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I'll share with you all this story (true): A couple of weeks ago a young man came into my store in Illinois. He told me that he and his wife had been diving about six months and that he had just purchased some new dive gear and he wanted help in putting it all together. I said, Sure, I'll help you out anyway I can." Well, I did not get the whole story for quite a while, but it turned out that he had met a cave instructor in Florida and this instructor had sold him a whole package of gear and then shipped it to him here in Illinois, all unassembled. He had two complete sets of double 95's along with four ScubaPro mk20's and four G250's. I assembled the regulators and tanks for him - he did not know how. He knew he wanted to go DIR but had no experience with it yet. He said that others had told him that they did not think he and his wife should be using the DIR equipment configuration but he wanted to be doing things the way that this cave instructor had told him they should be done. I could tell that anything I could say would fall on deaf ears - he was already sold. I cautioned him that the transition from recreational diving to technical diving should be done slowly, gaining experience in small steps. He agreed and asked if we had any Lake Michigan dives planned on which he and his wife could practise with their new equipment. I signed him up for a shallow wreck dive the next week. I took him and his wife out to a wreck in 50 to 60 feet of water. It was a perfect day, sunny, virtually no current, only 1 to 2 ft waves, 74 deg F on the surface, 54 F on the bottom. These two divers showed up with their double 95's, They had added 11 lb V weights, a cave light on one side and a 5 lb hip weight on the other. When I checked their c-cards, *surprise* their open water cards were less than a month old. We were ready to respond when they hit the water. Neither of them could support the weight of their equipment on the surface, even with their wings fully inflated. Neither had any weight that they could drop. The wife dropped her regulator from her mouth. It was on a long hose wrapped around her head and when she dropped it the hose unwound and she could not retrieve it. She had to be told to go to her backup which was on a necklace. Meanwhile her primary was dangling, freeflowing, behind her. We got her tanks off of her, which was not an easy task. Her waist strap held her light cannister and she did not want to loose it. The buckle of her waist strap was threaded through a 2 inch crotch strap with no quick release. It was hard to get the buckle passed the crotch strap. Of course lifting two full 95's with a steel plate, V-weight, hip weight and light back onto the boat was not exactly easy. He managed to climb out with his equipment on under his own power, but by the time he did he was too tired to make the dive. After their aborted first dive, they were ready to listen to some advice. We had them get rid of their lights and hip weights. This got them to a point at which they could manage the weight of their tanks. To their credit- they made the second dive and did reasonably well. In their open water course, divers are taught to use a weight system which can be ditched. In their open water course, divers are taught to dive with equipment with quick release buckles so that they can get out of it easily. In their open water course, divers are taught to breath from a short hose which is easily retreived. In their open water course, divers are taught to locate their alternate air source on their chest. In their open water course, divers are taught to start their dives neutrally buoyant with their BC's empty. Why would anyone encourage a diver who has only just been certified Open Water to violate all of these training criteria without additional instruction on how to do it safely? Why would anyone sell technical dive equipment, mail order, to a newly certified Open Water Diver without any instruction in its use? These divers, if they had gone off on their own, could have gotten themselves in serious trouble - it would not have been their fault. I took them out because I knew they were going to have problems and I wanted to be there to help them out. They are motivated and truly in love with the sport. I want them to learn to Do It Right without it killing them in the process. Good diving, Cpt. Dale Bennett Captain Dale's Dive Center Enterprise Marine Dive Charters CaptnDale@ao*.co* www.captaindales.com -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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