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In a message dated 10/31/1999 16:47:14 Eastern Standard Time,
kirvine@sa*.ne* writes:
<< Jan, BINGO on the venomous snake analogy, but you really do not need
any
"poney" with a dual port manifold, and the three reg over the shoulder
thing breaks the rules of regs taht we designed to keep the order in
tact.
*** I am not advocating doubles and a pony ....You have to agree while
scuba diving its better to have two regulators .The dive sites in my area
start at about 70 feet . Unfortunately newer divers have a tendency to run
out of air for various reasons . They dive with single aluminum 80's . They
do this a lot . Unlike a 30 foot reef with 100 foot visability , It is very
unpleasant and dangerous for them to surface in an out of air free swimming
ascent from 70 to 130 feet in 20 to 30 feet of visability. When they get to
the surface they are usualy in a panic , we have to then send a rescue
swimmer , the diver is screaming , drinking sea water and choking and very
upset . Untill they learn not to do this in this area , they do better
with a nice pony , it serves as reserve air supply to get back to the
surface and to the boat , and a redundant regulator . an "H" valve on the
single will not help at all when the tank is empty for what ever reason .
We see a lot more "out of air " than " regulator failure" Later the pony can
be o2 cleaned and serve as a stage bottle if the person wants to get into
double back tanks and staged deco diving so its a good investment . An 80 and
a pony is a nice simple set up for around here .It is a "REAL WORLD SOLUTION"
for what actually go's on instead of a utopian vision of proper air
monotoring , perfectly maintained equipment and attentive and skilled buddy.
If you think about it its really just dissimilar sized tanks as doubles. ****
Can you also explain when and how we use the floats and
down/up line ( like you and I did with Hank and Bill) , the free diving
floats ( like you and I did with Bill) and why? This guy suttton claims
he got a "laugh out of this" . I want to keep this guy amused.
*** Shot line diving is not a new technique , Steve Bielenda can tell you
storys about how they wreck dove like this in the fiftys . This is where
the dive boat stays "free" and " live" and the divers jump off and swim down
to the wreck with only a guide line and no rope to pull your self down. Its
a challanging type of diving you must have good boyancy control and swimming
ability or you can hurt your ears on the way down . This is the kind of thing
the mate has to do every time they "set the hook" . When you go to florida
to dive on wrecks in the gulf stream current they drop a grapple and chain
upsteam of the wreck on nylon anchor line and a big tuna ball it snaggs the
wreck . Then the boat runs a good distance up stream and drops you in the
water in teams , repeatedly running back up stream for the drops untill done
.. You swim down and glide along with the current untill you ether intersect
the wreck or the line( 100 foot visability) and do your dive . The last team
in finishes there dive (some scheduling involved here every one else should
be on the grapple line decompressing ) and unsnaggs the grapple . now you
are relived from the current while you decompress everyone drifts along
together .....you can now shoot a bag and hang under it in teams to get more
room , as each team finishes they surface and the boat picks them up . You
have to have perfect boyancy control to decompress like this or you pop up
the the surface and drag your buddy and everyone else up too. This drifting
decompression technique is commonly used in high current dives. This is how
they dive the Monotor except there is a permanent shot-down line there now
..***
***Last winter when i went to Florida , George and Bill and I went lobster
hunting with scooters. Robert kindly dumped a set of his mix doubles and
refilled them with nitrox and loned me his scooter . We three got dropped
off at a reef in around 100 feet of water and scootered down to it , Bill
had a reel and a free diving surface float ( looks like those bay watch
orange things ) he towed that so the dive boat could find us . These free
diving floats are easy to tow unlike tuna balls which are designed to cause
maximum resistance and bouyancy to tire and kill tuna ..... in this case
the boat left and conducted a dive on the lowrance wreck a couple of miles
away using the shot line technique . We scootered from reef to reef staying
together as a team with Bill towing the surface float , we had to have
covered a couple of miles working our way into shallower reefs . The boat
kept running over to check on us then back to the lowrance to check on the
divers over there. I keep trying to convince those guys to come up here and
dive the Oregon with me ,so we can catch some real lobsters with claws . ***
Can you also tell Sutton ( he has a filter on my messages so can not see
them), that Dr. Benjamin came up with the dual outlet manifold in 1969,
and he can see a picture of this in one of Rob Palmer's books where not
only Benjamin himself is wearing one, but Jim Lockwood and Frank Martz.
The picture of Martz was as he was getting ready to die diving double
steel with a wetsuit ( and no bc) in 1971 at 300 plus on air in a cave
in the Bahamas.
>>
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