Trimix Class

[b1gcountry]

Only two more days until I leave for the beautiful waters of Tennesee for some classes with Greg Such. I found out last week that I'm going to be the only person in any of the classes because John, Chris, and Joe all had to cancel. Lucky me I guesss. Anyway, look for a class report at the end of next week or so...

Tom

[DeepDiverBob]

good luck...Trimix opens up a lot off doors to a lot of cool stuff.

[brettbyers]

I went to Tennessee three times with Greg to help out with those classes. I had a great time all three times. Alan and his gang were a lot of fun. You will enjoy the experience and all the company.

[scububa]

What body of water does all of this happen?

[SLIM]

Tell Alan SLIM says hi, if it is the Alan I am thinking of, he will know me.

SLIM

[divbum]

Loc Loo Minn for shallow water skills and Immel mine for the rest of the dives. Yes it is Alan Williams.

[b1gcountry]

Ah, the instructor hisself! Lets see if he gets sick of me by the end of the week. Five different classes over seven days, and I'm the only student in any of them. I'd drive myself crazy after all that time ;)

[divbum]

There will be enough beer at night for me to be ok...

I am packing gear and filling tanks right now. I am waiting to hear if I leave at 6 or 10 tomorrow, I really hope 6.

[skdvr]

I would be sick of you...

Phil

[scububa]

Loc Loo Minn for shallow water skills and Immel mine for the rest of the dives. Yes it is Alan Williams.

Okay, I found a Loc Low Minn and a private quarry with an html link containing Immelmine out of Rhea's.

Man, you guys sure drive a long way to dive ;-)

[theskull]

Okay, I found a Loc Low Minn and a private quarry with an html link containing Immelmine out of Rhea's.

Man, you guys sure drive a long way to dive ;-)

I'd suggest they might be warm water weenies, but I know they regularly dive colder water than me! Must be some cool dive sites to be worth that far of a drive.

theskull

[divbum]

There are a few reasons for the trip. One is the conditions there do not excessed the best conditions here on the lake, so the training is done in a similar environment. Makes it very practical. Two: Alan is one of my best friends and we always have a great time together. He also books the boat and visits me for some diving once or twice a year. The boat will be in the water April first so I get to knock the rust off so to speak, and the guys are trained for the dives they want to do on day one of the short season we have. And there are a few others but that is the main point. My truck is fueled up and my gears is packed for a 6 am departure.

[DeepDiverBob]

hey Bill...its almost sort of close for us. Maybe we need to check it out this summer.

[theskull]

hey Bill...its almost sort of close for us. Maybe we need to check it out this summer.

Perhaps. Let's wait for the trip report. For that distance I want decent conditions and cool stuff to do and/or see. Any wrecks? Real, not staged?

theskull

[divbum]

Perhaps. Let's wait for the trip report. For that distance I want decent conditions and cool stuff to do and/or see. Any wrecks? Real, not staged?

theskull

About 10 different stolen cars and an old collapsed shed ornate the bottom. It is double gated and the secret handshake is a must to get in. 200' deep gives the local boys there a nice hole to play in and train.

[theskull]

About 10 different stolen cars and an old collapsed shed ornate the bottom. It is double gated and the secret handshake is a must to get in. 200' deep gives the local boys there a nice hole to play in and train.

Sounds like the depth is the main attraction. We can get that a lot closer to home--Table Rock Lake or Oronogo, or Cannonball Cave if we also want one of the coolest dives around.

And Oronogo has an impressive collection of old junk cars at deco stop depth. :)

theskull

[SLIM]

But the chance to say HI to Alan agian would be awsome. WIsh I could make it just ot play.

Talk to him and see what kind of stories he can tell about me, only dove with him for a week but it was a very long week in MX. My first trip to MX caves was with his group many years ago.

SLIM

[vtach67]

Good luck Tom, you will have a great time.

Todd

[b1gcountry]

A big thanks to Greg Such for putting up with me for a whole week, and being very patient with me as I completed my TDI Adv. Nitrox, Deco Procedure, Trimix, Gas Blender, and Advanced Gas Blender courses over six days in Knoxville, TN. Also a big thanks to Alan Williams for being a helping hand during the course, for use of his shop, and for educating me on Tennessee vernacular

I've been diving steadily for the last five years, and off and on for 11 years before that. I made my first Lake Michigan dive in 2006, and I've been really hooked on Great Lakes wrecks ever since...so much so that during two weeks in Bonaire this past November, I found myself missing the cold sting of lakewater hitting my face as I jumped in the water. Anyway, I've spent the last three years diving most of the decent wrecks on the Southern side of Lake Michigan, and the allure of the wrecks just a little deeper finally convinced me that tech training just might be for me.

In that same time period, I've been becoming more and more interested in Hogarthian/DIR diving. Last year, I took a fundamentals class with Ed Gabe, and my diving in general has slowly been moving towards that direction. Most of the serious Lake divers I've met so far have adopted a system very closely resembling DIR, although it seems a choice based more on utility than of Dogma.

I first dove with Greg on his charter about a year ago, and he was just such a patient, and knowledgeable guy that I decided he would be who I'd go through if I ever got a Tech cert. He was one of the first Tech instructors in the area, and he is one of the reasons DIR principles are so popular in the area. He is a former member of the Ozarks Cave Diving Alliance, and actually completed a GUE instructor internship, but got sidetracked by a divorce. On the other hand, he is a Ouroboros CCR instructor. One of my lasting lines from the class was that all forms of diving are simply tools, and it's up to us as divers to choose which ones we think are best and safest for the job at hand. Ironically, this is also a sentiment my fundies instructor, Ed Gabe expressed in a way.

Long story short, I chose Greg because:
1. I knew him, and his philosophy of diving jives with my own
2. He is a cool, laid back guy
3. He has lots of experience
4. I dive on his boat, and he would be a continued resource.

Anyway, on to the class...

I was the only student enrolled in the Adv/Deco portion of the course. Originally three other students had planned on taking the Trimix portion with me, but two cancelled for monetary reasons, and one for health reasons. This meant I would get a lot of 1-on-1 time with Greg, and plenty of time to hone my skills, but it also meant that I wouldn't have a teammate to work through problems with independently. All-in-all it worked out well, but I believe there might have been some benefit in having an extra person in the class.

I drove down to Knoxville on Wednesday, and stayed at the Luxbury Inn, which was only five minutes from Alan's shop, and a nice little motel. It was a decent drive for me, so I said hi to the guys at the shop, grabbed food, and settled in.

The next day, I showed up at the shop at 8am for lecture day. If I had one misgiving about the class, it was the quality of the TDI manuals..."Nitrogen isn't inert, in fact, it can 'ert' you quite a bit." Luckily, Greg and Alan had made up their own lecture material. The classroom portion was pretty fast moving, and informative. I came in with a lot of previous knowledge, and Greg did a good job of pacing the subjects to fit my previous understandings. Conservatism was stressed, and I learned quite a bit. We went out to TGIFridays for lunch after a quick intro to Alan's fill station.

Dive Day #1
The dive schedule was actually pretty aggressive. The first day would be shallow water review, but would pick up rapidly from there. We met at the shop packed up our gear, and headed to Loch Low Minn quarry for some diving. The first dive we did several valve drills, gas shares, no mask swims, and deploying of every piece of equipment I was carrying. The no mask swim was particularly memorable as we had a balmy 48* water to do it in. The dive was basically every skill from fundies, only this time with a AL40 stage bottle attached. We finished it off with me shooting a SMB and simulated deco along the line (1 min stops from 40'). I was happy for the review. I felt incredibly clunky in my 400g thinsulate and heavy glove liners. I was also thankful I was the only student as it let me get a lot of practice in a single dive.

After a generous SI, we were back in the water for dive #2. This was more of the same, with the only difference being a 30 minute timed swim at 33' to calculate SAC. I was pretty impressed with the results, and I guess I was a lot calmer than I felt, as it worked out to around .45. I normally measure myself at .5-.6 with doubles and drysuit. Back to the shop, and I mixed up my first batch of 30/30 for Day#3. I had an extra set of doubles, which helped to let me stay a day ahead of the fills. It was a late night at the shop, as apparently Fridays are "Friday Night Fills", which is little more than an excuse to party and drink beer. That night was particularly special, as it was Brad's birthday (Alan's service Tech). I stayed up way to late and woke up slowly the next morning.

[b1gcountry]

Am I ever wordy, huh?

Dive Day #2
We gathered up at the shop again this morning, and diving was preceeded by "arts and Crafts" hour where Greg and I cut and laminated out tables for the days diving. The dive gas was going to be 32% once again, so we cut some tables for 100' and 110'. Our planned max depth would be 100'. We used Decoplanner for the tables, and from this point on, all our diving was going to be governed by the tables we had generated.

The dives from now on were at Immel Mine, which is a nice big quarry with depths down to 200'. Our first dive was a wall dive down to 100'. The mooring itself is in almost 140ffw, so we leveled off there and did a couple valve drills. I dropped down a couple feet on the first try, and had to do it again. TDI standards don't allow any skills below 100'. We went for a short swim, and returned to the line withing NDL. We simulated a decompression profile anyway, and I made my first real gas switch at 70' to an AL40 of 50%, and shot a bag. 1 min stops up to 20', and 5min at 20'.

The second dive was more or less the same thing with the only difference being I we brought along both 50% and 100% for the deco. I was a little intimidated by this at first, but it turned out to be no big deal at all. Greg brought his video camera down to tape my valve drills and bag shoot this time.

We packed up, drove back, and filled out tanks, then went out to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. Alan as always had some interesting stories.

Dive Day #3
Same thing in the morning. Today was going to be our first dives with trimix, with two 120' dives to 120' For the first dive, we brought backgas (30/30), an AL80 stage of 30/30, and a deco bottle of 50%. The big difference on this dive was the stage. We kitted up, and did a thorough equipment match in the water, then verified each other was breathing off of the correct bottle, descended to 10' for a bubble check, and headed to the bottom. First dive was 110'. We could just about make out the bottom from this depth. No skills, just headed out and back. Around the turn, I notice Greg's bottle read 100' (and we were at 110'.) When we verified the stages on the surface, I had only verified that Greg was breathing from his stage, and even though I was looking right at the big '100' it didn't occur to me that we were going to go deeper than that until we were at depth. So I screwed up, but got some credit for realizing my mistake halfway into the dive. Greg gave me the Okay, and pointed out his analysis tape, and we talked about it on the surface. We got back to the upline, and ascended to 100', and Greg demo'd how to rotate out the stage bottle, and hip clip the empty AL80. I did the same, and we went up to 70' on backgas, and switched over again to our deco mix. It was amazing to me how the half empty AL80 just disappeared when it was clipped off on my hip. It was like it wasn't even there.

The second dive was a little deeper to 120' on backgas, and two deco bottles. No skills on the bottom portion, and then just more experience with two deco bottles on the way up. We both got ready for the switch at 80' by pulling out our 50% regs, but I grabbed the O2 reg by accident. We both noticed it immediately, but it was a good object lesson about not getting complacent. I had been keeping the leaner mixes on the outside to make them easier to get to, and this dive I put the O2 on the outside. Thankfully the first thing I did was to look at the mod after grabbing the reg, and I decided it was a great mistake to make in class so I could learn from it. On the ascent, I had to feather the 50% bottle's valve to simulate a freeflow, and I had a minor emergency-for real- with my dry glove not equalizing, and I had to 'burp' it to let the extra air out at around 40'.

Got back, filled tanks, and did some knowledge reviews. Ate at Panera Bread. I found out the 21/35 I had mixed up the day before was insanely off. Luckily it analyzed out at around 18/45, and I just mixed up another tank of 21/35.

Dive Day #4
Today it was time to move up to "Big boy" trimix. Our first dive was also out most aggressive dive of the week. We brought a bottom stage of 21/35 in an AL80, along with AL40s of O2, and 50%. We started the dive on the stage, and had the O2 nose clipped to our hips. I very carefully verified the MOD and mix on Greg's analysis tape this dive since I didn't want to repeat my mistake from yesterday, yet I managed to carefully inspect the tiny little writing on a GUE analysis tape, but totally miss the large block letters on the MOD sticker reading "100" in bold black letters. We were planning to dive to 150', but Greg's backgas analyzed out a little rich, and we scaled back out plans to 140' instead. I have a feeling Greg did this on purpose as an object lesson, but I didn't ask him about it.

The dive was my deepest ever, and I was really impressed by the lack of any narcosis at depth. We finally made it to the bottom of the descent line, and had an enjoyable swim. We got back to the line, and swapped back to our backgas. Stowed, and hip-clipped our AL80s, and brought the 100% O2 up front, and clipped it in underneath our 50% bottle. We deco'd up the line making the switches at 70' and again at 20'. It was a pretty intimidating dive when we first talked about plans for the week, but everything went very well, and I felt very comfortable on the dive. I even did a decent job of moving all the bottles around.

The second dive was to 130', and we dove with the backgas, and two deco bottles. Did a couple skills on the upline, but nothing too bad.

Met Alan's wife Holly for dinner at a Mexican place, and back to the hotel for more knowledge reviews and final exams.

Dive Day #5
This was to be the graduation dive. A 170' dive for 20 minutes with deco on 50% and 100%. I originally got worried I forgot my hood at the shop, but found it in the back of Doug's truck frozen stiff. I managed to unfreeze it by the heater while we were gearing up.

This was just an enjoyable dive. We got down to 140', and I was clear as day. There was so much ambient light, it almost reminded me of the sand flats in the Carribean. We swam along, and came to a drop off at around 145'. It was pretty impressive going over a drop off where I was already deeper than I had ever dove. TDI standards state that no dive below 180' can be logged as a training dive, so I decided to play it safe, and stick the dive to 170'. I missed it by one, and my max depth came in at 171'. We turned around, and headed back to the upline, and got there around 16min. Average depth 128'. Did a 41 minute ascent, and just took it easy. We got out of the water, and Greg shook my hand, and congratulated me. We packed up out crap, and headed back to the shop, where I cleaned up my gear, and we did a thorough debrief.

Greg had some nice things to say about my diving, but also warned me about getting complacent. He basically said any diver can get themselves into bad situations, and no amount of skill in the water will be able to overcome poor decision making.

Big thank you to Greg for driving to Knoxville all the way from Wisconsin. I really enjoyed his class, and he was a fun guy to spend a week with. I look forward to diving off his boat this summer:
Shipwreck Adventures (http://www.shipwreckadventures.com/)

Thanks to Doug Bell for the rides to the quarry every day. There's no way my Celica would have made it over the dirt quarry roads.

Also thanks to Alan Williams, and Brad for the use of their shop, and treating us like regular customers.
Rhea's Diving (http://www.rheasdiving.com/)

Some of Alan's more memorable quotes:
"I gave her the best five seconds of her life"
"You should be able to drop your watch in your beer and not see it"
"Quit 'Coon fin'grin my gear"
"I was Sh***g like a crippled 'Coon."

...and yes, the last two are indeed about Racoons.

[vtach67]

Welcome to a whole new narc'd free way of diving Tom. Glad to hear everything went well and you enjoyed the experience. We also like the raccoon references. They have waaay more meaning though coming from Alan and also Jack (not sure if you met him or not).

[brettbyers]

Sounds like you had a great time, wish I could have been there. Look forward to diving with you this year out in Lake Michigan.

[skdvr]

Great write up....

Thanks for taking the time for that. It was an enjoyable read...

The quotes at the end cracked me up...

Phil

[JGordon]

Well done Tom! You clearly showed up prepared and ready to go to accomplish so much so quickly. Hope this means we will see more of you on the Great Lakes.

Jeff

[ppo2_diver]

Congrats Tom.

[divbum]

I'll get some pictures up shortly for you.
Greg

[skdvr]

I'll get some pictures up shortly for you.
Greg

how about some of that video....

Phil

[DeepDiverBob]

Welcome to a whole new narc'd free way of diving Tom. Glad to hear everything went well and you enjoyed the experience. We also like the raccoon references. They have waaay more meaning though coming from Alan and also Jack (not sure if you met him or not).

first it was goats at Mermet, and now raccoons in Tennessee...I wanna party with you guys...lol

[b1gcountry]

first it was goats at Mermet, and now raccoons in Tennessee...I wanna party with you guys...lol
nevermind, that sounded gay

[do it easy]

Congrats!! Did you guys ever stop at the BBQ shack along the way to Immel mine? I thought eating there was a certification requirement.

I bet you had a great week with Greg, Alan, and Doug.

Next stop- the Ro-sink-o!!

[b1gcountry]

We stopped there once, but it looked closed down for remodelling or something. The walls were opened up, and hardly any booths or tables. It sounds like it was quite the little BBQ stand. Doug didn't stop talking about it the whole week.

Had a great time. Doug is a very nice guy, and very methodical. He was good "role model behavior" as Patty says.

Lookin forward to the Rosinco (racinco?)

[divbum]

how about some of that video....

Phil
Sure, Tom says you could use it as a proper example to learn from =)

Now to be serious, I'll burn it to DVD for Tom and he could do whatever he wants with it. Drills were really done well.

[skdvr]

Sure, Tom says you could use it as a proper example to learn from =)


No doubt about it...

I will be interested to see it...

Phil

[divbum]

Here you go. I'll put more up on the shipwreck adventures facebook group later along with some photo's of the weeknds charter dive.

[b1gcountry]

Cool, thanks, Greg.

[skdvr]

Thanks for sharing...

Phil

[Captain Caveman]

Thanks for sharing.

[scububa]

Neat, gettin jealouser by the minute.