 It appears you have not yet registered with our community. To register for free click here
|
 | |
GUE Course Reports Lived through it - want to share... we'd love to hear how you got on.
 |
| | Article Tools |
| |||||||
| Scooter Workshop Bob Sherwood : November 2006, High Springs Extreme-Exposure in High Springs hosted a 2 day Scooter Workshop by Bob Sherwood just before the start of the GUE Conference in November 2006. Attesting to the truly global nature of DIR, 4 students from 4 different countries participated in this workshop, that was based on a first draft of a future certification based class to be included in the GUE training curricula. Using an assorted range of Gavin Scooters, Clare (UK), Kiril (Russia), George (Australia) and Ricardo (Portugal), joined Bob Sherwood as he took us through the theory and practice of Scooter Diving.  Ricardo and Kirill had brought their own scooters - Clare and George borrowed them from some guys who had some spares  The objective of the Workshop is to give students (of differing scooter experience levels) the rudimentary tools needed to maintain their scooters in proper working condition, and to initiate them in the correct practices, techniques and protocols of scooter based diving. Although some notions of gas management, risk management and such concepts are discussed, emphasis at this stage is clearly on an open water diving environment. Day 1 of the Workshop is a theory based, but hands on approach to getting to know the ins and outs of the scooters. Bob runs through a powerpoint presentation which includes material on the history of scooters, pros and cons of the different models, gas management guidelines and so forth. Most of the day is spent disassembling and assembling a scooter to get to know the different sub assemblies and to assist in troubleshooting and basic repair and maintenance procedures.  All throughout the session, Bob enriches the workshop with practical experience based tips on problem solving and prevention : - Where to store the trigger pins - Tow cord lengths, color, fixations etc. - Battery burn testing - Pre dive checklists - Post dive precautions when diving in salt water - Trigger cable replacement and enhancements - Balance and trim This information rich day, terminated with a discussion of basic scootering techniques which would be demonstrated and tried the following day in the water. The team met early at the famous Hal Watts 40 Fathom Grotto. Extreme-Exposure did a great job at getting a set of 18Ah batteries for Ricardo’s scooter on short notice, and he was clearly happy to be able to test his new machine in the water.  40 Fathom Grotto After exchanging kind words with Mr. Watts, who had come down to greet Bob and the group, we geared up and walked all the gear and scooters down to the water platform. With the bubbler switched on, the green duck-weed that covers the surface of the water started clearing and making way for our entry. Initial scooter balance and trim issues were resolved by quick make-do weight adjustments in and around the battery compartment and we were soon in formation, with our scooters in hand, at the 6m platform. Bob demonstrated each of the skills before giving each student an opportunity to try their own and receive critique and tips : - The gentle turns - Sharp left and right turns - The emergency stop for a run-away scooter (stuck on) As it turned out the emergency stop procedure, consisting of the diver going completely off trim to create a sufficient parachute effect to effectively stop the scooter even with the motor running in full pitch, proved to be the most difficult to accomplish. It was difficult to violate the muscle memory already built into our bodies and to get into that vertical position. Adjusting scooter speeds as we ran circuits down one of the line segments from the platform to the east wall, also proved challenging especially for those, like Ricardo, who had never dived a scooter before ! The diver towing drills were also fun, especially when Ricardo forgot to pitch down and trigger clip, before clipping it to the back d-ring and it “accidentally” triggered on, towing Clare backwards in the process Full use was made of the available battery burn times to get as much experience as possible. Overall a most educational and fun 2 days into the introduction of scooter diving. (Ricardo Constantino) |
| ||||||
   | |||||||
