Newest KISS pilot

Ritchard

I took the head weight with me, and it had me riding like a dream.

__________________
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
-Lloyd Dobler, (John Cusack) Say Anything

CK329

rigdiver

It was a pleasure meeting you. Congrats on your new certification. Enjoy many silent and safe dives.
Bill

debersole

Congratulations on the Kiss Cert! Who taught your course at Cobalt Coast?

Looking forward to your trip report. After going to Tek Week last August I was really hoping to make it to Innerspace this year but the timing didn't work out. The crew at both Dive Tech and Cobalt Coast are always outstanding!

Dive safe!

Doug

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www.debersole.com

Ritchard

Hi Doug,

My instructor was Steve Tippets, who was good, though he had his hands full teaching a mixed class of one KISS and one Evo.

Innerspace was a really nice event, I am very hopeful of returning next year.

R

__________________
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
-Lloyd Dobler, (John Cusack) Say Anything

CK329

Ritchard

As I hate to proofread my own writing, I make no claims to spelling nor grammar, though I hope I did okay.


On October 6 of last year, I quite suddenly made the decision to buy a rebreather. The heavy steel doubles were just not playing nice with my back anymore. Time for a change. As I had been thinking about it on and of for a couple of years, it was easy to decide which machine I was after. It was either going to be a KISS or a Sport KISS. I was quickly talked out of the Sport KISS due to its depth limitations.

I arranged to purchase a unit by way of several nice conversations with Kim Smith at Jetsam. I would have the machine in early January. But where to train? I asked one of my KISS friends and he strongly recommended Jason Fisch, with whom I spoke. Jason talked of doing the training mid May at Dutch Springs Quarry. About that same time, I heard about Innerspace, and, quickly doing the math, realized that I could to the training in the amazing warm waters of Grand Cayman for not all that much more money than freezing my butt off on a quarry in springtime. While training with Jason would have been a tough and rewarding experience, the lazy man in me who likes warm weather holidays and reefs won out. I would be going to Grand Cayman.

It proved to be a very long wait from mid January to mid May, I thought the day would never come. The weeks ticked by, like weeks do, and soon it was may, then it was May. In early May I was crazy busy at work, not enough time to think about diving, so our departure day kind of sneaked up on me, and there was still all this work to do. I somehow got through the stuff at work, and turned to gathering up my stuff, and packing the night of the 16th. As luck would have it, I gave my back a little wrenching wrestling my now-packed scuba crate (fish tote actually, thanks Dave S.) up the basement stairs. I knew I would be paying for it the next day.

I didn’t realize how much. I woke up very sore, not a good sign at all. Like so many, I have had back troubles off and on for years, and this didn’t look promising. I got to the airport, and was having quite a lot of trouble moving around my two heavy pieces of luggage, the crate and a way overpacked suitcase. On the plane it was awful, impossible to find a position that didn’t hurt like hell. I spent a 3 hour layover in Charlotte lying mostly on my back, willing myself better, followed by another uncomfortable plane ride. This had me really worried because I had to bail out of a Trimix course the preceding fall for something really similar. Only that time I had only invested a tank of gas, not several thousand dollars, to get to the course location.

The back problem turned out to be something of a frustration for the duration of the course, but with the help of a great deal of Robaxacet (do they sell it outside of Canada?) I muddled through.


We arrived at Cobalt Coast Resort to much fun and welcoming on Saturday May 17th. The owner, Ari, met us personally, and wanted to know our names, and shake our hands, and personally get us settled into our little cottage. What a fine, hospitable fellow. Later that evening, over beer and backpain, I met my instructor Steve Tippetts, former English Army Captain, now full time dive bum/instructor/Caymanite. We had a great introduction, and I was now even more looking forward to my week ahead.

Sunday May 18th

The first day of our training started off with an equipment session. We pulled apart our machines and rebuilt them, checking critical points for proper assembly and function. It was kind of a double lesson, as there were two students, one, me, diving a KISS Classic, and my training brother Dominic was on an Evo. I was able to learn more than I ever thought I would about the Evo. This was much to my benefit, and a little to my consternation, as the Vision package really was pretty cool. Despite my conscious decision to buy a fully manual machine, the gadget geek in me secretly, or well, not so secretly now, kind of admires the amount of data that comes out of the Vision dive profiles and software. However, having to drag around the head of your machine to get it hooked up to your laptop kind of blows.

I had done a pretty good job, save for a couple of hiccups, putting together my machine. The DVD that comes with it was pretty specific as to how to build the “kit” rebreather that you get from Jetsam technologies. It was still fun to tinker with it, poking around to see what was what. We took quite a long time at filling up the scrubber just so, not too much sorb, not too little, didn’t want to over compact it, nor under. I was particularly happy to finally put some O2 sensors in the unit, and get some data out of the displays. I was even happier to finally be handed the manual add valve, the one piece of the machine that the manufacturer will not send you directly. I bolted that part on, and after 4 or 5 months of worshipping the machine in my basement, I had a complete rebreather in front of me. It was pretty exciting. We went over pre-dive checks a couple of times, learned about the importance of a proper pre-breathe, and readied our units for the afternoon…an actual dive!

After a lunch that couldn’t be beat - and I must say that all of the meals at Cobalt Coast Resort were terrific – we set out for Divetech’s secondary shore dive location at Lighthouse Point, as the current was ripping pretty good at the main location. We got suited up and ready to dive. Coming from Drysuit-and-heavy-undergarments-land, it was a pleasure to put on a thin wetsuit, aforementioned sore back notwithstanding.

I have to admit that I was really quite nervous, I wasn’t so sure that I wasn’t going to botch this up pretty good. Nerves reined in, we finally got all sorted, and headed down the dock to the ladder. Steve, my instructor got in first, waiting for me out in the open water. I climbed down the ladder, and plonked into the clear water. As this was a totally new diving idiom, I was unsure what to expect, but I was pretty sure I shouldn’t sink like a rock. No matter how much I inflated my wing, I got no lift. It was bubbling out behind me just as fast as I could add it. I was weighted enough – a first guess at the weight – that I had to fin like a madman to keep my head up. The loop was not inflated enough, so it was pretty hard to get a breath. So far, rebreather diving was not all that fun, in fact, it could kill you. I got to my instructor and pointed out the problem, we both headed back to the dock. Back on shore, we both tried to properly tighten the locking ring on the inflator hose, but nothing we did worked. I quickly realized that I had omitted to install the gasket in the inflator hose, after I had removed the hose to ship the wing. How stupid of me. We called to the other shop to order up a replacement wing, and waited in the steamy heat for it to arrive a few minutes later.

Once I had installed the loaner Venture wing, I climbed down the ladder again, on my way to what was going to be a perfect dive. On the way down the ladder this time, I slipped, and smashed my shin into the sharp edge of a ladder rung. It hurt like the devil (and still does a week later, it was a heck of a bruise) but I wasn’t now stopping for anything. Though I was wondering if all of these events were a sign that I should be paying attention to, maybe I wasn’t meant to dive an Rebreather?

Once in the water, things were pretty comical. Like a yoyo I went from sand to surface to sand to surface. I was struggling to understand loop volume, and the relationship between loop and wing, and though I knew better somewhere in my head, my instincts still had me sucking in bigger lungfuls for short term buoyancy adjustments, to, of course, no avail. It was a random round of suck, blow, purge, dump, inflate - I was so terrible I didn’t even find it frustrating, I was just laughing at myself for my own incompetence. My instructor kept asking me “ok?” To which I responded “ok” back, I felt pretty sure that given a few minutes, I’d be doing better, which proved to be true. As could be expected, it became much, much easier once we were deeper than ten feet.

Once deeper than ten feet, well, I started to feel like I was diving. The other pair, Dominic on his EVO and another instructor helping him with Evo skills on the first two dives were out in front. We started swimming to them to catch up. Things were much easier with each gain in depth, until it was feeling much less foreign. The loop volume seemed to have got itself right – with very little help from me, I am sure. We get to 30 feet, things are good. We go over a ridge and drop to a nice flat sandy bottom at 60 feet or so. We take another few moments to get comfortable, which it actually does. I feel really fortunate that I seem to have lucked into some good trim. I had installed the special 4lb KISS head weight that I had ordered from Buck-o-Five on Rebreatherworld. That combined with 4 lbs on my belt seems to have caused the machine to be set up perfectly. A lucky accident on my part, for certain.

We now go for a swim along the reef. And now for the first time I can take a look around and actually see what is around me, corals and fishes and really clear water. I can only look so much as the machine is taking up a lot of my attention. But still this feels like diving, the machine is delivering gas, it is easy, the work of Breathing is nothing at all really, much easier than I had anticipated given the amount of talk that is devoted to it. Hey this is going to be all right.

On that first dive, I cannot remember if we did any skills other than a “hard work” drill. We were asked to swim as hard as possible from one coral head to another, about 75 ft away, to give us confidence that the machine could deliver all of the gas we could possibly want. Of course it turned into a race, as I did not want to get there second. I think it is possible the Dominic edged me out slightly, but I was pleased to find that indeed, the machine was totally capable of delivering gas when one was finning hard. Dominic did not feel the same way, and had to go to his bailout. I think he later felt embarrassed, but was assured that he followed rule #1 – When in doubt, bail out. He took a minute to get his respiration in hand, then went back onto the loop for an uneventful dive.

The rest of the dive went well, I was really, really happy, with things, smiling like a maniac. It only got complicated in the last moments when we were in shallow water again, when the yoyo effect started rearing its ugly head again. This time it was not so desperate, I was able to anticipate things a little bit, and became determined to make adjustments more slowly. It seems to have worked out.

After the dive, we got into a van and made our way back to the main shop where we learned about tearing down our machines for cleaning. I am sure it will get better, but that first session was pretty darned slow. I was at least happy that I had the simple KISS, rather than the much more complicated Evolution. When we were all done the machines and had all the parts hanging up to dry, we went for a debrief before we were dismissed for the afternoon at a respectable 5 pm. Of course there was homework to read, but a good day was behind us.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Monday morning had an 8 am call, with machines prepped and ready for diving. This morning was an academic session, a long chat though the course Powerpoint slides, and general Q and A session. We covered a lot of material with a lot of asides on man topics. My GUE friends will be happy to know that no such course ever occurs without some discussion of DIR. The session also discussed the response scenarios to Hypoxia (Drill 1), Hyperoxia (Drill 2) and water in the loop/hoses (Drill 4). Each drill would be called for by flashing the corresponding digits in an exaggerated fashion. Of course for the first few times, it would also be demonstrated. Our instructor had a devilish look on his face when he suggested that we would find out what Drill #3 was the next day.

In the afternoon we went for our dive, a nice two-hour tour with plenty of chances to practice our drills. Funny thing. The correct answer is always “Bail out!” Or it seemed funny at the time. Our max depth was a leisurely 75 feet. Nice thing is, at Cayman, there is so much to see between 50 and 75 feet, it was a wonderful dive by all measures. It ended with the first of several lift bag deployments. This first one, mercifully, would be done kneeling in the sand. Come to think of it, the drills were as well. As hard as I have worked in my other courses to do these sort of things with perfect buoyancy, I was a little concerned that we were wussing out by doing these things on the sand. I would later learn that you do them on the sand because of course, everything you think you know about buoyancy is long gone.

After the dive it was clean and disinfect our machines again, a debrief, where I would be chastised for being an inattentive buddy, then on to another amazing dinner, followed by a presentation or two, and some more studying. Tonight would be the first 150 pages of Jeff Bozanic’s book.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tuesday morning comes early, with machines once again ready to go at 8 am. Drill #3? Hypercapnia! Best reaction? Bail out!

We got off to a bit of a false start when a few minutes into the dive, Steve noticed that my canister had begun to trickle bubbles in the joint between the canister and head. I made my way frustrated back to the dock, then bench, to troubleshoot. The sorb had not got too wet, so we put the machine carefully back together, and check it in the tank. All seems go. I later realize the problem but it is too complicated to explain here, I have already gone on for three thousand words for heaven’s sake.

We get back in the water. This was to be the first dive that we had to do mask off skills, and we started doing our other drills more dynamically, having to keep buoyancy while performing bailouts, remedies, etc. this was getting harder, and much more interesting. After our mask stuff, and many many drills, we made it to the big wall for the first time. As we crested over the top, and looked down into the blue void, I could not help but laugh like a maniac into my BOV. It was so beautiful, and amazing, and intimidating all at once. Wow.

Later on, the first dynamic bag deployments were more than a little funny. I was certain that I could do it near perfectly because of course, I had done so many such deployments on OC. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Says real life. I wavered by as much as perhaps 15 feet. How totally embarrassing. Oh well, this afternoon is another dive. Of course, towing back a huge OMS open bottom lift bag from the reef is a task best left to younger men. I was panting like a steam engine before I absolutely HAD to stop for rest.

Tuesday afternoon had us doing more drills and such, each time with a little more comfort, and a little more control over our buoyancy. This was actually starting to work. We had to swap masks for our backup. I hadn’t actually brought along a backup, so switched to a very poorly fitting loaner. I only lasted 5 minutes of wasting diluent before I switched back to my trusty Scubapro. Tuesday afternoon was 1:09, and 72 feet.

Back at the shop, we broke down our machines, debriefed, and got ready for another fantastic meal. More interesting presentations, then the next 300 pages of Bozanic, before I fell heavily to sleep.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The back is still very little better, and continues to be frustrating. Thanks to drugs, I work around it, but it is humiliating the contortions I have to go through to get my wetsuit and booties on. Once I get there, I am mostly okay, until I have to climb up or down the ladder. That really hurts.

This morning everything is ramped up a bit. Dominic is to lead, We go to 108 feet, and for a duration of 2:10. Drills and more drills, everything done dynamically. Once you have figured out some buoyancy strategies, it seems to have become easier. On every dive we see so much sealife, my favourite are the turtles, and you can get so close without seemingly disturbing them, then you add a touch of loop gas, or dump a little, and you realize just how much noise you have always made underwater. On this dive I was able to hang just three feet from a turtle while he went about his business, munching away at something on the reef. Dynamic bag blows have to improve, we’re told, they have to be made in less than ten feet (yeah I know easy, but not on your 5th dive.) We do better, but we’re not yet ready for Youtube.

Wednesday PM. Another dive just short of two hours. This one to 75 feet again. More drills, more mask swaps, more buoyancy. For me this dive was magic, as it was the dive when I stopped thinking about the machine, and just dove. It was a though the comfort was just suddenly there. I just dove, and it felt really good.

I guess I have said nothing about the manual add. It seems easy, but at first it’s not. For me it took a lot of discipline to develop a habit of checking the PO2 gauges regularly. Then once I did, it took a lot of practice to figure out how much to add, how often, and how to add O2 without buggering up my buoyancy. It got better with each dive, until it started to become like a habit. I am still not perfect by any means, but I intend to do a lot of tame diving so that I have total mastery over my manual addition, before I venture into more spirited dives.

At the end of this dive was the moment of truth, the last dynamic bag blow (though we didn’t know it at the time). Both Dom and I did pretty good, mine wavered by a little less than 5 feet. It leaves me something else to work on back here at home. Without that microbouyancy control afforded the OC diver, this will take a few more tries to perfect. I have also by now switched to my smaller closed Halcyon lift bag, because this towing the bag back in has been for the birds.

After the dive, breakdown, disinfect, debrief, beer, a shower, and another supper that couldn’t be beat. More after dinner presentations, then back to my room for the first half of Tom Mount’s encyclopedia of technical diving. Or at least that was my intention. I got to my room, cracked open the book, and fell asleep at about 8:15. Too much sun, exercise and nitrogen for a geezer like me.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday morning, like each day the machines should be ready to go for 8 am. This morning would be a maintenance session however, and more class time. We learned how to take apart my BOV, and learned how to take apart the Evo’s. As well we played with the vision software, to see the huge amount of data that comes with each dive.

Thursday afternoon we get to dive with the big boys. We go 2 hours and change to a max depth of 125. No lift bags unless it is for real. This dive was spectacular. There were so may Eagle rays swooping about – apparently one went right over my head when I was looking the wrong way, damn narcosis – it was amazing. Tons of fish and turtles as well, and the fun of being out with perhaps ten or twelve other assorted CCRS. We did a little light deco, and the dive was over. It was a great time.

Breakdown, disinfect, beer, debrief, supper, more Tom Mount was one the schedule, but we instead wrote our exams.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Steve tells me I have passed the exam. Phew.
This was to be the last dive of our course. And Steve informed us that like yesterday, we had done al our skills, and this was just more ‘breather time. I got to lead this time, to a max depth of 132, for a total run of 1:58. This was another really fun dive, though I didn’t care for 15 mins at 130 or so on air dil. Too narcotic for me, even in perfect conditions. But by weeks end, I was getting awfully tired. Prior to getting to the wall, I noticed that my display #3 was really acting up. It was all over the map, then read 1, then was all over the map again. I pointed it out to Steve, who was later pissed with me that I didn’t have the sense to do a dil flush to check the readouts, and that he had to tell me. He was quite right especially after just having written the exam. It is, however, a lesson I will not forget. We did a long reef tour, before winding up right where I had planned (pretty hard to get lost). We headed back in to the dock. Steve informs us that we have both passed, and are CCR certed for our respective machines.

Friday afternoon was a quick trip to Stingray city to see the alien UFO fish up close and personal. They were so creepy that I almost had to bail on the dive three or four minutes in. I didn’t dig these things sneaking up on me and trying to suck on my head. But after a while I calmed down and had fun watching them and touching them, but I never grew to trust them, as I could tell they were jus waiting for you to let down your guard…

Friday evening was a farewell steak dinner, followed by a raffle of a bunch of nice swag. I had no high hopes on the raffle as I usually win the “Sherwood Scuba” hat. This time I won a nice flashlight, a TDI hat that I later traded for a KISS hat, and a coupon for a huge discount off next year’s event. I figure I did pretty well.

Saturday May 24, 2008

Saturday morning finds us busy packing our stuff, and getting ready for the long trip home. I am feeling kind of torn, as I have had a great time, and hate to leave, but at the same time, I am awfully excited to see my family. The only thing standing in my way is a 12 hour trip back. Oh well, we can’t all have private jets. But we can dream.

__________________
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
-Lloyd Dobler, (John Cusack) Say Anything

CK329

gathan

Awesome Ritchard!

Sounds like you had a blast on your course. Congrats on being a certified KISS diver.

Andre

Ritchard

Dang, I just got my IANTD card, 5 days after my certification. Wow.

__________________
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
-Lloyd Dobler, (John Cusack) Say Anything

CK329

debersole

Thanks for the great report. And congratulations once again.

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www.debersole.com

Roobydoo

It was a pleasure teching you Ritchard!

It didn't at all feel like



Steve

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Who said that..?

www.divetech.com for bubbles and no bubbles in the Caribbean

brockbr

Great report - Thanks for taking the time.

And, out of curiosity, what caused the leak?

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