The
basics of a good foundation are inherent to the quality of the material or
tools that are used in the building of that foundation. Gear configuration is
one of the tools that will shape a cave diver career. Gear
configuration is an essential topic. This is basic for all cave training. “Gear configuration is an important factor. Remember your
training. Look around and ask other divers why they use a specific type of
equipment or configuration. Be open-minded”. We need the best possible tools to do
the perfect job. If I visualize a cave diver in the 80’s the gear set was
limited to the basics. The equipment is probably safer today but divers in the
past paid more attention on what they had, and I am sure it was taking long
hours to get the best on their gear configuration set up. The main recommendations for a good gear configuration are redundancy, streamlining, accessibility and comfort. So
let’s go back to the minimum gear requirements for Cavern diving, Intro-Cave to cave diving and Cave Diving. Original Article was published in the Volume 40 Oct/Nov/Dec/ 2013 Underwater Speleology The journal of the cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society NSS/CDS
I sincerely would like to congratulate my new certified students who worked hard for their certifications.
They were well prepared to discover new challenge encounters that are part of new courses; cave diving and closed circuit Megalodon rebreather are not easy courses regardless the diver or instructor level we are at.
At WDT Dive I do not take the easiest route to certify people. Like most of my fellow cave diver instructors, I want to make sure that the new certified diver understands the reality about becoming a new cave diver certified.
Alex Gilson (CMAS instructor certified, GUE diver and IANTD Trimix diver) and Rick Thomas (former commercial diver, GUE diver and IANTD Trimix diver) showed both a great attitude and developed great cave diving skills during the course. 18 dives and long hours of training, combined with mental and physical and underwater skills made them certified has NSS/CDS and IANTD full cave divers.
Evgeny Komko became a Megalodon rebreather Instructor, what a dedication from somebody who decided to travel all the way from Ukraine to get his training. Evgeny is already a CCR Inspiration mixed gas diving Instructor up to 100 meters (330 fsw), a NSS/CDS cave diver and a CCR diver on different units such as Megalodon and JJ. It was nice to have him at our WDT dive facility for a week of training and hours in-water time practicing. I am pleased to announce that we registered a new IANTD CCR Megalodon Instructor in Ukraine.
After 8 days of training with Kenny Kipper, a number of dives, in water training practice, Kenny earned his CCR Megalodon diver certification. Kenny is a NSS/CDS cave diver, a TDI decompression procedures diver and TDI Advanced Nitrox diver. He is our new CCR Megalodon diver certified.
Congratulations to all of you and Thank You again for choosing me as your diving instructor.
Mastering
buoyancy in cave diving is like having a cup of iced tea in a hot summer day,
it is so sweet!
Whether
we are a cavern or experienced cave diver buoyancy and swimming techniques have
to be mastered. Controlled buoyancy is critical to avoid silting out passages
which results in the inability for the diver to freely navigate back out of the
cave due to being blinded by percolates along the exit tunnel. Remember that we
are not in our environment when cave diving and we should pay attention to
minimize the negative impact we could have on our surroundings, on our buddies,
others teams and; the cave will appreciate it!
Mastering buoyancy
will help us also to:
·Reduce gas consumption,
·Reduce the risk of over exhaustion,
·Reduce the risk of loss of visibility,
·Reduce the risks of decompression sickness,
·Reduce the risk of aeroembolism,
·Reduce the risk of O2 toxicity.
Personal
evaluation phase:
When
you see a cave diver in the ocean you notice a perfect trim and buoyancy, easy
to recognize.
In
a cave system things can change dramatically because of human errors. All of us
can make mistakes often when our buoyancy is not what it should be. Every time
we are diving in a cave we need 100% awareness and focus on our buoyancy while
keeping the dive and our buddy in mind. For instance, during the dive we may be thinking about
something else such as tasks on the dive, our equipment or a physical un-comfort,
or be preoccupied by something we have in mind and lose our cave and buoyancy
awareness. We know we make a mistake when it’s already done. The ideal would be
to see, anticipate, the mistake before it happens. I mean to be aware of any
changes in our breathing, posture or swimming pattern and depth changes.
One
of the best ways I have found to evaluate my buoyancy is simply by practicing
in an open water area such as a spring, quarries or in the ocean. My technique
is comprised of the following steps:
·Lay down a line at the bottom,
·Swim on top of that line the body centered in the middle on the line,
·Swim using 90 degrees turn, then 120 and 180 turn without any changes
in posture.
·Practice for 30 minutes or more and see if the technique remains
persistent and constant.
Once you are comfortable with that technique go practice on your cave dive with
one mission in mind: to keep a perfect trim at all times, to choose the correct
tie off and line placement, to jump without moving any silt after your passage.
Each
time you notice something is wrong whether it be with you or your buddy just
call that dive, surface and discuss about the mistakes that were made and find
solutions on how to improve the technique in order to avoid the mistake next
time.
Picture Above: Georges Gawinowski at Eagles Nest Cave, Florida
Parts of This Article was published on the "Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society." "Skills, Tips and Techniques by Georges Gawinowski Volume 40 Number 3. July/August/September 2013
Where: Lake Mead NV, home of the famous Hoover Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the Arizona and Nevada. Old building structures, construction tools have been left in the diving area with lots of new discoveries to be made. Bypass tunnels may be reachable now with lower lake levels. Prerequisites: Dedicated CCR Trimix Megalodon Certified Divers ONLY. Must have at least 300 dives of which 100 are Trimix dives. How to Register: Limited Spots Send an email with a copy of your CCR Megalodon Certification, CCR Trimix Certifications, and proof of number of dives.
I will always remember the remark of one of my mentors and Trimix Instructor when I was labeling my mixed gas diving double tanks before we jump on the water. I had just analyzed my Trimix mixes and was marking my tanks 14/50 (IANTD tables 1998)
"George! What are these numbers on your tank? Mixed gas diving is a serious activity! and tanks should be labeled properly. You should mark Tx14/50 so we know you are diving TRIMIX".
He was right! I understood and acknowledged his comment, it was an important marking for somebody coming from a renowned and noble professional commercial scuba diving agency. Commercial and military divers have set the standards for us, it is important to keep Technical diving and Technical cave diving a "noble" activity where little details count.
He had set up a good example and I keep following that example myself and with my students. I know sometimes I have a tendency to rush after analyzing my Nitrox tanks, and mark the number 32 on them. However, I still have my mentor's voice in my head telling me that I am not doing the best at labeling my tanks. So I correct myself, and mark my tanks with either Nx32 or Eanx 32 instead of the 32 plain bare number, plus MOD and IANTD stickers. http://youtu.be/_cKGsVacAjY
Good example stands so why not forget the bad ones.
"Some
incidents, accidents and fatalities happen because of a number of inappropriate
actions and reactions. One important aspect is tank miss-labeling (as you have
learned in your Nitrox class) but few people are following the basics. Remember
a piece of tape can be removed, and in a stressed situation, handwritten
numbers can be interpreted differently and fatal mistakes have happened. So
this is a reminder of the Mixed Diving Rules set up in the 1990s by IAND, Inc.
DBA IANTD and ANDI, and later on by the European diving agencies like CMAS,
that also follow pretty much the same basics". (Photos Georges
Gawinowski)
It’s rainy season and we are missing rainfalls! Not only to grow
green pasture grass back for our companions at our facility but also to get the
aquifer levels refilled. As I am speaking today the cave systems are
recovering. We went to Madison first week of October and the current is strongly
kicking but the blue water is coming back.
Peacock is getting there also, the cave is flowing and the
visibility was around 60 feet in some places.
Devil Ear and Eyes have been good.
Little River has been reopened.
Training in South
Florida.
We did some training in Miami where I taught a CCR Megalodon
Instructor course.
We had great time on wrecks specialty in Pompano Beach with great
weather where I was able to conduct our CCR Trimix Nomoxic (CCR MOD2) diver and
Instructor course.
Thank you Ocean Safari, Tiger tail, RJ diving and Miss
conduct for their support.
Fall Agenda
Lots of events are happening in North and Central Florida, cave
diving capital of the world J
Staying closer to
the cave systems, and keeping our philosophy alive was very important for us.
We now offer our students a quality and natural learning environment.
One of my
students had some issues with the weight of his tanks; his feet were constantly
low. He is diving heavy doubles with a dual bladder and a comfort type harness
with dual shoulder buckles.
The adjustment we
did were:
- to switch his
steel back-plate for an aluminum back-plate.
- to put a
tighter “purist” harness instead of the double buckled shoulder straps.
- to reposition
the tanks a little higher and close to the neck.
- to work on trim
position, legs up on land.
These adjustments
have allowed reinforcing my student’s swimming techniques and his trim.
100% positive results, and another happy cave diver!
WDT dive, Georges Gawinowski will organize an CCR Megalodon Instructor Development Course in Miami Florida at Ocean Safari (IANTD platinum facility and Scubabro Platinum dealer) starting July 26th 2013.
- CCR Megalodon Instructor Development Course: to register you must meet the IANTD Prerequisites, and have been authorized by IANTD HQ and ISC. Please contact us
- CCR Megalodon diver course: to register you must be IANTD Advanced Nitrox diver, and own a Megolodon CCR unit.
Please contact us should you have questions.
Safer dives to all; Georges Gawinowski
The Essentialsof diving have been created using IANTD basics philosophy, including physical, mental, land drills, and in-water skills preparation. This teaching program accessible to all diver level is designed to be used when you "pass the door". The original Essentials was written in French and introduced to IANTD in 2002. Once accepted, it became part of the IANTD training Standards in 2009, and translated in English. The Essentials manual comes accompanied with a DVD. The program was introduced at DEMA show 2008 in Orlando and was launched at DEMA show 2010 in Las-Vegas. IANTD Philosophy has been working on diver safety for a long time now, using different methods including mixed gas diving training such as Nitrox and Trimix, equipment preparation and configuration, Rebreathers training. The agency has even developed lectures including mental and physical chapters. All IANTD diver manuals go that way and the Essentials is a reminder for all. Essentials Physical Training: is being honest with ourselves so that we can fairly evaluate our physical status. We sometimes may have a tendency to believe that a diver is not a competing athlete. The physical training aspect is often forgotten. Some divers might think that diving is enough activity to stay in shape. I believe that diving can become a strenuous acitvity and being in shape is an important factor to increase divers safety. Essentials Mental Preparation: Physical aspect is easy to evaluate. But what about our mental? We sometimes jump in the water without really listening our "inner voice" (feeling, sensations), we are not always mentally fit for a specific dive when we have something in our mind, we are not in harmony with ourselves. In the Essentials program we use some techniques to become more aware of ourselves, our environment and our buddy. Developing a sense of responsibility towards each other is key. Essentials Land Drills: helping the divers discover the sense, review some of the techniques practiced in the water, and more importantly learn how to deal when faced with stressful moments which could happen underwater. Essentials In-Water Training: in any sport there is people who practice and people who do not. In my opinion we should practice our basics and more advanced skills that we are qualified to on a regular basis. Secret to mastery of a skill is practice! The IANTD Essentials are not another "Specialty" course, it is a full program that needs to be understood as it is. I encourage everyone to test it and then practice it. Should you want to become an Essentials Diver we invite you to check our information online or inquire about the program with your local IANTD Essentials Instructor. Should you want to become IANTD Essentials Instructor you have to be qualified at IANTD Advanced Recreational Trimix Instructor level and take the Essentials course. Essential manual and DVD now available
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