Charlie Gamba and I are signing up for a GUE Tech 1 course and wanted to get some practice in for this tough class. I know several people who didn't pass the first time and the consistent reason is that the task loading of the new equipment destroyed the buddy awareness ensuring escalated Charlie Foxtrots by the instructors.

Charlie, not wanting to change his last name, and I decided to go for a practice dive. We would practice running a reel either from the anchor to the wreck or between the two sections of the wreck. The Sheri Lynn is laying on her port side and is covered in sand. The bow and stern are in two pieces. We planned a 30 minutes bottom time on 32%. We would stay on the wreck with no penetration. Our ascent would be a practice deco run as if we had 45 minutes of bottom time, including a gas switch to 50% at 70ft. Charlie would lead and I would follow, run any reels on the wreck, and run simulated deco. Being a type A personality, having another leader lead is hard, so I was going to also practice relaxation. Charlie, who is more of a math whiz than I also figured out our rock bottom back gas PSI to get us to our 70ft deco bottle with out any spreadsheets or calculators. Being able to do this stuff in your head is very empowering over making a guestimate or relying on technology (which doesn't mix well with salt-water). I also noticed several people keeping their SPG under their 1st stage next to the valve knob on the deco bottle. I asked if it got in the way and was told "no, its fine." So I would give that a try as well on this dive.

Seas were 4ft which got the boat rocking, it was about 8:00 PM. We checked our gear and splashed in. There was a slight surface current, we dropped down 4 ft and swam to the anchor line. At 20 ft we paused and checked each other out for bubbles, then continued down. At 40ft the water was green and spooky. I couldn't make out the button, just shades of dark and darker. We hit the chain, then the anchor, at the bottom the vis was 15ft and cloudy at 103 ft. I lit up the anchor while Charlie tied in. The narcosis set in and my brain, firing on 3 out of 4 cylinders, realized the plow style anchor dung through the sandy bottom for a good 30 ft before setting, that was causing the messy visibility. As my eyes adjusted I could see the dark shadow of the starboard side and hull. We swam for the stern to tie in to the wreck about 50ft away. Visibility was about 35ft on the bottom. In good cave diver fashion Charlie ran his line under the existing line on the wreck. The line tee'd ours and again, thinking slowly, I started to cut away the fishing line entanglement hazard while Charlie tied
into the wreck on the stern railing.

Once we were squared away we started down the port side exploring the deck of the ship. Its been down for so long that every part of it is overgrown and decorated. I stared inside a pole to find a baby brownspotted eel mouthing off at me. I slowly worked my way down the ship, I looked to my left and found Charlie slightly me behind me and following. I stopped and waited for him to take the lead. I could not find the entrance and exit used by Steve the penetrate the ship last time I dove it. At the break in the middle, Charlie asked "which way to go?" "I didn't know?" I didn't feel like tying off my reel, so we went out into the sand to look at debris. There were hogfish all over the place and several Butterflyfish. We couldn't see which way to go, so we turned back and headed up the hull of the boat looking at the Grunts in the sand. We were 20 minutes into the dive and back at the reel. Charlie asked about penetrating the stern section opening by the reel. I waved him off thinking that the beginning of the dive is the time for going in, not when you have about 5 minutes left. We floated there, looking at each other, and there goes reg out of Charlie's mouth and the hand in front of the throat. I shared air with him smiling. I was diving my new Apex regs and I've found the long hose gets stuck in the tank and the wing. It happened with the 95s while cave diving and the Al80s I had in the ocean. I tilted to my side and put the gas in
the side of the wing without the hose and get it poled out right as Charlie was giving me the reg back. We were back at the reel at 25 minutes BT.

The first time I dove with the anchor or upline NOT attached to the wreck, I missed the turn pressure calling the dive at the reel and not reserving enough gas for taking up the reel and untying from the anchor. I was curious if Charlie was going to allow for this as well. It took us about 3-4 minutes to put the reel in. Charlie pointed to head back down the hull of the wreck and I agreed. Our plan was for 30 minutes based on air tables and 20% credit for 32% nitrox. We also looked at the "Swedish Tables" which gave 35 minutes with mandatory minimum deco of 3 @ 20 and 3 @ 10. We were back at the reel at 30 minutes and Charlie thumbed the dive.

I lit the reel up as Charlie began to untie. Wraps of fishing line cloaked by growth also came unwound and snared the reel and knotted our line. Charlie had his hands full and was about to go for his knife, when he saw I had mine out already. I cut off the fishing line as he unwrapped the reel. I followed the line keeping tension on it as we headed back to the anchor. Charlie untied and stored the reel. I pointed to my bottom timer, it read 34 minutes and I gave Charlie the sign for "deco."

We worked out way up to 70ft and switched gas. I had a hard time opening the valve, the spg on top of the valve didn't help any! I had to hold the SPG up with one hand and keep opening the valve. I also good not read the spg from where the bottle rode on my rig. I had to lift it up and rotate it to read it. I was not happy with this config! After a minute, Charlie started heading up to 60ft. I flashed him and signaled "deco 3" as we planned. He came write back. At this point I felt stress. I still had my buzz, I felt mental pressure from staying on the bottom longer then planned, and my gear was not like how I had used it before. A voice in the back of my head said "Just get out of the water. 10ft per min, 3 @ 20 and your done!" I breathed, relaxed and got focused on my watch and my buddy. At 3 minutes I made the "C" to ascend. From that point we were back in sync.

As we hit 40ft the anchor line started to really move. I didn't hold on, but my hand was getting sore from the rope moving through it, up and down, with bucking boat. Charlie had a hold on the line with his gloves and I stayed focus on him and line. The task loading of staying buoyant, keeping in position, watching the gas, watching your buddy, and keeping ascent pace at night made for a good practice task load. I can see where HE, during the day, drifting deco, without equipment variations would make this seem like a walk in the park.

On the surface I laughed out load. On the drive down Charlie was telling me that he didn't think Tech 1 was going to be that hard. He had no problems with the drills in the DIR F class and he was getting more comfortable with the gear. I said that we should take the stress we felt on this dive and crank it up 5 times. That's the level were going to have to withstand to pass Tech 1. Every time we make a mistake, more stress will be added. We will have to put little fires out right away so they do not escalate into bigger ones. And adding a 3rd team member is going to just increase the possible problem configurations. We can pass the class, but we are going to have to remain sharp.

Terrance, from NJ is coming down this weekend as he is practicing for Tech1 class in Oct. Practicing with an unknown diver will show how well our team understand the DIR standard. Not being able to take anything for granted should be a good review.

–Matt