LEARNINGCURVE
A back-finning dry run at Vobster
A session on kit configuration , led by Aithne
Why Sports and Explorer Mixed Gas ? Well , I am married to a MOD 3 rebreather diver , George . He ’ s been trying to encourage me to join the quiet side , but to be honest , it ’ s never really been for me .
All the same , while I can hardly be described as a depth junkie , I was finding in my day-to-day diving that I was pushing my PO2 ( partial pressure ) somewhat . So , I wanted to have the mixed gas qualification in the bag , just in case . I asked BSAC ’ s Head of Diving and Training , Dom Robinson , if he knew of anyone running a course .
Along came Jacob Broughton-Venner and Aithne Atkinson , from Imperial College London , with a request that I find another diver to join Paul Mann , who had already signed up . Chris Haywood from our club , BALSAC , was quick to join us .
The course involves some confined water sessions ; open water sessions to include longer runtimes and a deeper dive ( deeper than 50m ). There are also some practical sessions looking at kit configurations and some theory lessons to back it all up .
The physical difference between the two courses is whether you use a single stage cylinder , or two . So if you choose the combined course , you operate with two stages from the first day . The other differences are the qualification depth and gases you can use .
As always , there was some confined water training , with a lot of repetitive drills to get
Ross Kemp puts in an appearance !
Still back-finning , but happy with it
you used to the handling of stage cylinders . This involved not just clipping your own on and off , but also swapping stages with your buddy . All the drills should be done in trim and good buoyancy , none of that crawling around a platform malarkey .
We also performed mask replacements ; long hose deployment with Controlled Buoyant Lift ( CBL ) and shutdowns for those on manifolded twins . It ’ s a really good reminder that we should all keep our drills up-to-date . The session was a bit of fun . The stage handling is really worth the practice ; it certainly highlights anything that is not quite right with your kit configurations .
33