My MOD1 training experience with Tekstream

kevini

Hi everyone,

This is my first post to this forum as a new and embryonic rebreather!

I got back on Sunday after spending 2 weeks with Tekstream at Sharm in Egypt doing my TDI Advanced Nitrox and CCR MOD1 (Evolution) course.

I must admit that I came to the course after making a decision a while ago to get back into diving more and I had not dived for 2 years. My experience then was approx 70 dives (all in tropical waters) and PADI rescue and Nitrox cerifications.

I checked out the forums and other web resources and Aarons team at Tekstream seem to crop up often as a recommended place to train so I booked up with them to do:

Scuba review
3 days of OC diving
Advanced Nitrox TDI (1 day theory)
6 days MOD1 TDI CCR course
2 days post cert (hopefully!) diving

I also booked into the Hyatt Regency hotel as a place to relax (not much chance of that as I found out later!). I got the 2 weeks stay at Hyatt (half board), BA business class flights for I thought a reasonable £1500 and then the training/diving was approx a further 1500Euros with Emporer (Tekstream).

I ordered the TDI books in advance and also downloaded the Evolution manual from APDs website and put in lots of study on the coursework. This is really important folks as otherwise you would not have the time to do it in the evenings whilst on the course.

After doing the first few days diving to 'get back into the saddle' again, Sarah Woodford at Tekstream started the 'one on one' training with me and we had the first 2 days in the classroom going over powerpoints for the Advanced nitrox and the CCR part. This all went fine and then the next day was to be 2 dives (AM and PM) on Naama beach.

The first thing I found was that after such a long break from diving I was pretty rusty and had niggles with my kit such as fogged mask (needed to really scrub the manufacturers grease of it), new drysuit (never needed one before, only used 3mm wetsuits!), etc. These ate into some of my training a bit so I recommend that BEFORE you go on these courses you get your kit sorted and tested first so it doesnt affect your focus on ccr learning.

First beach dive was probably pretty typical for many of your certified people ie. either crawling along the bottom or floating about on the surface.......boy oh boy was it just like going back to being a PADI OW beginner again !
I knew it would be very different but please anyone thinking that its just a natural progression, then think again and be prepared for some 'crap' days and frustration.

The next things thrown on my when on the boat dives were side slung bailout tanks which I had no experieince of before. You trimix guys may be at an advantage here but it was all new to me dealing with a 7l tank on my left and rigging it, etc. In the end I put 2kg more weight on the right to balance me up!

The drills all seemed to go OK but I did have real problems with the high O2 drill where I was shutting off the O2 tank, dil flush and then turn on the O2 again. I found that most times I could not control buoyancy and shot to the surface which was getting very frustrating for both me and Sarah. One day I was really dispondent about this, especially as I had also pressed my drysuit chest mounted button rather than the dil button when doing a drill and, guess what......shot to the surface again! What a prat.

It turned out that the Evolution I was using was a medium size harness and lungs (I am 6' tall and pretty well built) and this caused 2 problems for me:

1) The dil/O2 buttons, SPG gauges and drysuit button were all in the same line as each other which made differentiation between them very difficult.

2) The medium counterlungs on the Evo seemed to be positioned so they trapped gas so high up and back that it was VERY difficult for me to purge via the valve.

How did I find this out? Well fortunatley I had an extension of a day to complete the course and as the Evo was booked by someone else I had to use an older Classic with medium lungs (same size as large Evo lungs). Whilst I didnt like the classic electronics it did mean that when I came to do the O2 drill and flushes that it was SOOOOOOO much easier to do compared with the smaller lungs. It was also configured with the SPGs on the outside which meant that they didnt get mixed up with the injector buttons. This had such a radical effect that I only needed 1 dive to get those drills sorted to Sarahs satisfaction and get certified......phew!

So, what did I learn from this?

1) Don't come to the course if you havn't done diving recently unless you are prepared for an even bigger challenge.

2) Get your kit sorted, tested and debugged FIRST so it doesnt distract you.

3) Do your reading and theory homework in advance.

4) Select your training school carefully. I cannot praise Sarah, Aaron and the Emporer/Tekstream team highly enough as they really made sure that I understood things and I NEVER felt at ANY TIME that they would even consider passing someone if they felt they were unsafe. They know their stuff very well and I think 13 of them at Emporer are certified rebreathers.

5) Be prepared to change/tweak your equipment. eg. My wonderful new Atomic 'big eyes' mask just kept leaking with CCR as the bigger mouthpiece distorted the soft skirt. CCRs benefit from smaller masks with a slightly 'stiffer' silicon skirt (IMHO). You will also need to consider buying a sling tank for bailout, etc, etc.

6) If you are having problems then see if you can try a different unit with different size counterlungs/harness/config. As I found this had a dramatic effect on the ease of doing some drills.

7) Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours a night 'homework' when you are on the course.

I hope that by sharing some of the above with other new forum members that you can get something from my experiences to help you.

I am now looking forward to 2 weeks diving in Mauritius in Feb with Dive Mautitius so does anyone have any knowledge of this operator who are I think the only ccr friendly place on the island? Probably best to post this in another forum section????

caveseeker7

Congratulations and welcome to Rebreather World.
Not easy the first time around, ain't it. Great intro, thanks.

Miss Lou, this almost smells like an article for our library.

__________________
Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority,
and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.!"

wearypanda

Congratulations on earning your CCR ticket and thanks for taking the time to write such an interesting and informative account of your training. I considered using Tekstream myself for MOD1 on an Evo, but have decided to do the course in the UK with Gary Fox (Dive Action) in Cornwall even though most of my diving is in the Red Sea.

I am interested to know why you chose to use a dry suit. I imagine that the water temperature would have been about 24 degrees, so well within 5mm semi-dry territory and .his would have eliminated the problems you had with the suit. I guess that you may have chosen to go dry because of long dive times? I am going out to the Red Sea over Christmas and am seriously considering taking my 2.5mm drysuit as I have not used a drysuit for nearly two years and, as you advise in your posting, I do not want to be trying to get to grips with CCR diving and drysuit diving at the same time when I do my course. What do you think?

Good luck with your no-bubbles diving.

AM

Welcome!

I agree that Tekstreme are an excellent training organisation, particularly on the Rebreather side. I can't praise Aaron highly enough, no matter what your level, he will find adjustments that you can make.

Using a dry suit if you usually use one is valid when training as it is useful to learn in the kit you usually use.

Regards
AnneMarie

ScubaDadMiami

Welcome!

__________________
Howard Packer
IANTD CCR Instructor
Miami Beach, Florida
CCRDiveTraining.com

decoweenie

I have dived in Sharm around this time of the year, and while it is true that you might not need the drysuit for u/w, it is much more comfortable especially when back on surface with the cold wind blowing while you are changing out of the wetsuit.

I was freezing my coochies off, and wishing I had my trilam on.

__________________
"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM

Mark Chase

Excelent open and honist write up, well done. I think most of us will empathise with what you went through. Jumping from your previous diving to CCR is a lot to take in but trust me even experianced trimix divers have many of the issues you discribed

ATB

Mark Chase

__________________
See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!!

Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08
[/quote]

Mdemon

To answer one of the questions on your behalf, good call on doing the course wearing the DS. I did the same because I think you should train in the gear you are going to use rather than make life easier by cutting out potential issues. Better to have the problems with an instructor present...

And also it's still f'ing cold in the Red Sea if you spend any length of time in it at this time of year.

__________________
www.southwestmafia.com

"small minds talk about people, Average Minds Talk About Events, GREAT MINDS TALK ABOUT IDEAS!"

The WRONG Attitude will get you killed.

"Once the agenda-monkeys and perfect-worlders have moved on, perhaps we can do some diving?"

AM

Bah, wimp! I managed 3 hours in a 3mm wetsuit and was still warm, must be the tough jock blood

Either that or just piss yourself loads on deco to stay warm! Classy hobby this diving!

decoweenie

I am a wimp for cold due to lack of sufficient Bioprene...

__________________
"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM