A short report from a new CCR Trimix diver!

Kim Meineche

All pictures by Tom Blomberg, Text by Kim Meineche

With a whish of being able to do underwater photography below 45meters in the future, staying clear in my mind, I finally decided to go for a mod3 (Full Trimix) course on my COPIS Megalodon.

Lucky me, Rasmus Lauritsen ( NORTECH DIVING.DK ) had an available CCR Trimix course, running from the 5th. to the 9th. of June, 2008 at Kr. Sand in Norway, were I meet up with:

Vegard Sandvik (CCR Normoxic trimix instructor student on Megalodon) from Bergen in Norway.
Tom Blomberg (CCR Trimix student on Megalodon) from Mariehamn in Åland (Finland).
Bent Tovgård (CCR Trimix student on Inspiration) from Bjerringbro in Denmark and of course our instructor, Rasmus Lauritsen.


(Rasmus, Kim, Bent, Vegard and Tom)

My preparing for the course started about three months ago, done in three steps! Step one was rather simple but perhaps the hardest part: Throwing my beloved underwater camera in the cupboard and left it there until after the course.

The second step was a little more complicated, but after quite a lot of solodives (Like I’m used to) in local waters, I felt most of the drills from mod1 was done quite successful.

The third step was done in bed (Mostly) and consisted of very interesting bedtime stories from Mel Clarks excellent book: “CCR Trimix Simplified”.

Accommodated in the cabin at Nortech Diving center and Jan Ødegaards hospitality with excellent gasfilling and boatrunning, the surroundings was absolutely perfect, even I knew I had some rough days to look forward at.


Kim pre-breathing his COPIS Meg.

After the first day I realized that I was absolutely not used to dive in a team (Well…. Not a big surprise to me, since about 80% of my dives are done solo so far, but I gave it my best try and had a true whish of being better!!). Even I practised a lot before the course, there were some drills that was quite impossible for me to train in a safe way on my own: Floating ascents!
Since most waters around the place were I live has strong currents, it is not the right place doing floating ascents without a boat to pick you up, so this drill was quite untrained for me, when I arrived at the course.
Together with my missing skills of being a teamplayer and my fear of being unable to control my buoyancy on a floating ascent on tomorrows dive, to more than 50m, I got the hardest discussion ever with my self, throughout the night….. should I go on or quit the course???? About 5 o’clock in the morning, I decided to quit, but even that decision couldn’t get me to sleep. In the morning, tied but upstanding, I went to the instructors (Rasmus and Vegard) and informed them about the situation. Both Rasmus and Vegard knew me from earlier dives and told me, that they would NEVER pull me out in anything they wasn’t sure I could handle, so they asked me to consider it all once again.
And to all of you, who might think that I’m a “Chicken”, I can only say that I find it VERY important to be honest about your personal feelings with this kind of activity.

Result: Back in the water, I did a floating ascend together with Bent and Tom, after exchanging stages down at 50m. At 15m we inflated our SMB’s and all this was done quite smoothly, actually! I thought I knew my self so well, but this time, two other people knew me even better….. THANK YOU SO MUCH, Rasmus and Vegard!


Bent, Jan and Rasmus enjoys the sun!

On the following day, Tom didn’t felt well. Pain in his back, muscles, etc. made him stay away from diving so far. Just for safety and to be sure his pain wasn’t related to diving, Rasmus wanted to take him to the doctor at the chamber in Kr. Sand for an examination. As expected, Tom wasn’t bend, so we all hoped to have him back on the team the day after!
A little behind schedule, Vegard, Bent and I was going on with more drills underwater. After a successful OC bailout skill (Except from our RMV that I think surprised both Bent and me???), done in free water from 40m, while following the runtime from the wetnotes, my selfconfidence had increased remarkably. I was so happy when Bent congratulated me just before we surfaced from the 4,5m stop with a big hand shake.
Unfortunately Tom didn’t get fit for diving on the following days, but his positive personality couldn’t get him of the boat and he utilized the chance to take some good photos of the other team members, which I got his permission to use in this posting.


Rasmus demonstrate how to do "Back kicks" on land.......


and in the water.....

As a part of his instructor training, Vegard performed the theoretical part of the course and I think we can all say that you did a perfect job, Vegard! Teaching such dry stuff in such and interesting way takes a good skill.

More practical drills like SCR bailout (What a remarkable difference in gas consumption compared to OC Bailout!!!!), etc… was performed at the following days and even I didn’t felt unsafe one single second with Rasmus and Vegard beside us, I have to admit that some of the drills added some stress and adrenalin both mentally and physically. Taking of the mask at 60m in 7degrees C water wasn’t actually as bad as I expected, but swimming around for several minutes without mask and sometimes without anything to breath from (Shallow waters, but 7degrees as well!!), wasn’t very comfortable and pushed me close to my personal limits.


The two CCR Trimix students waiting in the boat.




Tom doing paperwork!

All in all a VERY valuable course! Actually I have never learned that much about diving and my self in such a short time but this part I can say thank you to Rasmus and Vegard for. I really couldn’t whish for any better instructors and can recommend both of you to anyone who wants to learn technical diving.
Also a BIG THANK YOU to Bent and Tom for the good teamwork and friendship we developed on this course! Tom, I whish you good luck to finish the course later this year! I really looking forward to meet you again and dive the nice wrecks around Åland. I’m sure we have a lot to share and talk about, specially when it comes to underwaterphotography! J

Congratulation to Bent with the CCR Trimix certification and Vegard with his Normoxic Instructor Certification!

Thank You to Tom Blomberg for letting me use his pictures and to Jan Ødegaard (www.nortechdiving.no) for his excellent service as always and last,but definitely not at least, thanks to Rasmus for a great course, runned in a nice atmosphere with great amount of learning, lots of fun and snappy comebacks!

You are all great people that I would love to dive with, anytime!

Greetings from Kim Meineche!


Vegard, just before he went down with a rope to tether the boat to the bow of M/S Seattle, more than 60m down.





Rasmus, ready to enter the water with his students.




Bent is ready for a deep dive



Kim, almost ready to go!

Attached Images

	DSC_9870rbw.jpg (98.6 KB, 1365 views)
	DSC_9406rbw.jpg (105.5 KB, 1367 views)
	DSC_9436rbw.jpg (79.3 KB, 1358 views)
	DSC_9452rbw.jpg (72.8 KB, 1347 views)
	DSC_9544rbw.jpg (74.1 KB, 1358 views)
	DSC_9547rbw.jpg (86.6 KB, 1354 views)
	DSC_9696rbw.jpg (62.1 KB, 1351 views)
	DSC_9758rbw.jpg (48.9 KB, 1339 views)
	DSC_9771rbw.jpg (54.4 KB, 1341 views)
	DSC_9833rbw.jpg (59.9 KB, 684 views)
	DSC_9780rbw.jpg (62.3 KB, 716 views)

__________________
Best regards from Kim Meineche.... 1st. COPIS diver educated in Europe - Unit #01!

http://www.photosub.dk

http://hjem.get2net.dk/kimmeineche

Lancer4545

Thanks for the report and congratulations everyone.

Regards,

Lance

__________________
You can run but you can't hide!

ISC Appointed Megalodon Dealer for East Australia
http://www.closedcircuitdivers.com.au
info@closedcircuitdivers.com.au

Totto

Hi Kim,

Great report!
I'm looking forward to my mod1 with Rasmus later this year.

edit...and congratulations to everyone.

Tor

__________________
Wasting gas since -82

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TottoDiver

depth

Hi Kim

Congratulations my friend

Hope you find the time and money to go to Jan in Kristiansand in September, the trip wont be the same without you...

ATB

/Christian

__________________
I am not qualified to make my own meg batteries!!!
I am not qualified to make my own meg batteries!!!
I am not qualified to make my own meg batteries!!!
I am not qualified to make my own meg batteries!!!
I am not.............

zoo_diver

Congrats! I hope your clear headidness gets you some great shots!

Campbell

Congratulations to you on your course completion.

I passed my level 2 trimix course last week and also found it a great course.

I did mine in the UK with Claire Boxhall and Dave Crockford. It's amazing the confidence that doing a course like that gives you.

Looking forward to some decent deep diving now!

Well done again.

John

__________________

annetj

Congrats on your trimix course!

And thanks to Vegard for giving me a laugh when showing back kicks

Anne

Ben Field

Good report- thanks guys

(Bent, dude- scary shorts man!)

__________________

Beware Fridge Suck

gerstl_ossi

Congratulation to all and thanks for the nice report.

Cheers and save diving
Ossi

Gill Envy

great report KIM! I too can relate to your trepidations as I have been quite independent over the years. When I got in to CCR diving I had no idea I'd get to the point where I wanted to and felt comfortable to do some deep stuff. I do take my time with these decisions but have come to the conclusion that doing mod 2 and 3 are an inevitability at some point in the next year.

thanks again for the great report, happy and safe picture taking!

__________________
Gill Envy

...Because I wasn't born with gills!
><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>><(°>