As is often the case, inspiration for a blog post comes from listening to the stories of other divers.In t The world of diving I came from there was a mixture of newbies with older, more experienced divers. This mix meant that individuals did not have to learn the hard way with the older divers adding a level of caution and responsibility to the group as a whole. These days active technical dive groups are few and far between and where they do exist they tend to comprise almost exclusively newbies. This means that the normal self regulating buddy influence is not as strong as it needs to be. Each member of the group is at the same level so there is a tendency for individuals to not take seriously the feedback or concerns of the rest of the group. Likewise iindividuals in the group are still finding their confidence so do not have a solid set of standards that they are prepared to enforce (like refusing to dive with a buddy who is drinking, or refusing to dive with a buddy who is piggy backing on your computers and has not done his own planning).
This sense of uncertainty extends to situations where a buddy pushes his limits to the point of being physically affected. He gets out the water looking a tad pale and then starts to throw up (discretely). What do you do ? There is a good chance that the buddy is not going to take kindly to being driven to the closest hospital just because he is throwing up. Do you leave him ? After all he is a grown up! Where does individual responsibility end ? Where do you draw your own personal line ?
I understand the dilemma having had a similar experience with a very close friend. He was doing support at 100 meters when i was doing one of my deep build ups (140 m if I remember correctly). By the time I was out the water he was already back at camp with a migraine and throwing up.
This raised alarm bells for me. Yes, he was prone to migraines, but one of the fundamental guidelines for making decisions on a diving trip is that all physical symptoms are first attributed to diving and a possible bend, then to normal day to day niggles. No-one wants to make something big out of something small, so our tendency as individuals is to mind our own business and do nothing. By 6 in the evening my buddy was worse and still throwing up. He was also belligerent and refusing help. We phoned Dan!
They recommended we take him to the closest hospital. We were loathe to do that, after all it was probably just a migraine and hospital sounded like over kill. We would also have to force our friend to go. By 8pm the situation had not changed and as a group we realized that we would rather look foolish on Sunday then have a good friend seriously and permanently injured. We dragged him kicking and screaming to the hospital. They were also unsure but sent him off to the chamber just I case and a good thing to, because it took a chamber treatment to recover his memory and get him better. We are still not sure what exactly happened. It was probably a cerebral bend which meant if we had done nothing our friend would have been permanently impaired.
What did I learn from this ? Two things, firstly you look more foolish when you do not react as if it is serious and secondly, I need to be able to live with myself and that I do not want to live with the guilt of having done nothing and seeing some-one die or become crippled. Most of the things I regret in diving involve not speaking up. You may not change anything by speaking up, but you at least offer the individual the opportunity to make a different choice.
This means that I am vocal about my expectations of a buddy because it is not only about them, I have to live with what happens as well. We agree before hand how we expect each other to behave. I expect my buddies to tell me if they are concerned about decisions I am or am not making. I expect them to keep an eye on me after a dive because I know that if I am not feeling well I probably will not mention anything and it will probably take someone making something of it before I go to hospital. I expect my buddy to have high standards and to care about his life and mine!
So next time you are on a trip and you see yoru buddy acting in a way that will endanger his life or your own, speak up! If you are still uncomfortable do not do the dive (or at least not with him). Keep an eye on your buddy after a dive and check up on him. If he seems to be ill call him on it. Phone DAN and ask for their advice.
Remember, life is too short for regrets and trust me, when something goes wrong you will regret doing nothing and ‘going along’ to keep the peace. I would rather have a buddy who is cross with me, than a dead or impaired one.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Trusting an 'Experienced' Diver
How do you Define ‘Experienced ‘ ?
I was pondering the concept of an ‘experienced’ technical diver (or any diver for that matter.
The reason why I am curious is because associated with the word experienced comes a whole host of privileges. I routinely see or hear about so-called experienced divers who take it upon themselves to ‘break’ their agencies rules (sorry, the politically correct term is ‘make exceptions’). It seems that along with the label ‘experienced’ comes immunity (and in some cases an almost God like power). The really disturbing aspect is when (as apparently an experienced diver) I get asked by newbie technical divers to ‘take them’ outside of their training and experience. The implication is that my experience will keep them safe…which disturbs me greatly. Nothing in my experience has equipped me to be soley responsible for some-one else’s life.
What do we as a community mean by this rather vague yet powerful word, ‘experienced’ ?
If one looks at the different agencies they all have standards in place to define the level of experience a diver must have in order to get onto a course or to complete a course. Depending on the agency this is defined as a number of dives or a number of hours in the water (there are also a set of skills that need to be practiced a certain number of times to complete a course). But once you have finished with a course, how can you as a diver tell if the person you are about to dive with is really competent and experienced ? Or out another way, how do you know if you can trust this dude with your life ?
Often step one is to find out what agency they got their certification from the theory being that some agencies offer better training than others (which is mostly not the case these days).
Step two is to take a look at who his (sorry ladies, it is invariably a he) instructor was. There is a common belief that the quality of a diver is based more on the instructor than the agency, the theory going that a good instructor will make up for his agency’s ‘bad’ points and produce a diver that is more competent. I would like to believe that there is some truth to this belief and that even within an agency one can see a difference between competence in students that goes beyond the students individual ability.
But both of these mechanisms are qualitative. Just because a diver has had the best instructor from a highly credited agency with strict standards (that are actually enforced) does not mean that a diver is going to be competent and capable. So what next ?
Step three is normally to get an understanding of how many dives the dude has. Which is all well and good, but what we forget to ask is over how many years and when last he dived. What we also forget to ask is where those dives were been obtained ? An example perhaps…
Meet Jo Blogs. He is a certified Normoxic Diver with 250 dives to his name. Sounds good right ? What he forgot to tell you is that he started diving nine months ago and the first 150 of those dives were obtained thanks to a number of hectic weekends at Bass Lake. Now meet Bob Smith, he has 120 dives, has been diving almost two years and has less than 30 dives in Bass lake. Of his 120 dives less than 30 are shallower than20 meters or shorter than 30 minutes long. Which one would you prefer to dive with ?
Or what about Jim Green who has been diving for ten years, has 300 dives to his name but has not done anything other than the odd sea dive over the last 3 years and now wants to do a 60 meter dive with you ? Then there is Phil Black who has been diving for 5 years, has over 400 dives (most of which are deeper than 30 meters) but has bent himself stukkend (broken for the international readers) on several occasions (you later found out that he was not breaking the ‘rules’, but would it make a difference ? )?
Tricky isn’t it ? Most of us are fairly careful about who we end up underwater with. We surreptitiously institute ‘trial’ dives that allow us to gauge the person’s skills for ourselves, but what happens when it is not a buddy you are trying to gauge but an instructor ? Most instructors pride themselves on their reputations and their abilities (real or perceived) and most are not open to the concept of you the student trying them out.
We assume instructor competence and experience because of the pieces of paper they have - their certificates. These certificates carry with them some important assumptions. Each one means that the instructor has passed that agencies prerequisites. On paper these pre-requisites and standards are impressive. Instructors are required to have a certain number of dives, have assisted on courses, have practiced lectures, have demonstrated all the skills and have ‘bought into’ passing on the agencies standards and methods .
What we do not know is that agencies love to do paper cross over’s which do not require you to physically fulfill the course requirements from either a practical or theoretical perspective. Even more worrying is the concept of instructor and instructor trainer discretion, which means that once qualified an individual may effectively ignore his agencies rules because in his opinion the student is competent and capable. The student does not necessarily need to demonstrate this or any of the skills required for his certificate. In the worst case scenario instructors have been blessed with certification in a matter of hours.
All of which means that the pieces of paper we rely on so much to grade the divers around us are pretty meaningless.
So how do we define experienced ? My personal perspective is that the only way to gauge a diver’s ability is to dive with him and spend time with him, both above and below water. This is a much safer (and accurate) approach to determining the safety and reliability of a diver than either his logbook or his certificates can ever be.
So next time you hear the word ‘experienced’ look a bit deeper… and take the time to judge for yourself. After all, it could be your life on the line!
I was pondering the concept of an ‘experienced’ technical diver (or any diver for that matter.
The reason why I am curious is because associated with the word experienced comes a whole host of privileges. I routinely see or hear about so-called experienced divers who take it upon themselves to ‘break’ their agencies rules (sorry, the politically correct term is ‘make exceptions’). It seems that along with the label ‘experienced’ comes immunity (and in some cases an almost God like power). The really disturbing aspect is when (as apparently an experienced diver) I get asked by newbie technical divers to ‘take them’ outside of their training and experience. The implication is that my experience will keep them safe…which disturbs me greatly. Nothing in my experience has equipped me to be soley responsible for some-one else’s life.
What do we as a community mean by this rather vague yet powerful word, ‘experienced’ ?
If one looks at the different agencies they all have standards in place to define the level of experience a diver must have in order to get onto a course or to complete a course. Depending on the agency this is defined as a number of dives or a number of hours in the water (there are also a set of skills that need to be practiced a certain number of times to complete a course). But once you have finished with a course, how can you as a diver tell if the person you are about to dive with is really competent and experienced ? Or out another way, how do you know if you can trust this dude with your life ?
Often step one is to find out what agency they got their certification from the theory being that some agencies offer better training than others (which is mostly not the case these days).
Step two is to take a look at who his (sorry ladies, it is invariably a he) instructor was. There is a common belief that the quality of a diver is based more on the instructor than the agency, the theory going that a good instructor will make up for his agency’s ‘bad’ points and produce a diver that is more competent. I would like to believe that there is some truth to this belief and that even within an agency one can see a difference between competence in students that goes beyond the students individual ability.
But both of these mechanisms are qualitative. Just because a diver has had the best instructor from a highly credited agency with strict standards (that are actually enforced) does not mean that a diver is going to be competent and capable. So what next ?
Step three is normally to get an understanding of how many dives the dude has. Which is all well and good, but what we forget to ask is over how many years and when last he dived. What we also forget to ask is where those dives were been obtained ? An example perhaps…
Meet Jo Blogs. He is a certified Normoxic Diver with 250 dives to his name. Sounds good right ? What he forgot to tell you is that he started diving nine months ago and the first 150 of those dives were obtained thanks to a number of hectic weekends at Bass Lake. Now meet Bob Smith, he has 120 dives, has been diving almost two years and has less than 30 dives in Bass lake. Of his 120 dives less than 30 are shallower than20 meters or shorter than 30 minutes long. Which one would you prefer to dive with ?
Or what about Jim Green who has been diving for ten years, has 300 dives to his name but has not done anything other than the odd sea dive over the last 3 years and now wants to do a 60 meter dive with you ? Then there is Phil Black who has been diving for 5 years, has over 400 dives (most of which are deeper than 30 meters) but has bent himself stukkend (broken for the international readers) on several occasions (you later found out that he was not breaking the ‘rules’, but would it make a difference ? )?
Tricky isn’t it ? Most of us are fairly careful about who we end up underwater with. We surreptitiously institute ‘trial’ dives that allow us to gauge the person’s skills for ourselves, but what happens when it is not a buddy you are trying to gauge but an instructor ? Most instructors pride themselves on their reputations and their abilities (real or perceived) and most are not open to the concept of you the student trying them out.
We assume instructor competence and experience because of the pieces of paper they have - their certificates. These certificates carry with them some important assumptions. Each one means that the instructor has passed that agencies prerequisites. On paper these pre-requisites and standards are impressive. Instructors are required to have a certain number of dives, have assisted on courses, have practiced lectures, have demonstrated all the skills and have ‘bought into’ passing on the agencies standards and methods .
What we do not know is that agencies love to do paper cross over’s which do not require you to physically fulfill the course requirements from either a practical or theoretical perspective. Even more worrying is the concept of instructor and instructor trainer discretion, which means that once qualified an individual may effectively ignore his agencies rules because in his opinion the student is competent and capable. The student does not necessarily need to demonstrate this or any of the skills required for his certificate. In the worst case scenario instructors have been blessed with certification in a matter of hours.
All of which means that the pieces of paper we rely on so much to grade the divers around us are pretty meaningless.
So how do we define experienced ? My personal perspective is that the only way to gauge a diver’s ability is to dive with him and spend time with him, both above and below water. This is a much safer (and accurate) approach to determining the safety and reliability of a diver than either his logbook or his certificates can ever be.
So next time you hear the word ‘experienced’ look a bit deeper… and take the time to judge for yourself. After all, it could be your life on the line!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The New Hammer CCR
Well, some of you know that I decided to sell my inspiration new vision and go for the new Hammer CCR! Gerhard (my partner in crime....err diving:) ) is in the States at the moment fetching it and getting the training, so I thought I would post his comments after meeting Kevin Juergensen and personally getting a tour and picking up my new baby.
FROM GERHARD :)
OK! This is the best piece of engineering I have seen so far. I had a nice meeting with Kevin Juergensen. Did you know the guy has mk15.5's coming out of his ear - (try 4 NEW ones still with labels and paperwork on them and yes, they are for sale at least 13 000 US with complete hammerheads etc. But in their boxes....too cool). I saw mk 16's for Carleton technologies for the military, anti magnetic with the newest displays etc, was not allowed to photograph it but Kevin showed me some amazing stuff. Those crazy compound plastic and carbon cylinders that weighs noting and rated 300 bar etc... he has infrared in the handsets and other things I am not allowed to mention. What i can mention is the fact that the new hammer handset will be as flat as the vision ones with ability to rotate the display 90 degrees at a time and all sorts of goodies (the wire will become ribbon type encased cable etc...).
One of the pluses of visiting in person (other than getting to drool over Kevin's workshop) is the that I will get a course on doing repairs to the Hammer handsets, so I can replace circuit boards, pressure transducers , lenses , displays etc without having to post the hammers back to the States (costs a small fortune). How cool is that? All approved by hammerhead, warranty NOT void....
Now for engineering, this is the BEST I have ever seen.(Kevin is a perfectionist - as he explained it was all out or bust,the best or nothing) Everything is made in Czechoslovakia and it is PERFECT - all hand machined, every part fits like a glove, solid delrin, high flow a.d.v. (similar to the meg/cis), anodized aluminum scrubber canister, axial/radial scrubber (takes 3.5kg sorb) AND I saw the first extend air cartridge that kevin had made, thing will give you easily 12+ hours! HUGE, looks like a little cylinder. I am attaching photos ( low resolution) for you of the the canister , locking lid, lungs, GOLEM Box (included). For those people in South Africa we have negotiated a special deal - the units will ship with the storm case AND cylinders for the same price and of course we get metalsub connectors for the cylinders, c+ handsets, a.d.v., flow stop, big canister (you can get a half one for baby dives if you want) etc etc.
I have to say I was a bit worried about the thing until I got it. Bloody hell, my inspo is up for free at this point. Its got nice manifolds, they use apex 1st stages. I have been promised 4 week turn around on the machines, 2-3 weeks on an inspo hammer head.
The worst was leaving there as I did not want to bugger off - the amount of spares that guys has! Cis lunar , mk15/15.5/16, his 1st circuit boards...was just crazy, a machine that looks like darth vader, an 800 liter a minute compressor... o yes, and they just landed a 15Milion dollar contract for the military....
A complete hammer is US $ 10 700 excl deco on secondary, and 3450 for an Inspo Hammer replacement excl deco. Also (much against kevins will, but me being a persistent) I can also now do a proper liquid fill off the handsets...
O yes, did I mention my machine is up for sale... 5 bucks :)
Will post pics on http://www.tekdiver.co.za/ (and no, Verna's new hammer ccr is not for sale)
FROM GERHARD :)
OK! This is the best piece of engineering I have seen so far. I had a nice meeting with Kevin Juergensen. Did you know the guy has mk15.5's coming out of his ear - (try 4 NEW ones still with labels and paperwork on them and yes, they are for sale at least 13 000 US with complete hammerheads etc. But in their boxes....too cool). I saw mk 16's for Carleton technologies for the military, anti magnetic with the newest displays etc, was not allowed to photograph it but Kevin showed me some amazing stuff. Those crazy compound plastic and carbon cylinders that weighs noting and rated 300 bar etc... he has infrared in the handsets and other things I am not allowed to mention. What i can mention is the fact that the new hammer handset will be as flat as the vision ones with ability to rotate the display 90 degrees at a time and all sorts of goodies (the wire will become ribbon type encased cable etc...).
One of the pluses of visiting in person (other than getting to drool over Kevin's workshop) is the that I will get a course on doing repairs to the Hammer handsets, so I can replace circuit boards, pressure transducers , lenses , displays etc without having to post the hammers back to the States (costs a small fortune). How cool is that? All approved by hammerhead, warranty NOT void....
Now for engineering, this is the BEST I have ever seen.(Kevin is a perfectionist - as he explained it was all out or bust,the best or nothing) Everything is made in Czechoslovakia and it is PERFECT - all hand machined, every part fits like a glove, solid delrin, high flow a.d.v. (similar to the meg/cis), anodized aluminum scrubber canister, axial/radial scrubber (takes 3.5kg sorb) AND I saw the first extend air cartridge that kevin had made, thing will give you easily 12+ hours! HUGE, looks like a little cylinder. I am attaching photos ( low resolution) for you of the the canister , locking lid, lungs, GOLEM Box (included). For those people in South Africa we have negotiated a special deal - the units will ship with the storm case AND cylinders for the same price and of course we get metalsub connectors for the cylinders, c+ handsets, a.d.v., flow stop, big canister (you can get a half one for baby dives if you want) etc etc.
I have to say I was a bit worried about the thing until I got it. Bloody hell, my inspo is up for free at this point. Its got nice manifolds, they use apex 1st stages. I have been promised 4 week turn around on the machines, 2-3 weeks on an inspo hammer head.
The worst was leaving there as I did not want to bugger off - the amount of spares that guys has! Cis lunar , mk15/15.5/16, his 1st circuit boards...was just crazy, a machine that looks like darth vader, an 800 liter a minute compressor... o yes, and they just landed a 15Milion dollar contract for the military....
A complete hammer is US $ 10 700 excl deco on secondary, and 3450 for an Inspo Hammer replacement excl deco. Also (much against kevins will, but me being a persistent) I can also now do a proper liquid fill off the handsets...
O yes, did I mention my machine is up for sale... 5 bucks :)
Will post pics on http://www.tekdiver.co.za/ (and no, Verna's new hammer ccr is not for sale)
Monday, May 26, 2008
Which Rebreather ?
These days more and more divers are moving onto machines (or rebreathers). The advantages are many (longer dive times, cheaper mixed gases, feeling better after the dive). The only real disadvantage lies in the price (at least R40k up front) and of course the fact that you have to get spend time getting experience on your machine before you can get back to doing the dives you where doing on open circuit.
The good news is that gone are the days where the only machine you could choose was the Inspiration. These days South Africa has access to pretty much any machine, from the Scuba Pro Submatix to the new Hammer CCR.
Below is a short list of the readily available machines in South Africa. The prices quoted are in Dollars so that you have an unbiased comparison (all the prices come from dive rite express).
1) SCUBAPRO SUBMATIX
This comes standard as a semi-closed machine and can be converted to a full closed circuit, although the cost of the conversion makes it more cost effective to go straight to a fully closed machine. Price $7,000
2) Megalodon
This is a fully closed machine and available in a number of configurations, so you can basically put together a machine to match your requirements. Stands up well to the better known Inspiration (which comes in only one format).
Second hand units are not available currently in South Africa. Price : $8000
3) New Hammer CCR
This is an exciting unit (I may be biased as I sold my inspiration new vision for one). The unit is designed for deep exploration and comes with the famous hammer head and controller (which most deep divers purchase and fit onto their inspirations or megs). It also has a radial scrubber which is yet another plus for depth and duration. Another feature worth mentioning is the pre scrubber oxygen injection (the oxygen mixes before it is measured). it comes standard with an ADV (the magody that injects your diluent without you having to press a button...a must). Oh and it has been dived successfully in the 200 meter range. Training will be available from June 2008 from Gerhard du Preez of Liquid Edge Diving. Price : $10,500
4) Inpiration (Classic, New Vision)
The best known rebreather (especially in South Africa). A big plus for us here is that units can be found second hand from around R35k (for the classic, add at least 10k for a new vision or evolution), which makes Inspiration the more affordable alternative.
One of the down sides of the Inspiration is that it comes in only one configuration and the cost does not include items like an ADV (which really is a necessity these days). The new vision electronics includes decompression software which gives you a second computer although the verdict is still out as to whether or not it is better to have a classic and two Liquivisions (is certainly cheaper than a new vision and a Liquivision computer). From a depth perspective it handles well up to 150/ 180 meters after which the electronics need to be upgraded to the Hammer Head (you are looking at another $3,000) Price : $10,000
So...when you going to take the plunge and go silent ? You know you want to :)
The good news is that gone are the days where the only machine you could choose was the Inspiration. These days South Africa has access to pretty much any machine, from the Scuba Pro Submatix to the new Hammer CCR.
Below is a short list of the readily available machines in South Africa. The prices quoted are in Dollars so that you have an unbiased comparison (all the prices come from dive rite express).
1) SCUBAPRO SUBMATIX
This comes standard as a semi-closed machine and can be converted to a full closed circuit, although the cost of the conversion makes it more cost effective to go straight to a fully closed machine. Price $7,000
2) Megalodon
This is a fully closed machine and available in a number of configurations, so you can basically put together a machine to match your requirements. Stands up well to the better known Inspiration (which comes in only one format).
Second hand units are not available currently in South Africa. Price : $8000
3) New Hammer CCR
This is an exciting unit (I may be biased as I sold my inspiration new vision for one). The unit is designed for deep exploration and comes with the famous hammer head and controller (which most deep divers purchase and fit onto their inspirations or megs). It also has a radial scrubber which is yet another plus for depth and duration. Another feature worth mentioning is the pre scrubber oxygen injection (the oxygen mixes before it is measured). it comes standard with an ADV (the magody that injects your diluent without you having to press a button...a must). Oh and it has been dived successfully in the 200 meter range. Training will be available from June 2008 from Gerhard du Preez of Liquid Edge Diving. Price : $10,500
4) Inpiration (Classic, New Vision)
The best known rebreather (especially in South Africa). A big plus for us here is that units can be found second hand from around R35k (for the classic, add at least 10k for a new vision or evolution), which makes Inspiration the more affordable alternative.
One of the down sides of the Inspiration is that it comes in only one configuration and the cost does not include items like an ADV (which really is a necessity these days). The new vision electronics includes decompression software which gives you a second computer although the verdict is still out as to whether or not it is better to have a classic and two Liquivisions (is certainly cheaper than a new vision and a Liquivision computer). From a depth perspective it handles well up to 150/ 180 meters after which the electronics need to be upgraded to the Hammer Head (you are looking at another $3,000) Price : $10,000
So...when you going to take the plunge and go silent ? You know you want to :)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
How Many Agencies can you Name ?
I thought to myself that it might be fun to see what info you can find on the net about technical diving agencies. As South African techies we are accustomed to having limited (if any) choice when it comes to a technical agencies with only two of the ‘international’ agencies having made it to our shores, TDI and IANTD. This is not the situation over the pond where there are a number of agencies to choose from, some with as impressive (if not more so) pedigrees as our established brands.
The question is, how many do you know about ? The agencies are listed by age, oldest first.
- ANDI (1988) (American Nitrox Divers International www.andihq.com). Started in 1988 by Rutkowski and Ed Betts. Interestingly ANDI and IANTD share a founding father (and agency) namely Dick Rutkowski and IAND (International Association of Nitrox Divers, which was began in 1985). Rutkowski sold IAND to Tom Mount (who was an ANDI Instructor Trainer) in order to commit fulltime to ANDI. As an agency, ANDI's courses cover nitrox (or safe air as they term it), trimix and rebreathers (but not cave diving). Another interesting feature of ANDI is that they refuse to provide paper cross over’s of instructors (their site is definitely worth a read). Gerhard is off to the States in a week or so to get his instructor rating on the new Hammer CCR with Joe Radomski (the technical head of ANDI) so I will hopefully be able to report back a bit more on other side of technical diving across the pond.
- IANTD (1992) (www.iantd.com) or in its longer version, the International Association of Nitrox and Technical divers. Evolving from Dick Rutkowski and IAND, IANTD these days is synonomous with Tom Mount who bought it out in 1992 and created the IANTD we know today. Their courses cover the full range of technical i.e, trimix, caves and rebreathers. The international site provides a look up of instructors and so allows you to find the instructor nearest to you (it is the only site I found that allowed you to do that).
- TDI (1993) (www.tdisdi.com). Technical Diving International was founded in 1993 by Bret Gilliam and Mitch Skaggs and is one of the largest technical agencies out there (and I believe the first to arrive in South Africa). The TDI course structure offers a suite of building blocks supplemented by good manuals (I particularly enjoyed the rebreather manual). Their courses cover the full range of technical i.e, trimix, caves and rebreathers.
- NAUI (1997). Well known as a sport agency NAUI have had a technical division since 1997. Founded by Timothy O’Leary the NAUI technical board is sprinkled with names like Bruce Wienke and Bill Hamilton. There program covers all aspects of technical diving (and yes, it is available in South Africa – soon you to be on www.tekdiver.co.za). Personal experience with NAUI technical here in South Africa indicates that it promises good things, such as no paper cross over’s for instructors (visible and proactive maintainance of standards is something I am passionate about...which means I am furiously practicing long forgotten underwater snorkel skills for my impending cross over), high quality manuals and good customer service. Their courses cover the full range of technical i.e, trimix, caves and rebreathers.
- ITDA (1997) (www.itdahq.com). Otherwise known as the International Technical Diving Association. I have to admit that I only found out about this agency by doing a web search. It is British based agency established by the late by Rob Palmer in 1997 and appears to be very popular in the UK and Europe.
- GUE (1998) (www.gue.com). Established formally in 1998, Global Underwater Divers have become iconic in technical diving in part due to the reputation their founders established with their branded methodology, DIR (Doing it Right). These days Jarod Jablonski promotes DIR training and some hectic exploration (their favourite site is WKPP which has some impressive dives). Unfortunately there are no certified GUE instructors here in South Africa (at least not that I am aware of) although there are some intrepid divers who have done a course or two on their own bat.
In addition there are two notable cave diving only agencies (once again based in the States).
- NSS-CDS (www.nsscds.com)which is the cave diving section of the National Speleological Society
- NACD (www.safecavediving.com). Otherwise known as the national association for cave diving. This is an interesting site (and organisation). Did you know that they have an award system available to their divers (the Wakulla Award) based on the number of successful and safe hours (or logged dives) in a cave ?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Technical Agencies, Branding & Competition
I was sitting writing about wings and bladders and harnesses and back plates and found my thoughts wandering in a totally different direction. Probably thanks to lunch on Sunday when we had old friends over and started to talk about the good old days. Diving in South Africa started out very much club based (like BSAC in the UK here called SAUU which is now CMAS). When I started way back in 1989 you could count the number of diving schools on one hand…and they were NAUI (no-one had heard of PADI). These days NAUI has taken a back seat to PADI and CMAS/ SAUU has practically disappeared. Sport divers are spoilt for choice and a popular discussion point is how ‘fly by night’ sport schools spring up under-cutting established schools with un-sustainable pricing, ‘steal’ students, provide shoddy training and then go bankrupt six months later. Running a dive school is a tough business and highly competitive. To make matters worse, South Africa tends to be highly price sensitive which means that quality is not often a differentiator when divers pick an instructor or school.
So how does the technical diving market compare ? In sport diving you have an abundance of choice when it comes to agencies, schools and instructors. At last count you could choose from PADI, NAUI, CMAS, SSI/ TDI and recently IANTD. Basically, no matter where you live you should find at least one instructor or school who can teach you how to dive. In technical diving live is not quite so rosy. Back in 1989 the international agencies like IANTD and TDI were not well established. You had to rely on SAUU/ CMAS for technical qualifications and as most instructors were not fulltime, courses were few and far between. The arrival of full time, international agencies seemed to promise change, at the very least it should make technical diving more accessible (like the revolution that was happening within sport diving) .
TDI was the first of the ‘big’ names to arrive on our shores, followed by IANTD. However it soon became clear that the principles of expansion and market penetration that were being applied by agencies like PADI and NAUI were not being applied by TDI and IANTD. Where sport diving grew through the active training and dispersement of instructors (creating a plethora of choice for new divers) technical diving remained closely associate with individuals (for TDI read Steve Minnie and these days Dave Kitchen, for IANTD read Mike Fowler and Don Shirley). Instead of the spread of instructors and technically affiliated or inclined schools that one would expect with the arrival (finally) of South African international franchisees, the landscape looked (and still does) pretty much as it did in 1989 – with agencies being synonymous with the founding instructor and branding seeming to go no further than promoting the franchisee’s reputation and designed to acquire them students rather than promote all agency instructors.
The technical market it seems, is be well and truly ‘locked down’ and controlled by a couple of individuals.
Which made me wonder why the sport and technical diving are so different when it comes to the business and promotion there-of ?After all it is divers we are talking about and technical diving is a natural extension of sport diving which has a huge base.
In sport diving you are inundated with adverts for agencies like PADI and if you phone the agency they tend to promote the closest school to you. In technical diving the opposite holds true. Divers interested in technical diving who do respond to what little advertising there is and phone up a specific agencies are never told about their closest instructor but instead are actively sold the individual behind the brand. Instead of creating a pervasive and accessible technical brand we are left with agencies that appear to be little more than one man shops. Which hardly creates incentive for existing or potential technical instructors. Surely ‘brand’ or agency advertising should promote equally all instructors of that brand and not just one individual ?
What does this mean for technical diving ? Well, firstly the franchisee’s are responsible for training new instructors and so ‘spreading the word’ or getting instructors out there in every major dive centre in South Africa. This makes business sense because the more instructors you have the more students and therefore the more income in a month through package sales and gear (especially if you are also an active gear distributor to that instructor base). Yet even after over ten years when one looks at full time instructors there are only two active full cave instructors in South Africa Don Shirley (the IANTD franchisee) and Gerhard du Preez (co-owner of Liquid Edge Diving). A similar situation exists when you look at Trimix or Rebreather diving where the choice is slightly extended with the introduction of TDI representation (Dave Kitchen, the local franchisee).
This impact of limited choice and penetration on the technical diving community is extensive. With no competition, prices are controlled by individuals. Instead of the pricing policy that is working out there in the sport community where the principle of ‘a small piece of a large pie’ applies (or put another way, you can afford to charge less because you have more divers coming through the door) the technical community appears to operate from a principle of ‘a large slice of a small pie’. As the pie is small prices are high and the effect of high prices is that access is restricted. You end up with a self fulfilling prophecy – with a few full time technical schools competing for a small number of divers and as the numbers are small everyone has to charge high prices. I have to question the base assumption that there are few technical diver wannabe’s out there, not when the sport base is so large.
PADI is not the only success story when it comes to brand penetration, ScubaPro has done a very good job in turn. Here a specific brand has managed to get penetration into the highly competitive equipment market by promoting and actively focusing on their dealers and dealer network. They want people to be selling their product. They want it to be easy for a diver to find and buy their product and as a result Scubapro is one of the top diving gear brands (if not the top) in the industry.
Where am I going with this ? Well Liquid Edge (the diving company I co-own with Gerhard du Preez and the only technically focused full time dive school outside of the franchisees) recently had the opportunity of taking on board NAUI Technical (yes, NAUI offers a full range of technical courses and is one of the only sport branded agencies who does so. No-one was more surprised than I). It was a tough call because based on the fact that we are operating in an artificially created small and ‘elite’ market and we had to ask the question, does South Africa need yet another technical agency ? After all, there is nothing wrong with the standards laid down by TDI or IANTD. After investigating NAUI’s standards and courses I for one felt an immediate affinity. Their instructor cross over was an eye opener with absolutely no slack or concessions given even though Gerhard is a full time technical instructor for both TDI and IANTD. He had to do all the skills, sit in on all the lectures and do all the course work which was certainly not what we were expecting. They also require two pairs of eyes to pass off students, which means you have inbuilt quality control that is not just preached, but practiced (something I have not yet experienced or seen in technical diving). The real sweetner though was the fact that NAUI is looking to actively cultivate technical instructors and get them out there where you as a diver can find them (you try find a technical instructor in Cape Town or Durban, never mind Bloemfontein). All of which can only be good for technical diving. I firmly believe that technical divers should be able to choose from a range of agencies and a range of instructors.
I for one would like to see the day when divers are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a technical instructor. When you have a choice you can expand the criteria by which you make your decision, adding aspects like pro-active and visible standards management, quality of training material and C-cards not to mention service and pricing. There is one other big reason I would like technical diving to become more accessible to more divers. It gives you a new toolset that allows you to extend your limits and go and explore new places and I would like all divers to have that opportunity ! I certainly do not regret the journey that technical diving took me on. Oh, and it would mean more support divers (or is that people to braai with J ).
So how does the technical diving market compare ? In sport diving you have an abundance of choice when it comes to agencies, schools and instructors. At last count you could choose from PADI, NAUI, CMAS, SSI/ TDI and recently IANTD. Basically, no matter where you live you should find at least one instructor or school who can teach you how to dive. In technical diving live is not quite so rosy. Back in 1989 the international agencies like IANTD and TDI were not well established. You had to rely on SAUU/ CMAS for technical qualifications and as most instructors were not fulltime, courses were few and far between. The arrival of full time, international agencies seemed to promise change, at the very least it should make technical diving more accessible (like the revolution that was happening within sport diving) .
TDI was the first of the ‘big’ names to arrive on our shores, followed by IANTD. However it soon became clear that the principles of expansion and market penetration that were being applied by agencies like PADI and NAUI were not being applied by TDI and IANTD. Where sport diving grew through the active training and dispersement of instructors (creating a plethora of choice for new divers) technical diving remained closely associate with individuals (for TDI read Steve Minnie and these days Dave Kitchen, for IANTD read Mike Fowler and Don Shirley). Instead of the spread of instructors and technically affiliated or inclined schools that one would expect with the arrival (finally) of South African international franchisees, the landscape looked (and still does) pretty much as it did in 1989 – with agencies being synonymous with the founding instructor and branding seeming to go no further than promoting the franchisee’s reputation and designed to acquire them students rather than promote all agency instructors.
The technical market it seems, is be well and truly ‘locked down’ and controlled by a couple of individuals.
Which made me wonder why the sport and technical diving are so different when it comes to the business and promotion there-of ?After all it is divers we are talking about and technical diving is a natural extension of sport diving which has a huge base.
In sport diving you are inundated with adverts for agencies like PADI and if you phone the agency they tend to promote the closest school to you. In technical diving the opposite holds true. Divers interested in technical diving who do respond to what little advertising there is and phone up a specific agencies are never told about their closest instructor but instead are actively sold the individual behind the brand. Instead of creating a pervasive and accessible technical brand we are left with agencies that appear to be little more than one man shops. Which hardly creates incentive for existing or potential technical instructors. Surely ‘brand’ or agency advertising should promote equally all instructors of that brand and not just one individual ?
What does this mean for technical diving ? Well, firstly the franchisee’s are responsible for training new instructors and so ‘spreading the word’ or getting instructors out there in every major dive centre in South Africa. This makes business sense because the more instructors you have the more students and therefore the more income in a month through package sales and gear (especially if you are also an active gear distributor to that instructor base). Yet even after over ten years when one looks at full time instructors there are only two active full cave instructors in South Africa Don Shirley (the IANTD franchisee) and Gerhard du Preez (co-owner of Liquid Edge Diving). A similar situation exists when you look at Trimix or Rebreather diving where the choice is slightly extended with the introduction of TDI representation (Dave Kitchen, the local franchisee).
This impact of limited choice and penetration on the technical diving community is extensive. With no competition, prices are controlled by individuals. Instead of the pricing policy that is working out there in the sport community where the principle of ‘a small piece of a large pie’ applies (or put another way, you can afford to charge less because you have more divers coming through the door) the technical community appears to operate from a principle of ‘a large slice of a small pie’. As the pie is small prices are high and the effect of high prices is that access is restricted. You end up with a self fulfilling prophecy – with a few full time technical schools competing for a small number of divers and as the numbers are small everyone has to charge high prices. I have to question the base assumption that there are few technical diver wannabe’s out there, not when the sport base is so large.
PADI is not the only success story when it comes to brand penetration, ScubaPro has done a very good job in turn. Here a specific brand has managed to get penetration into the highly competitive equipment market by promoting and actively focusing on their dealers and dealer network. They want people to be selling their product. They want it to be easy for a diver to find and buy their product and as a result Scubapro is one of the top diving gear brands (if not the top) in the industry.
Where am I going with this ? Well Liquid Edge (the diving company I co-own with Gerhard du Preez and the only technically focused full time dive school outside of the franchisees) recently had the opportunity of taking on board NAUI Technical (yes, NAUI offers a full range of technical courses and is one of the only sport branded agencies who does so. No-one was more surprised than I). It was a tough call because based on the fact that we are operating in an artificially created small and ‘elite’ market and we had to ask the question, does South Africa need yet another technical agency ? After all, there is nothing wrong with the standards laid down by TDI or IANTD. After investigating NAUI’s standards and courses I for one felt an immediate affinity. Their instructor cross over was an eye opener with absolutely no slack or concessions given even though Gerhard is a full time technical instructor for both TDI and IANTD. He had to do all the skills, sit in on all the lectures and do all the course work which was certainly not what we were expecting. They also require two pairs of eyes to pass off students, which means you have inbuilt quality control that is not just preached, but practiced (something I have not yet experienced or seen in technical diving). The real sweetner though was the fact that NAUI is looking to actively cultivate technical instructors and get them out there where you as a diver can find them (you try find a technical instructor in Cape Town or Durban, never mind Bloemfontein). All of which can only be good for technical diving. I firmly believe that technical divers should be able to choose from a range of agencies and a range of instructors.
I for one would like to see the day when divers are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a technical instructor. When you have a choice you can expand the criteria by which you make your decision, adding aspects like pro-active and visible standards management, quality of training material and C-cards not to mention service and pricing. There is one other big reason I would like technical diving to become more accessible to more divers. It gives you a new toolset that allows you to extend your limits and go and explore new places and I would like all divers to have that opportunity ! I certainly do not regret the journey that technical diving took me on. Oh, and it would mean more support divers (or is that people to braai with J ).
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Cave Skills Continued - Lighting vs Helmets
Sheck Exley was one of the first divers to identify a set of common cave skills that related directly to deaths or incidents underwater. One of these was the fact that cave divers should carry with them appropriate lighting. It sounds rather obvious, caves are dark… in order to see you require light. Strangely though his use of lights was a back up system (you used the line to get out, not lights) - lights helped you get out faster using less gas and in some instances with less cuts and bruises from unexpected obstacles.
The modern school of thought is that every cave diver has at least three lights, a primary and two back up lights. As far as basic characteristics goes, lights need to be:
- As bright as possible, an easy task these days.
- Uniform across a dive team, i.e all divers should have lights of approximately the same brightness. This concept is based on human physiology, so long as there is no bright light to destroy the natural adaptation, our eyes are capable of adapting to dim light conditions.
- As small as possible and neutrally buoyant (large lights get snagged on risk in narrow areas and are hard to manoeuvre with in strong currents)
- Dependable (water and pressure proof), easy to repair and maintain and with as small a failure rate as possible.
Finally, each light should also last as long as the planned dive (which is not as obvious as it sounds).
When it came to configuration of lights Sheck was not so talkative. Modern school of thought sees a primary canister light neatly stowed on the waist belt with two secondary lights stowed on the shoulder straps. Helmets make no appearance what so ever. For those of you who are not familiar with all the gadgets that come with technical diving, canister type lights have a battery in a canister (hence the name) that is connected to a light head via a umbilical. The diver holds the light head with his hand using a Goodman handle which basically attaches the light head to the top of the hand.
Using the light is not intuitive (or at least I did not find it so). In order to see you have to point your hand in the direction he is looking… something I found intensely annoying when I first moved over to this configuration - my hand would be doing something which would mean my light would be facing any direction but the one I wanted to swim in or look in.
Older divers such as myself did not grow up in a world of canister lights that provided liquid sunlight at the flick of a switch. We used normal hand held style torches and in order to accommodate high failure rates as well as light up the cave, we had to use lots of them. Which led to the interesting problem of how to practically transport them all…you only have two hands. Enter the helmet! This was the perfect solution as it could carry four, maybe six lights without using up valuable hand space. As any technical diver will tell you, diving can have quite a significant task load and not having to worry about lighting up what you are doing or where you are going makes life a whole lot simpler.
The down side of the helmet is that it can be very buddy unfriendly. It takes time and practice to not blind your buddy when casually looking in his general direction. This fact has been used to chastise most helmet divers and promote the use of the simpler canister torch with two stowed back up lights.
But, technology comes to the rescue. Just as the need to carry spans of torches has fallen away thanks to the evolution of canister lights, so has the need to have a large, bulky and heavy helmet in order to carry one (heavy) torch just to light up your immediate area. These days lights come small (the mini Q40 springs to mind, Sartek has some stunning baby lights as well). These can be easily mounted on a mask strap and because they are not killer bright, do not blind surrounding divers.
I will miss the sight of divers plunging into the darkness, small white haloes of light replacing blocking out facial recognition and whilst there are some dives (deep, task loading, where a helmet does have a place, for the rest of us, the era of the helmet is well over.
Long live liquid sunlight and canister lights!
The modern school of thought is that every cave diver has at least three lights, a primary and two back up lights. As far as basic characteristics goes, lights need to be:
- As bright as possible, an easy task these days.
- Uniform across a dive team, i.e all divers should have lights of approximately the same brightness. This concept is based on human physiology, so long as there is no bright light to destroy the natural adaptation, our eyes are capable of adapting to dim light conditions.
- As small as possible and neutrally buoyant (large lights get snagged on risk in narrow areas and are hard to manoeuvre with in strong currents)
- Dependable (water and pressure proof), easy to repair and maintain and with as small a failure rate as possible.
Finally, each light should also last as long as the planned dive (which is not as obvious as it sounds).
When it came to configuration of lights Sheck was not so talkative. Modern school of thought sees a primary canister light neatly stowed on the waist belt with two secondary lights stowed on the shoulder straps. Helmets make no appearance what so ever. For those of you who are not familiar with all the gadgets that come with technical diving, canister type lights have a battery in a canister (hence the name) that is connected to a light head via a umbilical. The diver holds the light head with his hand using a Goodman handle which basically attaches the light head to the top of the hand.
Using the light is not intuitive (or at least I did not find it so). In order to see you have to point your hand in the direction he is looking… something I found intensely annoying when I first moved over to this configuration - my hand would be doing something which would mean my light would be facing any direction but the one I wanted to swim in or look in.
Older divers such as myself did not grow up in a world of canister lights that provided liquid sunlight at the flick of a switch. We used normal hand held style torches and in order to accommodate high failure rates as well as light up the cave, we had to use lots of them. Which led to the interesting problem of how to practically transport them all…you only have two hands. Enter the helmet! This was the perfect solution as it could carry four, maybe six lights without using up valuable hand space. As any technical diver will tell you, diving can have quite a significant task load and not having to worry about lighting up what you are doing or where you are going makes life a whole lot simpler.
The down side of the helmet is that it can be very buddy unfriendly. It takes time and practice to not blind your buddy when casually looking in his general direction. This fact has been used to chastise most helmet divers and promote the use of the simpler canister torch with two stowed back up lights.
But, technology comes to the rescue. Just as the need to carry spans of torches has fallen away thanks to the evolution of canister lights, so has the need to have a large, bulky and heavy helmet in order to carry one (heavy) torch just to light up your immediate area. These days lights come small (the mini Q40 springs to mind, Sartek has some stunning baby lights as well). These can be easily mounted on a mask strap and because they are not killer bright, do not blind surrounding divers.
I will miss the sight of divers plunging into the darkness, small white haloes of light replacing blocking out facial recognition and whilst there are some dives (deep, task loading, where a helmet does have a place, for the rest of us, the era of the helmet is well over.
Long live liquid sunlight and canister lights!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
