Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Advanced Wreck Diving

We have been waiting for an Advanced Wreck Manual for a long time, IANTD heard us, and published a new manual.
Even if I really liked the old wreck manual workbook, it was such a nice pedagogical tool for the student, we needed an update.
The content is informative it follows an experience type of education. The manual has been written by Joseph Citelli, Michael Barnette, Peri Blum and, Joseph Dituri. It is more than a course manual, it is a tool that the instructors are going to use to engage discussion, understand new techniques, and learn from other mistakes.

Discover the new Manual
During REACT 2012 organized by Cave Excursions, we displayed some IANTD materials and I was happy to see the new book for the first time. First impression, I knew the manual was coming and was happy to have a glimpse at it when we had our office next to  IANTD HQ in Miami.
I was waiting for the chapters about "what can go wrong and how to correct mistakes when they happen?" These chapters have been written by people practicing wreck diving all the time and it is a rich teaching approach for the students.

I discovered also a new way of deploying a lift bag with the help of a buddy, I will practice that some time.

I became a cave diver more than a wreck diver by choice, but when I dove in Marseille France in the mid 90s I was intensively wreck diving so I know that mistakes can happen and diving natural sunken wrecks can be a hazardous activity. These dives are still in my heart even though today I live in Cave country and teach cave diving. I will be using the IANTD Advanced Wreck Manual as a new tool with my students on my next Rebreather Advanced Wreck course.

The manual is available on our website.

Georges Gawinowski
IANTD Regional Training Director