Become a Tec Instructor at Dive Fest

There will be an opportunity for instructors in the UK to attain the rating of Tec Instructor on Saturday 2^nd May 2010 at the Dive Fest event in Cornwall. The opportunity for suitably qualified PADI Pros to complete a free crossover to the new Tec Instructor rating has been extended for the first half of 2010. PADI Instructors who are also technical instructors with other agencies are able to complete this crossover free of charge when they attend a Tec Instructor Crossover program like the one being held at Dive Fest.

Spaces are limited and advanced registration will be required in order to attend. For further information on who is eligible to attend, and full details of the Crossover or other opportunities, please contact the Training department at rich.somerset@padi.co.uk or by telephone on 0117 300 7343 in the UK.

New Appointment in the PADI TDD

Terry Cummins, Vice President of Marketing Metrics and Performance, PADI Worldwide, has also been appointed to the newly created position of Director, Market Development, in PADI’s Technical Diving Division. With the new PADI TecRec courses (Tec 40 through to Tec 65) and new PADI Distinctive Tec Diving Specialties, such as Cave Diving, PADI has already seen significant industry and diver interest in these programmes. As a key member of PADI’s global marketing team, Terry will blend his love of “the deep” with his marketing experience to assist the PADI membership and fellow Technical Diving Division Directors with TecRec market development.

Terry has a long history within the global diving community and this latest appointment reflects his keen interest in deep, wreck and cave diving over many years. In 2007 he was presented with the OzTeK Award for “Contribution to the Development of Technical Diving”. In 2008 he was awarded the 1^st Oceanic “Legends Award” and amongst other acknowledgements, he is a past recipient of the “Scuba Excellence Award” from Dive Australia.

Scuba PRO event in Red Sea

The Scuba PRO event in Sharm El Sheikh was hosted by Marco Maestri, Sales Director of SCUBAPRO and PADI Regional Manager Terry Johnson.

This event proved to be a great success with over 120 PADI members in attendance. During the three days members had a chance to meet with the professional teams from both SCUBAPRO and PADI, participate in unique training and technical seminars, and test dive newly launched 2010 SCUBAPRO gear, including their new range of technical diving equipment.

The first evening included an equipment seminar presented by Gilbert de Coriolis and concluded with an evening meal.

Day two started with the opportunity to try out new SCUBAPRO equipment and dive from PADI Dive Centre Sheikh Coast, Coral Bay, Sharm El Sheikh. The evening proceedings included two PADI seminars conducted by Terry Johnson, enabling instructors to apply for the PADI Enriched Air Diver and Equipment Speciality Instructor ratings. Marco Maestri of SCUBAPRO then followed these seminars with a presentation on the new equipment range. All attendees were then invited to an evening meal at Coral Bay.

Day three also included opportunities for members to try out SCUBAPRO equipment from the beach. The evening presentations related to aspects of technical diving. The first presentation was conducted by Terry Johnson, and explained the changes to PADI’s TecRec programmes which included details of how instructors with similar qualification can cross over to PADI Tec Instructors. Gilbert de Coriolis then concluded the evening with a detailed presentation on the newly launch SCUBAPRO Tec range of equipment catering for many types of equipment configurations including PADI TecRec and DIR.

OZTeK’11

Continuing to receive high praise since its inception in 1999 and now widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most dynamic diving events, the seventh Australasian Diving Technologies Conference and Exhibition – OZTeK’11 – will take place over the week-end of the 12^th – 13^th March 2011, at Australian Technology Park, in Sydney, Australia.

Having firmly established its credentials as an internationally significant diving event – one that remains focussed on the underwater adventures that new technology and techniques make possible – OZTeK‘11 will again feature one of the world’s largest gatherings of internationally renowned speakers and presenters in their respective fields of diving expertise. 

Encompassing recreational, technical, occupational and scientific diving applications, the OZTeK’11 Conference topics will include:  Cave and wreck diving, developments in rebreather technology, equipment selection and configuration, deep diving considerations, decompression procedures, extreme explorations, hyperbaric medicine, training programmes, occupational diving applications, search-and-rescue techniques, marine archaeology, underwater photography, diver safety and more.

Complemented by a full-scale exhibition featuring all of the latest diving developments, together with displays, breakout workshops, film and video presentations, OZTeK‘11 is an event aimed at all divers – regardless of their experience level – whose thirst for knowledge is matched only by their spirit of adventure. 

Probing beyond the usual diving limits and tapping into the very core of exciting underwater experiences, it’s a two-day spectacular that no diver can afford to miss.

Full details of the action-packed OZTeK’11 event will begin to appear on the website during the coming months, but in the interim those companies and organisations with an interest in exhibiting at OZTeK’11 – or individuals with an interest in presenting talks at the conference – are invited to contact the organisers.

Please visit the website at: www.diveoztek.com.au  Telephone: +61 (2) 9971 2559, or e-mail: admin@diveoztek.com.au for more information

Side-mount Rigs – A UK Perspective

By Martin Robson, PADI TecRec Trimix Instructor, Side-mount and Cave IT

When newer divers hear the words ’side-mount’ many think it is a way of squirming into tight cave passages, which might not sound like fun, or it is just like carrying stage cylinders, but without any back-mounted cylinders.

Neither is strictly true. Whilst side-mounted cylinders can allow suitably trained cave divers to enter caves which are too small to be dived safely in back-mounts and to therefore minimise the impact they have on the cave environment, there are many and varied reasons for diving side-mount.

It could be that the dive site is not easily accessible, and so to carry separate cylinders is easier than a twin set. Similarly some divers choose side-mounts simply because the weight of a twin set on their backs is a little too much for them, for whatever the reason.

However, true side-mount configuration is not just like carrying stage cylinders minus the back-mounts. Stage cylinders, no matter how tightly attached, can have a tendency to hang below the diver’s body just a little. What we are aiming for with side-mount is to have the cylinders almost in line with our bodies when we are horizontal in the water and thus be nicely streamlined.

In order to do this you will need some equipment specifically designed for side-mount. Broadly speaking this equipment comprises of some form of side-mount harness and a wing or other suitable buoyancy device.

There a definitely two schools of thought on these kit requirements. The American system, which can be seen a lot in the cave diving regions of Florida, has been developed from the combined ideas both of cave-divers and more mainstream manufacturers and has evolved into what can be had today. Typically this would be a soft harness originally designed for back-mounts (and still recognizable as such) but adapted to mount cylinders in side mount and to take a wing mounted to it (without the wing taking on a mind of it’s own under water – bear in mind there are no cylinders on your back to hold it in place). The other common option is a complete integrated harness and wing that are permanently fixed to each other.

The American systems are simple to use and do not require any user modifications (although of course we all like to personalise our dive kit). When diving they tend to sit the cylinders ‘lower down’. By this I mean that the cylinder valve will perhaps be as low down your torso as the bottom of your ribs and if you stood up the bottom of cylinders can be as low as your knees. The other consideration with this style of equipment is that an integrated set up can weigh as much or more than a backplate and wing!

The ‘UK’ style of side-mount system has been derived from all sorts of home-made ideas generated primarily from members of the Cave Diving Group (CDG) whose foundations come from cavers who turned to cave diving as a way of continuing their explorations when the caves they were penetrating took a turn underwater!

These set-ups are usually a lot less bulky and carry the cylinders a lot tighter and higher on the body to minimise the profile of the diver. Nowadays a number of commercially available harnesses are on the market which follow this simple and streamlined approach. Of course with a background from dry cavers, and the need sometimes to carry kit a long way underground prior to a dive, the ‘UK’ set-ups are often very much lighter than their American counterparts. Some UK style harnesses do need a little bit of modification to allow a wing to be fitted but it isn’t a difficult thing to achieve, and some do have wing attachment kits available as an optional extra.

So if you fancy having a go, find yourself a Side-mount Instructor and jump in. The equipment may look very different, but if you try it, you might find you like it so much that you never go back to your back-mounted cylinder(s).

Diving With Legends Features Tec Divers, Imagers, Scientists and Other Noted Underwater Explorers

Just off the press, Dr, Peter Millar’s Diving With Legends features some of the adventures, exploits and perspectives of some of diving’s top underwater figures from the last 50 year, in their own words. From the tec diving realm feature names include Leigh Biship, John Chatterton, Dan Crowell, Jarrod Jablonski, Richie Kohler, Karl Shreeves, Carl Spencer and David Trotter. Other famous names include Stan Waterman, Howard Hall, Graham Hawkes, Ralph Wilbanks, Jacques Piccard, George Bass, Zale Perry, Joe MacInnis, Martha Watkins Gilkes and more.

Diving With Legends was published with the support of DOXA watches, which are known for their distinctive orange face and made famous by Clive Cussler as the timepiece of his fictitious hero Dirk Pitt. The book debuted at Our World Underwater, with many of the contributors on hand to celebrate. The 340 page book is available for preview and order at divingwithlegends.com. For more about the watches, visit doxawatches.com.

TecRec in Turkey

There will be a seminar entitled “Introducing TecRec Technical Diver Training” on 10th of April from 12:00-13:00 at the MEDEX  Expo in Turkey. It will be conducted by Immi Wallin, PADI Regional Manager and Technical Diving Consultant.

The seminar is open for all MEDEX exhibition visitors who are interested to become technical divers or who already are technical divers. The new TecRec diver training courses will be introduced.

Sidemount in the Philippines

Picture of the first Sidemount Instructor Course conducted last month in the Philippines by TecRec IT Jeff Loflin; here shown with PADI Course Directors from the course.

From left to right:

Jeonghoon Kang (CD 85710)

Sung Woo Nam (MI 480882-UW World-Editor Chief

Min Joo Han (CD 460142) – Organized Course

Sun Myung Lee (UW World Owner)

Jeff Loflin (CD18604)

BK Kim (CD & Regional Manager Korea)

Young Hee Haniss (CD & Member Liaison Korea)

Wook Sun Lim (CD 488287)

Kwang Hyun Kim (MI 485210-Owner of Red Sun Dive Resort)

Kwang Jin Kim (CD 150248)

Jong Yeol Seo (CD 481299)

Cambrian Foundation North Florida Spring Project

Noted cave diver Terrence Tysall and PADI Worldwide’s Karl Shreeves participated in the February 2010 Cambrian Foundation North Florida Spring Project. The project, which is currently partially funded by a grant from the US National Science Foundation, is studying the presence and growth of chemosnythetic bacteria in several caves in the Florida aquifer. Most of the research sites are closed to general diving, but the Cambrian Foundation has been graciously granted a research permit for these sites by the state of Florida. Visit cambrianfoundation.org for more information.

Tech Divers in Chile

Report by Felipe Mongillo M., DSAT Tech Instructor, PADI MI 952142 of Subpacific

As you can see in the news, we have been hit by an earthquake and a tsunami, we are fine but sorry about the people that now are with problems, especially the people of Juan Fernandez Island; half of the town disappeared, fortunately no divers have died there, but the tsunami took their dive centers and houses.

But before the earthquake….

The CCR in Chile have arrived some time ago, but in the last month we start to bring it closer to the divers’ community.  In the last February we finished MOD3 in the CCRe Megalodon.

Alberto and Carlos are CCR MOD3 divers that came to assist Mike and to know about Chilean sea waters.

We are making sure that technology gets to Chile.