diver’s obligations. Dive centers are not organized for such task, neither in their facility nor in the structure.
Of course, a large part of the certified divers do not agree. They are convinced they acquired enough independence that allows them to dive (under all circumstances?).They earned such specific certification, with so many dives posted in their logbook (often over evaluated data), with a good technique, an expertise and barely accepting few good advices. This experience would be acceptable if the diver would barely change his/her marks,
because when we dare new adventures under different circumstances (new diving profile, new training, new gear configuration, different diving conditions, etc…) we ought to know that we will go through this experience without being either more autonomous or more able to cope with the adaptation factor. Otherwise, showing our competence at that
specific moment of our diver’s life. Most divers when facing the choice of whether risking a dive or not, do not feel competent when they feel poorly prepared, or in the same time, want to take the risk of doing the dive either frustrated or influenced by others. It is important to notice that uncertain divers are a hazard for the dive buddy. We reach now the subject of risk assessment in which the factor (ratio of individual to circumstances) generates the essence of the risk and the level of what has been assessed as being risky. We have not evaluated the percentage of the population acting under an unconscious risky and hazardous behavior yet. This idea comes from what has been noticed on the field and among a group of reactions, by information from active people either professional divers or not. It seems that a majority of divers is directly concerned at different levels. If we had to simplify a reason of behaving this way we would find it in the innovative realm of this sport (technical evolutions, mentalities) but also from observing individual behaviors in their social environment, modeling their life by the choice or the decisions made.
The choice concerning the environment in diving would be whether to create superstructured- training that would take care of the non-autonomous divers, or to strengthen the already acquired training by leading the diver toward more independence. In a personal opinion, this last option is the reality of diving, it is not only such as we know it but also by its natural spirit of adventure, discoveries, and freedom which the human kind has been seeking for generations. We hardly conceive a reverse transformation in this natural evolution depriving the essence of this sport.
The path to self-sufficiency
We do not want to face this evidence without giving some solutions. For us the two points of education and being self-sufficient have to be taken into consideration. We insist on the fact that technical training is essential more than a simulation; it shows the diver (no longer a « student ») the reality of action in diving. Our educational status of instructor or trainer is here to bring the diver to a real time situation, not to « hold his/her hand » anymore. This training is built around the diving preparation and of course deals with the questions of stress management, risk assessment, awareness from which little by little grows the diver’s inner independence. Here, no miracle pill, no virtual image, no illusion, the diver faces with him/herself aware of his/her motivations and limits. Such techniques are calling for mental preparation especially when the need of making a decision comes about to help erase or reduce the gaps between “what we think it is”, and « what it is in fact ». We have paid a particular attention to this point that appears to be essential in the diver’s future direction whether in recreational or technical diving. These transition periods require a good perception of many factors depending on a whole of qualities to which we call on when training for diving. It is indeed important to be wary of projections and images that could prevent from learning the characteristic of technical diving, and from gauging the constraints and capabilities factors.
To a new education?
To be in favor of the « cutting loose» of their students is not a new mission for the instructors. It has always been one of the major goals of teaching. It is necessary to show how risky the practice of diving is. Notably leading the student to be independent trained with an improved good technique, and with the ability to gauge and decide in a performing way in order to easily and securely deal with his/her dives. It takes a long time to become autonomous; it is more a step based on practice than on theory. Only experienced and vigilant behavior will help reach this goal. When initiated from the first levels of training this evolution toward more independence will be durable, instead of fading after a while, as it has been noticed among some « poorly trained » divers. Our goal is to integrate all the tools available within technical diver education to ease the development of autonomous behavior. Georges Gawinowski and peers have been working on this behavior for years to find the best responses to increase self sufficiency and to encourage divers to log safe dives, and to practice emergency skills between certification levels. That is especially recommended for Expedition Trimix as students are only admitted to start this course once they completed the Essentials Diver, the CCR Trimix diver, with a minimum of 100 Trimix and mixed gas dives. Also, it is important to keep strong communication with the Instructor before the expedition. As during the three months time of preparation we will evaluate the progress of the candidate through conversation, questions, and Technical dives if possible that will get the student ready for such a challenging course.
Note: Trailer of Expedition Trimix By Lake Mead Technical divers 2014
Discussion about diving
preparation and diver’s self-sufficiency
We have noticed that the lack of
self-awareness in the matter and a poor stress and risks management are often
hidden causes of scuba diving accidents and fatalities.
As the
exigencies of the diver become stronger as for the choice of a diving school
that would provide with adequate training for a specific type of diving and
adapted to the diver personality, other exigencies are also considered when it
comes to choosing diving gear which must comply with technical, comfort and
estheticism criteria. We believe that the diver should be in the same way
exigent in the preparation of his/her dives. Cave divers are pretty familiar
with a well-detailed pre-dive preparation, technical diver agencies are pushing
this way, but this is not always the case with recreational divers. “Safety is
our concern”.
The training
trap
The real « trap » is not
the training itself but rather the manner in which the fresh certified diver
has been taught the main key points, and how well they were understood. In
other words, is the diver capable of returning the essential learned? Although
self-evaluation, calling into question and upgrades are essential values in the
risky activity of diving, they are quickly forbidden once the training time is
over.
A newly certified diver
with his/her experience and habits is generally competent (satisfied of his/her
competences). Cautious at first, then when everything goes well, little by
little the diver becomes more confident and settles up into his/her own marks.
Consequently the next dive will be similar to the previous one. This approach
of diving will become a mirror of diving in the general sense until an unusual
event makes the diver aware of another reality, surprising, worrying, hard, and
sometimes tragic. Later the diver comes up with questions and answers about
whether considering the idea of whether the responsibility in the preparation
of the dives is missing or not.
Nevertheless, this is the
right time to assess the risks and make the right choice. Of course this
information is mentioned during the training courses and should be part of the
usual techniques of diving. We believe that most of the instructors emphasize
the necessity of taking the necessary time to understand all the teachings, to
recall them, to regularly repeat the exercises and to do step by step practice.
However, I believe only a few students follow these procedures after training
is completed, for the only reason that it requires a personal involvement, a
choice, a decision, a responsibility, though it involves the fact of being
self-sufficient. Among the goals of a diver randomly sorted, prevails the envy
of diving. Enjoying these too short moments underwater. Amidst the priorities,
we also find some professional « mandatory issues »; then, at last,
comes the demand for security. Those needs precede and sometimes harm the
essential progression of the apprenticeship (training and experience) causing
worrying unbalance.
When miniaturizing the NERD 2 product, we changed to a smaller
pressure sensor module. Unfortunately, some units are exhibiting shifts of up
to 50 mbar under certain environmental conditions.
While the units are able to meet relative depth accuracy
requirements as per EN 13319, Shearwater feels that absolute accuracy is
important for PPO2 reporting and decompression calculations.
What is Shearwater doing about this?
Shearwater is redesigning the NERD 2 to use the pressure
sensor with which we have more than 10 years of successful experience.
Production and new sales will be suspended until improved parts are
available. All existing NERD 2 customers are being offered the update to the
new parts at no charge.
Can I continue to use my NERD 2?
This problem is variable in nature and some users will not be
affected. Determine if your
NERD 2 is affected using the information below.
You may continue to use your NERD 2 if you are
comfortable with the level of error in the absolute accuracy. However, we
still recommend that all users return their NERD 2s to be reworked.
What should I do?
We expect the solution to be ready for the rework to begin in
May. We felt it important to raise awareness before the solution was
ready. Please contact Shearwater at info@shearwater.com if
you have a NERD 2 and we will direct you to the nearest service center for
rework.
We apologize for the frustration you are feeling.
Determining If your NERD 2 is affected
All NERD 2 units are factory calibrated when shipped from
Shearwater. However, the problem with some NERD 2 pressure sensors is that
they have been observed to drift in absolute accuracy under certain
environmental conditions. The maximum reported drifts have been limited to
about +/-50 mbar, which is about a 5% error at the typical sea-level pressure
of 1013mbar. Another way to view this is that 1mbar = 1cm of water. So 50mbar
is about 0.5m of water (1.5 ft). This error has been found to be an
offset that does not grow as pressure increases. Therefore, under most
circumstances this error will not appear in depth readings, since depth is
determined by subtracting the surface pressure reading from the current
reading, thus subtracting out the common offset. However, absolute pressure
accuracy is still desired for accuracy of PPO2 reporting and
decompression calculations.
Not all units experience a shift to their absolute pressure
accuracy. To determine if your NERD 2 has shifted, you will need to compare
the “mbar now” displayed value to a known good reference pressure. The “mbar
now” value can be viewed by pressing right button a few times. The reference
pressure could be another dive computer, hiking watch, or could be the
current report from a local weather station at the same altitude. If using
another computer or watch, you will need to know the absolute accuracy of
this product. If using a weather report and you are at an altitude above
sea-level, be aware that often pressures are reported as if they were at
sea-level. If this is the case you will need to convert that pressure to the
actual pressure before using it as a reference.
Keeping an open mind about gear configuration Part 2
On our last blog we talked about Cavern and Intro-To-Cave diver's gear configuration. Today let's talk and review the cave diver configuration using double tanks.
The basics of the "Hogarth configuration" William "Bill" Hogarth Main is a cave diving pioneer who is best known as a developer in the 1980s, and the namesake of, the "Hogarthian gear configuration" that is a component of the "Doing It Right" (DIR) holistic approach to scuba diving. According to Jarrod Jablonski, the Hogarthian style "has many minor variations, yet its focus asserts a policy of minimalism."[1] The configuration was refined in the 1990s, partially through the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP),[2] established in 1985 and considered among the most aggressive cave diving initiatives in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hogarth_Main
It has been taught in the IANTD Essentials there is still some minor variations based on preferences, and personal safety. As the world is made of different colors, taste and thoughts, it is important to keep a "thinking cave diver" instead of a "following cave diver" who uses techniques not based on his personal experiences and way of thinking. What works works:
Let's not reinvent the wheel but consoled it if needed.
The main recommendations to a good gear
configuration are:
- Redundancy
- Streamlining
- Accessibility
- Comfort Let's see the differences between Recreational, Sport and cave diving (Technical diving configuration)
The Author personal configuration:
- Low Pressure Doubles 85's gives me plenty of gas for most of my diving, an Aluminum plate with a "purist" harness mounted on a Dive-Rite Classic wing.
- Regulators Mk 25 Scubapro with S-600 and G-250 second stages for the easy fixing on the spot works very well in warm to temperate water temperature since I do not dive cold water much.
- First regulator on the right post connected with a long hose and a MP hose for my dry suit connection. Most of people will have the MP dry suit inflation on the left post.
- Second regulator with shorter hose attached with a bungee around my neck, with a MP hose connected to my wing inflator.
Advantages for me of MP Dry suit hose on the right:
- If one of the first stage fails, that would probably be the one I use most, the one with the long hose. (happens to me twice in 20 years of teaching) in that case if i must isolate that regulator, I will not lose my BCD but only my Drysuit. I like to be able to keep my buoyancy without having to disconnect hoses.
-If I have a roll-off cave diving, and I have developed a bad habit of not checking my left post enough, I should be able to see it, because I'am using my power inflator more than my dry suit inflator at depth.
- I like to use both regulator during the dive, specially on deep dive where my primary regulator would work better if I do not ask him to much. Breathing and adding gas in the wings may sometime be too much, even if today's regulators are pretty efficient at depht I follow the "Eggs principles". Do not put them all in the same basket.
Once again there is different ways of configuring the Equipment, as we can see on the Essentials video. The main idea is to know why we use a system instead of of the other. This is one of the valuable way of thinking I have learned with my different cave mentors from the NACD, NSS/CDS and IANTD. what works for you may not work for me because humans are different in theirs habits and way of thinking.
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