Al, you have to be even more careful in ocean - there are more problems and
it seems like the worst accidents occur on stretches of divers in that
environment. One big thing there is getting divers to relax and that takes
good buddy work.

We do ocean differently - we do not cut anyone any slack at all. I only dive
with my proven buddies, as you saw when I was with you guys. JJ , Pina and I
dove together.

To address your questions, which are good ones, mixed objectives must
dovetail, like lobstering and filming the lobstering. Dive teams must stay
together, and it is a good idea to have a "ringmaster" in a lobster dive to
keep everyone together and moving, maybe make him the bag man or better yet
the man with the float and reel.

We do not attempt to do any compensating tank calculations or breathing rate
matching, but if we did the call would come by the person who used 1/3 of
the equivalent of the smallest tanks on the dive. We expect everyone to have
the correct gear and we expect the dive to get called if somebody needs to
call it on gas. At this level, the truth is that the dive plan is always way
within the gas expectations, and everyone has the same gear and similar
breathing rates. Never stress anyone out with breathing rate competition and
never pres anyone to fudge a call.

For deco we expect everyone to know deco well enough that we all get out of
the water at about the same time.

Just keeping it way conservative and staying tight makes ocean dives go more
smoothly.

-----Original Message-----
From: ajmarve@ba*.ne* [mailto:ajmarve@ba*.ne*]
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2000 10:41 AM
To: Trey
Cc: John Purcell; >; Techdiver@Aquanaut.Com; kevin@co*.ne*;
brettp@mi*.co*
Subject: Re: Q for George


Trey,

 This seems like a cave thing, do these protocols apply for ocean diving? If
not
how do you modify them or what else do you do?

How detailed are your plans? do you give each diver a gas plan or do they
just
match sac rates/rmv? do you do traditional gas matching? do you give a
bottom
time/deco schedule?

for cave you would all have objectives right? would you do the same in the
ocean? how do you deal with mixed objectives < lobster hunter and Photo guys
for
example> do you go so far as to include dry land rehersals?

Please dont hesitate with details that might seem obvious to you, id like to
know every detail. Thanks

Marv

Trey wrote:

>    John, re your questions 1-8 on WKPP below.
>
>  #1,3,4 and 6 : The WKPP rule is "anyone can do any dive that any two
other
> WKPP divers will do with that person". I receive a list of possible divers
> from Casey McKinlay ( Project Coordinator) that is screened by the team
> members and signed off on to him. I make a plan based on the talent
> available to me, and I make up the teams so as to maximize the chances of
> success with a team leader. Sometimes this means I have a guy like Trout
or
> Landon doing an easy dive to balance out teams, and then sometimes I have
> some all hard core teams if I know it will be extremely difficult.
>
>   #2 McKinlay designates a surface manager from one or more of about six
> people who do this job very well. Dawn, Heather, Dave Sweetin, Elmore, are
> among those who do it regularly. We operate in shifts as well , switching
> duties.
>
>   #5 Scott Landon oversees the training of suitable divers. I work with
the
> main divers, they pass this on via Landon's system of having them dive
with
> each other and with a "mentor" from the experienced guys. For instance, I
> will dive with a combination of some of the gas divers, they will dive
with
> other combinations and so forth until we are all on the same page. At that
> point they get signed off on to move to more difficult dives. We record
the
> logs and the sign off sheets for all levels of divers. Werner and Landon
> keep track of that. Dives have to be with a variety of team members so
that
> we do not get a guy like Ted Cole who can compensate diving with one newer
> guy repeatedly who then falsely feels like he is qualified. I generally
> exclude instructors as "counting" in the logs. Similarly, in situations
like
> with Pina where she has done more than 50 dives with me this year , only
> some of them "count" towards qualifying for other WKPP dives.
>
>    #7 Anyone can call a dive at any time, but the team leader generally
> decides whether a  dive is possible. If we have somebody fall out of a
team
> for any reason, we generally have standby divers to fill in or we modify
the
> plan on the fly. We have multiple sets of identical scooters, lights,
tanks,
> rebreathers, gas etc so equipment problems are never an issue. Due to the
> way I set these dives up, we can usually pull them off so long and Jarrod
> and I can get in the water, and if one team drops their payload and
aborts,
> the others compensate on the fly. We also have no problem surfacing and
> restarting dives.
>
>    #8 I make the ultimate decision on how far to "push" people, and my
> thinking here is to hold them back until I feel they have had a chance to
1)
> fully understand the risk they are taking, and 2) be prepared to deal with
> the absolute worst. Both require time and both require working up to it
> slowly in order to be certain.
>
>    We now have some seriously skilled , talented, and experienced divers
in
> the WKPP, and we have worked together for a long time . Looking back, I
> remember when some of these guys took cave class from JJ, and I remember
> when some of them first came to me with their stroke gear and bullshit
> training. We have guys who have been cave diving 25 years and some who
just
> started. We even have guys from other countries who now come here and dive
> right in with the team. I also remember all the guys who got killed and I
do
> not forget why that is not happening now, no matter how much criticism I
get
> for my way of doing things.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Purcell [mailto:omegasac@ei*.ne*]
> Sent: Friday, December 22, 2000 4:33 PM
> To: >
> Subject: Q for George
>
> George, questions re WKPP,
> 1.Who ultimately decides who dives with the WKPP.
> 2.Is there someone responsible for surface management
> 3.Who allocates/decides buddies
> 4.Who determines dive plan.
> 5.Who helps/trains suitable divers
> 6.Do the more experienced divers accompany lesser divers on new dives.
> 7.Who can call a dive for everyone before it happens.
> 8.Does anyone determine how far lesser divers are to progress to while
being
> helped/trained by more ecperienced divers.
> Thx
> Jack
> "Desperate Dan Daly Can Kiss My A**"
>
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