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Part 2 We entered the water in teams of 2, the teams swim around a line that was ran in 20ft in a square. Teams were to practice there kicks and control. Tom was my buddy and we swim around and around, maintained buoyancy in one spot and even without warning I turned and I spit my reg out and signaled OOA. He did the same to me and everything was good. We had been doing this for around 50 mins before Andrew pulled us to show him we could do the skills. Tom was perfect, did everything correct, I sucked.......... I could not kick back, my kicks were much worse than ever, I was DIW all the way. BTW, I forgot to mention we were not allowed to hook up our DS inflators, the squeeze made reaching your valves much harder. That along with the reposition of the tanks and back plate made you look untrained ( if trained at all to began with), this is where I believe the class needs to be changed, dive one should be done before any gear changing, this will prevent anyone from saying they could reach there valves before you changed it. This will also help the instructor evaluate and prove by video that you either can or cannot do it before he even touches you. Like that subject line better........ Now, I have never denied that I have poor BOOOOOYANCY(like that Andrew) control, but I have never been in a jam that I could not get out of, having said that, dude I sucked....... I could not maintain neutral buoyancy and do valve drills at the same time, which I need to do in a wreck or in open water (no bottom to place my knees). Now on the second dive we were put into 3 man teams, Bill , Tom , and myself. We started with OOA drills and right away the 3rd diver was left behind. Now, for valve drills, Tom did his perfect, I forgot to purge my backup reg and sucked up water and thought Kane had fucked with my gear behind my back to test me, though I did the drills it was not pretty I'm sure. Now it was Bill, several things were learned during Bill's drill, a real life OOA happened. I learned 2 things from this, get the fucking plastic knobs off, there's nothing like a buddy when things go south....... I had already written what I believed happen to Bill during his drill, but at our VBtech meeting he said that is not what happen and I deleted it. But what I have found about Bill when these things happen to him, he never sees it like anyone else. Bill also asked Andrew at least 6 times if he thought he(Bill) should be doing this, meaning these kinds of dives we do. Andrew told me this in the car while I drove him to the airport. Sooooo... At this point I am breaking away from this report to answer this question to everyone who ask this question and everyone has at sometime or will ask it. When you ask this question you are exposing yourself, you have self doubt and are looking for someone else to give you approval to do something that you do not think you can do yourself. There are only 3 people that can answer that question when it is asked and they rest inside you, they are ME, MYSELF, and I...... No one who is diving with me has ever heard me ask that question, those that do these dives and survive where others give up or die have a huge amount of self confidence. When I say there is nothing that I cannot do underwater, that is not ego, but confidence. As badly as I did in this class it will have little effect on how deep, where, or how long I dive. I saw the "bar" that is all, know I can reach it and will in a short amount of time, I will make myself do it. DIR is just another tool in my bag to safely do what I want to. The first day ended with mix feelings over the class, some were amazed at how unprepared we were, others were happy to get the message. I was sad to hear that Jim Cobb had decided he would not continue with the class, During Andrews demonstration and lecture on the drysuits it was apparent to Jim that the drysuit would not let him do valve drills, he like many others had a DS that did not stretch and was too tight under the arms. Jim had been loosing his belt to reach the valves while on his knees. Drysuits, I will cover some that we learned at this point, self donning zipper is the way to go, undergarment must be very loose or stretchable under the arm, the DS must not restrict the arms AT ALL when placing the hand behind the head. The DS with the telescoping torso are pcs. of shit. You other guys who were there can cover the other stuff. We returned to my home to watch the videos and feast on a dinner that Nancy went all out on. The next day everyone arrived at my home and headed for Davis Lake. It is a small lake and only is 10-12 ft at best. This is the most difficult depth to maintain control. There is a small dive shop there that is opening a new lake that will be ready later this year, it will be around 60ft. We sat on the porch and Andrew covered so many things, I'm sure he geared his lecture to cover deep wrecks just for us, we are already diving wrecks in the 400ft range and have been using rules of thirds, Andrew keyed us in to what is called "Rock Bottom" it is to new to me to explain and should cause a thread for those who could tell it better than I. Any takers?????? He also went a different way with the chase boat thing, we had talk earlier in the morning over coffee and I had explained we dive the deep wrecks 75-90 miles out to sea, this made his chase boat thing undoable for us. And I hope this will also cause a thread, as it is much to detailed to put out in a post and has many variables. The dives were not very eventful and the group showed signs in one day of improvement, he had us shoot bags his way and I doubt it will become my way. I hope this causes some interesting posting as we were shown many different ways to do and look at things. Some I will embrace, others I will have to think about. The class is a must, no matter what level you are or how much you have done, the class is the deal. There is no failing or passing, no card........ but a showing of the bar, it does not mean you are not a diver if you don't do well in this class, it only shows you another way to do it, it is up to you to master it, practice is everything. At the beginning of the class Andrew asked everyone why they were taking the class, one of my answers was I like a challenge. At the end of the class Kane looked over at me and said JT, why are you still smiling, he didn't get it, I'd been challenged....... :-) JT The rumors about ripping off mask and such are not true for this class. It is just a showing of the bar and what your other classes failed to teach you correctly. "You can't learn to dive on the net, sooner or later you have to get in the water" Your Guide to Great Wreck Diving along the East Coast & more Web Site http://www.capt-jt.com/ Email captjt@mi*.co* -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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