Category — Opinions

The Rubicon Foundation is running its fall fund raiser and I want you to support them.   From Gene’s post on Rebreather World:

The Rubicon Research Repository has grown significantly in the last few years. We have over 9,000 unique visitors from around the world each month reviewing our vast collection of FREE environmental physiology literature. We would like to request that you please consider a donation to support continued growth of this resource. We can’t do this without you!

For the fall fund raiser, we are offering embroidered hats for $US25.00 in the US and $US31.00 in the UK.

The hats are khaki and dark grey with the RRR logo on the front and url across the back. Please see our “donations” page for payment options (PayPal or GuideStar). Please select your color preference with your payment or PM me if you prefer.

The first order will be going in tomorrow afternoon. If you are planning to give one to your dive buddies for the holidays, please get your order in before the end of the month.

As always, please consider the addition of a link to Rubicon on your own web site.

Thank you for your continued support of our work!

The Rubicon Foundation provides an excellent resource for divers interested in research and scientific publications.  I know I have used their archive on more then one occasion.

And just so you don’t think I am only foisting the responsibility on you, I will be making my $25.00 donation when I am done posting this.

If you donate to The Rubicon Foundation, drop me a comment with why you elected too.  Or better yet, leave a comment telling me how you found it a useful resource and what you learned!

Here is more about The Rubicon foundation from their website:

The Rubicon Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization undertaking projects that:

• Contribute to the interdependent dynamic between research, exploration, science and education;
• Improve the available resources for students, professionals and the general public; and
• Preserve the valuable natural resources that are vital to future endeavors.

Collaboration enhances outcomes by combining independent efforts to form a single force working toward the realization of common goals. The Rubicon Foundation is building a solid network of collaborators — public and private businesses, non-profit organizations, government entities and philanthropists.

Erik emailed me tonight to announce the launch of his dive blog.  I thought I would pass that announcement on to you.  Check it out: http://www.thinkingdiver.com

Learning to lift an unconscious diver, confirming an alternate route to Jill’s Chamber and a DCS incident.

After a long brake it was time to go back.  This time we started different; with the success of the previous dives in mind we decided to go full scale this time. The main idea was to make the whole project as safe as possible. We quickly understood that being just the two of us would not cut it anymore. Analyzing scenarios including an unconscious diver, a growing number of tanks, and increasingly complex logistics led us to the fact that we would need more support, at least two more divers.

The search was difficult because we were looking for people who like to spend their days off carrying numerous tanks, being eaten by mosquito’s, spending hours out of the water just waiting to later jump in and shuttle tanks around. They also need to understand their role in the team and why we can’t have them fun dive or risk anything even remotely dangerous.  Plus, the idea of trusting your life with somebody else is quiet disturbing. With Hans continually supporting deeper and deeper we needed somebody to fill his spot and somebody out of the water. After many discussions, Hans and I finally called Alain Pocobelli and Etienne Rousseau.  After we explained the criteria for participation they were super stoked and happy to join…awesome.

We all met at Pro Tec for our first meeting.  We discussed protocols, procedures, and set some goals. Specifically, we developed an idea to build a system to lift an unconscious diver from the water up to the trucks, an emergency and evacuation plan, and the parameters for 5 progressive dives the last of which would be a push dive to the end of the line in the Next Generation Tunnel.  We also agreed to document our experiences, procedures and protocols in a manual.  The manual would be used to educate new team members, in the event of an emergency as well as guide our decisions.

The plan for the first day was to setup the unconscious diver system and dive to the Wakulla Room supported by Alain and Etienne. For the support divers, it would be their first opportunity to learn the descent lines and the start of the main line.  For Hans, it would be his first deep mixed gas cave dive.  I would use the opportunity to execute a practice bailout at 300ft while swimming a horizontal distance through the bypass; the primary objective was to confirm my numbers.

As with all complex plans it was bound to change. Constructing a system for lifting a 235lbs (106kilo) diver with equipment 20ft (6m) from the surface of the water and then swinging him on to a platform was more difficult then anticipated. We wanted the system to be simple enough that a single person could operate it in high stress conditions. With limited climbing gear and other resources it seemed almost impossible. Through trial and error it took us some 5 hours to construct and test a nearly working system.  I write, “Nearly” because it still required two people to operate.

After the enormous effort, Hans and I called our dive.  We were exhausted, stressed and it was late in the afternoon.   With the roles reversed, Hans and I played support and cleaned up while Alain and Etienne made a reconnaissance dive.

That evening, I left with a slight feeling of defeat.   It was the first time I went through the effort of blending, putting everything together, waking up early, paying the entrance fee and then not diving.

Three days later I was back at The Pit with a similar plan, this time with Hans and Chris.  Chris is a professional Cave Rescue Expert from Poland. He and I had been diving the week before and when I heard of his profession, I knew I had to get him out there and learn from him.  He quickly came up with 3 different lift systems. Unbelievable!  To our relief, he thought our system wasn’t bad at all; we were just missing one critical improvement that would facilitate single person operation and swinging the body onto the platform.

Unfortunately, rigging and testing took a lot of time and required considerable heavy lifting.  Just like the day before, we finished setting up late.  As I prepared for our dive, I contemplated calling the dive; however I wasn’t able to leave The Pit again without trying my suit inflation system, my new helmet and the bailout plan. Mistake #1.

It is funny how we can feel pressure where there is none. As we prepared for the dive we were feeling time pressure; therefore we decided to shorten the bottom time. Without my normal pre-dive meditation we hurried into the dive. I laid line and Hans staged his intermediate mix.

Cruising through the bacteria cloud at 190ft (57m) I was super happy to finally be back. At the T before the Bypass Hans and I split, he swam through the Bypass at 281ft (85m) and I took the deeper “Main Tunnel” at 305ft (93m). Surprisingly, it is quiet narrow and more difficult to pass.  Two minutes later we met at the second T where the lines join again; it was time to turn the dive and start the bailout drill.

I signaled Hans and bailed out. I chose a bailout gas with a deeper END than I normally use to make it more difficult and more realistic.  To add to the realism, we planned to exit the cave with haste to simulate the highest possible gas consumption due to stress or CO2 poisoning.  For precaution, Hans closely monitored me ready to donate a shallower END bailout gas or I could go back on the loop in the event the Inert Gas Narcosis was too strong.

The first three breathes brought on the strong narcotic effect and it became difficult to focus on my objectives. Complicating the situation was the fact that my weighting in saltwater was neutral with my wing totally deflated. So being off the loop with gas remaining in the counter lungs made buoyancy management more challenging.

Imagine me swimming at full speed while squeezing through the Bypass, switching the set point down to avoid O2 injection, opening the OPV and rolling to get as much gas out of the loop as possible and I was becoming positive, all under the effect of Inert Gas Narcosis…what a blast. I am happy I couldn’t see myself.

By the time I arrived at the turn at 213ft (65m) I had regained composure and everything went “pretty” smoothly from there.

The main goal of simulating a realistic bailout scenario at depth was absolutely accomplished, I learned A LOT.  The old saying: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” confirmed itself once more, thanks Steve. I use this line like a thousand times per course, maybe I should listen to myself once in a while.

After the dive, we truncated our normal 2 hour break because it was getting dark. As I climbed out to hoist and load the tanks, I felt a slight pain in my left shoulder and right ankle; it subsided quickly.  However, it was definitely an indication we worked too hard before and during the dive and that we needed more conservatism.

As we loaded the truck, I got a phone call from Alain who had taken off the next day to join us at The Pit. Since support was available and we agreed to not do anymore push dives without support, we felt obliged to dive.  We agreed to dive the next day, mistake #2.

Again, it is funny how we feel pressure where there is none. We didn’t anticipate that our desire to increase safety by having more support onsite would pressure us into something we knew from the beginning was a bad idea?!?

After blending and prepping the rebreathers, I arrived home at about 2200h. I ate, hydrated and went to bed. The next day we started even earlier to hedge against time pressure. However, we left Playa late because we had to reassemble the CCRs, analyze gases and leak check everything in the pool. Once on site we reinstalled the evacuation system and instructed Alain on the improved version.

For a second day in a row, I was late into the water due to Hans calling his dive because of technical difficulties with his Meg and Alain bruising his leg when he slipped and trapped it between the platform and the rock wall.  Calling the dive crossed my mind, however everything was in place and I felt confident it was safe.  Once the dive started, I was slower then normal as I had to swim all my tanks and stage them.  Mistake #3.

My goal was to explore the other passage into Jill’s Chamber and see if it would be easier to navigate with a scooter then the horrible chimney I passed last time. I hoped to find the origin of the line that was paralleling the main line through Jill’s Chamber into the Next Generation Tunnel. To add conservatism, I selected the VPM B/E algorithm.  I wanted to accommodate for the back-to-back days of deep diving, the strenuous pre-dive work and as a response to the way I felt the day before.

I arrived at the end of Wakulla Room only a minute slower then planned, even though I had to stage all my tanks.  As I swam through the BMB, I started to get a little nervous again, anxious to see the size of the restriction.  Before the T, I crossed sides to get a peak up the restriction. Fortunately, it was a little bigger and did not ascend vertically like the chimney.  It’s slope was more manageable as it ascended to 328ft (100m), instead of 314ft (96m).  There it led to a canyon depicted cave, which headed towards Jill’s Chamber.

After a short distance there is another T. Well actually it is a Jump that is “T”ed into the main line. The main line ends about two body lengths after. So I took the T to the left and further ascended into an even narrower canyon, which further ascends towards Jill’s Chamber.

I was stoked because I was nearly 100% sure that I had found the origin of the paralleling line and passed the chimney. About 1 minute later I was in Jill’s chamber and it was confirmed. It is pretty hard for me to explain my emotions; I felt unbelievably awesome! I think it took me like 30sec to gain control over my euphoria. I was 20min into the dive and I had fulfilled my objectives; it was time to turn.

The way out was relaxed since I did not have to pass upside down through a tight restriction. My decompression obligation was substantial due to the more conservative VPM B/E algorithm. I stopped at every waypoint to keep track of exit times, picked up the tanks and did a couple of short deco stops in between the levels.  Forty-five minutes into the dive I could see the open water in the distance and my Time to Surface was about 160min.

At 131ft (40m) Alain greeted me, took my tanks and left me with one 80cf.  I swam around the huge dome to stay warm and to help the time pass a little bit faster. Even though I was warmer then past dives, I decided that this would be my last long dive at The Pit without a habitat.

When I arrived at 40ft (12m) the dive had been going perfectly and I was very happy.  I swam around and moved my upper body a little bit to warm up and increase blood flow. Suddenly, I felt an unbelievably sharp pain in my left shoulder. At first I was shocked but I was hopeful because I still had almost 2 hours of deco ahead. The pain faded about 15 minutes later; however, I decided to extend all the remaining stops.

When I arrived at 20ft (6m) I extend my 65min stop to 75min. The pain was almost completely gone and I started to surface. At 10ft (3m) I added a stop even though the urge to surface after 4h almost drove me crazy. After 5 min I started a super slow final ascent. Almost immediately upon surfacing the pain in my shoulder returned at full intensity accompanied by pain in both ankles.

I stayed in the water on the loop breathing O2 for 20min contemplating what I should do.  Should I get out of the water or go back down?  Eventually, I decided against going back down because of my body temperature, general physical state and a 100%+ CNS clock.

As soon as I surfaced and didn’t come off the loop, Hans was nearby with an 80cf of O2.  When I decided to exit the water, he helped me strip my gear and I pulled myself up onto the wooden platform. I lay there breathing open circuit O2, hydrating and scanning my body for neurological symptoms. After 30min the intensity of the pain hadn’t changed. I decided it was time to evacuate. I climbed up to the trucks and sat down for a moment.   The pain disappeared and the general fatigue vanished.  Coming off the long period of high PO2 it seemed plausible, but I didn’t trust the situation since something felt strange.

As we left The Pit, I continued to scan myself for pain or neurological symptoms related to DCS. I felt great and honestly a bit relieved. The entire drive back I tried to figure out what happened.  I wanted an explanation for the weird sensations I had at 40ft (12m), on my final ascent and shortly after the dive. Why did I feel that way and what can I do different next time?  Arriving home I felt unchanged: no pain, no extreme fatigue, and no other symptoms. A long day had passed and I was happy to be home and ready for dinner and bed.

I am really happy about our progress and our understanding of the cave.  I am also happy that our team is growing and we are taking a more conservative approach to diving and the project’s logistics.  The project is remains very exciting and we are learning so much from each dive.

Looking back it is easy to identify many of the mistakes.  Many of you will ask why I made them? I can only answer that I am human, this is a learning experience and mistakes are inevitable.  Sometimes the cost for a mistake is small, sometimes it is huge.  Life it seems is a hard teacher, many times you get the test first and the lesson later. There was a time when I read articles like this and said: “Ha, I would never make mistakes like that.” But this was also a time when I didn’t do dives like this.

I want to thank Chris for his invaluable input on our rescue system, Alain and Etienne for supporting us and joining the team and Hans for letting me post on his blog.

Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, I suffered a DCS incident.  I am going to follow this story up with another about the DCS.

This is my story about the Pit and it is to be continued.

Edited By Hans

Learning to not waste gas setting the primary reel.

A couple of weeks ago, I did an awesome single stage dive down Tunnel A and out to the end of the line past Maya’s Two Cenote and Lost Cenote.  In the weeks leading up to the dive I was feeling flat and burned out.   Probably from doing too many dives that required too much preparation, work and stress.  That dive really turned things around and refreshed me.  The highlight of the dive was the blue water in Hostage Hall.   I don’t know; I just had a ton of fun.  When Alain and I decided to dive today, I knew just where to go, Mayan Blue.

It was Alain’s first trip to Mayan Blue and I had an excellent dive in mind.  Patrick had been bugging me to do the do the circuit that passes through The Tubes and then up through The Dead Zone.  I thought I would finally oblige him.  Luckily, on the aforementioned dive I had done about fifty percent of the circuit so I sort of knew what to look for to connect the loop.  I remembered a red arrow that said Sun Cenote on the line coming down from the Dead Zone.  That was my mental clue for knowing where to connect the lines.

It has rained for the last 35 consecutive days.  This has flooded some of the cenotes. When we arrived at Mayan Blue the water was 1ft over the deck and the water was tannic down to about 10ft (3m).  I really hate jumping into tannic water, I always feel like there is going to be a scary monster in the water that is going to reach up and bite me.  I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about.  I overcame my fear and we started the dive from The Dead Zone entrance.

I lead and Alain staged a bottle of 02.   I had been in that section before so finding the main line was pretty easy.    We estimated it would take us 7-8 minutes to get to our first way point, the sharp right hand turn where the tunnel turns south and drops down to 60ft (18m).  We reached it in 9 minutes.  We were close to schedule but I still wasn’t sure if we would make it to our objective, the jump to line leading to Maya’s Two Cenote.

I am going to digress for a minute, but I suffer from a terrible waste of gas when setting the guideline to open water.  For some reason, I always seem to burn 500psi out of one tank for that small task, even when the main line isn’t that far from open water.  Setting the reel drove my SAC through the roof and would blow out my estimates for the entire dive.  It was really frustrating!

For a brief moment I considered carrying a small stage just for setting the reel.  I know it is ridicules, but it was awful and embarrassing to waste that much gas at the beginning of the dive.  I knew it wouldn’t fix the problem only the symptom.  So, I decided to talk to Steve about it during dpv/stage class.  I explained to him what was happening and how frustrated I was.

He suggested that after prepping for the dive and getting all worked up entering the water I was a little stressed.  He asked me how I felt when I started most dives and I told him stressed and anxious.  His guess correlated nicely to my experience.  He suggested that after everything is ready to go, I take 5 minutes, float on the surface, and focus on relaxing and breathing.  Take some time and just chill out.

He also suggested that setting the reel added to my stress level and I was forgetting about my breathing.  The cumulative effect was why I was wasting so much gas.  I agreed with him.

With that knowledge I decided to put his recommendations into use today.  Once Alain and I were completely ready to dive, pre-dive checks and all were complete, we took five minutes and just floated there.  I took some time to meditate and relax each muscle group on each exhale.  It felt great.  The stress and anxiety of the coming dive melted away.  I cooled off a bit and started to breath with a nice rhythm.  I just felt so much better.  Thank you Steve!

Setting the reel went really smoothly and I used about 50% of the gas that I would have normally used for a run that long, I think about 250PSI.  I made my breathing the first priority, buoyancy with the BC next and setting the reel number three.  I was really satisfied with the change.  Everything just came together.

The swim down from the turn is really beautiful!  There is big cave, small cave, restrictions, and silt.  It is perfect cave for sidemount.  I can only think of two places I needed to turn 90degrees to fit through a restriction, the rest of them would have been tight in backmount.  When we reached the first potential connection point, it was 19 minutes.  We found a green arrow and a pretty big jump. I swam across and put a cookie on the end of that line and returned.  I was pretty sure we weren’t in the right place yet.  The arrow on our line was pointing wrong direction and it was the wrong color.  Unfortunately, those two indicators can’t be trusted here.  Lines and arrows change in Mexico ALL the time.  I wrote some notes on my survey slate and we continued.

We passed a couple of more arrows and a change in direction.  None of those were candidates because they were jumps in the wrong direction.  Were having a fabulous dive!  We finally came to two red arrows that said Sun Cenote.  I looked right and the jump was about 2ft.  I felt like we were in the right place and the time reflected it at 36minutes.  I signaled Alain and asked if he wanted to make the jump.  He said yes and told me he has about 200psi to burn between his tanks.  I signaled him I had about the same amount of gas and I just wanted to go a little ways, he affirmed, I installed a small spool and we crossed.  We swam a couple of minutes and I started to recognize the cave, I felt confident.  At 40 minutes it was time to turn the dive and I placed my cookie.  We agreed to use 900psi and we hit the mark about the same time.  I was stoked knowing that we had jumped onto the correct line.  We exited leaving our markers and reel in place.  The exit only took 31 minutes, Alain picked up the pace after accusing me of being slow.  We used even less gas on the exit.

During the 2 hour surface interval we tried to figure out where on the map we made the connecting jump.  We never really did.  Either the distances are wrong or I am just confused.  Alain and I decided we were going to try and complete the circuit.  We agreed that when we reached my cookie, we needed to have 2000psi left.  This added 200PSI of conservatism.

We entered the water and we repeated the relaxation routine.  It was awesome, I felt great.  We put the primary reel in A Tunnel wasting little gas and made the first marked jump to the left.  We passed Maya’s Two Cenote at about 10 minutes and dropped down into The Tubes.  The dive was going great.  In fact, this dive was better then my first dive to the tubes.  The first time I was in very limited visibility the entire time. Don’t accuse me, I found it that way.  This time visibility was great and now that I could see the floor, I was amazed how bad the floor in The Tubes is damaged.  It looks like there was a bar room brawl down there!  People, please be more considerate and practice some cave conservation.  If it is too small and you can’t stay off the floor, stay the fuck out.  This is equally true of Minotauro.  It is going to take centuries or more to repair your damage.  There is plenty of cave that doesn’t require you to be that close to the mud.

We made it to the T at Lost Cenotes in about 25 minutes.  I wasn’t sure how much further it was to the marker.  The first time I came this route I had checked all the jumps and really wasted a lot of time.  I was surprised when we hit my cookie at about 30 minutes.  I had used 600psi out of each tank, so we had plenty of gas.  Alain and I did all the appropriate confirmations and decided to finish the circuit.  We gave each other a high five.  I have to admit that it is comforting to come up on your own gear and confirm you are going the right way.  We finished the circuit at 60 minutes and with 1500psi remaining in each tank.

We did a short stop and swam over to A Tunnel.  We dropped down and went to pick up our gear.  I had placed a cookie at the T in Maya’s Two and didn’t want to leave it.  When we reached the end of the clean up we were at 94 minutes and I had 10 minutes of deco on my Suunto D6, Alain had no deco on his computer.   He did a safety stop plus two minutes and surfaced. When he got to the deck there was a 5ft black and white snake sunning itself.  Alain was trapped in the water.

When my computer finally cleared it was 109 minutes.  I love deco minutes on dive computers, talk about bending space time.  I swam to the wrong end of the cenote while decoing, so I had to surface swim back.  By the time I arrived the scary monster had slithered into the water and disappeared.  We celebrated the dive, cleaned up and headed to Tulum for some chicken at Pollo Bronco.  It was another excellent day with a great friend and dive buddy.

This is a fantastic circuit, but it takes all day to setup, complete and clean up.  If you want to dive it, I recommend getting some Nitrox 32.  That would keep you squarely in the NDL limits.  Also, care has to be taken if you are diving in backmount or with a stage.  There are some tight areas that can easily be damaged.  Lastly, a big percentage of this dive is in the halocline, so be considerate of your dive buddies.  I would really limit the team size to two.

Warning: This post is not about diving.

Recently, I got  a great comment from one of my readers in Washington.

“Respect your views, but you might also consider the value of a “no confidence” vote, which can be a no show at the polls. Imagine if less than 10% of the voters actually voted. Would the winner be able to claim authority? Claim a “mandate”? Or would the populace have demonstrated a complete lack of faith in the system said to be representative?

If the two party system gets much more staged and obscene than it is now, a no-vote may be the only useful action available to the American voter.” —Nephew of Uncle Sam

Thank you for sharing your ideas.  I think I understand your objective, which is to demonstrate your dissatisfaction with the leadership.  I agree that a no confidence vote would be affective at achieving that objective.  However, I have to disagree that abstaining achieves the same thing.

The first question that comes to mind is; are you unhappy with democracy or the parties and their candidates?  I think it is critical to accurately focus on what is broken.

The last couple of hundred years demonstrate that the democratic experiment seems to work.  We elect good leaders and bad ones.  Recently, we haven’t gotten very good ones.  Congress and the Executive Branch are beholden to a system that is out of balance.  The current system requires huge sums of money to get elected and in order to collect that money, the candidates need to pander, spend huge amounts of time fund raising and be flexible in their principles.  The electoral system is broken right now.

However, I believe it will heal itself.  Eventually, the pain for the voting public will become great enough that they will develop the courage to vote for candidates that actually protect their interests.  I think a lot of our trouble right now is that the voting public is generally disconnected, under-informed and unengaged.  Eventually they will engage.  The current economic crisis may be the catalyst we need.  Fortunately, every so often there are great upheavals in the system and it readjusts itself.  I think we are in the midst of one today.

Therefore, I believe to further disengage on a massive scale would be counter productive and eventually catastrophic.  If only 10% were to vote, you are correct that we would be left with a elected official without a clear mandate from the populous.   We would guarantee another four years of grid lock and trouble.

Or worse, only the most fanatical would vote and elect an extreme right or left candidate.  The elected official that wouldn’t represent the interests of the silent majority; he would represent the interests of the fanatical minority.

You could say that is what we have in office today, someone who represents only the interests of the biggest donors, and you might be right.  However, those donors don’t normally represent the extreme fringe; it isn’t in their interests to do so.

If you look at emerging democracies this is exactly how despots get elected.  The majority decides or is intimidated not to vote and the fanatical minority elects their candidate.  Before you know it, civil liberties are further eroded, terms limits are over turned and the democracy is crushed.

Our leaders need a mandate to lead.  Just squeaking in doesn’t provide it.  It creates more problems then it solves.  I suggest, rather than not vote, we should further engage and work to change the system.  There are a couple of options.

1. You can vote for a third party candidate who represents your interests.  If enough people do, we will get real change.
2. Talk about politics and how the country is governed with friends and strangers.  Engage in civil discourse and engage them in the system.  I think it is ridiculous that we say you shouldn’t talk about politics at parties.  Where should we talk about it?  A plurality of ideas is powerful and life changing.  If we engage on a basic level, we can engage at the voting booth and with our representatives.
3. Gather your news from multiple sources.  Read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, biographies and history texts.  Educate yourself and empower yourself to choose appropriate candidates.  Taking your news from one source, especially TV, is corrosive and doesn’t engage people in the system.  It is completely passive and wasteful.
4. Get involved in the system. Run for office, run for school board, and implement changes yourself.
5. Organize voter registration of your disgruntled friends and organize them around candidates that represent your interest.  Start local and go national.
6. Take advantage of the ability to make micro donations to candidates that represent you.  The internet provides a game changing approach to campaign finance.  If millions of voters give a little, they can overcome the limited the dominance  of big donors.  Donate to candidates that will change the political  discourse and raise issues that you believe in.

These are just a few of the things we can all do to engage and change things.  The most powerful force on earth is a well educated, informed, engaged citizenry.  Look to history for some prime examples: The Renaissance, French Revolution, American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Civil Rights Movement and the recent Technology Revolution.  All of those radical upheavals were driven by engaged, educated citizens, not governments.

“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” —Lyndon B. Johnson, Washington D.C. 6th August 1965

Go out and start the process of change.  Decisions are made by those who show up. Thanks for writing and I look forward to your response.

Some might say I am a training machine, others might recognize that I am just taking full advantage of the time I have here in Mexico, a limited number will say I am just collecting cards and the rest of you will keep your opinions to yourself because you just don’t care or you are envious.  In all cases, it is really none of my business what you think about me.  My responsibility is to do the best I can, learn as much as I can and apply it in my daily diving.  I believe that to be truth.

Last week, Allie and I were driving to the ferry to pick up Anna; we were talking and Allie turned me onto an awesome quote from Steve Martin.

“When people ask how do you make it in show business?  What they want to hear is how you get an agent, here is how you write a script, here is how you do this. What I always say is be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin

I was moved by the quote and thought it made an excellent principle for life.  I have asked her to repeat it to me at least 50 times since I originally heard it.  It is a solid idea and my experience has shown it to be true.

There will always be people who share their negative opinions and take shots at you.  If you share your insights in a public forum like a weblog, editorial page or on the message boards, the flames and comments will be harsh.  But the fact is most of the negative opinions are voiced by a very small very loud minority.  Most of who are not qualified and whose opinions are based neither fact nor experience.

If you are executing the dives, analyzing them and writing about your experiences and insights, then there is really little to argue about.  And there remains plenty of room for healthy discourse based on other’s experience and insight.  Of course, that is predicated on the idea that you do rigorous analysis of the dives, the mistakes and the successes.  If you are sitting in your office thinking about dives, doing thought experiments and you come to your profound conclusions, it might be best if you give it a try before arguing it to the ends of the earth and tell others with practical experience they are wrong.

I make an effort to not argue with people online.  I don’t believe I can win; I am not ruthless enough.  I have never been good at throwing rocks.  In a deep way, I would rather be happy then right.  I get nothing from being right but restlessness, irritability, mental masturbation and anxiety.   Unfortunately, it is impossible to be right in the face of ignorance; you can’t change people.  I get everything from being happy.  It is the only thing I can control.  Because I don’t make my life contingent on what you think I enjoy peace, serenity, and freedom. The real twist is when I choose to be happy and I have the opportunity know deep down in my soul I might be right.

Therefore, I try to make factual statements based on my direct experience and insight.  I believe people are able to filter out the noise and get to the core of the issue and with any luck will be able to apply the ideas in their diving.  In the long run if you are honest and are really that good, people just can’t ignore you.

Becoming a Trimix Rebreather Diver with Andrew Driver of Blue Foot Diving

On May 17, 2003, I was certified as an Advanced Open Water diver.  The following Christmas I got “The Last Dive” from my in-laws and I read it cover to cover on Christmas day.  My in-laws thought I was nuts, maybe I am.  I purchased every narrative I could find on deep diving.  Each story deepened my interest; the characters and the dives captured my imagination.  Allie noticed all the books and asked me if I was interested in diving the Andrea Doria?  She wanted to know where this was going.  I admitted was and I estimated it would take me five years to reach the that level.

When I made the decision to pursue deep diving, I had a couple of principles in mind:

• Be safe and take it slow.
• Maintain a positive mental attitude.
• Be young enough to be fit to not hazard my health.
• Do it using a rebreather.
• Seek the best instruction possible from a range of instructors.
• Ensure my wife understands what I was doing and the risks involved.
• Surround myself with people who would guide me and help to pace me.

Five years later, I have executed just shy of 500 safe dives. 350 of those dives have been technical dives, either North East Wreck Diving or Cave Diving.  Eighty of those dives have been with my Megalodon rebreather.   In January, I moved to Mexico for diving. I started running 3.5 miles three times a week and going to the gym.  And I have continually sought training from some of the top instructor in the world.  All this culminated in a trip to the United States to take my Rebreather Trimix Diver course with Andrew Diver of Blue Foot Diving.

Book One.  Incomplete Normoxic Trimix.

Completing the CCR (Rebreather) Trimix course has been an odyssey.  In fall of 2007 I met Joe Z., Fabrice, Eric Goldstein and Andrew in Alexandria Bay.  Our plan was to do some DPV diving and start the Normoxic Rebreather Trimix course.  I started class with 50 hours on my Meg.  We did a handful of Normoxic Trimix dives and lots of drills: High PO2, Low PO2, Solenoid Stuck Open, and deploying a lift bag.  We had a ton of fun and laughed a lot.  We visited the Islander, the America, the Key Storm, the Vickery and the bow of the Jodrey.  Max depth on that trip was 197ffw.  Of course we got to spend time with Mo Hunt.  Mo is a local legend who has been diving for 55 years.  They were all awesome dives and I learned a ton.  Hanging around with people like Eric, Joe Z. and Fabrice is amazing.

Andrew’s style of teaching is to teach as you do.  Consequently, most of the lessons are very practical and are derived straight from experience.  He has two philosophies that really struck me, I am paraphrasing:

“People come to dive not sit in a classroom.  So, I get them out diving as fast as possible.  It gives me a chance to assess where they are at and it gives them a chance to dive.  It helps me to structure the course and helps to focus on the student’s needs.”

“If the basics are solid, the rest will follow.  With a solid grasp of the basics, situations which might have posed a substantial hazard will become second nature to identify, troubleshoot and resolve.”

These ideas are reflected in his teaching methods.  The three times I have been to Alex Bay, as the locals call it; we dived on the first day.  We hit the water, did some basic drills and started the process of getting comfortable.  I could see Andrew watching us as we did the drills; his debriefs were short and never belittling.  On the days that I looked like a spasm in the water, he told me I looked like a spasm.  We would laugh a little and then talk about what I could do better and how I could develop processes to deal with each task.  On the days I did what I was told, he didn’t tell me I look like a spasm.  I guess part of his British nature is not to celebrate when you do what you are told.   We spent a lot of time on the basics and by nailing them, the rest of the diving became easier.

Unfortunately, we didn’t plan to finish the class that weekend.  I walked away certified; which was fine, because the rest of that fall I didn’t do any diving.  Work had gotten out of control and I was preparing for my move.  I wanted to put some more medium depth dives together before moving on.

Book Two: False Starts

Before moving to Mexico, I met a fellow name Patrick Widmann.  Patrick is skinny (way skinny), a cave instructor, a deep diver, my mentor, my dive buddy and the motivating force!  Once I arrived, I learned Patrick had designs on exploring The Pit.  If you are a regular reader of this blog you will have seen his posts.  One day Patrick and I got to talking and he told me about his plans.  I thought they sounded interesting and wanted to participate.  The problem was that I was not Trimix certified and I only planned to be in Mexico for one year.  I needed a solution for both.  I went home and declared to Allie, “We need to stay for two years at minimum.  I want to explore The Pit and I estimate it would take me year to work up to it.”  Luckily, Allie agreed.

I was anxious to complete my Hypoxic Trimix Rebreather Course.  As luck would have it, there are not many instructors who are qualified to teach it on the Yucatan.  To be exact there is one, Steve Bogaerts.  Luckily, Steve is already my instructor so we scheduled the course for the end of July.  Steve did a lot of the deep exploration at The Pit on double redundant Inspiration rebreathers; I thought his practical experience made him an excellent candidate.

July started with my parents in town for 10 days.  The trip was stressful, my bed frame broke and my back went out in a BIG way.  It required acupuncture and three shots in the ass.  We elected to cancel the course because we agreed it would be a terrible idea to do deep mix diving with an inflamed back.  I guess that is where the health hazard principle comes in.  I was totally bummed, because Patrick and I had a bunch of dives to do during low season and I lost my chance to get qualified.  Luckily, Patrick and I were able to work around it and he made significant progress.

Book Three.  Don’t Change Your Configuration.

As the gods would have it, my back didn’t get better for a couple of weeks.   When we attempted to reschedule my Trimix class in September, it conflicted with the arrival of Steve’s new baby.  The next opportunity wouldn’t be until October.

I couldn’t wait any longer!  Fortunately, I had a wedding the first week in September in NJ.  I contacted Andrew and asked if he could arrange a course.  Bingo!  Andrew put a course together for three of us.  With some skepticism I packed the Megalodon in my hand luggage and a 120lbs worth of dive gear and cloths in my checked luggage and headed for the states.  Luckily, I am a frequent flier and was allowed more then one heavy bag.  I got home with zero charges or difficulties.  The only real challenge was at security in Cancun.  They closely examined the Meg, but let it pass.  Promptly, I removed the red and yellow warning labels.

When I went to my storage unit in NJ to fetch my dry suit, I discovered the neck seal had melted and the edge was dry rotted.  I put some duct tape on the seal and used it the whole week.  Amazingly, it was dry and didn’t rip.  I am eternally grateful.

When I arrived at Andrew’s house, I learned the third man had bailed out.  It was down to two of us.  Andrew loaned me some steel tanks.  I decided to invert my tanks this time.  I thought it would be easier to reach the valves, normally I dive de-inverted.  This was the first mistake, changing my gear configuration.

We went for a shore dive on the Islander.  I was super wonky!  I hadn’t been in a dry suit for more then a year and it showed.  I was over weighted and out of trim.  My feet were down and I looked like a stroke!  Luckily, I survived.  We finished the dive and my classmate quit; he hit his limit.  This was his second attempt at Hypoxic and he just didn’t have the juice.  Andrew and I did another dive and that ended day one.

Day two arrived and Eric Goldstein showed up.  I was grateful to see him.  I really like diving with Eric because he is an excellent diver, very knowledgeable and funny.  We planned to go out on the boat, but with so few people it didn’t make economic sense.   We did another shore dive, this time to 140ffw.  This dive Andrew gave me two Al80’s to manage, which shouldn’t have been an issue.  I was closer to trim head to toe, but my lateral trim was shit.  Normally, I side mount my tanks balancing them.  I decided to emulate Andrew and Eric and wear them on the left.  This was the second big mistake.

I know what works for me, but I elected to do something different.  I assumed I could adapt.  That was a lapse in judgment and the dive was shit.  There was a decent current and we had to pull and glide.  My gloves had holes in them and my fingers got sliced to shreds.  I could see the blood in the water.  Plus, I was swimming with a 45 degree list.  I looked like a COMPLE STROKE.  It took me until the next dive to sort out my lateral trim.  I needed to make changes in the placement of weight and the way I clipped the tanks in.  I was still over weighted.  Luckily, I get through all the skills.

For the next two days we dove the Jodrey.  There was a lot of drilling on High PO2, Low PO2 and bailing out.  We completed a partial ascent off the loop.  I spent a lot time on my Golem BOV, and I convinced.  I didn’t notice any WOB issues on it at 220ffw. Throughout class, I tried the drills in a couple of ways: faster, slower, and blundered.  The conclusion was that I need to take my time when I perform the drills and think it through.  I had a tendency to go on autopilot and do the flush too fast.  I need to spend more time verifying the cells.

The last day was spent in the class room talking about gas selection and other technical issues.  Andrew’s lectures are factual and to the point.  As a bonus, I had examples from The Pit.  Andrew and I worked through the gas selections and the deciding factors.

The course was challenging and a lot of fun.  I learned a substantial amount and I got a chance to tune up my skills again.  Upon reflection, I would have liked to have had a day or two more in my dry suit diving before starting class.  It would have given me an opportunity to perfect my trim and buoyancy, thereby allowing me to concentrate on the skills rather then basic issues.  The expectation is buoyancy and trim should be in the bag on arrival, however, the change in environment really through me for a loop.

I should have stuck to a configuration that was similar to the one I use in Mexico; even if I had to explain it to the team.  The addition of the dry suit, the tanks on the left and the inverted tanks added a noticeable level of task loading, which robbed me of cycles to use on performing the tasks on the dives.  The lesson is, don’t change things before class! I should have learned that lesson already.  Ironically, I had a similar issue during my Advanced Sidemount Course.  I got a new 9MM wet suit the day before class and it killed my buoyancy and trim, creating a terrible problem on the first day of class.

The joy is in the journey.  The truth is that the experience of diving and spending time with friends is so much more fulfilling then getting a Trimix Card.  I am glad I passed, it is important to me to do well.  But more important is the opportunity to dive with people I like.  People I can share the joy with.  Diving is a supremely social activity for me.  I like to solo dive, but I really like to dive with a good buddy.   Luckily, I have that buddy and we have some big dives planned.  In the coming months I look forward to opportunity to put my training to use as we dive The Pit, The Blue Abyss, the cenotes near Merida and the local walls.  I will keep you in the loop.

Participating in the democratic experiment.

Warning: This is not dive related.  But it is important to me, so I am going to waste some bits and bytes on it.

I am a United States Citizen.  And as a citizen it is my responsibility to participate in our democracy, even when I am displeased or disheartened by the results.  Therefore, I needed to request my absentee ballot for this fall’s presidential election in November.

In years past, I would have dragged my feet till the last minute on an issue like this.  I don’t like dealing with the bureaucracy in the U.S. and living there, you can get away with waiting.  However, living in Mexico and dealing with getting stuff in and out of the country, I knew I needed to start a little early.  With a lot of skepticism, I did a Google search for “US absentee voting international”.  The first result was Overseas Vote Foundation.  With still more skepticism, I decided to use their online request process.  I selected my state under “Register to Vote Request your Ballot” and clicked continue.  I hate giving out personal information online.

The form took about 5 minutes to fill out and the result was a PDF with clear instructions on what to do next.  I printed it, signed it, scanned it and emailed it to my local county’s overseas voting contact.  Next, I need to send the signed original copy to the county clerk’s office, which I will next week when a friend, Dave, returns to the states.

About five minutes after I emailed the form in, I called the office to ask about the deadline for the originals.  The lady knew who I was and was very friendly.  She told me, “She wouldn’t receive the ballots until the beginning of October, so I had time to send it.”  I was relieved that I had ample time.  Allie prepared her form and we emailed it in.

I can’t believe how efficient this process turned out.  Hopefully, in a couple of weeks I will receive my ballots and will be able to participate in my democracy.

If you are a U.S. citizen living abroad, please do not hesitate to send your request in.  It is critical to the health and welfare of our democracy that we all participate.  Sometimes it feels hopeless and meaningless, I get it.  I have felt the same way in past elections.  However, it is our civic responsibility to participate.  If you don’t, then you don’t have much right to ruminate about the failings of the U.S.  You are no better then the cronies in Washington.

To all my international readers, I am glad you read the entire post.  The U.S. is an amazing experiment in democracy.  At times it baffles and frustrates even its own citizens; I have been terribly frustrated by the inaction or inept actions of my government in recent years.  Gratefully, we have a process to replace our elected officials and incrementally change the course of the country and its policies.  Like a huge ship under steam at sea, a change in course happens slowly and over time.  Our elections are our navigational system, and our citizens are the helmsmen.  For the most part our democracy is uncoerced and  self-righting.  However, it will remain that way only if our citizens do not abdicate their birthright to participate in our democratic process.  If our democracy is left on auto pilot, it will surely wreck on the shoals of corruption and greed.

If you have friends who are U.S. Citizens, ask them if they are going to vote.  If they say, “Yes.” Ask them,  “Did you send in your absentee ballot?” If they respond, “No”, to either question.  Ask them, “Why?”  When they are done explaining, tell them you know where they can register to vote in this election.  Explain to them that the results of this election will be felt worldwide, even as expatriots.  It will affect all of us, U.S. Citizen or not.  They may still choose to avoid their responsibility, however, you did your part.

To request your absentee ballot visit, Overseas Vote Foundation.

A Broken bed, Whale Sharks, A Pregnant Doctor and Injections, The Real Dive Life!

Where do I start?  Some time in the end of June, when I sat down into bed, I broke the bed frame.  I broke it right where my lower back rests while I am sleeping.  On top of that, add the fact that we were sleeping on a very tired mattress through which I could feel the springs.  I knew that the bed was broken but I kept using it.  My thought was that I could live with it, though it was really starting to bother me.

Then my parents came to town for a whirlwind tour of the Yucatan in my 4Runner.  Their visit and the accompanies stress eliminated all exercising for about two weeks.  Then we drove around the Yucatan at break neck speeds which was followed by some competitive whale shark snorkeling and photography.  The end result was that my back was completely messed up.   I had a lot of pain in the lower back and was unable to bend over.  I stretched and took Aleeve but nothing was working, it was getting worse by the day.

Now for the kicker, I was scheduled to take my CCR Hypoxic Trimix with Steve this week. I had been looking forward to it for a couple of years.  The whole reason I got the Meg was to dive Trimix.  I emailed Steve to let him know my condition and we agreed that mixed gas diving and lower back injuries sound like a terrible combination.   We decided to postpone class.  A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BUMMER!  But, it was the only reasonable and prudent course of action.  It would be awful to take a lower back hit because I was greedy.

It is really a kind of win for both of us.  I was nervous about taking the class this week and Steve wanted to get some exploration done.  I hadn’t been putting enough time in on the CCR and I was planning to put a bunch of time on it in the week between my parents and my class.   With my back out of whack, I couldn’t put the time on the unit.  Plus, I think the universe was telling me I needed to slow down a little.  I have really been packing in the training and not doing enough practice.  Now I have my reprieve.

And now we are at the needles part of the story.  On Friday, my back was killing me and I couldn’t find a chiropractor or a masseuse to look at it.  I had two separate appointments, which resulted in no call no shows from the masseuse.  I blew off ice cream waiting for this guy.  The best Chiropractor in town, which at least 5 people referred me to, had broken his ankle.  And the next chiro doesn’t work over the weekend.  So there I was, when Sol saved the day.  He suggested I go to the clinic where he went.  I complied and we stopped in.

Acupuncture needles in my back.We were seen immediately!  We entered the office and there was a very good looking small young girl behind the desk.  She asked if we wanted to do this in English or Spanish?  Which was immediately responded to by Sol, who was wearing a huge shit eating grin, with, “Your a doctor?”  She replied, “Yes, I am a doctor and I am pregnant. I have thirty years.”  I asked, “30 years practicing medicine? You look great!”  She smiled and replied, “No, I have been practicing medicine for 6 years.”   The consult went well, and she told me I needed to see a specialist and she wanted to get me out of pain.  She prescribed three injections and a three day course of anti-inflammatory.  I was nervous about both, but we talked about the drugs.  The injection is B12 and something else and the anti-inflammatory is just that.  I agreed to the course of treatment under the assumption she was going to give the shot.  Well, that isn’t how it worked out.  She left the room and brought back a nurse, who was a much older and rounder Mayan lady.  I got my shot and went on my way.  She gave a great shot, it just wasn’t the girl behind the desk.  That was the first needle.

On Saturday night, I needed to get my second shot.  I was informed that the pharmacy would give me the injection if I asked.  As it turns out, they wouldn’t.  I could buy my needle and my drugs there, but had to find someone else to inject me.  The pharmacy sent me to the Red Cross.  The Red Cross charged me $5USD or 50Pesos to inject me.  I skipped right to the front of the line.  It was surreal.  I watched the Para-medic prepare the drug.  It was two glass vials that needed to be broken open and mixed in the syringe.  Sol took a picture, which I will withhold.  And the medic laughed his ass off.  Needle number two down.

On Sunday evening it was time for injection number three.  At this point, I was emboldened by our experiences.  So, we hit up the pharmacy for the supplies and we went home.  This time I mixed up the drugs and gave the needle to my wife, Allie, to inject me.  I wanted to save the $5 and risk of airborne staff that can be found at the Red Cross.  Allie had had two glasses of wine prior to being handed the needle, so she was a little nervous and so was I.  She pinned me and pumped my rump full of the drugs.  Everything went according to plan and needle number three was finished.  She did a great job!  I never expected my wife to need to inject me.  I guess that is one of the wonders of the self serve medical system here.

That brings us to Monday!  Today, I went in and had a consult with a physician, a real MD, who specialized in pain management and acupuncture.  We talked about my condition; he examined me and then prescribed a course of Ozone Therapy and acupuncture.  The Ozone is to resolve the herniated disk; the acupuncture is to relieve the muscle tension/spasms.  My homework is to read up on the Ozone treatment.  In the mean time, he stuck 12 needles in me making the count 15.  I had never done acupuncture before, so I was a little skeptical.  However, I have heard good things about it.  It didn’t hurt.  It did put me to sleep.  And it gave me a funny taste in my mouth like my body was detoxing.  I have another visit scheduled for Thursday morning.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about it, though I am willing to give it a shot.  I am going to couple it with a return to my yoga practice and some walking.

I am desperate to get active again.  I hate getting off the beam, acupuncture needles in my leg, and feeling like a slob.  I think I am going to dive this week a little, maybe 2-3 dives, nothing deep.  Though that will really depend on how my back feels.  As of tonight, it seems to be well on its way to recovering!  Hopefully, I will be in tip-top shape shortly.

Plus, Allie, Sol and I have agreed to start a training program to train up to running a half-marathon.  I don’t want them to get too far out in front of me.

Have you tried acupuncture or other holistic or eastern approaches to your pain?  How did it work for you?

Every once in a while I get nostalgic for wreck diving.  I have been trying to organize a trip to the Puerto Morelos wreck for weeks and no one wants to go with me.

I learned to technical dive by diving the wrecks off of New Jersey.   If you haven’t dove the North East, by which I mean Long Island and New Jersey, you are really missing out.  Let me describe some of the finer facets of wreck diving in the North East:

• Get up at 3:30AM to drive 1.5-2 hours to the boat followed by a 1.5-2 hour boat ride to the wreck.  50% of the time I find out the trip is called at the dock, 25% of the time divert to tug or the Mohawk in 50ft of water, 25% get to the planned dive site.
• Heavy seas make me sea sick.  I am chronically sea sick.  I have been since I was a mate on my Dad’s offshore boat.  One summer, I went to Gloucester, Mass to chase giant tuna.  All I was able to chase for a month was my ass to the gunnel.   Now, I take Dramamine and live with medicine head.  I have  a pretty good solution, one the night before and half of one in the morning.  Controls the sickness and the medicine head.
•  Pull on drysuit with enough under-garments for a two hour dive in 54′F water while sitting in the 90′F summer sun.  Forget to attach the pee valve correctly.  Bath in my own sweat before I get off the boat.
• Roll off the boat into a heaving sea.  Drag myself down the anchor and only realize I am on the wreck when my hand touches it.  Navigate like a blind guy in the muck for 2 hours looking for 2 lobsters I don’t eat.  Bag em and give em away.
• On the ride home help Rob Infante shell a couple of dozen scallops.  Sleep for a while.  Start to plan next week’s expition.
• Upon arrival, drive 2 hours in the hot traffic home.  Rise my Meg in a 33 gallon garbage pail.  Dry the gear on the lawn and in the yard.  Spend the next two days recovering.
• Calculate the cost for the weekend:  $50 Car Fuel, $125 Boat, $20 Tip, $10Food, Plus Rebreather Costs.
• Schedule it again for the next weekend.

And just for comparison, typical day of cave diving:

• Stop working at 2PM and assemble/pack Meglodon or side-mount gear.
• Dive 25-40 minutes to  dive site.
• Pay $8.00 USD to land manager.
• Pull on wet suit and pee in it.
• Dive for 2-3 hours.
• Drive to Puerto Aventarous and buy a Magna Classic ice cream bar.  They have the best chocolate shell.
• Arrive home and dump scrubber, clean loop, and deposit dive gear in the living room to dry.  It all lives in a laundry basket from Walmart.
• Calculate costs: $10USD Fuel, $8USD Entrance, $1USD Icecream, plus rebreath costs.
• Schedule it again for the next day.

Even with all the insanity of wreck diving, I still love it.  And if I lived in NJ, I would be going almost every weekend year round!  I am one of those crazy guys who goes out in Decemeber, January and February.

My favorite wreck is the USS San Diego.  I can spend hours inside that wreck.  I think my second favorite is the USS Algol and third might be the Northern Pacific.  Unfortunately, I only got on the Northern once, but it looks like it offers tons of opportunities.  I know this is a cave diving blog, however, I think most of us have a soft spot for some challenging wreck diving.  Which brings me to the reason for this post.  My friend Brandon recently got a new camera and published a very nice dive report of a dive on the Stolt Dagali.   A very cool wreck that is just a couple of miles from the USS Algol.  His photos really fired my nostalgia.   And from my recount, I am sure you can see why I misss it!

Your turn:

• Do you wreck dive?
• What is it like for you?
• What is your favorite wreck?
• What boat do you dive from?
• Know any wrecks here in the Yucatan I can go dive?  Must be something out there!