My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper

Janos · 9th December 2007, 16:49

I knew what I was going to learn in MOD 1 – how to dive a rebreather. I also knew what I would learn in my MOD 2 course – trimix. However with around 170 hours on the KISS; a 60m ticket; and life insurance that would pay out even if I were diving to 200m on an O2 rebreather with just a Spare Air for bailout, so what would I gain from doing a MOD 3?

Well, I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to learn, only that I wanted to learn something, and to be a better diver at the end of the course. So earlier this year I PMed Dave Cooper (Decodiver on here) and asked him to teach me something, and to make me a better diver. He suggested that we do a generic CCR MOD 3 course and this is the report of what we did.

The first day of the course was a bright sunny autumn day in Stoney. The purpose of the day was to put me through my paces and to allow Dave to assess my in-water skills. We also talked about hypoxic diluents, and how dive procedures change because of it. It was also very interesting watching Dave kit up and get ready to dive. Dave is (rightly IMHO) obsessed by having accessible and reliable bailout, and it was very instructional to see how this impacts on the way he dives.

After a bit more discussion about rebreathers general kit-configuration it was time to brave the pike at Stoney. Pretending that we had hypoxic diluents, we found the water to be pleasantly warm, and the viz was ok-ish. After a bubble check at 6m, we checked bailout, and then it was time for a few shallow water drills before dropping down to the 20m shelf. After a high ppO2 drill on the sunken Land Rover we did some mask off drills. Then along to the blockhouse for a few more drills. Then to the Stanegarth for more drills and, well, you get the idea. Arriving back on the surface after an hour and a half, I was looking forward to a cup of tea. But before I could do that I had to demonstrate that I could doff and don my one-piece harness. I hadn’t tried this before but it was surprisingly easy – easier than on land at least!

Back on dry land it was time for a debrief. Fortunately Dave wasn’t too disgusted with my performance and was happy for me to continue to the next stage of the course in Switzerland.

Four days later on the Friday I packed up my diving kit and took a lunchtime crossing to France. Despite a few troubles with the toll booths I made it to Dave’s house near Strasbourg in time to make it along to a talk he was giving on rebreathers at a local dive club. My French is very basic, but even so I was able to make out most of what he was saying as he talked through the pros and cons of the Classic KISS, rEvo, Boris, and Meg. Then it was back to pack both our kit into Dave’s car, ready for the drive to Switzerland in the morning.

Saturday morning saw us getting up very early and hooning it down to Phil (Rebreather Phil on here)’s house in Switzerland, about three hours away. Phil has a lovely house, but by far the best garage I’ve ever seen, with a full blending system including J’s of O2 and He and a booster. Truly a Magnificent Diving Grotto of a Garage. We tweaked our mixes ready for the dive, then, after coffee and my first McDonalds in four years (where I had, in a Pulp Fiction style, a Royale with Cheese) we went to the first dive site, Rivaz.

The Swiss sadly don’t have a sea border, but they do have Lake Geneva, which is more than three times as deep as the English Channel, about 330m to the bottom. Our plan was to dive to the bottom. No only joking. Actually our plan was to dive to just less than a third of it’s depth – 100m. Which is scarey, scarey deep. We parked up and kitted up in an efficiently clean train station before making our way to a gentle shelving shore at the waters edge. We got in, and it was cold, much colder than Stoney, bubbled checked, checked bailout, and then started our descent.

The initial descent was quite gradual, but it soon got steeper. The viz was poor in the shallows, but below 30m it became much more clear. We descended and descended, but at around 85m, I didn’t feel right and called the dive. There was nothing specific that was wrong, but I did feel quite narked. I was sure this was from Nitrogen, and perhaps the early start, but I also wondered if it could be from CO2. Unlike the traditional down and up wreck dive, diving from the shore meant that we had to swim horizontally as well as sinking to get deeper. Either way I decided that I’d rather turn the dive at 85m than develop a problem and so we began the ascent back up. We did deep stops as per VR3s, and intermediate stops as per my Shearwater, before getting back to 6m where it was a lot warmer than the deep. Oh. And Dave threw in a few drills on the way up for fun as well, but if I told you about those I’d have to kill you.

I felt slightly despondent that afternoon as although my head knew I’d made the right decision in calling the dive my heart disagreed. Still we prepped our kit and changed our lime back at Phil’s Magnificent Diving Garage Grotto and got ready for the next day. Once the kit was prepped and packed, it was time to freshen up before going out for a meal with Dave, Phil, and Missus Phil.

Sunday dawned and although it was another early start I awoke feeling much more rested and in a better frame of mind. Today we were to be diving beneath the Chateau de Chillon. We turned up, and it was a truly picturesque site with the sun rising over a medieval castle. We kitted up in the grounds of the castle, before sliding into the water. This time there was a fair bit of swimming at 6m, but then there was time to catch my breath before descending a much steeper gradient. At around 60m everything was going well and we came across some rare fish, that normally live down at 300m, but come up to this one particular spot to breed. Phil was very excited by these, but Dave encouraged him that we should stop and look at them on the way up, rather than the way down.

Down down down we went, before we came to a temporary plateau at around 96m. Sadly we were a little lost, and although we spent a few minutes looking for a way down even deeper, it was not to be and Dave turned the dive. Coming back up we spotted the fish again before rising into the warmth of the shallower waters. Decoing at 6m I hunted through some tat on the bottom in the low viz, before attempting to put up a DSMB via Dave’s nasal inflation method. Sadly it didn’t work for me, but I did manage to put it up using the exhaust bubbles coming out of the hole in the top of my hood!

Back on land it was time for brief debrief, dekit, and the trip back to France. During the drive there was time for a more detailed debrief, and Dave told me that I’d passed, which although I was quietly confident (I like to think it would have been obvious earlier if I was on track to fail) still came as a relief. Back at Dave’s house Missus Dave cooked a slap up dinner and we sampled some of Dave’s excellent wine collection before bed and then the long drive home in the morning.

Driving the four or five hours back to Calais I had plenty of time to reflect on what I’d learnt. Although I’d learnt a couple of new ways of doing some things, what I learnt most was a way of diving. If that doesn’t sound too Zen like. I like the way that Dave dives, and seeing this has changed the way I approach my diving. I’ve also learnt a lot about my limits. Again it’s hard to explain, especially on the internet, but certainly that was a valuable experience.

All in all I’m really glad I did my MOD 3, and I’d definitely recommend Dave as an instructor.

Janos

Silent · 9th December 2007, 17:05

Well done Janos!

Glad to hear you had a good time with Dave and Phil and enjoyed the course.

So Dave's obviously still getting his junk food fixes on his dive courses...

Having visited my grandparents in Switzerland several times when I was a kid I concur that the scenery in Switzerland can be quite breathtaking!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to dive Lake Geneva with Dave & Phil one day.

Neil

Mixaddict · 9th December 2007, 19:04

Janos,

Excellent write up! Thanks for taking the time to write the report. Have some green!

***Decodiver*** · 9th December 2007, 20:11

Janos,

It was a pleasure having you on the course and Ronal McDonald has asked me to thank you for your kind words..........................

Come over whenever you want.

Cheers,

Dave.

Ben Field · 10th December 2007, 09:17

Nice write up Janos,

I don't think you are in any way alone in wondering what the mythical MOD 3 might bring you but your report goes some way (I think) in explaining it.

Nice work and well done!

9th December 2007, 16:49	#1 (permalink)
Janos "Two Sheds" Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: East Surrey Posts: 594	My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper I knew what I was going to learn in MOD 1 – how to dive a rebreather. I also knew what I would learn in my MOD 2 course – trimix. However with around 170 hours on the KISS; a 60m ticket; and life insurance that would pay out even if I were diving to 200m on an O2 rebreather with just a Spare Air for bailout, so what would I gain from doing a MOD 3? Well, I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to learn, only that I wanted to learn something, and to be a better diver at the end of the course. So earlier this year I PMed Dave Cooper (Decodiver on here) and asked him to teach me something, and to make me a better diver. He suggested that we do a generic CCR MOD 3 course and this is the report of what we did. The first day of the course was a bright sunny autumn day in Stoney. The purpose of the day was to put me through my paces and to allow Dave to assess my in-water skills. We also talked about hypoxic diluents, and how dive procedures change because of it. It was also very interesting watching Dave kit up and get ready to dive. Dave is (rightly IMHO) obsessed by having accessible and reliable bailout, and it was very instructional to see how this impacts on the way he dives. After a bit more discussion about rebreathers general kit-configuration it was time to brave the pike at Stoney. Pretending that we had hypoxic diluents, we found the water to be pleasantly warm, and the viz was ok-ish. After a bubble check at 6m, we checked bailout, and then it was time for a few shallow water drills before dropping down to the 20m shelf. After a high ppO2 drill on the sunken Land Rover we did some mask off drills. Then along to the blockhouse for a few more drills. Then to the Stanegarth for more drills and, well, you get the idea. Arriving back on the surface after an hour and a half, I was looking forward to a cup of tea. But before I could do that I had to demonstrate that I could doff and don my one-piece harness. I hadn’t tried this before but it was surprisingly easy – easier than on land at least! Back on dry land it was time for a debrief. Fortunately Dave wasn’t too disgusted with my performance and was happy for me to continue to the next stage of the course in Switzerland. Four days later on the Friday I packed up my diving kit and took a lunchtime crossing to France. Despite a few troubles with the toll booths I made it to Dave’s house near Strasbourg in time to make it along to a talk he was giving on rebreathers at a local dive club. My French is very basic, but even so I was able to make out most of what he was saying as he talked through the pros and cons of the Classic KISS, rEvo, Boris, and Meg. Then it was back to pack both our kit into Dave’s car, ready for the drive to Switzerland in the morning. Saturday morning saw us getting up very early and hooning it down to Phil (Rebreather Phil on here)’s house in Switzerland, about three hours away. Phil has a lovely house, but by far the best garage I’ve ever seen, with a full blending system including J’s of O2 and He and a booster. Truly a Magnificent Diving Grotto of a Garage. We tweaked our mixes ready for the dive, then, after coffee and my first McDonalds in four years (where I had, in a Pulp Fiction style, a Royale with Cheese) we went to the first dive site, Rivaz. The Swiss sadly don’t have a sea border, but they do have Lake Geneva, which is more than three times as deep as the English Channel, about 330m to the bottom. Our plan was to dive to the bottom. No only joking. Actually our plan was to dive to just less than a third of it’s depth – 100m. Which is scarey, scarey deep. We parked up and kitted up in an efficiently clean train station before making our way to a gentle shelving shore at the waters edge. We got in, and it was cold, much colder than Stoney, bubbled checked, checked bailout, and then started our descent. The initial descent was quite gradual, but it soon got steeper. The viz was poor in the shallows, but below 30m it became much more clear. We descended and descended, but at around 85m, I didn’t feel right and called the dive. There was nothing specific that was wrong, but I did feel quite narked. I was sure this was from Nitrogen, and perhaps the early start, but I also wondered if it could be from CO2. Unlike the traditional down and up wreck dive, diving from the shore meant that we had to swim horizontally as well as sinking to get deeper. Either way I decided that I’d rather turn the dive at 85m than develop a problem and so we began the ascent back up. We did deep stops as per VR3s, and intermediate stops as per my Shearwater, before getting back to 6m where it was a lot warmer than the deep. Oh. And Dave threw in a few drills on the way up for fun as well, but if I told you about those I’d have to kill you. I felt slightly despondent that afternoon as although my head knew I’d made the right decision in calling the dive my heart disagreed. Still we prepped our kit and changed our lime back at Phil’s Magnificent Diving Garage Grotto and got ready for the next day. Once the kit was prepped and packed, it was time to freshen up before going out for a meal with Dave, Phil, and Missus Phil. Sunday dawned and although it was another early start I awoke feeling much more rested and in a better frame of mind. Today we were to be diving beneath the Chateau de Chillon. We turned up, and it was a truly picturesque site with the sun rising over a medieval castle. We kitted up in the grounds of the castle, before sliding into the water. This time there was a fair bit of swimming at 6m, but then there was time to catch my breath before descending a much steeper gradient. At around 60m everything was going well and we came across some rare fish, that normally live down at 300m, but come up to this one particular spot to breed. Phil was very excited by these, but Dave encouraged him that we should stop and look at them on the way up, rather than the way down. Down down down we went, before we came to a temporary plateau at around 96m. Sadly we were a little lost, and although we spent a few minutes looking for a way down even deeper, it was not to be and Dave turned the dive. Coming back up we spotted the fish again before rising into the warmth of the shallower waters. Decoing at 6m I hunted through some tat on the bottom in the low viz, before attempting to put up a DSMB via Dave’s nasal inflation method. Sadly it didn’t work for me, but I did manage to put it up using the exhaust bubbles coming out of the hole in the top of my hood! Back on land it was time for brief debrief, dekit, and the trip back to France. During the drive there was time for a more detailed debrief, and Dave told me that I’d passed, which although I was quietly confident (I like to think it would have been obvious earlier if I was on track to fail) still came as a relief. Back at Dave’s house Missus Dave cooked a slap up dinner and we sampled some of Dave’s excellent wine collection before bed and then the long drive home in the morning. Driving the four or five hours back to Calais I had plenty of time to reflect on what I’d learnt. Although I’d learnt a couple of new ways of doing some things, what I learnt most was a way of diving. If that doesn’t sound too Zen like. I like the way that Dave dives, and seeing this has changed the way I approach my diving. I’ve also learnt a lot about my limits. Again it’s hard to explain, especially on the internet, but certainly that was a valuable experience. All in all I’m really glad I did my MOD 3, and I’d definitely recommend Dave as an instructor. Janos __________________ You can lead a horse to water but you can't climb a ladder with a large bell in both hands - Vic Reeves www.hellfins.com/shed
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9th December 2007, 17:05	#2 (permalink)
Silent Staying Silent! Mostly... Current Rebreather/s: Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Megalodon Ouroboros Other CCR Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Northants, UK Posts: 383	Re: My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper Well done Janos! Glad to hear you had a good time with Dave and Phil and enjoyed the course. So Dave's obviously still getting his junk food fixes on his dive courses... Having visited my grandparents in Switzerland several times when I was a kid I concur that the scenery in Switzerland can be quite breathtaking! Hopefully I'll get a chance to dive Lake Geneva with Dave & Phil one day. Neil
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9th December 2007, 19:04	#3 (permalink)
Mixaddict Always Learning! Current Rebreather/s: Inspiration Vision Evolution Other CCR Dolphin Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Other CCR Dolphin Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Draper, Utah USA Posts: 454	Re: My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper Janos, Excellent write up! Thanks for taking the time to write the report. Have some green! __________________ Randy Thornton (MixAddict) Inspiration, Evolution,Hammerhead & Sentinel CCR Instructor
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9th December 2007, 20:11	#4 (permalink)
*Decodiver* Administrator Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Ouroboros rEvo Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Inspiration Vision Evolution Sport Kiss Classic Kiss rEvo Other CCR Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Geneva Posts: 2,179	Re: My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper Janos, It was a pleasure having you on the course and Ronal McDonald has asked me to thank you for your kind words.......................... Come over whenever you want. Cheers, Dave. __________________ CCR/OC Trimix Instructor Trainer CCR Training to Mixed Gas in Switzerland, France, UK & Germany on Megalodon/COPIS-Megalodon/KISS/Sport KISS/Ouroboros/rEvo/Inspiration/Evolution/Sentinel www.zerogravitydiving.com Rebreather World Terms & Conditions
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10th December 2007, 09:17	#5 (permalink)
Ben Field CK+Shearwater Current Rebreather/s: Classic Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London, England Posts: 1,570	Re: My MOD 3 course with Dave Cooper Nice write up Janos, I don't think you are in any way alone in wondering what the mythical MOD 3 might bring you but your report goes some way (I think) in explaining it. Nice work and well done! __________________ www.hugsac.org.uk Beware Fridge Suck
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