Wreck Diving Class

[DeepDiverBob]

Can anyone give me any suggestions about a good place to do a wreck diving class? Great Lakes would be cool, but that is a bit far for just a weekend, unless I could make it a three day weekend. I was hoping for something at either Table Rock, Bull Shoals or Norfolk. I have also heard of people doing it in the 727 at Mermet, but that doesnt seem to challenging to me. I have swam through that thing so many times already. Just looking for ideas, thank you in advance.

[MgicTwnger]

I did wreck class with the classroom and pool at my LDS, open water at Mermet. IMHO, Mermet is perfect for this. Remember that you are there to learn and practice the required skills, not tour the Andrea Doria. In fact, I thought the pool session was harder: the instructor set up an obstacle course, including overheads, that I had to do blindfolded with my buddy on my back breathing from my octo. The instructor followed you around with a Spare Air in case anybody freaked.
The stuff I learned there has saved my bacon more than once.

[theskull]

As MT said, if you only want to learn the required skills and procedures, there is nothing wrong with Mermet. I'd like to bet that the 727 and the bus would be challenging enough if you are running a reel through it, dealing with entanglements, and doing blind line following while sharing air. It would certainly be possible to do it in Table Rock Lake, but I have yet to hear of someone doing so.

For a long weekend and some cool dives, you could pop up to Milwaukee for the training in Lake Michigan. Or take the training in North Carolina or the Florida Keys if you prefer warmer water.

My best advice would be to do the training in the conditions of the wrecks you hope to make fun dives on later--either dry suit in the Great Lakes and North Atlantic, or wet suit in the South Atlantic and Carribean.

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

That is exactly the point I was trying to make to an instructor last night. He wants to do the tec deep class dives down in Florida. I told him that would be cool to see, but I would prefer to do it in the water I am going to be diving in. If I can dive 165 foot at Table Rock, or Blue Water Lake, I am quite sure I could do it in Florida as well.

[theskull]

That is exactly the point I was trying to make to an instructor last night. He wants to do the tec deep class dives down in Florida. I told him that would be cool to see, but I would prefer to do it in the water I am going to be diving in. If I can dive 165 foot at Table Rock, or Blue Water Lake, I am quite sure I could do it in Florida as well.

So right you are. And as you are also implying, the reverse is not necessarily true. A diver trained to dive deep in tech gear and making gas switches in Florida water is not ready to make the same depths in dry suit with hood, thick gloves, and numb fingers--some times with only hanging particulate in the green water as a visual reference for your depth and ascent rate.

theskull

[terrapinken]

I am with you Bob, I would rather practice in a harder environment, but only after my skills were better developed. My thought would be to learn slowly in easier water and progress into a harder diving environment as my skills increased. I would focus better with smaller steps. I am ignorant to most Deep/tech diving so I know I would want to take it slow/easy at first. Ken