Having
completed his Enriched Air and Gas Blender Instructor courses with
Jamie, at Master Tec, on Koh Tao, and helping out as a support
diver on a couple of Tec Rec dives, Terry realised this was the
direction he wished to pursue in his diving career. The physics,
maths and all the equipment interested him as much as the diving
did . It was just a question of when and how much it would cost as
to when he would start the ball rolling.
As it
happened, we ran out of money again in June 2003 and returned once
again to England in search of gainful employment. It seemed all
thoughts of diving, be it Technical or recreational, would be put
on hold until we planned our next trip away. Not so!! Seeing as
Terry got a job back with Wightlink ferries and we were staying at
Tim and Julia’s in Hayling Island, it meant that Terry’s cycle
route to and from work each day took him past Triton Scubas shop
in Highlands Road, Eastney every day. Eventually, due to curiosity
and the allure of diving, Terry found himself drawn inside "just
for a look". After a chat with Leith, who fills and mixes the
tanks and services the equipment, he was introduced to David
Jones, the owner of the shop and an IANTD instructor and was
signed up on his first taste of technical diving - a IANTD
Advanced Nitrox course.
The
physics and the diving planning was much the same as he was
already used to with PADI, apart from the introduction to the
Buhelman ZHL-16 tables for accelerated decompression. However, the
equipment and actual diving techniques were where things started
to become very different.
The
first pool session involved the setting up and donning the twin
tanks and regulators in the Hogarthian configuration and shut down
drills. Just getting buoyancy sorted out with twin 10L steel tanks
attached to a "wing", with air sloushing from side to side in it
as he swam around the pool in it was difficult enough let alone
reaching over his shoulders to practice shut down drills and
ditching and donning of the "rig"! David let him try the ditch and
don as he would with normal scuba unit removal and replacement.
Then, showed him a much easier way – not before he first watched
Terry chase his rig half way around the swimming pool trying to
get it off the bottom and back onto his shoulders! The easy way to
do it was to stand up rather than kneel and place the rig on bent
knees whilst leaning back with the body slightly to form a Y
shape. Then just slide back into it and reconnect all you straps
hoses, etc, easy! During the next session, they just ended up
sliding it all up and resting it on their heads just to show
off!!! The pool sessions were a good awkward kind of fun.
The
next night Terry and his buddy Tony, from the previous nights’
pool session found themselves at Horsea Lake, with not two but
three tanks! The third being a extra side slung which would carry
deco-gas normally but for this night’s practice, it was only there
for show and to mess their buoyancy up even further.
Terry’s biggest worry that evening was the cold of the open water
Even though it was the middle summer in England, it did not
necessarily mean the water would be what he would have regarded as
warm - even if all the British die hard divers assured him it
would be. So kitted up with a two piece 5mm suit complete with
hood and three tanks strapped to him, Terry took the plunge. To
his surprise, the water was actually quite warm ( just over 20c
!!!). After the next shock of submerging, he enjoyed his 45 minute
dive bouncing off the bottom, though struggling to obtain neutral
buoyancy with so much steel attached to him whilst performing the
skills learnt the previous night. The visibility was half decent
as well and the jelly fish at Horsea are not stingers like in
Asia, but then could they have got through all the rubber he was
wearing anyway?
Next
step on the course involved doing a deep dive and changing gases
for the deco/safety stop. A couple of weekends later, Terry found
himself heading out into the Solent for a couple of dives . The
day was reasonably calm by British standards and the 1.5 hour boat
journey out to the wreck of the Camberwell, was not too bouncy.
Kitted up with tanks, suits, reels, SMB’s, lift bags torches, and
a couple of computers, Terry and Tony descended the shot line. It
got darker and darker as they got deeper and deeper until about
30m where it was pitch black and visibility was a good meter or
less!! They messed around with buoyancy and drills again until
they thought enough was enough, swapped over to their deco-gas,
fired up an SMB and started their ascent . Everything was fine
until about 10m when it all kind of went wrong. Terry found
himself going to the surface rather rapidly due to air trapped in
one side of his wing, so he flipped over and started finning down
whilst dumping the trapped air. Once normality had been resumed he
realised Tony was nowhere to be seen. So, Terry deployed his SMB
and did his safety stop then proceeded to the surface where he
found Tony right next to him only a couple of meters away ( that
gives you some idea how the visibility was or rather was not !!!
). After an hour or so surface interval, Terry and Tony dropped in
for their second dive. This time on the wreck of the Luis, where
the visibility was up to about 5m and nothing went awry. Buoyancy
was under control and on the whole had an enjoyable dive.
Another pool session
followed one evening later that week. We practiced skills already
taught and a new one of dropping the stage tank whilst swimming
and maintaining neutral buoyancy, then picking it up again and
reattaching it still swimming mid-water. This was to simulate
entering a wreck or cave where it would be too bulky to access,
especially if you had two of the damned things!!! Then, just
hovering like a normal diver, also sharing air whilst swimming
"piggy back" style to simulate out of air situations (slightly
different to PADI’s "roman hand shake" style).
Terry did not get the
chance to dive again for a few weeks and time was running out
before he was due to head out to the Philippines. In a final
desperate attempt to finish the course, Terry, David and Bret (a
guy who just decided to tag along for fun with his rebreather)
drove inland to a disused quarry in Somerset called Vobster Quay.
Here they squeezed in three dives in pitch black and rather chilly
waters (18˚c on the surface and 7˚c at depth). Terry had to
perform all of the skills he had learned on previous dives and
pool sessions, further encumbered by 5mm thick gloves and zero
visibility. The dropping and retrieval of the stage tanks proved
interesting, especially trying to find them after some other
divers had passed over the same area silting the place up to no
visibility. Copious amounts of tea were drunk between dives and a
sense of achievement was felt after every dive, especially the
last dive when Terry actually managed to click off a few photos
with his new digital camera to remind himself of his stupidity!
They had to be taken in the shallows where the visibility was
quite reasonable.
On the whole the course
was fun. Its strange how a bit of adversity develops camaraderie
amongst people. It was good to learn new skills in not the most
perfect of conditions, but, as the cliché goes, "if you can dive
here you can dive anywhere," which should put Terry in good stead
for some technical and deep dives in the Philippines where
conditions should not be so taxing. Hopefully, the next thing will
be to become a Technical instructor.
Terry would like to thank Leith and David of
Triton Scuba, who can be contacted on
www.tritonscuba.co.uk
also, Tony and Bret, for being his buddies and having to listen to
his whingeing about how cold and dark it all was!!!! Cheers!
The Camberwell
Dunrose Heads, IOW 50. 35' N-001. 03' E
The
Camberwell was a merchant ship which struck a mine placed by
German submarine UC-36 whilst enroute from London to Colombo,
Ceylon in May 1917. Sadly, seven of the crew perished when the
lifeboat rescuing them capsized, the rest of the crew were more
fortunate.
She
now lies at 30m on a silty / sand bottom. It is a large wreck
requiring a few dives to explore it. Parts of the wreck are easily
penetrated even by accident on low visibility days so be
careful!!!!
The Luis
St Catherine’s Point IOW 50.36' 27" N - 001. 09' 55"
The
Luis was last but one in a convoy to enter safe anchorage at
Spithead whilst en route from St Johns, Canada to Portsmouth,
carrying a cargo of munitions bound for the trenches in France.
She was hit on the port side by a German submarine’s torpedo,
taken into tow she finally sank south of Shanklin pier on 12 April
1918. Three crew members died fighting the fires onboard. The Luis
remained a visible shipping hazard until 1921 when she was broken
up with explosives.
What
remains now of the Luis lies at 16m on a sand/gravel bottom. The
wreck is very broken up, but her two boilers are still intact and
there quite a few munitions and grape shot still to be found
scattered around the site. The visibility can be good, up to 5m as
it was the day Terry and Tony dived it and fish life is quite
plentiful
