Phil O(Offline)

GUE Tech 1 at a place near Hell

I’ve read loads of reports about Tech 1 on YD and one things that stands out in my mind is “Tech 1 … that’s bloody hard that is” . Having completed Tech 1 I can whole heartedly agree – it’s a bugger of a course.


I had originally planned to do the course with a guy I had previously dived with on Cayman but he was unable to make it so I started thinking about those people on YD who would be interested. Within a short time Rick Huggins (Frogman) was on board and flights booked.


So one fine morning in September the Family Frogman dispatched Rick to Heathrow and met up with myself and my wife Sharon. After a flight of about 12 hours we landed on Cayman and quickly picked up our rental 4x4 and headed out to the shops before getting to our timeshare on the East End of Cayman. Once we got there Rick speedily unpacked his fins and mask (no snorkel) and went snorkelling. He came back grunting in a wild manner and all I could make out was “ … big feck off fish ….. coral ….. blue ….”. He needed food, so it was off to the beach bar for a couple of Red Stripes and Jerk Mahi Mahi.


Day 1


The instructor was Fraser Purdon of Oceanfrontiers – if you read Quest I’m sure you’ve seen Oceanfrontiers mentioned a few times. They are an excellent dive outfit and really are highly recommended. We arrived at the dive centre just after 8 o’clock on Sunday morning. Fraser’s first words to us were “Ha ha ha !!! Let the fun begin” . Oh bugger - not the first words I wanted to hear.


The course was to be over 5 days starting generally at 07:30 and finishing around 6 in the evening. Every morning began with us checking our gas mixes for the morning dives. Afternoons were for land based practise and classroom sessions.


We started the day with paperwork, a run through of our kit and GUE procedures and we did all this on the pool deck with the sun beating down on us. Around this point we found out that Rick had pulled a sickie to do this course so we had to make sure he didn’t get a sun tan – difficult to explain a tan when you look like a younger version of Des O’Connor. At one point Frase believed Rick when he was told that not only had he pulled a sickie but he had told his wife he was doing the course at Stoney Cove. It was good to start the week with a laugh at least.


The first dives were done in about 7 metres of water from Oceanfrontiers flat training boat. Fraser wanted us working with our stages from the start so we dropped down to 6m and levelled out after our S-Drills and Valve drills. The vis was unreal, must have been 50m+ with the bluest water we had ever seen. The marine life was fantastic. in the first 5 mins we saw massive Lobsters, Barracuda, Stingray, Corals of every colour, Anenomies etc This place was like something out of “Finding Nemo”!


We shake out and adjust to our new set ups and environment whilst Frase viewed on. We ran through the basics like S-drills, valve drills and fin kicks then surface for a quick de-brief. We drop back down and go through a number of short dives with the usual skills taking Rick straight back to Cave 1. After laying the line we go through a series of events – following the line with no mask, ascents, stage deployment, lift bag deployment and the introduction to Frase’s bubble gun. Having read many Tech 1 reports I new that the instructor would make it tough for us. I knew that he would be stealing things off me and generally mess me around, but I wasn’t going to let that happen as I was prepared for it! What an absurd thought!!! After completing a maskless swim along a line, I found myself tied to the line via a double ender.


At the end of the day I thought that things were going well – it was the only day I felt like that.



Day 2


Early start again to check our gas mixes and kit before we set off on Oceanfrontiers morning dive boat to a site called Jack McKenney’s Canyons. A beautiful site on the south east wall of Grand Cayman although on this dive I didn’t notice any of the beauty. The first dive was all about post failures, stage deployment and ascents.


The second dive of the day was at a site called Snapper Hole on the north east corner of the island. Another great site on the top of the reef at around 17 – 20m depth. One great feature of this site are the swim throughs between the corals and the caverns and Frase had us running line through the canyons first. It seems that all we did on this dive was OOA’s on the line in the caverns. My biggest memory of this dive was the cavern – it seemed to go on for ever and in places was full of Silversides.


Day 3


Today was our first dive on 30/30 and we went down the wall at Anchor Point on the north side of the island. It was also our first attempt at running deco, which didn’t go that badly, or so we thought.

The next dive was at a site called Dragons Lair – how apt. This site also had a maze of coral heads, swim throughs and canyons and we laid line on a trail through all of them. This was the dive that Frase hit us with everything. Rick had almost completed the line laying when he was hit with an OOG. I donated and we turned the dive making our way out of the cavern. Events moved a pace then when Rick lost his mask. I held his arm and made sure he was on the line when I lost my mask. At this point I knew Rick was maskless but he didn’t know I was. I started to get task loaded at this point and wondered how the hell do I tell Rick that I had no mask, while Rick was wondering why we weren’t moving. His Cave course thinking came back to him and he tried to find out if I was maskless … at least I think he was doing that, I’m sure he wasn’t trying to pick my nose. On our ascent we had stops at 12, 9, 6 and 3 – at 3 metres I had a genuine out of gas. The one thing I was pleased about on this dive was the fact that we sorted it and I didn’t bolt to the surface.


That night I was in two minds whether to continue or not. I was not confident at all and had convinced myself that not only was I not good enough to pass Tech 1 but I should never had passed Fundies either. We spoke about the events at the beach bar that evening and it was Rick’s sense of team work that pulled me up – he gave me back the confidence to carry on.


Day 4


We were told by Fraser that this mornings first dive was a turning point in the course – we would either pass and move on to the last day or fail and have to repeat the following day .. .or fail completely.


It was a dive on a site called Black Rock to 36m on 30/30 for 20 minutes with a deco switch at 21m to 50%. Things started well with a good descent and dive along the wall – we queried our deco at 19min and began our ascent at 20 minutes. Deco wasn’t good though – I cocked up the timing on one of the stops and we didn’t hold the stops well. It wasn’t good enough though and Frase was not going to let us continue until we had repeated the dive to his satisfaction. We went back in the water afterwards for more skills and bubble guns.


That afternoon we went through the dive with Fraser and ended up practising our ascents on the dock.


At the beach bar in the evening we were both pissed off – we felt at that time that we had done ok and wondered how high that bloody Tech 1 bar was.



Day 5


We went off to a site called The Lighthouse for a repeat of the previous days 30/30 dive. At 7:30 that morning having already checked our gas mix and gear we started walking the wooden dock – visualising the deco. The other divers on the boat gave us strange glances … and not for the first time. The visualising worked … we nailed this dive completely.


Our second dive that morning was at Black Rock Reef and this was Fraser’s dive – it was his time to really throw stuff at us. OOA’s, multiple post failures, mask losses, loose lines .. all of the stuff that made me feel bad on Day 3, but this time we coped with it better. After completing an OOA and multiple post failure with no masks we tidied up our gear and masks and I started a flow check. Having confirmed my right post and isolator I noticed my stage bottle was missing. Rick and I laughed before I retrieved my stage from Frase. I was carrying an Ally 40 stage and I had to admire his skill – then made a mental note to check my wallet when I got ashore. Everything was put back to normal and we started our ascents and it wasn’t long before time Rick gave me an OOA so I handed Rick my primary and popped my back up into my mouth. You can see it coming can’t you - I breathed in and immediately felt nothing. No gas at all so I signed OOA to Rick. He didn’t hand me my reg back so that confirmed that his OOA wasn’t a drill. Bugger. I could see Frase coming round to the be in front of us and he was preparing to donate when it suddenly came back to me – my left post was still shut off from a previous drill. We finished our stops and rose to the surface .. .a rather choppy surface … and laughed. It was such a different feeling to the time we surfaced 2 days previously.


That afternoon we planned our next days dive to 45 metres and blended our gases. That was a great thing about the course – we learnt to blend our gas.



Day 6


The last dive of the course was at a site called Valley of the Dolls and we were planning to drop down the wall to 45 metres for 25 minutes with the boat picking us up when we completed deco. Our descent was great and we soon reached 45 metre. The vis was brilliant at around 25-30 metres and the wall looked beautiful with black coral reaching out into the blue. The Cayman wall goes down about 2000 metres and normally I like nothing more than to turn away from the wall and just stare into the blue .. not today though, too many things happening.


Rick and I talked this dive through beforehand. We visualised the ascents and went through every detail on land. I’ve never done this before but there is now doubt that it helped with the planning.


At our 6 metre stop Rick was clearly getting bored – he had spotted a Barracuda somewhere near so he thought he would let me know but didn’t know the international sign for “Barracuda near your nuts mate”. I was puzzled by his signs and wondered what on earth he was breathing. Eventually he pointed behind me and signed “SHARK” loudly. I did my best ever helicopter turn and soiled my X-Shorts.


It was a great dive and everything that we had messed up beforehand came together and I was chuffed to bits to be told that we had passed.


Final Thoughts


My buddy – Rick was brilliant. I knew his dive skills were good but it was his team skills that really impressed. He helped me a great deal and there is no doubt that I benefited from this.


Our Instructor – Fraser was great. He gave good honest feedback and was always keen to make sure we understood everything. Also he had the dive skills of a Ninja Turtle.


The Dive centre – I dive at Oceanfrontiers every year. I tried, and eventually bought, my first backplate/wing from Fraser and haven’t looked back. But the big thing about Oceanfrontiers is the level of service given to every diver. It is superb and regularly receives rave reviews on Quest. For the course everything was to hand – it took 2 minutes to go from the classroom to the pool, 2.5 minutes to the gas blending station and 3 minutes to the boat. The longest time on the boat to the dive site was about 20 minutes. All this meant that we could cram more in to the available time.


The location – I come here every year and am an absolute Caymanphile. The weather was not so good this September with a fair amount of rain but better than my visit last year when I ended up in a hurricane shelter at Gunbay for 4 days.


Warm water course – it’s a big difference doing the course in Cayman rather than the UK. I didn’t have to worry about dry suits or the cold or poor vis which undoubtedly makes course tougher. But it doesn’t invalidate the course in Cayman – I found it tough and it has highlighted areas that I still have to work on in my continuing dive education.


Our last night – What a night. All week I had told Rick about the island favourites but it wasn’t until the last night that I dare offer him a Mudslide .This is a fine cocktail of crushed ice, Vodka, Baileys and Kahlua topped with whipped cream and more Kahlua. For some reason that night was the best I had slept all week.


All in all a brilliant course and I’m busy planning my next trip to Cayman next year when I hope to dive some of the currently un-dived sites on the wall.

__________________
Phil

Alastair(Offline)

Hi Phil,

Cracking report - thanks for posting. If I can I'd like to take a trip to the Cayman's at some point - it sounds like great diving.

Cheers
Al

__________________
Helium is our friend - GI3

fraser(Offline)

Don't think it'll be in '06 though mate - busy year

Phil, nice one mate it's about time one of you guys spilt the beans. One thing, you had an ACTUAL out of gas on day 3??

Cheers,

Frase (the OTHER GUE Frase)

__________________
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Rick(Offline)

Great write up Phil

Here's some pics for y'all

Tech 1 in a place near Hell


Fraser prepares for post course de-brief


The Jetty and one of the OF boats


The bay


The beach


3rd Team Member


Tech 1 Divers awaiting collection :D


The profile

__________________
Forget Everything And Remember
http://phreaticzone.thedeepstop.com/
http://www.dublinbaydiving.com/

Alex(Offline)

Hi Phil

Great report indeed. Would be nice to get there some day... What is the price of helium there?

Regards
Alex

Phil O(Offline)

Ok .. I should know this one.

I think it was about US$200 for the Helium used on the course - I'll find out.

__________________
Phil

Alex(Offline)

It seems to be about the British price for 4 30/30 fills.
It is VERY expensive in the Red Sea- at least twice more than in Britain as far as I know, so I wonder whether there are any warm water destinations where it is affordable...


Cheers
Alex

Phil O(Offline)

Let me know if you ever want to plan something to Cayman - it doesn't always rain when I go!!

__________________
Phil

Tricky(Offline)

Out of curiosity, was it just you and Rick doing the course? If so, how did you deal with the both of you being maskless?

__________________
"I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant."

"Make me one with everything" said the Mystic to the Hamburger vendor.

UK Diving Forum

Sryth: A Free Online Text RPG
Join the Adventure!

Fallen Sword: Free online RPG

Rick(Offline)

Yes it was just me and Phil under the watchful eye of Fraser Purdon.

Well you either just stay there until you run out of air........or, you move into touch contact and exit!

Bearing in mind we were in a cavern, so had to exit rather than ascend!

Once clear from the overhead had Fraser not given me my mask back and in the absense or a #3 I guess I would have tied off to Phil and inflated his wing and used him as a bag! :D :D

Only kidding Phil!

I guess it really would be a bad day at the office if both of you lost your masks and back up masks!

__________________
Forget Everything And Remember
http://phreaticzone.thedeepstop.com/
http://www.dublinbaydiving.com/