Dive School: Week 1-2

Divers with their all-important umbilicals.  

After the swim test I felt a certain amount of uncertainty.  Although I'd researched the classes I'd be taking as well as I could, the exact nature of courses remained unclear.  Some classes, like "Rigging", I knew I'd be capable at having been a Coast Guard Boatswain's Mate.  Others, such as "Advanced Scuba Techniques", had a me a little concerned considering my relatively few ocean dives to date.  At any rate, I was very excited.  I'll try to break down the first week class by class to give you an idea of what I'm looking at and then I'll give you the highlights of week two.

The first day started with "Rigging".  It was explained to us as the single most important skill a diver could have.  After all, everything the diver touches, uses, receives from topside, sends topside, attaches himself to, repairs, welds, etc... is rigged.  This means knots.  Thank God!  Knots!  I'm a pretty solid knot tier and it was nice to feel like I knew what was going on for at least one class.

Right after we rigged and also on the first day was "Diving First Aid".  The first class was just a recertification style lecture on CPR and AED usage.  I'm a former EMT and this was pretty rudimentary as well but it did make for a six hour lecture and plenty of chest compressions on the creepy, soulless CPR dummies.

So creepy... so soulless.  

If the first day made me feel comfortable and capable, the second day reversed these feelings.  "Advanced Scuba Techniques" was a class I was pretty excited about.  Though commercial divers very seldom use scuba as a method of diving it is still a big part of the world of diving.  The first day of class consisted of everyone getting their gear together (easier for some than for others) and some work on a few skin diving skills.  We had to swim underwater, clear our masks, hold our breath, and generally show the instructors some watermanship.  I'm no free diver and struggled with this stuff.

After a couple hours of practicing free diving skills, we donned our scuba units and did a basic scuba "check out" which involved removing our regulators, taking off our masks, and showing we remembered how the scuba worked.  It was simple.  I did much better with this stuff but my confidence was a little bit shaken by my skin diving experience.

SCIENCE!!!

Day 3, Wednesday, was awesome.  We jumped right into "Fundamentals of Diving" which is essentially the physics and physiology of diving while breathing compressed gas.  I'm really interested in this stuff and got a lot out of it.  The math is fairly simple and based on practical concepts which makes it a lot easier for me to understand.

The Kirby Morgan KM18 with the classic SuperFlow 350.  

The exploded view.  It's easier to pull apart than it looks.  

After that, we had "Commercial Diving Equipment" which is exactly what it sounds like.  It started with a lecture about the history of diving equipment and was followed the next day by a very interesting lab.  We learned that the Kirby Morgan SuperFlow 350 is probably the most common regulator in the wide world of commercial diving.  That means we need to be able to easily disassemble and reassemble the reg for normal maintenance and troubleshooting.  It was nice to be hands on with some of the equipment on the third day of school.

The only other class I'm taking for this first part of the semester (most MDT courses are eight weeks in length) is "Competence in Diving" in which our program director basically takes us through the need-to-know aspects of commercial diving.  In our first lecture he instructed us on the general hierarchy of professional diving starting with the tenders all the way up to the supervisor and superintendent.

The second week followed in much the same way.  The second installment of our scuba class saw us removing our mask and fins, removing our scuba unit, and securing our air at our first stages at the bottom of the deep end.  After all that, we swam with our chest full of compressed air exhaling slightly as we went all the way to the shallow end.  After surfacing safely we turned around, swam back to our gear underwater, opened our first stages, and got a much needed breath.  It was an almost fun and very confidence inspiring exercise at which I perfectly capable.

The physics course built upon a solid foundation made the first week.  We are now calculating our SAC (surface air consumption) rate and our DCR (depth consumption rate) based on the size of our air cylinders, the depth, and the nature of our work.  This is also a pretty interesting class.

So much umbilical.  

In our equipment class, the instructor lectured us about a diver's umbilical, a vital, four-part tether which connects a diver to the surface and provides his air, commucations, and depth readings.  In lab, we had the chance to rebuild a diver's air hose with new fittings.  We also learned how to coil and properly store a diver's umbilical.  We'll be tenders before we'll be divers, after all.

And now, after an intense first two weeks of school.  I'm very much looking forward to a relaxing few days off for Labor Day!  I'm trying to figure out how to be allowed to take pictures during class without violating anyones rights.  I'll see what I can do.  I have a few more pictures (not random Google shots) I'll use to update this post in the coming days!