Dive Training Blogs
The contrast between surface ice and ice diving operations
By: Bo Tibbetts
In many parts of the country, fall weather has arrived and winter is right around the corner. Rescue professionals must gear up for both ice rescue and ice recovery operations. With respect to rescue or recovery, this is often determined by the victim’s ability to hang on until they can be safely and efficiently rescued; if not, it becomes necessary to organize a sub-surface rescue/recovery operation.
Surface Ice Rescue Operation
Let’s first decide what a surface ice rescue operation may include. A surface ice rescue operation would involve a viable victim that has fallen through weak, unstable ice and the victim is unable to self-rescue. Failure to be able to self-rescue may include extremely weak ice that continues to fracture and break with no stable platform for the victim to extricate themselves out of the frigid water. The victim may not have any self-rescue tools to get a grip on the slippery ice surface to pull themselves back up onto the ice shelf. Another reason for failure to self-rescue is lack of strength due in part to immersion in ice cold water. Their body strength is quickly depleted, leaving them helpless without the strength to pull themselves out to safety. To reach the goal of a successful surface ice rescue, the victim must be carefully extracted from the ice cold water and brought back to solid ground where EMS personnel can access the patient to administer medical care. The victim may be in some stage of hypothermia, have potential for frostbite of their extremities, or even be susceptible to cardiac arrhythmia’s which could lead to a heart attack. These operations involve a great amount of risk to both the rescuer and the victim.
Sub-surface Ice Dive Recovery Response
The sub-surface ice dive recovery response is triggered as the victim submerges under the water beneath the ice shelf. At this point, the victim is no longer able to get a grip on the ice shelf and sinks into the frigid water. This scenario requires the dive unit to devise an ice dive response. Departments try to execute a rescue within the “golden hour” to potentially effect a rescue instead of a recovery. An effective search must include both the ceiling and the bottom of the lake or pond. Several factors will determine how to get the diver and the tenders in the best position to locate the victim. All dive operations should utilize tender-directed diving. Tender-directed divers are ALWAYS attached directly to a tether line via the diver’s water operations harness which is worn beneath the BCD. We never want to attach a tender line directly to the BCD; the line must always be attached to an appropriate water operation dive harness. With the understanding that the ice shelf is extremely weak, the diver and backup divers must carefully position themselves. The backup diver is necessary to provide redundancy that will increase the safety factor and aid in an effective search. An effective tool for weight distribution and buoyancy is a sled, such as the rapid transport sled, which has been designed to evenly distribute the diver’s weight while on the fragile ice shelf and also provides a shuttle device for the operations.
Always work with a rescue in mind when you have a viable victim. Every aspect of the operation must work in concert in order for a rescue to take place. Remember that some of the time these operations result in a recovery effort, at which point time is no longer a factor and the speed of the operation should be slowed down unless it is within the “golden hour.” When responding to a surface ice rescue, the dive unit should also be dispatched in case a sub-surface rescue/recovery operation becomes necessary. One of the greatest advantages for the dive unit is the search area is defined because of the ice damage incurred with the victim’s submergence. This can greatly affect search time and may result in a rescue.
Always prepare for an ice rescue operation in advance for both the surface and sub-surface operation responses.
To find out more about International Training, visit www.tdisdi.com.
Blogs
Intro to Tech: What is it about?
Article by José Pablo Mir
Pictures by Cezary Abramowski
The world of technical diving is exciting. It opens the door to new sites, depths, and bottom times. More importantly, it opens our minds to a new way of planning, facing, and experiencing dives, even those not purely technical.
Becoming a technical diver is a process, and like in other aspects of life, we should find the proper entry point that suits us best based on our knowledge and experience. The Introduction to Technical Diving course from TDI -the world’s largest and most recognized technical diving teaching organization- is the best option for divers who have yet to gain experience in the fundamental aspects of this new practice. The course’s content and its embrace of new techniques and technologies make it possible to acquire a solid foundation to learn and gain experience in this practice properly.
Becoming a technical diver is not something that happens overnight, whether deciding to become one or receiving a certification card stating we are now technical divers. It is a slow process extending farther away than any introductory course. It requires effort and dedication. But it will bring us satisfaction from day one -or two.
It is a matter of mentality
First, we must understand and accept that technical diving, involving greater depths, longer bottom times, exotic gases, virtual or real ceilings, and more, comes with higher levels of risk than the sport diving we have been practicing until now.
Although this discussion usually starts with a warning about risks, as I’ve done in the previous sentence, our practice is not a game of chance.
Technical diving is a rational activity that requires maturity and good judgment, and we will put everything into ensuring that each dive is a successful one -meaning we return from it safe and sound. With this understanding, we will strive to establish a mental attitude more aligned with our practice and its realities.
This new “technical diver” mindset we will develop will lead us to be more cautious in our executions, more analytical in our plans, more rational in our strategies, and more detailed in our procedures.
Experience will keep teaching us to know ourselves better, to keep our anxiety and other emotions under control, and to manage our impulses. Over time, our senses will sharpen, and we will be more attentive to the particulars of the situation we find ourselves in.
Strategies and procedures
Our strategies, those broad guiding lines tracing the path to follow, from how to approach planning to where, with what, and how we are willing to get there, will be more specific and more practical. Not because they magically become so, but because we will consciously and deliberately frame them that way.
We will establish clear, concise, and realistic procedures. Not only for the undesirable situations that may present themselves but also for those that are part of our dive objectives.
Even though, as technical divers, we often use equipment different from what we were previously accustomed to, it is essential to note that the gear does not make the diver. In a way, we could consider such equipment as the necessary tools to implement what our goal seeks to achieve, according to our strategies and procedures.
Technique plays an important role
We must put our greatest effort into learning and perfecting the different techniques we will be acquiring. Buoyancy, trim, propulsion, cylinder handling, deploying DSMBs and lift bags, valve drills, and more are essential skills we must begin to master to progress in our art. What we cannot do, when we need to do it, can harm us.
Our techniques must be effective and achieve the purpose for which they were devised. But they must also be efficient and require the least resources possible, including the time they take and the effort they demand. Effectiveness and efficiency will prevail over beauty and other considerations that may come to mind, although none of them should be mutually exclusive. A technique executed efficiently and effectively tends to have an inherent beauty.
Refining techniques is a lifelong mission. Some of them will be easy to master from the go; others, on the other hand, will be our life mission and will require many repetitions just to resemble the idea we have in mind of how they should be executed.
We must consider the environment
Our learning, the needs and musts of the practice we engage in, the experience we gradually gain, our strategies and procedures, and even our equipment and tools change with the environment.
Diving in the ocean, everything about us must be suitable for ocean dives. Conditions there rarely emulate those found in a pool, lake, or river. Variable winds and currents, greater depths, visibility conditions, other divers with uncertain skills around us, marine life, maritime traffic, distance from the coast, and many other factors add complexity and uncertainty.
It is never necessary to master the pool on the first day, but planning and aspiring to gradually cope with the ocean’s conditions is essential.
The cost of good training
We are aware that our resources are often scarce in relation to the possibilities of use we could give them if they were not. To a greater or lesser extent, we are part of the economic reality in which we are embedded.
Fortunately, the cost of good technical diver training is not an entry barrier. Comparing training and equipment costs, we see that the former are generally lower. Yes, lower cost for personalized service, essential to our future
performance and safety, than for a series of mass-produced products that are mere, albeit necessary, tools for an end.
The value of good training
The value of the training we received encompasses a range of characteristics, from emotional and methodological to technical and technological. TDI and its Introduction to Technical Diving course offer a deep and modern approach, with a teaching strategy that aims to create thinking divers, not merely obedient ones.
As technical divers, our knowledge is our primary tool. In this type of activity, what we don’t know can harm us.
Is this course optional?
Unfortunately, the fact that this Introduction to Technical Diving course is not a prerequisite for any subsequent training is an invitation to consider it optional. And we all know what usually happens to “optional” under budget constraints.
However, this course should be seen as optional only by those divers who are somehow familiar with the use of technical equipment, who have a mindset more in line with the requirements of this type of diving, who plan and execute the dives the proper “technical” way, who know their gas consumption rate, who are not intimidated by non-decompression tables, who feel comfortable using their dive computers, and know the techniques and have at least an acceptable level of buoyancy, positioning, and propulsion. Those can go straight to a more advanced training course, such as TDI’s Advanced Nitrox.
We must ask ourselves whether or not we are in that group.
Remember our goal: to have fun
Recreational diving is our passion. Jumping into the water carrying heavy equipment and having properly dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s have only one ultimate goal: fun. This is the activity we have chosen as a hobby. We must enjoy it; it must give us pleasure and make us vibrate.
Having a good time is not optional!
Blogs
Four opportunities to go pro in 2024 with Dive Friends Bonaire
Dive Friends teaches the Instructor Development Course (IDC) several times a year to students who are eager to share their passion for diving with the world.
Dive Friends is known for the personal approach throughout the course. Their in-house course director will lead the students through every essential step, mentoring them to achieve their fullest potential as a dive instructor.
Applications for the following IDC start dates are now open:
- 12 April
- 5 July,
- 20 September
- 29 November
Partnership with Casita Palma
If the student opts for the IDC-Deluxe or IDC-Supreme package, their accommodation will be arranged for them at Casita Palma. This small and quiet resort is within walking distance from Dive Friends Bonaire’s main dive shop location and has everything you need to relax after an intense day of IDC training. Breakfast is included, so the student will always be fuelled and ready for their day.
Contact Dive Friends Bonaire’s Course Director Eddy for more information: coursedirector@divefriendsbonaire.com.
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