DIRF 4th - 7th august @ blue lagoon

Chris L · August 23rd, 2006, 09:49 PM

DIRF 4th to 7th august

Blue Lagoon

this is my first report so go easy on me if i forgot something or its not up to scratch, never was keen on English.

the last course i teamed up with Paul on a course was selection for the, Paras (elite of the army) where instead of a twinset and regs we would have a Bergen (rucksack) full of kit and a rifle to carry around for many miles. many a laugh together was had and also many a pint too, before we moved on to different things and different parts of the country.

after i few years we met up again as i was working near Paul and it come out i was diving and Paul had done his open water a couple of years ago so we started diving together, after much thought on what direction we were were to take we decided Dir was the best choice and the training was something we could relate to.

we got in touch with rich walker and booked a date to suit Paul as he was tying the knot and having babies(inconsiderate eh), we then scoured the forums and bought the 5thd dvds to see what we could learn and started a little training, valve drills and ascents mainly before deciding just to concentrate on buoyancy and leave the rest to rich.

on to the course

day one

we arrived at blue lagoon and met rich and spent the next few hours doing lectures on GUE and hat was expected on the course before progressing onto kit set-up in the afternoon, we only made a few slight adjustments.
next was onto dry s drills for the next days dives, to say we we were not keen to put each others slavery regs in our own mouths is an understatement(good job he didn't know what i was doing that morning), anyway we kept forgetting silly little things like clipping off regs and the like, but only to be expected i suppose.

day 2

we start off with an introduction to nitrox before going on to the skills required for dive 1 which is the fin kicks and then onto kit set-up which goes well, rich then explains the pre dive procedures and then its time to dive.
we surface swim over to a large shipping container to do the skills and descend where rich takes a look at our trim which is good, Rich does a demonstration of the fin kicks and then we get our chance which we demonstrate quite well, we then demonstrate in our team pair before we do the ascent which is less than perfect.
now onto the video debrief which we are quite happy with and rich is pleased apart from the ascent and says it needs work as a team.
next up is the basic 5 classroom skills before we demonstrate for real, kit up , pre dive drills and swim out to container , ascent with 2 stops goes wellish and then rich demonstrates the drills, our turn and we both do well and rich gives us a clap. we then have a go at back kick and helicopter turns which are not bad but need some work, Paul more than me.
,the ascent with 1min stop goes a little better this time too.
another video debrief before more on nitrox and a little on deco and some more dry s drills before its time to head home for some sleep.

day 3

back into the classroom for talks on deco and dive planning before a short drive to the pool for the swimming tests.

now i think i have a chance of beating Paul, as i have been swimming twice a week for the last two months, how wrong was i , he takes off like a fish and does 3 lengths to my 2 and does a time of just over 5mins, i think IM well behind so swim faster and am totally hanging out of my ass to find out i finish in 8 1/2 mins, now Paul does the underwater swim easy while i catch my breath and drag myself off the floor, my turn ends in a pass but not so easy as Paul.
rich then moves on to back kick and helicopter turns in the pool and finds a way to make us both do them correctly before we head back to blue lagoon.
dive 3, by now we are starting to do the dive planning and pre dive checks on our own as is expected with only a couple of little reminders along the way. back out to the container and ascend and right into a valve drill and flow check followed by an s drill and then the back kick and helicopter turns which are by now getting much better, we are starting to point mistakes out to each other now like clipping off regs..dohhh.on to the ascent and shooting the bag which incidentally Paul has only done a couple of times is a bit rough , but we get there in the end.
time for the debrief and rich picks us both up on forgetting to clip off regs and the fact i sink and Paul floats when we are doing the skills.
dive 4, rich warns us that he may give an out of air at some point during the dive, we plan the dive and go through the pre dive drills and head out to the container and ascend and concentrate on s drills as that's what's needed most and i seem to have trouble clipping off which does not help matters, after loads of s drills rich thumbs the dive so we both send up a dsmb only for rich to hit Paul with an out of air to which i donate, we start to ascend to the 3m stop but Paul seems to be focused on reeling in his spool and keeps ascending even though IM frantically signalling to him to level off, he then seems to realise he has too much air in his wing and dumps a load as I'm trying to catch him up which leaves him hanging off my long hose 2m below me, rich offers him his primary which he accepts, and then motions with his finger a cross...double dohhh and a team failure.
back to the lecture room with Paul totally pissed off with himself (and me by the look he gave me) for some more video fun.
up to now i though we looked good on the camera but that all changed on this dive, we looked dreadful.
rich gave us some more lectures on deco and introduced us to decoplanner, we also did some more on gas laws and gas planning which was slowly sinking in.

final day

we started with some more on deco , gas planning and gas laws before we went on to plan the final 2 dives.
rich then talked about rescue of a unconscious and toxing diver while showing us the video of the skill.
we did some more dry s drills which IM glad to say were getting much better before we kitted up for the dive.

dive 5, we went through saddddd and a kit check as on the other dives before descending down to a training platform, we went through a valve drill each and then a s drill each which were near spot on , rich had us demonstrate a backup light deploy and replace not forgetting to clip off the primary light before showing us both how to rescue a unconscious diver, now we had a go and it was a bit ropey at first when Paul tried to bend me with a fast ascent from 5m, but after 5 or 6 goes each we had just about mastered the skill so rich thumbed the dive.

dive 6, this dive is supposed to be a bit of a pleasure dive with rich throwing in a few failures for fun. we planned a runtime of around 40 mins and 7m max depth, we would start with a valve drill and flow check on the platform followed by a modified s before swimming on to the jet fighter and then the sunken boat , we would then try to locate the field gun before returning to the boat and ending the dive.
the ascent and drills went well , i led the dive in file but with the bright light i had could not see Paul's primary light so decided to move him to number 1 as my light was much brighter than his but soon realised he could not see mine , i then motioned for us to go side by side as we swam around the jet and moved on to the boat, Paul had a primary light failure so deployed the backup , and then his backup failed so deployed that and stowed the broken one ,then i got an out of air so i signalled and Paul donated, then a pike came along and pinched his last backup so i donated my backup to him before we thumbed the dive and rich cut the drill. Paul's primary light started to work so he stowed my backup and deployed the primary I noticed that pike had turned his backup on so i turned it off.
rich had hit us with all he could with fundies so he thumbed the dive , with sent up a team dsmb and did a 1min stop at 3m and then dekitted after exiting the water.
back to the classroom for the moment of truth, i was hoping i had a tech pass but thought i would be happy with a rec. pass, IM sure if we had only got a rec. pass we would have been knocking on riches door in a few weeks for a re-test anyway.
we both suprisingly ended up with a tech pass and were very very pleased with what we had achieved , we both agreed that rich had a big part in us getting a pass and bringing our skills up to scratch with his professional teaching methods.
it has been a pleasure to spend 4 days with rich and would recommend rich highly to anyone wanting to do DIRF.

if someone was to ask for advice on preparation for the course i would advise to learn the back kick , practice ascents, perfect your buoyancy, make sure you can reach your valves and only lightly go over the other drill n skills so they are in the back of your mind, rich will show you the correct way to do them.
we are both glad we did not go into the course with no knowledge of what is required as we would be sure to fail as there is just to much to learn in a short time.
oh and before i forget Phil(knackers) neither of us had a sore arse when we finished the course, so what were you up to.

all the best

Chris

PFM · August 23rd, 2006, 11:02 PM

Ahh, the memories, I felt a little tear well up as I was reading, only to remember the hours of underwater paranoia that we experienced trying to keep a 3 dimensional track of that pesky sticky mitted GUE pike. - a very humbling experience I might add.

Spot on write up

Dont give up on the swim classes - we'll be back in the pool again next year!

keylimepie · August 24th, 2006, 12:07 AM

Nice write up, Chris. It gives me a good insight into what to expect in a few weeks at Capernwray. I guess I need to watch out for that pike. Either that or I'll just set Moz onto it

Congrats both on the tec pass, I'll be well chuffed if I do as well.

TAZA · September 7th, 2006, 10:31 PM

Well done Chris & Paul, your write up just makes me want to go staight out and do the course,but still saving up for it.

August 23rd, 2006, 09:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
Chris L(Offline) New Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: scun...thorpe Posts: 132	DIRF 4th - 7th august @ blue lagoon DIRF 4th to 7th august Blue Lagoon this is my first report so go easy on me if i forgot something or its not up to scratch, never was keen on English. the last course i teamed up with Paul on a course was selection for the, Paras (elite of the army) where instead of a twinset and regs we would have a Bergen (rucksack) full of kit and a rifle to carry around for many miles. many a laugh together was had and also many a pint too, before we moved on to different things and different parts of the country. after i few years we met up again as i was working near Paul and it come out i was diving and Paul had done his open water a couple of years ago so we started diving together, after much thought on what direction we were were to take we decided Dir was the best choice and the training was something we could relate to. we got in touch with rich walker and booked a date to suit Paul as he was tying the knot and having babies(inconsiderate eh), we then scoured the forums and bought the 5thd dvds to see what we could learn and started a little training, valve drills and ascents mainly before deciding just to concentrate on buoyancy and leave the rest to rich. on to the course day one we arrived at blue lagoon and met rich and spent the next few hours doing lectures on GUE and hat was expected on the course before progressing onto kit set-up in the afternoon, we only made a few slight adjustments. next was onto dry s drills for the next days dives, to say we we were not keen to put each others slavery regs in our own mouths is an understatement(good job he didn't know what i was doing that morning), anyway we kept forgetting silly little things like clipping off regs and the like, but only to be expected i suppose. day 2 we start off with an introduction to nitrox before going on to the skills required for dive 1 which is the fin kicks and then onto kit set-up which goes well, rich then explains the pre dive procedures and then its time to dive. we surface swim over to a large shipping container to do the skills and descend where rich takes a look at our trim which is good, Rich does a demonstration of the fin kicks and then we get our chance which we demonstrate quite well, we then demonstrate in our team pair before we do the ascent which is less than perfect. now onto the video debrief which we are quite happy with and rich is pleased apart from the ascent and says it needs work as a team. next up is the basic 5 classroom skills before we demonstrate for real, kit up , pre dive drills and swim out to container , ascent with 2 stops goes wellish and then rich demonstrates the drills, our turn and we both do well and rich gives us a clap. we then have a go at back kick and helicopter turns which are not bad but need some work, Paul more than me. ,the ascent with 1min stop goes a little better this time too. another video debrief before more on nitrox and a little on deco and some more dry s drills before its time to head home for some sleep. day 3 back into the classroom for talks on deco and dive planning before a short drive to the pool for the swimming tests. now i think i have a chance of beating Paul, as i have been swimming twice a week for the last two months, how wrong was i , he takes off like a fish and does 3 lengths to my 2 and does a time of just over 5mins, i think IM well behind so swim faster and am totally hanging out of my ass to find out i finish in 8 1/2 mins, now Paul does the underwater swim easy while i catch my breath and drag myself off the floor, my turn ends in a pass but not so easy as Paul. rich then moves on to back kick and helicopter turns in the pool and finds a way to make us both do them correctly before we head back to blue lagoon. dive 3, by now we are starting to do the dive planning and pre dive checks on our own as is expected with only a couple of little reminders along the way. back out to the container and ascend and right into a valve drill and flow check followed by an s drill and then the back kick and helicopter turns which are by now getting much better, we are starting to point mistakes out to each other now like clipping off regs..dohhh.on to the ascent and shooting the bag which incidentally Paul has only done a couple of times is a bit rough , but we get there in the end. time for the debrief and rich picks us both up on forgetting to clip off regs and the fact i sink and Paul floats when we are doing the skills. dive 4, rich warns us that he may give an out of air at some point during the dive, we plan the dive and go through the pre dive drills and head out to the container and ascend and concentrate on s drills as that's what's needed most and i seem to have trouble clipping off which does not help matters, after loads of s drills rich thumbs the dive so we both send up a dsmb only for rich to hit Paul with an out of air to which i donate, we start to ascend to the 3m stop but Paul seems to be focused on reeling in his spool and keeps ascending even though IM frantically signalling to him to level off, he then seems to realise he has too much air in his wing and dumps a load as I'm trying to catch him up which leaves him hanging off my long hose 2m below me, rich offers him his primary which he accepts, and then motions with his finger a cross...double dohhh and a team failure. back to the lecture room with Paul totally pissed off with himself (and me by the look he gave me) for some more video fun. up to now i though we looked good on the camera but that all changed on this dive, we looked dreadful. rich gave us some more lectures on deco and introduced us to decoplanner, we also did some more on gas laws and gas planning which was slowly sinking in. final day we started with some more on deco , gas planning and gas laws before we went on to plan the final 2 dives. rich then talked about rescue of a unconscious and toxing diver while showing us the video of the skill. we did some more dry s drills which IM glad to say were getting much better before we kitted up for the dive. dive 5, we went through saddddd and a kit check as on the other dives before descending down to a training platform, we went through a valve drill each and then a s drill each which were near spot on , rich had us demonstrate a backup light deploy and replace not forgetting to clip off the primary light before showing us both how to rescue a unconscious diver, now we had a go and it was a bit ropey at first when Paul tried to bend me with a fast ascent from 5m, but after 5 or 6 goes each we had just about mastered the skill so rich thumbed the dive. dive 6, this dive is supposed to be a bit of a pleasure dive with rich throwing in a few failures for fun. we planned a runtime of around 40 mins and 7m max depth, we would start with a valve drill and flow check on the platform followed by a modified s before swimming on to the jet fighter and then the sunken boat , we would then try to locate the field gun before returning to the boat and ending the dive. the ascent and drills went well , i led the dive in file but with the bright light i had could not see Paul's primary light so decided to move him to number 1 as my light was much brighter than his but soon realised he could not see mine , i then motioned for us to go side by side as we swam around the jet and moved on to the boat, Paul had a primary light failure so deployed the backup , and then his backup failed so deployed that and stowed the broken one ,then i got an out of air so i signalled and Paul donated, then a pike came along and pinched his last backup so i donated my backup to him before we thumbed the dive and rich cut the drill. Paul's primary light started to work so he stowed my backup and deployed the primary I noticed that pike had turned his backup on so i turned it off. rich had hit us with all he could with fundies so he thumbed the dive , with sent up a team dsmb and did a 1min stop at 3m and then dekitted after exiting the water. back to the classroom for the moment of truth, i was hoping i had a tech pass but thought i would be happy with a rec. pass, IM sure if we had only got a rec. pass we would have been knocking on riches door in a few weeks for a re-test anyway. we both suprisingly ended up with a tech pass and were very very pleased with what we had achieved , we both agreed that rich had a big part in us getting a pass and bringing our skills up to scratch with his professional teaching methods. it has been a pleasure to spend 4 days with rich and would recommend rich highly to anyone wanting to do DIRF. if someone was to ask for advice on preparation for the course i would advise to learn the back kick , practice ascents, perfect your buoyancy, make sure you can reach your valves and only lightly go over the other drill n skills so they are in the back of your mind, rich will show you the correct way to do them. we are both glad we did not go into the course with no knowledge of what is required as we would be sure to fail as there is just to much to learn in a short time. oh and before i forget Phil(knackers) neither of us had a sore arse when we finished the course, so what were you up to. all the best Chris __________________ live to work and work to dive

August 23rd, 2006, 11:02 PM	#2 (permalink)
PFM(Offline) Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Humberside Posts: 105	Ahh, the memories, I felt a little tear well up as I was reading, only to remember the hours of underwater paranoia that we experienced trying to keep a 3 dimensional track of that pesky sticky mitted GUE pike. - a very humbling experience I might add. Spot on write up Dont give up on the swim classes - we'll be back in the pool again next year! __________________ On the long swim to Tech1... Last edited by PFM; August 24th, 2006 at 12:14 AM.

August 24th, 2006, 12:07 AM	#3 (permalink)
keylimepie(Offline) New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Sunderland Posts: 123	Nice write up, Chris. It gives me a good insight into what to expect in a few weeks at Capernwray. I guess I need to watch out for that pike. Either that or I'll just set Moz onto it Congrats both on the tec pass, I'll be well chuffed if I do as well. __________________ Blog updated 20.01.2007: http://davestwinsetdiving.blog-city.com/

September 7th, 2006, 10:31 PM	#4 (permalink)
TAZA(Offline) New Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Warrington Cheshire Posts: 114	Well done Chris & Paul, your write up just makes me want to go staight out and do the course,but still saving up for it.