UTD Essentials (8/26 - 8/30) 2009

[shawnb]

UTD Essentials Class: August 26 - 30, 2009

(Sorry for making it so long, I really trimmed it down quite a bit).

Day 1

Today is an exciting day. I've been looking forward to it for a long time. It is now 3:00 PM, I leave work so I can beat the traffic and arrive in Venice Beach early enough to complete registration. I arrived at 4:15, a bit earlier than the 6:00 we were told. I parked in front of the dive shop but should have found some place else. Class begins and basically just fill out paperwork and do introductions while remaniscing our best and worst dives, and why were here and where we want to go.

So we begin walking through some power point slides with lectures behind them, providing some similar and some deeper insights than the online classroom portion we completed before attending class. There was a lot of information about the training methodology, team diving, laws of diving, and other basic diving information.

Day 2

So I leave a bit later (a 69 mile drive) at 4:30 today. Class begins at 6:30, that should be enough time. I reach the end of the 90 at Lincoln BLVD and wait before a red for what seems forever. It turns green and cars are still rushing to make their left. 30 seconds later they are still flowing as if it was green for them. My light turns red and I have to wait another cycle. Luckily, this time there is a police officer nearby so I have no troubles making my green. No one ran that red.

I arrive at 5:45 this time and wait for class to begin. During the wait I attempted to knott my reel every 10ft and give up in frustration. I'll wait for Andy to show me the "trick". We continue with more lecture and practice on dive plan management, tables, and some math to figure out gas management. Primarily, Rock Bottom. The way it was taught made it very easy to compute in my head, unlike the traditional dive physics we learned in ADP/Naui, the UTD methedology is a walk in the park.

I'm ok at math but having to understanding the mechanics of getting to the correct answers, where every intermediary stage is a variable for another formula somewhere, definately took some practice. But I'm okay with that. Some other students were having difficulties but I'm okay what that, too. It gave us ample practice to reinforce that we understand it correctly. I'd hate to make a mistake at depth because I got something wrong.

Day 3

Today we finished up our gas management, verified our gear was correct: harness properly fitted, snap-bolts were properly placed, canister lights in the correct position, and so on. We did some dry runs of the Surprise-Drill (er, uh-hmm, the S-Drill I mean). The concept is sound and simple. The mechanics, there are so many details to get right. Making sure my light cord does not get tangled, the light lights blind my partner, and that I clean up properly and d4on't rush. I've performed real OOA donations on a long hose, but never a proper S-Dril quality (or technique). This will be interesting. There's much that goes into preventing entanglements.

Then we practice finning techniques. We lay flat on our tummy and do the strokes. This didn't seem too bad. I had good feedback so I'm feeling pretty good about this.

Day 4

Arriving at the marina was interesting. We had one set of directions, then a correction, and another email that I didn't understand. So I pulled from the internet the address of the public landing and punched it into my GPS and off I go. Waking up at 4 and finishing class at 10:30+ and arriving home by midnight or later three days straight is starting to take its toll on me.

I unload my gear near the dock, park my truck, and then load up the boat, trying not to slip in the layer of guano from the seagulls covering the walkway towards the boat. We arrive just off of Malaga Cove and begin our briefing. Choose our teams and begin the dive.

This first dive was a performing of the finning techniques and getting familiar with working as a team. We had to perform the frog kick, modified frog, modified flutter, shuffle, back kick and helicopter turn. At this point I'm anxious. I am having extreme difficulty holding position on my side of the line. I keep pushing foward and sideways and whatever, but, while my team members are doing fine on either side of me (compared to me), I am like a picalo-peet going everywhere.

I do better when I'm not being still. Some of my kicks, my knees dropped below my trim but otherwise did relatevily okay but need work. My back kick not so good, I propell myself upwards and I forgot the criticm already of my helicopter turn but I think my fins were pointing too high and knees low again.

In fact, my fins were too high the whole time, hence my propensity to always move forward and poor back kicking ability. I'm feeling terrible. It shouldn't be this difficult. Frustrating! At the surface we reviewed that my tank valve was way too high and preventing my head from properly facing forward so I have to lower it next dive and it is causing me ass high. My primary 120 is a X7-120, my second 120 is an HP 120. I usually compensate for weight but was told not to this time.

Second dive we practice basic 6. I am already really light and fighting it. My trim is a little better but I'm still propelling forward constantly. It interfered with my perceived ability to perform the skills but the criticism that came back wasn't so harsh, more focused on figuring out how to deal with that problem.

The ascent had me feeling very umbarrest. I could not hold my position, lost the line, and kept pushing everyone forward (away from the line). I blamed it on the current (I meant to say surge). It was really me. During video feedback I can see my fins are always up and I'm trying to foil, but not. I'm kicking. My advice was to arch my back more, because I'm not really arching, instead my head is always down and feet up.

Arrived home at 1, set alarm for 4 again, it was already set from the previous morning.

Day 5

I awaken to the sound of sprinklers at 5:30. #@)#! I shout as I jump out of bed realizing my wife changed the alarm to 4pm, not 4am. I run straight from the bed out to the truck dressing myself along the way and head towards the marina fighting my hardest ever to stay awake during the drive. I have an audio book of Shadow Divers playing on my stereo during the drive. I had just finished the audio book of Deep Descent.

I arrive about 6:45, board the boat and head out. I adjust my tank positioning, weighting for my X7-120 and feel good about today. Frustrated or not, I'm here to learn and improve. Diving is supposed to be fun, I'm just feeling the agony of being improperly trained all this time.

This time the teams were changed a bit. A student didn't arrive so we decided to go boys vs. girls... 3 against 3. Our first dive we performed the the basic 4 (basic six less mask skills). Viz was terrible and surge was strong. I am so nervous that I will not be able to hold my position again, that is my worst fear at this point.

We descend, I arch my back, lift my chin, stretch my arms, and work on where my fins should be. This time, I have significantly greater control of my positioning. I never used my wing's dump valve before, since Dive #1 I must use it exclusively. It will take me some getting used to. We descended with the other team, and me and one other member got confused but eventually found our proper place on the line. Note to self, to prevent from looking dumb in the future, do better descent planning to avoid the confusion.

We line up along the line and I am able to hold my position quite well. I was elected team captain so must walk the team through their demonstrations. I misunderstood instructions, 1 drill per member, I did all drills per member. But I hold my position. Time came to do modified S-Drill with another team member, and this time while cleaning up realized my light cord was tangled, so I untangled without looking and cleaned up nicely.

Then we observed Maciek and Andy perform two S-Drills. Our turn with an instructor. I do it but on the swim towards exit I decided to lead, rather than follow. DING! On our ascent, I held position quite nicely and our team communication was strong.

On surface, I learned that my legs are now too straight, to bend the knees a little more but otherwise, major improvements over yesterday. So we head back down to do team S-Drills. We are supposed to descend together. One member descended quite rapidly, another quite slowly, me in the middle. What should I do? The upper member appears to be having issues with his drysuit, I'll stick with him. While keeping my eye on member below, the upper member tapped my shoulder and thumbed. I surface and help fix an inflater hose and we descend.

On the ascent, I had a tiny block but it went away. On the desecent, I had equalization issues. Once we arrive at the bottom, I can hear a suction sound from my left hear followed by an urge to equalize. So I equalize, but this needs a little more effort that usual. DONE! Aw, that feels better. I begin to position for the S-Drill when I sense my mask flooding. I purge, but see a distinctive muddy cloud in front of me. "Hmm, how strange.". Sense a flood again, purge, cloud. "Where is the mud coming from?" Flood again. I continue to signal "Hold" until I can deal with my mask thinking its just loose. As I purge, dark splotches splatter and burn my eyes. I realized I have a nose bleed at this point. Never had one at depth before.

So I thumb the dive and we ascend. On the ascent the mask filled ever more varociously. So I signal "can't see". I should have just removed the mask and used my eyes that way, but instead I closed them and placed my hand on partners left arm to "feel" the reference. Holding horizontal trim, I feel the fluids seeping into my stomach. Last thing I want to is vomit and have red bubbles throuhg my exhale, might give off the wrong idea to my team. But at 15 ft, I must have had poor trim, I couldn't dump from my wing so I can feel pop, pop, pop, pop as my ears equalize on ascent then I break the surface. Maciek attempted to pull me down but was not successful.

Took me 30-45 minutes to stop the bleed on the surface. I was not doing the 4th dive for fear of any problems. Treating it like a possible reverse-block was prudent. My sinus is now stuffy (wasn't before the dive).
Video reviews showed me my trim was much better, bouyancy much better, positioning much improved, but my legs were too straight. I'll work on that next time. We do our individual reviews where I have only a temporary score, but no recommendation yet on how to proceed within UTD. I'll have an oppurtunity to join the next class to complete my demonstrations.

Summary

This was a very enjoyable class. Instructors are friendly and quite knowelgeable and genuinely concerned about our growth as divers and UTD members. The video debriefs are awesome, and the patience of instructors legendary. Most of the students are too hard on themselves, myself no exception. The instructors focus more on what needs improvement, rather than whether you are a little sloppy with some skill but clearly understand.

This was challenging for me but very delightful. I'm happy with my improvements and look forward to doing more diving with my new skills and confidence.

Most of the students performed better than they thought they did.

I met new divers to dive with in the future. Look foward to diving with them.


Update:

I saw the doctor today and me ears and sinus are fine. I'll be getting a CT scan to make sure I'm fine, but also see an allergenist in case I have an allergy I wasn't aware of. After that, I have an invitation to dive with Maciek to finish my 4th dive reviews.


Thanks for reading this. I really tried to cut it down.

[ae3753]

Congratulations on Essentials, and thanks for sharing your report. Challenging but delightful is great.

Glad to hear that your ears and sinus are fine. Definitely a good call to not do dive #4.

[limeyx]

congratulations. Seems like you have a great attitude toward diving and toward improving your in-water skills

[jamieastorino]

Awesome job and great report! Serious dedication to wake up at 4am and sleep at 1am!!!
Also, I think being hard on yourself is not such a bad thing! You signed up for this class with a goal in mind...to improve your diving skills! Setting certain expectations for yourself is good
Glad to hear your ears and sinuses are okay!

[lobstah]

Serious dedication to wake up at 4am and sleep at 1am!!!

Sez one who elected not to sleep at all between dive days....

[mwhities]

Great report. I actually prefer the longer ones, still have it?

Let us know what the allergist says, that's weird. I've seen a few people on dive boats come up with a little blood in their masks and a nose bleed, but nothing like you described.

Michael 

[shawnb]

Great report. I actually prefer the longer ones, still have it?

Let us know what the allergist says, that's weird. I've seen a few people on dive boats come up with a little blood in their masks and a nose bleed, but nothing like you described.

I do not have the longer version. Sorry, it was mostly just using more words to say the same things. I was also very careful how I worded my "situation", early drafts miscommunicated the whole thing. It took me 3 days to finally get it where I was ready to post that part of it.

The reason for allergist is because, well, we have a major file burning in the mountains near by and I may have a smoke allergy, for the same reason I can't burn in my fireplace without flaring up. So they want to check that out. I think it is a good idea. I have otherwise gone my entire life without any obvious allergetic effect.

[Ben V]

Great report.... Sorry to hear about the problems but seems like you handled yourself very well... lesser divers would have freaked out

Good luck on your diving career... hopefully this is a step in the right direction for you.

Ben

[marci]

yay for you!

[LCF]

shawn, I read your report and it reminded me of how I felt during Cave 2

Remember that the skills you see the instructors doing are learned over TIME and a LOT of diving! When I took Fundies, I was a total mess -- but I just went to work and practiced stuff every dive (I don't mean doing dives for drills, but spending a couple of minutes on every dive working on hovering quietly, and practicing my kicks) and six months later, Steve told me and my buddy, "You guys look like tech divers!" (He was being generous, but still, it was a big improvement.)

So what lies in front of you is just, quite simply, happier diving, as your skills improve. You now KNOW what you're trying to do, and it simply takes some time to master it.

With regards to the "What do I do when my team is descending at different rates?" question -- that's a TEAM failure. Everybody in the team should be aware of each other, and the descent should be pitched to the ability of the slowest diver. Descents and ascents are the times when things are most likely to go wrong and people are most likely to have problems, so they are times when everyone needs to be very vigilant. (And if it makes you feel any better, this was one of my morose whimpers after Fundies, too!)

[blackwood]

I've read both reports, but one question has yet to be answered.

go boys vs. girls

WHO WON?

:P

Thanks for posting.

[ligersandtions]

I've read both reports, but one question has yet to be answered.



WHO WON?

:P

Thanks for posting.

Uhhh, no question about that....the girls rocked!

But seriously, each group had their strengths and weaknesses. Andy and Maciek never made an official announcement on who won

[limeyx]

Andy and Maciek never made an official announcement on who won

Thats because despite being slow learners, they have probably learned through their combined 150 or so years on this planet at least a couple of basic survival tips

[lobstah]

Diplomatic answer would be: "Both teams presented highest level of skill and dedication and we commend both equally"

Not so diplomatic answer: It's blatantly obvious that my guys won :P.

[shawnb]

Hmmm... so to finish off this thread: I dove today the Spectre at the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and completed my Essentials class. Seems that my skills have greatly improved since my unfortunate uncompletion back in August.

Rather than having "everything" as an action item to improve upon, the bulk of improvements now have upgraded to simply holding position while task loading. I have this tendency to ascend when I'm doing things. Now I understand why them lobsters are always "out of reach". Some more confidence in doing some S-Drills but, I made no effort to refresh before this checkout, and I haven't been practicing since my class. So I'll fix that.

Toxing diver, could have been better, but wasn't too bad. The ascent was rapid though I finally controlled it at 5 ft. but was otherwise in pretty good control of myself throughout the excercises.

I'm really happy. I've come a long way in just 30 or so dives since I took the class.

Thanks Maciek for using your dives to help me finish this up!