Second class professional diver course - part 3

Another day of training…frosty and sunny…and more skills to master. The team is in sync, the water is cold and there is plenty of work…to do. The plan for today is to simulate a surface decompression dive in a chamber. We have two dives ahead of us, one with K&B Superlite 37 SS helmets and Hot Water Suit and the other with KMB 28 masks. Planned depth 31m.

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The most important skill we need to master today is the efficient transport of the diver after the surface to the decompression chamber. From the last decompression stop to full compression in the chamber can take up to 5 min: 1 min for ascent, 3 minutes for the diver to undress and another minute for compression. Time is short and the instructors carefully watch and evaluate our every move.

We start with helmets and warm water heated suits. We described the comfort of diving in this equipment yesterday. Today, we made a few more improvements, including putting on wellies over the neoprene boots so that you no longer feel any discomfort from the heat and for more comfortable walking on the rocks.

Below ten metres the visibility in the water definitely improves and we can admire the beauty of the Oslofjord, apart from fish, strange snails and various algae there are also crawfish! We reach a little over 30 metres and return to the basket. Just a few more minutes of hanging at 3 meters and… to run… ready…START.

It has begun. First the ascent, and then everything in the hands of the tenders. First they take off the helmet, then the waistcoat. Shoes come off and the fight with the wet suit begins. After a while … a “wet t-shirt competition” and we are ready to enter the chamber. All the diving teams made it in time.

12.00 is the lunch hour … today a novelty: “cabaret” or prawns in light jelly. I must admit that the food here is very good, admittedly based on a lot of mayonnaise, butter and yoghurt, but with fresh seafood and plenty of salads. The harsh climate of Norway forgives this light diet.

The second dive is also a descent of about 30m and return. Up to about 20m we walk on a slope, then a rocky fault starts and 32m on a small shelf. A very interesting dive, it’s a pity that we can’t do it as a recreational dive, swim across the wall, watch the fish … decompression time is running out, we have to go back.

This time we hang in the basket a little longer than the first time, we make two decompression stops. Then the surface and the run begins again… quickly but not nervously the tenders undress the diver. This time there is a bend mask and a dry suit to take off. We are already after the first exercise and the divers get into the chamber much faster than the tables predict.

In the evening a lecture on procedures for using decompression tables. Another intensive day behind us. Tomorrow the first decompression dives, in which we will have to use the skills learned today. It is snowing now:)

Magda and Matthew

Source: podwodna.net