Posted by MHK on August 21, 2000 at 16:15:15:
Given the tortuos week we had last week ;-), and as many of you have been made aware of my concerns respecting the Yukon, I have arranged the following subject to a few comments:
I AM NOT AN INSTRUCTOR AND THIS PROPOSED TRIP IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ANY TYPE OF CERTIFICATION TRAINING WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many of you on this NG know me, for certain I have done my share of deep, decompression, wreck, penetration and whatever adverb you want to add. My experience speaks for itself. For many years I have resisted the temptation of becoming an instructor because I feel at this point most agencies, save for GUE, have long since sold out in favor of additional market share.
But that being said, I still believe the Yukon is a potentially dangerous dive site. My feeling is heightened based upon our discussion in the last couple of weeks. To that end, I recognize that all of the boats that are currently chartering trips to the Yukon do not share my view, I have decided to initiate matters into my own hands.
The fact that I am NOT an instructor does NOT preclude me from sharing my experiences, my concerns, my knowledge and my advice. I have therefore chartered the BLUE ESCAPE www.blueescape.com for Sunday afternoon October 15th. The cost of the boat was $750 for a 2 tank dive, food; air; tanks and weightbelts included. My plan is to have John Walker ( IANTD, NAUI and GUE instructor ) and myself lead a form of an instructional training dive on this date.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE MENTION, THIS WILL NOT CONSTITUTE ANY CERTIFICATION TRAINING WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!!!
This is designed to help prepare those that have expressed interest in this wreck better prepare for the pitfalls that may, in fact, reveal itself, during this dive.
I plan on covering the following concepts:
1) Solo -v- Team diving;
2) Why a long hose in an overhead environment;
3) Rule of thirds;
4) Disproportionate tank relationships;
5) Proper kicking techniques;
6) Primary and back up lights;
7) How/Why to use a reel;
8) Why I believe Nitrox is essential for this dive;
9) Lift bags;
10) Silt outs;
11) OOA drills;
12) Discussion of doubles -v- single tanks;
13) Progressive penetration discussion;
14) Proper streamlinning, gear configuration and trim;
As many of you know, I support the DIR philosophy, I have done many DIR demo's and my opinions have been well noted. However, my view is that this dive transcends the DIR -v- non DIR debate and I promise not to turn this into a commercial for DIR, Halcyon or GUE.
I believe STRONGLY, that given the potential for problems, the lackadasicol attitude and the fact that we have had 3 DCI hits and 1 near death experience in the one month that the ship has been sunk that someoen needs to take the lead. Absent any other form of leadership sooner or later we will be facing a fatality.
I have therefore chartered the boat, John Walker an I will donate our time and efforts, and what we plan on doing is this:
We will limit the boat to 16 divers ( you can read this as 2 teams of 8 ). John will take one team and I will take the other. The boat will leave at 1:00 in the afternoon and ALL signed up will be invited to our hotel room prior to the boat and we will spend 3 hours covering the topics outlinned above.
The cost of the trip we be $60 per to cover our expenses. As you all know me, I usually run trips and then donate the proceeds to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, however I believe this wreck is so important as too make this trip as cheap as possible because I foresee too many problems and I would prefer to be proactive.
The 1st 16 that pay pay for the trip are in. E-mail me at mhkane@prodigy.net
Thanks