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Dive Presque Isle Michigan with DDS

Dive Presque Isle Michigan with DDS

Dive Presque Isle Michigan with DDS this 2024 season, as we explore some of the most exquisite underwater shipwrecks of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Join us from July 28-August 3rd, 2024.

Cost only $1799cdn.

Presque Isle offers some of the finest technical diving shipwrecks in any of the Great Lakes, with depths in the Trimix Level 1 range max 200′ there are some breathtaking shipwrecks that will blow your mind.

If you’re not trimix certified, join us for a class and finish the dives out there!

The SS Florida is a 5 deck wooden steamer.

Crystal clear blue water with epic shipwrecks like the Cordelia B. Windiate, the SS Florida, Typo, the Norman, the Defiance, and the Kyle Spangler will have you dreaming yourself to sleep as you reminisce about the days dives and prepare for the next mornings adventures.

This trip runs Sunday evening July 28th, through Saturday August 3rd, 2024 with dives running Monday through Friday.

We’re diving with Black Dog Charters up on this amazing trip, so you’ll have one of the best boats, best captains and tastiest baked goods to warm you up between dives.

The Typo, a 3 masted schooner

Trip includes lodging and boat dives.

Gas fills, meals, tolls, gratuities and other expenses are not included.

We often shop as a group to plan our meals out for the week, and there are some fantastic restaurants in Alpena, MI as well.

Join us for one of the best dive trips you’ll ever do, this is why you trained up to this level isn’t it?

 

There shipwrecks in Lake Huron are the best shipwrecks and you’ll want to dive the entire area, which is a good thing because from Port Austin to Alpena to Presque Isle, the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary has a ton of quality sites.  Check them out CLICK HERE.

 

DDS Diver Grace doing a CCR Trimix Dive in Bon Echo Park

When Should You Get a Rebreather

When Should You Get a Rebreather
by
Matthew Mandziuk

Lately people have been asking us about rebreathers and when they should consider going that direction…So I figured “When Should You Get a Rebreather” would be a fun topic to write about.

Rebreathers are a simple concept.  A rebreather is in essence like breathing from a “sealed bag” is filled with a breathable gas mixture.  As you breath each breath, you deplete the oxygen in the “bag” through the process of metabolizing the oxygen and putting back in the lung exhaled breath with a lesser partial pressure of oxygen until the “sealed bag” or “lung” would go hypoxic (think of breathing in and out of a paper bag as a concept), meaning not enough oxygen is in the gas you’re breathing to sustain life.

You would have to replace the depleted oxygen with more oxygen, but in addition to this, you’ll also have make sure that carbon dioxide is also being absorbed/eliminated from your rebreathed gas, so we need to “scrub” the CO2 out with a CO2 “scrubber”….Sound simple?  It is overall.

Below we will discuss who should dive a rebreather, the different basic designs and features, key elements, dive planning and more.

There are 2 main rebreather concepts.  Semi-Closed and Fully Closed rebreathers.

fathom rebreather rigged up as the tech version with faber LP50 tanks, Lola valves, atomic regulators, custom black camo halcyon evolve jj wing with maroon center, spg on left hip with diluent injection through the left hip d-ring
Fathom MK2.5 CCR Tech Rigged

Semi-Closed is less popular for the vast majority because it’s a glorified gas extender with an efficiency ranging from 4:1, 8:1, and as high as 10:1 efficiency depending on the gas supply.  They can use the same lung that a life-support patient breaths from which passively allows excess gas to vent from the bottom of the unit while the lung is refilled.

The Passive Semi-Closed Rebreather is very popular for depths where open and closed circuit scuba are less reliable.  PSCR Divers often use larger cylinders.

Fully Closed Rebreathers utilize smaller tanks, a greater degree of efficiency as high as 40:1 that of open circuit because when the efficiency is met, the diver recycles the entire exhaled breath and only has to inject the oxygen when the PO2 drops.  They can be more complicated but are more popular at the time of this writing

Rebreathers ARE NOT For Everyone

With the Cost of Helium increasing, more and more people are looking to breath more efficiently, however, diving a rebreather requires a higher level of awareness, technique, buoyancy, trim, knowledge of the machine and what can go wrong and how to troubleshoot problems.

It’s only a matter of time until Rebreathers become more common practice to the masses, however, now is not the time for most people because they don’t have the training or the experience.

Helium keeps going up and up, but that doesn’t mean unqualified Divers should be jumping in blind and bypassing all the experience and fun that is had learning and logging the experience dives that makes a person a better Diver.

Here are illustrations of a basic rebreather design and semi-closed rebreather design courtesy of the NAUI Rebreather Instructor Guide.

SCR Rebreather
SCR Rebreather
Closed Circuit Rebreather Diagram
CCR

Types of Closed Circuit Rebreathers

Choosing the right rebreather for the individual is key.  There is no perfect one rebreather of everybody.

Automatic: Some Divers prefer an automatic rebreather than much like a dive computer, runs the dive for them setting a constant PO2 (oxygen set point) for them on descent and maximum depth injecting oxygen using a solenoid .

Unless the Diver remembers to set the computer to a lower set point on ascent, this can cause problems for the Diver as the unit will continue to inject oxygen as the depth reduces because as the diver goes shallower, the Po2 will drop, so if the Diver ascends from depth at a PO2 set point of 1.2ata the rebreather will try to keep filling the lung with oxygen, whereas, the diver needs to set their set point lower to 0.6ata and they can ascend without worrying about an out of control ascent and manually adjust their set point to their desired level.

Continuous Mass Flow and Needle Valves: Some rebreathers use what’s called a needle valve which uses a “Mass Flow” orifice on the regulator of the O2 tank. The Diver can set their oxygen set point based on their metabolic oxygen rate by adjusting the Needle Valve.

The needle valve will gently flow oxygen into the counterlung so if the diver becomes task loaded and isn’t watching their Po2 (which should never happen), they needle valve will prevent the Diver from going Hypoxic.

You’ll find the Mass Flow a great option which is why the original KISS Rebreathers are still one of the simplest designs, while the updated Needle Valve design of Fathom CCR  is becoming so popular.

The Continuous Mass Flow system is limited by depth.  The intermediate pressure of the regulator first stage can reach the same as ambient pressure meaning an intermediate pressure in the first stage of 10BAR/145psi will not put out any more gas past 81msw/260fsw.

The Fathom System corrects the by modifying a diaphragm sealed first stage with a stronger spring which allows for safe boosting of the intermediate pressure up to as high as 205psi/14BAR which is capable of diving to depths of 120msw/395fsw.  The pressure can also be increased up to 290psi/20bar for up to 585fsw or 177msw!!!

Excerp from the Fathom Page: “Smaller fixed-orifices can also be used for deeper depths with higher intermediate pressures but the risk of a blockage is increased and the options are limited by orifice availability. A fixed-orifice requires that the first stage intermediate pressure be adjusted to achieve a flow rate that corresponds to the diver’s metabolic needs, typically around 0.6 to 0.8 L/min. Conversely, the needle valve allows the first-stage intermediate pressure to be set to any pressure since the needle valve handles the flow adjustments. More importantly, the needle valve minimizes the risk of a blockage from debris since it can be opened up to allow small particles to pass. The oxygen MAV, which contains the needle-valve, is ported directly into the exhaust side of the head so oxygen must travel through the scrubber and mix with loop gas before reaching the diver.

1 (145 psi/14.7 psi/ata – 2 ata) x 33 fsw/ata = 260 fsw  (Note: always subtract 2 ata when calculating the maximum operational depth of a CMF system.)”

Diving the Bell Island Mine with Explorer and Rebreather Instructor Matt Mandziuk

Manual CCR: Manual Rebreathers are simple, easy to use, but require more attention to the instrumentation and require the operator to constantly inject oxygen based on their needs depressing an oxygen injection button allowing the Diver to adjust the oxygen as slowly or quickly as needed, in a similar fashion to how a diver would inflate their bcd.

When Diving a Manual CCR, the Diver will have to remember to monitor their Po2 and maintain the desired set point.

One of the more fun skills is “Volume Drop” which the CCR Diver will do in their initial training course to see how long it can take their mix to go near hypoxic from their targeted set point.

Keeping a consistent set point that mirrors a backup computer if there isn’t a second computer handset or NERD on the unit is a desired option.

Being diligent with keeping the oxygen level consistent is a must.

Simplicity and Reliability Should Favour Bells and Whistles

The more high tech of a rebreather, the more complacent some Divers get.  Whether you’re flying an automatic or manual system you should always be aware of your set point and Do Your Pre-Dive Checklist!

A Rebreather is a very Serious Piece of Equipment.

PSCR Rebreather
Semi Closed Rebreather Rigged and Ready to Dive with double 80’s in Mexico

A rebreather is essentially a nitrox or trimix gas mixing system that is designed to deliver a constant oxygen set point that acts as a gas extender to you diving more efficient.

With each exhaled breath you make on open circuit scuba, there is no way to get that exhaled gas back.

A rebreather recycles your exhaled air, which is typically 5-6% less oxygen than you inhaled.

When you exhale into a rebreather, you’re exhaling into a scrubber canister, which is essentially a “filter cartridge” that is filled with a carbon dioxide absorbent, a granual that traps the CO2 on granules that resemble kitty litter called Soda lime, which is used to remove CO2 from breathing gases to prevent CO2 retention and CO2 Poisoning.

The filtered gas enters a counterlung that allows you re-breath this recycled gas and as it continues to be re-breathed, oxygen has to be added on occasion to prevent hypoxia (not enough oxygen)….Some have said that a rebreather is “essentially slowly trying to kill you, so maintaining the oxygen levels is essential.”

With each breath in we drop our oxygen PO2 so as the levels drop, we need to add oxygen to “bump” up the levels or the oxygen percentage you’re breathing can go hypoxic meaning you don’t have enough oxygen to sustain life and can go unconscious and die.

White Arrow Axial Rebreather Scrubber Canister
White Arrow Axial Rebreather Scrubber
fathom rebreather scrubber regular and large size canisters
Fathom Radial Rebreather Scrubber by Golem Gear

Think of the Scrubber and counterlung as your cardiovascular system.

Radial vs Axial Scrubber

Radial Scrubber allows the gas to pass through he canister body and provides a lower work of breathing, but is more difficult to pack than Axial Scrubber canister.

As the Co2 Absorbent becomes wet through moisture/condensation, the absorbent can clump, which can make it more difficult for the gas to pass through it, thus increasing the work of breathing.

Axial scrubber size/length needs to be long enough to prevent channelling of gas and short enough to keep the work of breathing low enough.  A longer Axial scrubber will increase work of breathing.

For longer dives, a longer radial canister is much preferred as the work of breathing remains excellent on most designs.

There are also pre-packed scrubber cartridges available for some models of rebreather for the Diver who doesn’t want the responsibility or liability of packing a scrubber canister.  These are more costly, but effective.

Rebreather Fatalities are (approximately) 10 Times More Common than Open Circuit Scuba Fatalities

Diving a Rebreather is very different than diving traditional Scuba. You can’t control buoyancy the same way and they don’t deliver gas the same way. Some even have a very complicated bunch of electronics or bulky, dangling bits everywhere and a huge, bulky counterlung.

Many CCR Divers can’t do a “try dive” on the unit they think they want to buy, so unfortunately, we see many people making Very Poor Choices in their Selection.

Your best rebreather is ultimately the one you think you want, but honestly, the simplest, most reliable and mores streamlined rebreather is the one for you.

Avoid Bells and Whistle’s, and run the unit in “manual” mode instead of an automatic rebreather. Be In Control of Your Oxygen Levels, don’t trust the machine to do it all for you.

Get as polished as you can be and as experienced as you can be before you jump into a rebreather.

Who Should Dive a Rebreather?

If the CCR Diver is wanting to dive the a pair of shipwrecks within recreational limits and dump their scrubber after the dives are completed, the cost of absorbent and gas fills will cost more than Nitrox fill in doubles would, so unless that Diver is planning a longer than “No Stop” recreational time limits, or saving the absorbent after the days diving wraps up for another day of diving, there is no benefit to using a rebreather on those dives, other than practice.

Cave Divers can spend hours underwater just on a single dive, as can shipwreck divers, technical divers and research divers.  This is who a rebreather is best suited for.

NEVER ABANDON HOGARTHIAN/DIR/NTEC PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

Your rebreather configuration should be as streamlined as your doubles setup. Simple, Streamlined, Reliable, Familiar. Long hose is always off the right post, necklace (or BOV)  is always off the left post so they don’t roll closed when swimming through a restriction like a cave or shipwreck.

Most CCR Divers Don’t Mirror Open Circuit (Long Hose, Backmounted Diluent, SPG Left Hip, etc.), which makes the system more complicated and in a situation where task loading can become a problem, that’s never good.

200′ Trimix Dive with LP50’s, argon, Nitrox 50 and Oxygen

You should NEVER have to re-orient your stage bottle rigging (Always Valves Up Not Valves Down), positioning of your stages (Always Left Side). Running your valves “Valves Down” means your regulators are going to hit first when you do a stage drop.  Those diving in the Great Lakes also have to worry about Zebra Muscles slicing into your hoses.  It’s also easier to do a bubble check when your stage bottle valves are facing you.

Valves Up? or Valves Down on the Main Cylinders?  Diving 3L Cylinders you will trim out better with the valves upright like a standard K Valve, but the Valves Down is acceptable for some configurations too.

When Diving CCR with Aluminum 40’s or Faber LP50’s Valves Up is the Most Modern and Most Reasonable Option.

Diving PSCR Valves Up is the Only Option as well, since the cylinders are larger and your’re mirroring your Open Circuit Doubles Configuration.

You can also get a Sidemount Rebreather in PSCR or CCR.  Many of them do not breath well.

Remember the DIR…NTEC Principles are based around the concept of “Doing it Right”.

Another Type of rebreather….Chest Mount

Rebreathers like the Dive Rite O2ptima CM and Sub-Gravity FX CCR are chest mounted rebreathers that allow the diver to keep their original back or side mount configuration.

The units sit on the front of the body and have been used by the military and White Arrow Divers for decades as a decompression rebreather, but are improving in popularity for their attractive price tag, work of breathing and travel friendly size.

Not Enough Bailout Gas

One of the most common problems with rebreather divers is that they do not carry enough bailout gas!

You’ll sometimes see a cave or trimix diver doing a technical dive with 1-2 aluminum 40 cylinders.  In the unlikely event the diver is equipped with 3L (FX23 cubic foot) tanks, they should have a minimum of 2 stages.

Some Divers are also starting to use a Sidemount Rebreather as a bailout option.

Cave 1 Divers require a minimum of 140ft3 of bailout, while a Cave 2 level Diver requires a minimum volume of 225ft3.

This means that the average CCR Diver doing a cave dive with an aluminum 40 or a pair of 40’s isn’t carrying enough bailout in the event of a full failure of the unit where they’d be required to swim their bailout from the deepest point in the cave.

Even an AL80, AL40 and the 3L tanks aren’t generally enough for a cave 2 level dive, 2 80’s and bailout in fact aren’t either as that + the 3L cylinders is only 200ft3 of gas.

A recreational diver doing No Stop Diving can use a single AL40 from 40msw/130fsw.

A Technical Level 1 Diver 50msw/150fsw would require an AL80 and an AL40 to ensure they can hit the obligated deco stops ascending from max depth to first deco stops and in the second bottle should have at least a 50% nitrox mix to breath.

A Trimix 1 Diver (2 deco bottles in Open Circuit) generally certified to 60-72msw/200′-240′ should have at least 1 AL80 worth of bottom gas to ascent from max depth to first deco stops. A second AL80 to ascend form the 150-70′ range and then enough gas to get from 70′ to the surface.

A Trimix 2 Diver diving beyond 70msw/240fsw requires enough bailout to ascend from max depth to first deco stop, and then each additional phase of decompression.

A 91msw/300fsw would require roughly 150ft3 of open circuit bailout to the first required deco stop, which would be a trimix of a 21/35 or 23/25.  That would have to last the OC Diver up to the next required deco phase which should be 70′ and 50% Nitrox or a hyperopic trimix like 50/25, while others may opt for a 30/30 trimix breathed up to 20′ which would require yet another AL80 for the decompression phase.

You’ll start to see why the little 3L tanks aren’t enough for deeper trimix dives unless you split the bailout cylinders with your team member(s) to minimize what you’d have to carry.

For “Light” recreational dives, double Aluminum 40’s are a wonderful option offering 80 ft3 of bailout on the back.

SCR Rebreather
Try and Discover Rebreather Experience Today

A pair of Faber LP50’s filled “Florida Style” with a bottom trimix is more preferred for experienced rebreather divers.

For the Same Dive the LP50’s would bring the diver into the 55msw/180fsw range easily, switching to the 21/35, then up to the next deco phase at either 21msw/70fsw or 30msw/100′ and up to the 9m/20fsw phase where another AL80 of oxygen would be required.

It’s so important to plan ahead and plan for the worst, as you don’t want to be left with any surprises, and while a flooded rebreather or a total loss of your PO2 monitoring equipment is rare, which can happen, as can regulator failures, burst disc ruptures and more, but that’s why they call them a failure.  They’re unplanned.

Being Proficient in at minimum of 2 AL80 Stages is why I always encourage Divers to get to at least the Cave 2 or Trimix 1 level.

Maintenance

The pre-dive setup and post dive teardown of a rebreather could take far longer than the planned dive. Some units are easier to assemble and teardown than others, which should be a consideration.

Maintenance, pre-diving evaluation of all components which should be frequently inspected, as well as changing of the oxygen sensors every 6-12 months, servicing the regulators, fittings, o-rings, injection equipment should all be factored in.

If a leak is detected in the unit, it can cause more problems in the event of an emergency, as a flooded rebreather can have an unfavourable effect if the scrubber becomes wet, causing a “caustic cocktail” which can be an instant retching action that can cause the diver to go into a choking reflex as you ingest this corrosive, alkaline cocktail.  If a Diver tries to bail out to open circuit on a separate regulator they may involuntarily inhale more water, while simultaneously retching and possibly drown, this is where a Bail Out Valve or BOV is a very smart piece of equipment.  The BOV has a switch on the rebreather that allows you to open the breathing loop from closed circuit to an open circuit regulator.

The diver will then be able to breath or barf and breath through the second stage as they take sanity breaths for a couple of minutes.  Students are taught to purge empty the rebreather from water on their CCR Course.

Instead of a BOV, some rebreather divers use a DSV (Dive Surface Valve) to allow them to breath surface air topside.  This could be more risky in a caustic environment as the diver doesn’t have the ability to switch off closed circuit to open circuit in the even of a caustic cocktail, so utilizing a necklace under the chin reminiscent of how modern divers dive with a long hose/short hose configuration is the only reasonable option to get breathable gas if the unit is flooded.

People love the “Cool Factor”, but I wholeheartedly caution those who don’t cut it at the recreational or entry-level technical diving level to wake up and seriously ask yourself if you’re ready for all that CCR Diving entails.

A friend of ours who passed away recently ago used to say he never dove a rebreather because he had friends who were Doctors or Lawyers with more letters that were in front of their names who died on them.

Diving a Rebreather is more commonplace now, but unless the dives are super deep (below 150’ or more) or super long like those maybe a Marine Research Diver would be participating in, the reality is that diving Open Circuit is the more efficient choice for the average person.

Rebreathers require a much higher degree of attention, diligence and understanding of how the unit works.  The simpler the unit, the easier it may be to fix on the fly in the event of an equipment related issue.  You should always have multiple ways to receive breathable gas in an emergency, so always do your positive and negative checks, and test out the mushroom valves, regulators, fittings and practice drills regularly to keep your problem solving skills sharp.

Have a well stocked rebreather Save a Dive Kit of spare o-rings, regulator parts, breathing hoses and sensor(s).

Keeping Your Rebreather in “Dive Ready Condition” is a Must.

Pre-Dive Checks, Calibrating the Instruments, verifying flow rates (if applicable), packing your scrubber, then cleaning and disinfecting the unit is all part of rebreather diving.  Don’t be lazy and don’t be complacent.

Diving a Rebreather requires diligence and being familiar with all the inner workings of the unit.

Things to Consider.

Which Side does the oxygen inject in from?  Before or after the gas is analyzed? Does it have an ADV or a T-Block Piece?  How many different ways can you get breathable gas if you need it?  How does the unit breath flooded? Is the unit reliable?  Does it work in cold water or just warm water?  Is it lightweight for travel? Do you need to wear weights with it and how much?  Is the cost of the unit agreeable?

What are the entry requirements to training on a Rebreather?  Agencies who make it “too easy” don’t get the big picture.  Train harder, skill up and then go to a rebreather.  Don’t Take Short cuts.  See my previous blog post What’s The Hurry, What’s The Rush?.

You’re making a decision that can cost you over $10’000.00USD.  Do Your Research, but more importantly talk Us.  We do get Demo Units as well sometimes as trade-in’s.  We currently have a Sentinel CCR up for grabs.

Book a Try Dive with Us and see why our way is the best way.

All too often Divers go blindly into purchasing a rebreather and it’s not until they start putting the hours on their units do they realize they purchased the wrong one.

In Closing

Rebreathers are a lot of fun, as you can extend your dive times, see more creatures up close and more personal, it buys you time in an emergency if you’re trapped in a shipwreck or a cave to find an exit in the event of a collapse making them a safer choice for extreme cave diving and the deepest shipwreck diving.

50-100 Trimix Dives will more than pay for the rebreather and the training, so get your hours up in Open Circuit, get proficient with multiple stage bottles and let’s help you become a Rebreather Explorer.

Scuba Certification What’s The Hurry? What’s the Rush?

Scuba Certification What’s the Hurry?  What’s the Rush?

by Matthew Mandziuk
Cave, Technical, Rebreather Explorer and Instructor

Scuba Certification What’s the Hurry?  What’s the Rush?  It seems to be that an old trend coming back full circle in diving again, that one that strikes fear in the dive community who’ve seen it before, whereby the newer diver seems hungry for certification cards and not experience.For some divers it will be all about how fast to push and push and push through course after course after course without any real world experience dives in between.  Its a scary thought thinking that people would want to rush through anything, while its even more scary how stores or instructors are willing to take on students who want it as fast as possible, but to be fair many look at it as a business opportunity to sell to a captive audience striking while the iron is hot.

The other side of the coin when it comes to Scuba Diving Certification is when a group of divers start pushing ahead after they’ve obtained a user level certification, and decide “they know it all”, then they begin utilizing other types of gear or gas mixes they aren’t certified to use in those environments.  Either way, there are concerns we have with this obviously and without correcting these actions people may get hurt.

There is a pride and a sense of accomplishment in anything we do in life, whether its obtaining a pilots license, completing your first ski hill successfully, jumping out of your first airplane, or taking your first step as a diver and completing Open Water Certification.

In the business of diving, we have a couple of laid out progressions for us that guide us down a list of courses and experiences that get us to our end goal.  For some its that they want to be a Master Scuba Diver, for others a Divemaster or Instructor, while other divers take a more serious path towards cave, wreck, or technical diving requiring more disciplined skill sets, better more streamlined equipment alternatives and are presented with a myriad of amazing course options after their first level of training which is a higher skills course like Intro to Tech.

Regardless of which path divers take they’re encouraged to dive to their highest level of experience, gaining some underwater hours at that level and when they feel they’re ready to start upgrading their skills and knowledge, they should aspire to take the next level of training.

In some circles, the training agencies are noted as being certification factories pushing divers through the ranks as quickly as possible, without really stopping to teach or remind divers of the importance of the small things like foundational skills, team awareness, air sharing or rescue procedures, while other agencies are more progressive, some even insist on taking a series of Specialty Courses after their initial entry level Open Water Course before they’re knighted with the title of “Advanced” Open Water Diver, which is a very interesting business model, because it encourages the divers to get out and log a lot of bottom time prior to engaging in more advanced training, but within that system, there are those few rogue divers who feel that they’re good enough to just “jump in” and try anything, and that’s where we as educators and we as divers need to step up and say something……What do we say?  “Hey, don’t do that”?  Maybe, maybe not, but its a good start in the right direction in an attempt to correct peoples poor diving choices.

The best way to learn from ones mistakes are to have a look at what needs to change, so we decided to add some things we feel can help you become a better, safer, more well rounded diver.

Mastering Your Foundation Skills

Trim – if you don’t know what this is, trim refers to your position in the water.  Progressive divers should always strive to achieve a level of balance for their entire body of within + or – 10% midline of horizontal.

Fin Technique – all divers should be able to perform a modified frog, helicopter turn and modified flutter kick.  Back fin is also a kick everyone should master.  It’s easier to ascent using a backwards kick, as well, it allows you to hold and stabilize yourself and your position running line, deploying an smb or virtually any other thing you’d do.

Buoyancy – Buoyancy, Buoyancy, Buoyancy.  If you can’t control yourself in the water without flailing with your hands you haven’t learned trim/buoyancy.  Hover there, not moving, motionless.  If you feel your body moving into a different direction, figure it out and correct it, it could be a need to redistribute weight, adjust harness tighter, crotch strap tighter, go to heavier fins if you feel your head drop, but believe us when it works, there’s no better feeling in the world.  Hover 60 seconds or more not moving hands, minimal if any skulling with fins, which stay up higher than your hands do, so they prevent silting.

2 divers swimming across an old wooden shipwreck
Tiller Wreck, Port Dalhousie

Mask Removal/replace/clear.  Done in trim, neutrally with 1 exhaled breath to clear water out.

Regulator removal/clip long hose/switch to necklace, unclip and switch back to reg in trim, neutrally.

SPG useage unclipping from left hip d-ring, bring out around from behind to front of the body from back to front in trim, neutrally.

Sharing Gas Deployment of your long hose regulator holding the hose, passing off with the mouthpiece up, second stage purge button free for diver to clear, while simultaneously switching to your necklace regulator, once obtained, release long hose to primary diver while un-tucking long hose from weight pocket or canister light on the right hip to fully deploy it.  Skill is done neutrally buoyant, in trim, staring face to face with diver in need of aid.

Ascents – Slow, max 30ft/min stopping at 30, 20, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 for practice, staying in trim with proper neutral buoyancy and ascent speed.

Valve Manipulation Drills – Manifold shut-downs going through the sequence of isolation and switching over from failed post to backup.  Should be done fluently, with trim and buoyancy, while maintaining team communication with your light to draw attention to you.

Primary isolation and shut down/switch over should be less than 30 seconds, or just simply shutting a post and switching to another post less than 15 seconds in an emergency.

Even Recreational Divers Should be taught how to signal their dive buddies, ask for their long hose or alternate air source in a free flow situation, where the diver or their buddy can then take a corrective action by shutting down the valve and sharing air up to the safety stop.  If its a frozen regulator, it should be thawed provided the water is warmer at the 15′ stop, where the diver can then complete the safety stop on their own back gas or stay on the divers alternate.

Stage Bottle Handling – stage bottles are a fantastic addition when doing longer dives where you’d like to save back gas.  A stage allows you to consume air from the additional cylinder before breaking into your main tanks, allowing you the opportunity to extend your duration and ground covered.

Muscle Memory – doing these skills until they become habit and you’re not thinking about which valve to turn off or how to pass of the regulator to the out of air diver means that you’re gaining confidence and proficiency and doing this until its habit is key, much like a martial artist works on blocking or break falls a diver should have the same sort of muscle memory for dealing with emergencies.

Taking our Intro to Tech Course or a Solo Diver (Self Reliant Diver)course will introduce you to these basic skills with  2 different levels of skill performance and equipment configuration requirements.

Experience in as Many Environments as Possible.  

Diving is an enthusiast sport of exploration, where we go and see the world and the many amazing things beneath that worlds surface, but like anything there are new environments and new experience to be had in each of those environments, whether its mastering how to deploy an smb and be able to send it up in a challenging dive environment with a strong current, or using a flashlight and learning how to communicate with your lights to your dive buddy and not blind everyone, to how to use an underwater scooter or DPV, run a line in a shipwreck or a cave, how to take underwater photos but stay still in one position without moving up or down/front or back, there are a range of environments to gain proficiency in and diving in all of them is the only true way to master your skills.

Students working on valve drills in doubles with DDS

The best cave diver may find themselves out classed and out of options on a shipwreck trip in the Northeast Atlantic diving the Andrea Doria if they’re not used to big waves and strong surface currents on decompression, or may feel overwhelmed diving drysuit in cold water with extra bottles and dry gloves.

The warm water reef diver may be comfortable diving in a 2mm shorty wetsuit, but a 7mm wetsuit with hood and gloves can be the most intimidating thing if they’re expecting to just jump into a serious dive, and in turn have a negative experience.

The fresh water diver who gets tired of the same boring down south reefs dons a drysuit and experiences what its like to scuba dive in Les Escoumins, British Columbia, Alaska or Newfoundland and finds that there are colours there that they never knew existed.

The Niagara River drift diver or quarry dive does their first dive in Tobermory or in Lake Ontario and experiences a thermocline but also their first dive with 100-200′ visibility.

What I’m saying is that there is no 1 dive worth doing over and over and over again, there are always new and exciting environments to explore, new bodies of water with new wrecks, new caves, new cave passages, bigger, better deeper walls and wrecks, big creatures to see up close and personal, photograph, video and more.

Working Up to Bigger Dives

In doing the spirit of diving as frequently as possible and in as many environments as possible, put in the time to train up to the depths you want to hit, using and mastering to the best of your abilities the specialized gear you’ll need to get there.

Working with 1 decompression/stage/pony bottle can be easy with practice to take on and off and gas switch to and re-stow the hose, whereas a second bottle can send you out of sync and make you feel like an open water diver all over again.

Making 1 minor change to any key piece of gear can alter your trim and comfort, so its best to work out the kinks in shallow water where you can surface, re-rig or make adjustments, don’t just jump into the deepest depth you’re certified to dive, its unrealistic and unsafe.

Don’t Get Cocky

Silting Out Royal Springs
Pic courtesy of @strokeoftheday on Insta

Many Divers are Good and Many Divers are Cocky not realizing they are mortal.  No matter how many superhero movies we watch, we are not Thor, or even Batman, we may be more like Robin.

Diving beyond your certification level is a ridiculous act of overconfidence.  Yes, you might live, but what happens if a problem arises? Can you safely get yourself out of that dangerous environment?

Things to consider if you don’t have expert buoyancy, don’t go inside a shipwreck or a cave or on a dive with a sensitive bottom without running a line.

Don’t dive deep on air.  It’s out dated, its not cool anymore and people shouldn’t do it.  Get proper training in mixed gas diving with trimix on dives 100′ or deeper inside a wreck or cave and 130′ in open water.  Narcosis is called rapture of the deep for a reason.  People with way more experience than you have died diving deeper into shipwrecks or caves on air than you have.

Even at depths of 100′ divers are narc’d its manageable, most don’t notice until they’re given a task to do like writing, tying lines, communication with their buddies, any sort of mental task, but given a higher stress level or a higher work of breathing with increased CO2 build-up that level of narcosis can increase and so can the the severity of the impairment.

Factors that affect narcosis level can also include quality of sleep or lack there-of, seasickness, stress level pre-dive and on descent, as well as a number of psychological modifiers at depth ranging from cold, darkness, equipment you’re wearing, overall condition and size of the dive you’re on, visibility, etc.

Don’t think the rules don’t apply to you because they do.  Divers become statistics usually when a training limitation is breached, a line isn’t run into an overhead environment, a mandatory piece of equipment is overlooked, gases aren’t analyzed, divers get complacent.

Keep up your edge!  Maintain your skills! Stay active in diving and even if it seems silly to do a refresher at a higher level certification level, get the instructors to challenge you with more difficult tasks and skills.  If they’re a progressive dive shop offering higher end gear and training this shouldn’t be a problem.

Don’t get complacent.  Complacency kills.

Train With An Instructor Who Encourages Your Success Without a Continual Payout

As a Dive Instructor our job is to mentor divers, shape them, and encourage them to live the diving life and enjoy the greatest sport in the world.  Selling is a part of diving, selling the next big trip, charter, piece of gear, continuing education course, but if you only hear from your instructor when they need another body to fill a class, are they really looking after your best interest or theirs?

For some teaching is a part time job or a hobby and they have a “real” big person grown-up job, while others teaching is their bread and butter, so a constant revolving door of students is important, but how can we as educators fulfill both student and instructor needs?

By providing amazing training, advice, engaging them on fun dives, encouraging them to dive as much as possible, while not on a course, but of course keeping in touch with them for all their training needs when you both together feel that moving to the next level is a viable option.

Career counselling for divers can be a fun, simple and easy thing to integrate into your dive store routine, while the students should always feel they have the ability to contact you about anything big or small.

By keeping an open line of communication and diving with your divers frequently, you can also see changes in their abilities and watch them progress, so of course you can invite them to come out and take their next level of training with you too.

Continue Challenging Yourself with Dives at your Highest Level of Certification

Don’t stop your training.  If you’re comfortable in the water, keep going all the way from recreational to technical or cave.  You’ll find your hobby lasts a lifetime rather than weeks, months or years when you strive to succeed.

Divers who see the challenge and embrace diving as their sport have a lifetime of happiness underwater and the training just keeps getting more and more challenging, fun, unique and the dives continue to upstage previous ones.

Certification Doesn’t Mean Expertise

When you finish a dive course you’re basically being handed a license that says on this day you met the minimum standard or higher at the specified level.  It means you have the opportunity to explore in an environment and depth range to that of what you were trained in, nothing more.

Don’t read more into your certification course than the agencies who created the minimum standards.

They establish a safe limit for you to dive and enjoy assuming your level of proficiency is met.

You’re in no rush, there is no prize to breeze through certifications and there is no respect given or gained from rushing through courses.

The common trend these days is to jump from course to course to course, whereas this is the silliest thing you can do.

Many divers breeze through the first 400′ of Ginnie Springs Devil’s Ear/Eye Cave System to push into the back section not taking the time to admire the beauty and explore some of the other unmarked jumps around that first section, yet if you take your time and slowly gain experience you’ll see more in those dives than the divers who are trying to push as far and as fast into the caves as possible.

Taking your time and enjoying the dives are why we’re here, not to get a false title or to try to prove something to someone who really doesn’t care what your certification level is.

Given the choice of taking a diver who has been diving 3-4 years and averaged 200 dives a year and has taken the time to complete a course or two a year, or diving with a diver who has been diving 1-2 years and has 8-10 certifications and maybe 100-200 dives total, which diver do you think is going to be the better diver?  Who would you rather dive with and who would you rather be?  Lets hope in both cases 3-4 year diver because they’re taking their time, diving as much as they can and seemingly being safe about it rather than just paying for a rating.

There is no rush to become a dive professional, there is no need to fast track through courses.  There is a perceived image that dive instructors make a lot of money in diving, but what you don’t see is the cost of all the dives that instructor should be doing to gain experience and mastery of their skills and environment, the upgrade costs for equipment and additional training, as well as the instructor development course costs that are associated with each level they upgrade.

There is also the need to experience through advancing through the levels.  Rather than fast tracking from 0-hero and getting the “full meal deal” being able to teach every course, take time slowly going up the ladder teaching 25 students minimum at each level before moving on to the next level from Open Water to Advanced Specialties, from Specialties to more technical courses and at each level of technical class work at it for some time.  20-25 certifications may seem like a lot and that’s the point.  Gain years of experience, intern some courses or co-teach with other instructors.  Most agencies will even encourage you to audit another members course and teaching style with their permission.

If you don’t take your time and you rush through things you aren’t as thorough as you could be, you achieve a false sense of accomplishment and tend to have the reputation to fast track the classes you teach the way you fast tracked your learning yourself.

It takes not just time in the water, but also time perfecting your teaching style, your demonstrations, outlines, etc. There is no “fast way” to become a reputable dive instructor or dive professional, if there were everyone would do it.

The Blind Following the Blind

There’s a lot to be said for learning from a good mentor, but there are born leaders out there who have no skill or knowledge to pass on to new divers if they themselves have not had success in their training path.

Imagine a person who took part of a cave diving course trying to teach an open water diver how to run a line when they themselves didn’t succeed in their journey into cave diving?  If someone didn’t pass a cave course why are they trying to teach someone else?

Now imagine both of those Divers exploring a cave system, silting it out, becoming lost, trapped, running out of gas and dying inside that cave?

The one Diver gave his other Dive Buddy a false sense of security and accomplishment and essentially had he lived, could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been charged with manslaughter, however, in this case both men died!

There are so many lessons to learn from a Diver’s Mistake.  Books like the Last Dive help shed a lot of insight into accidents, as well as Deep Descent and the classic Blueprint For Survival book by the late Sheck Exley, one of our absolute favourite books and a Free Download! CLICK HERE 

If you had a friend that was an experienced Scuba Diver, would you follow them or listen to them if they weren’t that experienced?  I guess it’s like when an Instructor who doesn’t actually dive tries to use the phrase “but I’m an Instructor”.  In reality, you’re only as good as your student level accomplishments have told you.  A Divemaster can start becoming a Master at 30 Dives, an Instructor can become an Instructor with only 102 logged dives for certification.  To put it into perspective, many of our DDS Divers yearly log over 100 dives.

I firmly believe and I firmly encourage anyone interested in being a Divemaster or Instructor to become a Tech Diver or Cave Diver First.  As a matter of fact, all of our Active DDS Instructors are certified Cave and or Technical Divers. These are true role models and experienced professionals in the industry.

The Guy who was certified in the 1980’s and decides to make a valiant comeback to Diving 30 years later and says they’ve been diving for nearly 40 years isn’t a good role model.  They’re old school and outdated and unless they take some modern diving courses and update their gear and knowledge, they’re a massive liability.

The Diver who has all the neatest toys and no certification to show for it is not a good role model to learn from.

A certified Trimix Diver who has remained active through the years who wants to show you how to fin backwards or let you test dive a set of double tanks is likely a good choice to take advise from, not some person who just got a set of doubles a few weeks ago and didn’t take training or understand how the isolator works. An old school tech diver wouldn’t be as good to take advice from because they maybe didn’t use a double tank set with isolator, in favour of independent doubles and redundant pressure gauges, which we certainly don’t endorse the use of in the 2000’s.

Trust Yourself, be smart and look after yourself and ask yourself if you feel safe diving with someone who is too eager, too excited, too pushy or too unaware of their own diving abilities and seek alternate role models.

Anyone can call a dive at any given time, don’t feel like you have to spend as much time as your dive buddy, if the No Deco Limits almost up, you should be heading up as a non-technical certified diver.

He With the Most Toys Wins?

Sometimes Divers have more money than brains.  We get people brining in Spare Air’s asking how much bottom time they’ll get off of it because they bought a crappy little air tank system that comes with a hand pump on Amazon hoping it would be enough to explore the underwater world for an hour….24 breaths later hopefully they surfaced safely.  This has happened a few times over the years and the most recent one just got an underwater scooter to go with his spare air type system.

If you were taught that it was cool to carry more tanks just because you “may need” the gas you’re an idiot!  Proper Dive Planning will help you know exactly how many cubic feet you will consume at your target depth, for your target duration.  Fact.  Depth (ata) x Time x SCR.  If you don’t know what that means make a point of learning more advanced dive planning.

There are some great courses without even going technical that will help you plan dives properly.  Find where your passion lies and find a suitable and safe way to get there.

Take the time to do it right.  Cookie cutter classes and fly by night dive shops and instructors are not ideal, and the cheapest isn’t always the best, neither is the most expensive.  You can pay a lot or a little and get the same results, what you need is to talk to the trainers you want to train with and see how much more and how much better they can be for your needs, wants and desires.

Don’t follow the herd just because someone is telling you what to do.  Find out the how’s and why’s for yourself and make a more informed decision.

For Every Toy You Purchase, You should take a course on how to use them.

Once in Lake Erie the weather kicked up as a storm was blowing in and they Divers lost their ambient light.  One of them had a light, powered it on and they lost sight of the mooring line and didn’t know which part of the wreck they were on.  One was a PADI Divemaster, One was a Rescue Diver.  They decided to do a free ascent which they’d never done before.  Horace being a Rescue Diver had an SMB that he’d never used before but carried it…Ralph the Divemaster had no idea how to use one either, but the Rescue Diver passed the bag and reel to the DM assuming a “master” should know how to do that.  I was sitting on the bow of the boat watching the bubbles going away from the wreck and knew something was happening.

When their bubbles got bigger, faster, I knew they were going up too fast and they breached the surface holding the SMB’s limp and helpless in their hands and they blew the last minute of their safety stop.  I had oxygen for them and they were fine.

Ralph became one of my best technical diving students not long after that, while Horace decided to become a PADI Instructor and faded away into obscurity.

Carrying even an additional stage cylinder requires proper procedures and the know-how how to use them.

Carrying extra stages just to be cool is excessive and embarrassing, especially if you don’t know how to use them in the first place.

Diving a DPV.  Our DPV Classes are far more in-depth and advanced than most and we offer technical programs with DPV’s also, but some people just think it looks easy and they get one.  DPV’s are no joke and they require a very disciplined and dedicated attention to buoyancy, bottom composition, trim, the trigger, other divers and of course the tow leash itself.

If you don’t have the right bcd, a DPV will be a huge liability and hinderance to you as well.  You need a crotch strap with scooter ring.

Dive Computers are a great tool, but take the time to read up on the information it’s telling you.  If you don’t know what Deco or Ceiling means, you should never see those words.  A computer is something that helps keep you on schedule but should never be relied upon, always pre-plan your dive to get a feel for the schedule and anticipate delays, issues and problems and build those factors into your dive plan.

Do Not Rely on Your Dive Computer to Decompress for You, Only You Can Decompress for you.

Buying a Drysuit and just jumping in with it is risky, especially if the suit isn’t custom fit for you.  Excessive amounts of air in the legs and rest of the suit can have very negative consequences.  Not knowing you need a drysuit hose for it or forgetting to hook it up to the suit can have very fatal outcomes, as has happened in a recent lawsuit involving a shop in the US.

Accidents happen and they happen….when you don’t expect them to happen, which is why they’re called an “ACCIDENT”!

Be a Leader, Not a Follower.   Don’t Be Like Hitler in one of our favourite Dive Spoof YouTube Videos.  CLICK HERE.

Those That Can’t Do….Buy a Rebreather!?

One thing that always puzzles us is when a diver struggles in open circuit scuba during a Foundational Skills Course like our NAUI Intro to Tech (which is the most thorough Foundational Skills Dive Course Available).  Intro teaches divers the fundamental skills such as buoyancy, trim, team diving, equipment configuration and familiarity, emergency procedures, safer ascents, descents, while refining your body position or trim in the water among many other wonderful and beneficial skills, yet we’ve had over a dozen scuba divers who couldn’t control buoyancy, or just want to fast track forward and get cards and not put fourth the effort, only to find out that after failing intro, they purchased a closed circuit rebreather and went the zero to hero route on a CCR from air diluent to normoxic trimix, yet still lacked the rudimentary elements that our divers are all taught!

If you can’t dive without silting out the bottom or ascending without being a fish on a fish hook on your safety/decompression stops, what makes you think diving a rebreather or tech diving on doubles with a homemade “deco mix” )because a shop won’t fill your deco bottles with 100% Oxygen if you’re not certified) so you home-brew some “deco gas” and bring in an un-marked cylinder to be topped with air at a dive shop to get your desired mix is safe?

Do they know that you’re putting the shop that’s filling their cylinder with “air only” at risk for liability and litigation in the event they get bent or they die!?

I remember diving the Forest City in Tobermory a few years back and a Diver who failed Intro to Tech decided it was “too much work for him”, so 6 months later he was a Normoxic Trimix Diver…..I remember watching him flutter kick down the starboard side railing getting towards the midship and he was stirring up the silt, diving by himself and was hanging vertical on the line after the dive, and I was just disgusted.

I had another student bomb Intro Skills at Sherkston Quarry, actually I told the students “Do Not Do Valve Shut-Down’s when my back is turned to you” I was working on valve shutdowns one at a time when I heard a “gulp” turned around reg out ready to donate and he was shooting to the surface, no reg in his mouth, we all grabbed his feet to slow his ascent and I got a reg in his mouth, but he was kicking as hard as he could and we all slowly ascended from 40′.  He decided open circuit was too difficult as well and got a rebreather.  We never saw him diving after that.

One of the main issues we see with rebreather divers is they don’t carry enough bail-out gas. If you’re carrying an Aluminum 40 of air bailout and you are on a decompression dive with decompression stops, you don’t have the gas or the time.

It doesn’t make sense to us that a diver who can’t hover still for 5 minutes within 10 degrees midline of horizontal or who can’t descend without hitting the bottom should be allowed to dive such a serious piece of kit as a rebreather or even doubles!

matt doing a rebreather dive on the shipwreck forest city in TobermoryWe typically recommend completing at least Trimix 1 or Cave 2 prior to going into a Rebreather and you’ll notice we backmout our bailout gas with LP50 Faber tanks or Aluminum 40’s if in a wetsuit down south with a 40 and 80 of Open Circuit Bail-out Gas or on a simple nitrox range dive like the Tiller.

Rebreather and Technical Divers need to be proficient with not only the gear on the back, but also additional stage/deco cylinders, which many inexperienced rebreather divers don’t wear as seen above in the pool pic.

Diving a Rebreather is awesome and very rewarding, although bare in mind that doing a basic Nitrox Dive at $15.00/tank, $30 for doubles is pretty cost effective vs owning a rebreather and paying for the Sofnolime as well as having to replace your 3-4 oxygen sensors yearly at over $300/yr.  You have to justify the cost of the unit, the training and the dives.  If you’re not doing deep helium diving or spending several hours shallow in the water outlasting what a set of twins or high capacity single can offer, then there’s little need for a rebreather.

Rebreathers are best suited to deep trimix cave or wreck diving, long scooter dives in deeper water and explorations.

Those That Can’t Do…..Dive Sidemount!?

The other amazing thing that we see is how non-technical divers are jumping on the the trend of Sidemount and how many shops are happy to offer an inferior technical diving class with mixed teams (Divers on Doubles/Sidemount/Rebreather) with no continuity in the equipment configuration.  If you’re not cave diver or shore diving at a site with a long walk to access the water or are diving at a site with difficult accessibility to the water, or you’re not disabled (or have limited range of motion) Sidemount is Not For You.

Sidemount with Redundant Buoyancy? Pic by @strokeoftheday via Instagram

The only reason Sidemount should be considered for technical diving is if a diver has had shoulder surgery and can’t reach their manifold or have fused their spine, bad knees, etc. and the body just can’t take the weight of the doubles.

Here at DDS we pioneered Modern Sidemount Diving. We use Sidemount as an expedition tool.

Sidemount is absolutely horrible on a dive boat.  Divers who often join us for charters on Sidemount start gearing up first and are the last one’s in the water as they struggle to put on all the extra gear.

If you’re diving Sidemount, you needs to be a mirrored image of your doubles or a rebreather, if it’s not it’s going to cause confusion and task-loading to yourself and your team as you try to remember where you backup lights are on this configuration vs your doubles kit.  On singles, doubles and rebreather your backup lights should be down your shoulders….in Sidemount they should also be down your shoulders.

In Doubles you breath off a long hose regulator…On your Rebreather you should have a long hose regulator but this is clipped to the right shoulder d-ring as you’re breathing off the loop.  In Sidemount you should be breathing off the long hose and switching (which creates multi-tasking) every 300-500psi depending on the cylinder choice from primary to secondary.  There is no guarantee that you’ll be on your long hose when an out of air situation may arise, but through practice you can prepare to deal with any situations as best to your ability as possible.

Sidemount for Tech Diving is just plain Dumb! If You’re interested in being a Sidemount Diver (or are a Sidemount Diver) or have buddies who are diving Sidemount, there is absolutely No Place for more than 1 deco cylinder on your body with this configuration (leashing additional won’t work because the oxygen is always supposed to be the bottle you have closest to you).  If you’re being taught or encouraged to carry Decompression Cylinders Split up on the left and right sides (“Lean Left, Rich Right”) Ask for a refund!  All of your deco gas should be off the left side, no exceptions and with Sidemount, life gets so much more cumbersome as the Diver gets wider with the additional cylinders….Hence the nickname “Widemount”.  There’s a right tool for the right job.

Sidemount is an Expedition Tool for Explorers, not recreational divers who are tech diving or boat diving.

Recreational Divers Should Only dive Sidemount if they already have mastered buoyancy, trim, alternate fin kicks and are exhibiting demonstration quality execution of their Foundational Skills. Unfortunately many Sidemount Students who enroll at our store do not possess the skills or even the proper BCD.

Tech Sidemount Diver with horrible bottle techniques and lean left, rich right. Doing it Wrong. Pic by @strokeoftheday via Instagram

Sidemount allows you to explore a new cave passage or a shipwreck that collapsed possibly, but there is nothing as a “New Cave Diver” that can’t be done on doubles.  If you’re past the level of Cave 2, you can definitely benefit from Sidemount, but there is nothing in Cave Training at level 1 or level 2 that is “sidemount only”.  Most passages are larger and you’ll often times see multiple teams at these sites diving through all at the same time because it’s large and open and awesome, so Sidemount is Not Needed.

Sidemount is awesome as an alternative to doubles in countries where you can’t rent doubles.

Sidemount is an awesome option when you’re repelling into a well or down a cliff to check out a lead on a new cave site, because you can have 1 tank dropped down, inspect the area and see if it’s worthy of dropping the second tank and pushing the site further, or simply just passing the bottles back up the rope and you can climb back up and out, but most divers don’t have this opportunity as a more “pedestrian Sidemount Diver”.

In Canada we find most Sidemount Divers with the exception of a couple training with friends on East or West Coast are a hot mess of hoses, accessories and danglies.

At DDS, we teach our Sidemount Divers to be as streamlined and simple as possible. All of your accessories are located in the same places as your back mounted kit, with the only difference being the location of your main breathing tanks.

We don’t permit more than 1 deco cylinder on the Divers and that bottle is often dropped and retrieved in a cave.

We don’t Sidemount off boats because it’s usually a disaster either with surface currents if the divers try to put their tanks on in the water, or they occupy so much more time on the boat gearing up because they don’t know how to do it smoothly.

Sidemount is most beneficial in shore diving situations and cave diving.

Those That Can’t Do…..Teach?

Sure you’ve heard that age old adage before, but when you think about it, could you imagine learning from someone who decided to teach Scuba Diving because they had to do something to “save face” and prove to themselves they were a great diver?  Teaching isn’t it.  Teaching is something many people are good at and naturally able to do, but what they can teach is the important thing.

Becoming a Scuba Diving Instructor is one of the absolute most beneficial and fulfilling goal a Diver can have, but we would suggest that it should be done for the right reasons.

We’ve heard several times that students who were mad they didn’t pass a class were going to get their instructors and teach for agency X, Y, or G, but if they can’t pass a specific class they think they should pass, what makes anyone think becoming an Instructor for said level of scuba classes is a viable option?

Teaching Scuba Diving isn’t a hard thing to do, minimum standards from the recreational agencies state that a person can enrol in a class for Divemaster with 30 Dives and can Certify at 60.  An Instructor can be certified as an Instructor with 102 logged dives.

What is that Diver going to be able to demonstrate to a Student?

Here at DDS, we want all of our Instructional Staff to hold at least the level of Intro to Tech, while all of our Instructors are actually Cave Divers!  This is a major reason why many of our DDS Students are more polished and better Divers than the other agencies highest qualified Divers.

If a person has a great personality and works with new Divers it’s great and we definitely encourage them to continue to mentor and to encourage the new Divers, however, if someone outright flunks out of some Technical Diving Courses, we would suggest they shouldn’t just enrol in a Leadership Level Course to save face.  Think of it as breaking up with a significant other and going into an immediate “Rebound” relationship, it often doesn’t work.

That being said Technical Diving and Advanced Level Diving isn’t necessarily for Everyone!  You Either Want to Challenge Yourself or You don’t.  They say “Nothing Good Comes Easy Without a Fight”.  While I would disagree, there is some truth to this also.

Have an accurate self image of Yourself and think things through, do what makes sense.  Don’t become a “Rebound Dive Instructor”, be an Instructor who actually Dives and can positively contribute in this amazing sport.  We are always looking to bolster our teaching staff, but we do have the highest standards.

Before a Diver becomes an Instructor, they should possess above average Diving Skills, above average Rescue Diving abilities, awareness and comfort.

The Rescue Diver Program is a wonderful Course, usually our students favourite, the Divemaster and Assistant Instructor programs are phenomenal too.  The Instructor program is a great experience with a lot of up’s and down’s and some great lessons learned, don’t try and push hard and fast through these core programs.

A Rescue Scenario is expected in every single Technical, Cave, Wreck Penetration and Rebreather Class at DDS.

Those That Can’t Do…..(Try) to Cave Dive? (Or Ice Diving?)

Diver’s often think going to Florida or Mexico is a great idea because they saw a TV show, read a magazine or did a Cenote tour maybe and thought it would be cool to dive in a cave.

The basic rules of cave diving aside (lights, thirds, gear, training, team, etc.), why do people think diving in an overhead environment is a good place for them?  Especially if all they know is diving in a jacket bcd with plastic fins, a clear skirted mask and flutter kicking?

Many Divers try and buy the right Cave or Overhead Gear…Often time making the poor choice of Sidemount Gear as is the trend lately and then they decide they want to jump into a cavern and cave class with this new gear.

Sadly most agencies don’t have a “Doubles Class” which is in poor taste, so agencies like NAUI and GUE did.

There never used to be a Sidemount Course for Recreational Diver’s, but as outlined above, sadly too many recreational instructors are teaching an inferior Sidemount Course, so the students don’t learn the basic skills that would help them move forward successfully in a cave course.

Bottom line: If You Don’t Have Horizontal Trim, Proper Gear, Frog Kick, Back Fin, or Helicopter Turn, YOU SHOULD NOT BE THINKING OF CAVE or OVERHEAD ENVIRONMENT DIVING.

Since August People have been emailing asking or Ice Diving Training.  UNLESS YOU ARE A CERTIFIED INTRO TO TECH OR TECHNICAL DIVER IN A DRYSUIT WITH DOUBLES OR SIDEMOUNT, YOU SHOULD NOT BE THINKING OF ICE DIVING.

Any Dive Store or Instructor that thinks Intro to Cave in a Single is suitable or Ice Diving with a Single is Suitable are a) breaking standards, but are also delusional.

You need a Foundational Skills Class like TDI, NAUI or GUE offer.  You Have No Business being in an overhead environment without the right gear and training.

We have seen more equipment failures in Ice Diving Courses than all levels of technical diving, recreational and cave diving courses combined.  Diving Under the Ice is just stupid without the right gear and training.

Fit And Functionality

Regardless of where you go in your diving, do it right!  Get the best fitted gear you can.  Properly fitted equipment makes diving fun, not a chore.

Many people try and save a few dollars getting a less than ideal fitted drysuit or undergarment which hinders movement and mobility.  If you don’t have full range of motion in your drysuit don’t make excuses or try and justify Sidemount or Rebreathers because the valves are at armpit-waist level vs doubles, when the issue isn’t the gear configuration, it’s the fact that you made a poor purchase buying a drysuit that doesn’t fit you properly.

Any Technical Diving Instructor should do a “Fit Clinic” as part of your technical diving path and help you fit your gear properly. If they themselves are taking shortcuts, you’re going to receive the wrong information or support.

Everything piece of gear a Diver dives with should feel like “home”.  If it feels like a chore or it’s not easy to use, it may not be the right piece of equipment.

Even something so obvious as fitting a backplate harness properly is something we see overlooked by a lot of Divers we meet or re-train.

The Right Gear Doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, it just has to work best for the end user.

Used Gear is not always good on important items like wetsuits, drysuits, garments, but a backplate and harness, a set of tanks, a dive computer, if you have to get used is a great option if it’s the right price.  We often do find though that people online are often selling used gear for more than we sell new gear for in some cases and of course we sell our rentals off frequently too.

The correct shape of the doubles wing the Diver chooses, the right length bungees on a Sidemount harness, how snug or how loose a Diver’s harness is, how streamlined the drysuit is cut will prevent set-backs and promote fun!

Fit and Functionality is everything. Don’t Rush Into Making an Impulse Purchase just to get gear that gets you in the water, as it will cost you thousands of dollars to correct some of these mistakes.  The Drysuit obviously being the most important piece of gear.

Think it through and do it right.

Get Back to Basics

Need Additional Skills? Photo courtesy of @strokeoftheday via Instagram

Go Back to Basics, get proficient in Doubles once you’re ready to graduate from singles.  Take a proper Doubles NTEC Primer with us.  NTEC is a great pre-requisite to the Intro program and it gives you a preview of where your level of proficiency needs to be before trying to enrol in the next course.

When over 50-75% of our Divers don’t successfully complete Intro to Tech, it should make you wonder why?  The answer?  They don’t have the trim, buoyancy, fin kicks, awareness or experience and are trying to put the cart before the horse.  Sometimes it’s not until they get held back that they have an awakening, but more of then not, the Divers are clueless or argue in disbelief and start getting into situations beyond their training.

If all Divers took advantage of our mentorship program and did Ntec, got good and they prepped and trained and dove with like-minded DDS Divers who could grow together and become a proper team, they could then enrol in the next level with our approval and not hold up the rest of the class or be a hindrance in training the competent Diver’s who are ready to progress forward.  Don’t be the Diver who Hold’s Them Back!

Our Homegrown DDS Divers have never failed Intro to Tech.  That being said when we share videos of our Newer Advanced Open Water Level Divers diving with Tech Divers from other agencies they’re often as good or better in the water.

Put the time and effort in, take it seriously, log your hours and keep diving.

Start with Singles, Get a Drysuit and Dive Doubles, Get Experience in Doubles.  Train Up in Tech or Cave and go Rebreather, consider DPV Technical or Cave applications if you want more bottom time once you’re proficient with at least 2 deco bottles, then consider Sidemount for Advanced or Expedition Type Diving, but respect the hierarchy because it’s the path of least resistance.

We Generally recommend taking 1 major core course a year.  An example of this would be: Open Water and Advanced (maybe some easy Specialties) Year 1, Rescue year 2 (and maybe some easy Specialties), Divemaster (and specialities) Year 3 or later.  When you’re ready to make the jump into the more challenging Technical Programs, do Intro to Tech Year one year, Tech 1 and Cave 1 Year 2 and 3, Trimix Year 3, Rebreather Year 4 or 5. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither were great Scuba Divers.

We typically like 25-50 Dives to the students highest level of certification minimum before they move onto the next level and some agencies even mandate that, which fits with our mindset also.  There may also be some exceptional exceptions, but we rarely see them because Good, Realistic Scuba Divers aren’t in a rush to prove anything.

There is no substitute for experience!

Get out and get your practice in.  We teach Diver’s from all over Canada, the US and other Countries, let’s make You the Best Diver You can be.  It’ll take time, but you’ll love every minute of it. Sign up for some classes with us.  It doesn’t matter where you reside, we can come to you or youc an come to us, or we can meet your somewhere else awesome.

See you underwater,

Matt

 

 

DDS Divers Swimming Over the Reef in Roatan

Challenges Will Reward Your Longterm Scuba Diving Goals

Challenges Will Reward Your Longterm Scuba Diving Goals
by
Matthew Mandziuk 

In life nothing good comes easy without a fight or working to earn it, unless you win the lottery.  The same can be true moving through a more Progressive Scuba Diving training philosophy where the divers are taught a higher level of knowledge, skills and techniques. Your Personal Challenges Will Reward Your Longterm Scuba Diving Goals.

At DDS we pride ourselves on staying ahead of market trends and instead we lead the charge forward towards better diving.  For nearly 20 years we’ve taught our open water divers about the benefits of learning and buying the right gear and the right skills and techniques after over 20 years of doing it the old school way.

We pride ourselves on teaching divers a different (better) way to do things at the open water level where they can move forward with better skills, finesse and discipline allowing them to struggle less, maintain the visibility of even the siltiest environments or most fragile coral reefs, while continuing forward progressing successfully into deeper, more advanced courses, environments and experiences with more comfort and efficiency as they challenge themselves with training that is more exciting, more disciplined, more regimented and more rewarding than some of the “more traditional”  courses which have become stale or outdated as we power ahead into a new age of diving.

As human beings we can always learn more and the same is true in scuba diving, except most dive training has become outdated and boring.  All divers should be more aware of their dive profiles, gas requirements with proper gas reserves built in, no stop time limits and what is happening within their bodies as they spend more time underwater and as they ascend or descend.

Many of these common concepts are lost on the masses because theory is passed over quickly as we tend to suffer from a condition that demands “instant gratification” and dive shops that depend more so now on eLearning doing the work of the instructor for the shops and instructors, so the personal element of sharing stories and experiences with the students is lessened (or in some cases completely lost as there is no classroom sessions), so the students don’t create an emotional bond with their instructors, classmates or Divemasters.

Bad Diver Lots of Silt
A poorly trained diver in silts out the bottom as they have no buoyancy, trim, awareness or cares in the world. Don’t Be Like This Diver.

Train Hard

If divers took more time to learn about dive planning, gas calculations, gas consumption, decompression theory and dive sciences, they would be much more ready to take diving to the next level.  This knowledge can help us not just in diving, but also in every day life.

Divers who are taught to manage stresses underwater are more able to handle the every day curveballs life throws at you on a daily basis, as well as how to focus better on challenging tasks, yet the number of divers who progress through Advanced and Rescue diver courses drops as students seem less engaged in some graphic regions than before.

Where a diver can go training wise and the training opportunities available to them make or break the likelyhood of creating a “Lifetime Diver”.  If a diver only dives once a year or 3, they’re better off just doing Discover Scuba Diving Experiences.

A certified diver who goes from Advanced, Nitrox, Drysuit  to Rescue is doing things better, but the key is to find a trainer who can teach you what you need to really know.  If as a diver they tell you it’s okay to be standing, kneeling on the bottom, to rely on holding onto an ascent line and be vertical on an ascent or safety stop as you take up 6-7′ minimum of line with your fins dangling down kicking the divers below you, that’s okay to overweight yourself so you sink or that violating thirds (your gas rule you should be ascending at), that it’s okay to flutter kick and silt out the bottom, wear flimsy floaty plastic fins, split or hinge fins and have stuff dangling off you like a Christmas Tree, it’s time to find a new instructor.

A diver who progresses towards more foundational skills classes like our NAUI Intro to Tech program will have the chance to perfect themselves better than any recreational diver, regardless of if they ever become a tech diver or not, as Foundational Skills Development courses like “Intro” offer the most through and engaging training possible with a combination of dry land drills, confined water drills and open water dives.

Divers who learn the foundational skills to make themselves a better diver and put the time in to become proficient in all aspects of their diving often become a much safer, more aware diver with superior team diving skills, refined buoyancy, flawless horizontal trim, proper ascents and descents, better fin techniques (utilizing a modified frog as their primary kick, modified flutter, ability to turn 360 degrees and do a reverse frog kick to go backwards) rather than flutter kicks, and exceptional problem solving skills.  You even master surface marker deployment, rescue techniques, valve or regulator failures and more.

Your biggest assets in diving are TIME IN THE WATER and BUOYANCY, BUOYANCY, BUOYANCY.

DON’T try and fast track your way through training.  Learn the foundational skills, start diving in the proper gear, train and dive with divers who are better than you are.

NAUI offers the highest standards of any training agency in foundational, technical, cave and overhead training, which is the reason they’re our primary agency for those courses, but we offer training from several other agencies too.

A Properly Trained Diver with Good TrimA properly trained DDS Diver working on trim and buoyancy during a NAUI Cavern/NAUI Intro to Tech Foundational Skills course.

Fitness in Diving

Some new divers complain that lead weights and tanks are heavy, while more Technically Advanced Divers dive with Sidemount or back-mounted double tanks.

Diving with a drysuit creates more buoyancy, drag and resistance while swimming through the water, so there is an element of fitness required to dive.  Carrying tanks to the water, stage bottles, rebreathers, camera systems, scooters, all these things have weight to them.  It’s part of diving, so get fit and get ready to handle the gear you’ll be using.

To get more comfortable handling these items a strength building program to strengthen arms, legs and abs are very beneficial.  30 push-up’s a day, 100 ab crunches and a light jog even 1-2km a couple of days a week will help make a difference in your strength and overall well being, while also improving cardiovascular health.

Swimming will help give the body a resistance free total body workout too and if you can’t take the impact from running or rowing, may be a better option for you and its fun!

Some dive courses require a specific distance to be swam before a specific time, don’t lose out on some great diving because you can’t make the cut.  It IS worth it and it WILL take time.

How Did We Get Here?  It Wasn’t Over Night

Dan’s has become the go to shop for recreational, advanced, technical diving education over the last 20+ years. DDS was established in 1974.  We are Canada’s Oldest PADI Dive Shop and 2nd oldest worldwide currently.

With the help of a Canadian Diving Pioneer John Reekie (passed away several years ago) we helped introduce the Canadian Diving Market to Technical Diving and Cave Diving gear and procedures as early as 1986!  We were one of the first North American Dive Stores to offer Nitrox as an alternative breathing gas in 1992 when the traditional agencies were Anti-Nitrox and causing riots at dive shows because they honestly believed Nitrox to be Voodoo Satan Gas!  True Story!

By the mid 1990’s we were offering old-school technical diving and rebreather courses.  By 2000 we were introduced to more progressive diving and upgraded our training, which allowed us to see a different side of diving, one that was less limiting and more progressive.

DDS Divers enjoy a cleaner, more streamlined gear body, gear configuration and ability to share air more effectively than traditional short hose divers

We began offering Progressive Doing it Right based (DIR Diving) training and equipment, including the offering of backplates to new open water sport divers a part of basic training and introducing recreational divers to the long hose/short hose regulator configuration or the Hogarthian method of diving.

In 2007 we began offering more modern and progressive Sidemount training.  We are happy to be offering training on several different rebreather configurations, especially the modular and most versatile machine on the market, White Arrow Explorer Rebreather System, capable of any configuration.

Every recreational diver can benefit from our experience, the new skills that we offer and every day diving techniques that we introduce from basic open water programs. Horizontal Trim, Buoyancy, Team Awareness, S-Drills, Bubble Checks, SMB Deployments, Air Sharing horizontally in neutral buoyancy with a long hose regulator, Team Diving Protocols and more.

backwards frog kick intro to tech
Learning your foundational kicks without fins or gear on is the first step to perfecting your forward, turn and backwards kicks during an Intro to Tech Course

While not every diver is introduced to this from every instructor around the world, we also offer Foundational training to start experienced divers off right as well, as many of the concepts we teach aren’t taught elsewhere unless the divers have been taught by a certified cave or technical instructor. At the end of the day we want everyone to learn to be better and dive with more confidence, comfort and awareness, so we offer workshops like NTEC which is a great way to prime yourself to learn the foundational skills you should know in a class and pool setting showing you a better way to do things in the right gear.  This also prepares you for a glimpse into your diving future should you want to progress towards Wreck Diving, Cavern or Cave, Ice, Technical and more.

Our experience in expeditions and exploration projects have also helped shape our divers into the best divers in the water.

Get More Technically Correct

When a diver starts to get more “technical” it helps them become a more complete diver.  It doesn’t mean they have to aspire to achieve a new super deep world record sort of depth where they hang for hours on decompression stops, however, it does break through the misconceptions, boundaries of conventional training and opens you up to a lifetime sport with the ability to go anywhere with your diving.

We believe Technical Diving is simply extending your range both with respect to knowledge, but also extending the scope of your abilities beyond what is known and offering new challenges along the way.

Our NAUI Intro to Tech Course has been called the “Best Dive Course” by nearly everyone who’s taken this amazing foundational skills class.  Regardless of whether a student completes the course successfully the first time or not, “Intro” is where better diving begins.

Our Intro course begins with the tightening up of the divers buoyancy and trim, cleaning up and streamlining the entire equipment configuration, introducing new surface protocols and pre-dive regiments like safety drills, SADD checks, Bubble Checks and Heat to Toe checks which improve safety and awareness.

Intro also begins to stress the team concept of diving, which is something talked about but rarely enforced in traditional recreational diving.  We introduce the benefit to 3 person buddy teams, which are often taboo in traditional training as well, as we believe a second set of hands to help and eyes to see are very important should a diver require assistance.

NAUI Intro to Tech Students Air Share
NAUI Intro to Tech Students working on trim and buoyancy while sharing air during their confined water session.

After classroom sessions are complete students are introduced to a combination of dry land surface drills that allow the instructor to demonstrate skills such as trim, fin kicks, flat horizontal body posture, air shares, valve shutdowns, diver rescues, lift bag deployments and many other skills topside as they can talk about each skill attribute and show it off before the students are expected to demonstrate it both on the surface and then the skills are executed by instructors and students under the water in a shallow pool or confined water area suitable for this sort of training.  Upon successful completion of the pool sessions candidates are then taken to open water and will complete all skills in a shallow open water environment where No Stop Times are not an issue.

During Intro to Tech a staff member will video record the students skills throughout the program so they can break down their progress frame by frame and discuss thoroughly throughout the course dives in debriefing sessions.

Students love the fact that this style of training is done intensively as repetition helps them improve and learn at a quicker rate, especially upon review of each dive during de-briefing when we break down all of the skills done that day with video review.

Through clear and concise de-briefings the students know exactly what it is they need to work on and how to improve as we take corrective action with them and continue to show them how to properly execute each skill breaking down the skills as clear and concise as possible.

Just the Beginning

Many divers love the challenge that Intro brings and those divers who work hard and succeed will enrol in their next challenge.

Divers will be using more equipment which creates a need for better fitness, stiffer fins, stronger dive abilities and confidence.

Imagine being perfectly neutrally buoyant without a bottom below you as you stare below into the abyss without any fear or concerns

Intro to Tech is a stepping stone to bring divers more safely into the realm of deeper diving or overhead environments as the foundational skills and trim learned here ensure that those divers are going to be able to perform the rudimentary skills like horizontal buoyancy, frog kick, modified frog kick and to be able to fin backwards for 10′ without hitting the bottom or silting out the dive site because Zero Impact Diving is such am important skill to possess as it saves the reef, fragile clay patterns, maintains the water clarity (especially in a wreck or cave where a diver will have to navigate safely back out of a zero visibility environment) and makes the diving more pleasurable for all.  The other important skill is something we teach at Open Water and again at Advanced Open Water and Intro to Tech, which is being able to deploy and send an SMB up to the surface ascending on a reel stopping every 10′ and then ascending to 15′, 12′, 9′, 6′, 3, surface many of those divers will engage in their next adventure.

Intro to Tech is simply the holy grail of recreational diving because you see what is lacking when you compare it to someone who’s been coaxed into taking a different more traditional Master Scuba Diver sort of approach.  Rather than being taught to dive properly, most divers are taught to pay for an instructors time, a paper manual and a plastic certification card.  While there are some phenomenal recreational specialty courses (Nitrox, Equipment Specialist, DPV, Cavern, Drysuit) most dive stores don’t have the talent or the ability to teach some of these more useful classes and favour a quick payout instead of committing their divers to more in-depth training.

The most popular courses Intro graduates challenge themselves next with range from Wreck Penetration to a Cavern/Cave 1 class, DPV class, Technical Decompression with Helitrox (Tech 1) Advanced Nitrox/Decompression Procedures.

Growing Your Experience

Regardless of the certification level a diver achieves it requires regular diving to maintain that level of proficiency and regular dives to that highest level of certification.  We usually recommend 20-25 dives annually at that level before moving to the next level.

At DDS, We are NOT a certification factory that tries to push our divers from Intro to Tech to Trimix Rebreather in a month.  It’s not about numbers, its about the quality of the diver and those divers that are making poor choices have no real world underwater dive skills and often lose buoyancy, panic or are a complete embarrassment to the sport.

DDS Divers are some of the highest trained divers in the country and they show a lot more finesse and discipline than most.  Those divers who choose to work hard and grow their diving abilities are often asked to join in on bigger, better dives, as well as for support projects both local and abroad.

Expedition projects are conducted yearly and it’s always great when new members can be integrated into the Divers Edge family, which is our training and exploration group.  We have partners worldwide through several organizations that we do international projects with for caves and shipwrecks.

Get Involved

Regardless of your goals the key in anything is to keep involved and dive with divers who share the same views and the same goals in training and equipment.

We have taught and continue to teach divers from around the world and are more than willing to put on a presentation for groups, clubs, other shops as we’ve been doing for decades.

If you’d like to get involved and benefit from better training, equipment configuration and future diving opportunities, reach out and let’s get you involved with DDS Today.

We have trips, charters, training year round. Your first step is to reach out and make contact, the rest comes easily from there.

Dive Truk Lagoon with Dan’s Dive Shop

Dive Truk Lagoon for the Adventure of a Lifetime

Join DDS with an amazing group of divers for this once in a lifetime dive experience in Micronesia. We’re heading to Truk Lagoon to dive the numerous wrecks from the Japanese WWII fleet, which were sunk by the US in retaliation for Pearl Harbour.  This world class haven for wreck diving beckons the advanced diver looking for some of the best diving in the world.

Truk Lagoon March 9 – 19, 2016

Dive the historic WWII wrecks and beautiful marine life in Micronesia’s Truk Lagoon. Spend 3 nights at the famous Blue Lagoon resort, and 7 nights aboard the world’s largest dive liveaborad, the SS Thorfinn.

What’s Included:

–          3 nights accommodation in a superior room at Blue Lagoon

–          7 nights accommodation onboard SS Thorfinn

–          all hotel & gov’t taxes

–          Roundtrip Airport transfers

–          3 days of 2-tank diving at Blue Lagoon

–          Onboard Thorfinn up to 5 daily dives from comfortable 32 ft. dive launches. Free Nitrox EAN 32 to single cylinder users. Optional Multi-cylinders with custom blends. Oxygen aboard supplied from twin oxy generators at 93% +or- 3% purity

–          7 actual dive days onboard Thorfinn

–          Valet system onboard Thorfinn for dive gear stowage, including cameras rinsed/delivered to C deck camera tables.

–          Tanks and weights

–          All meals, snacks, teas, coffee, soft drinks, juices onboard Thorfinn.  Beer, wines, spirits, at low bar prices.

–          Free Fleet BroadBand 500 wi-fi Internet on Thorfinn, within bandwidth limits.

–          Final Friday night barbecue buffet, cultural party by select local crew members.

Cost: Recreational diver: $4330CAD; Rebreather Diver: $4660CAD*, Tek Diver: $4930CAD** All cost is based on double occupancy.

Not included: flights, meals at Blue Lagoon, Nitrox at Blue Lagoon, tek-diving options at Blue Lagoon, dive gear, possible additional nights hotel, gratuities, travel insurance.

*Rebreather Diver:

  • Free twin custom rebreather cylinders, filled with oxygen and air diluent.
  • Free air-filled 12 ltr bail-out bottle.
  • Custom dispatches for extended deep diving desires.
  • Free 20kg Sofnolime 6-8 grain size to each diver, weekly. Helium available optionally.

** Tek Divers:

  • Up to 5 dives per day on TWINS with unlimited AIR fills and free Nitrox EAN 32.
  • 50% discount on O2 mixes above EAN32 for stages and backgas.
  • Custom schedules for extended deep dives with double rigs, stage bottles, and personal guide.
  • Free isolation manifolded doubles, or 2 side-mount cylinders, plus 1 free stage cylinder or pony bottle.

Trip is being organized through DDS and booked through Fly and Sea Dive Adventures.  

For questions and booking, please contact our travel partner:
Fly and Sea Dive Adventures
8528 123 St.
Surrey, BC
1-888-995-3483, diving@flyandsea.com

Tobermory Dive Extravaganza II September 2024

Sign Up Now

Call (905) 984-2160

Email info@dansdiveshop.ca

Tobermory Dive Extravaganza II September with Dan’s Dive Shop 2024

Join us for our Tobermory Dive Extravaganza II September 20-22, 2024 in Canada’s Dive Capital for one of our most popular dive trips, the Tobermory Dive Extravaganza! Nestled in the Northern Bruce Peninsula, Tobermory is known as one of the most beautiful places in the world- above and below the water.

Explore the Fathom 5 Marine Park and the many beautiful shipwrecks, rich walls and drop-offs that only Tobermory’s crystal clear deep blue waters can offer. Dan’s Dive Shop hosts dives for the Advanced Open Water Diver to Technical, Trimix or Rebreather diver on this trip.

Diving

Popular sites include but are not limited to: Arabia, Forest City, Dufferin Wall, Niagara 2, Grotto, James C. King, Philo Scoville, Wetmore, Bad Neighbour Rock, Flower Pot Island Wall and many more.

Boat dives begin Saturday morning with 3 dives Saturday and 2 dives Sunday planned. DDS divers will be there diving from shore on the Friday afternoon so contact us if you would like to join the fun.

Diver Level: Minimum Advanced certification with cold water experience to join. Drysuit, semi-dry or good quality 7mm recommended. Hoods, gloves, smb and dive computer required. Regulators must be in good working order and suitable for cold water diving.

Options to add the PADI Advanced Open Water Course and PADI Drysuit Course to your weekend. Start your PADI Advanced Course with your eLearning at home. Then meet your DDS Instructor Friday afternoon for shore diving to start your training and then complete the rest of your training on the boat Saturday. 

Details

Diving: The boat departs at 8:30am both mornings. Saturday is a full day (3 dives) charter and Sunday is a half day (2 dives) charter.

Accommodation We will be staying at a historic waterfront lodge Trail’s End with unlimited shore diving available from the shore. All accommodation amenities (kitchen, bathrooms and lounge areas) are shared with 2 divers sleeping per room. Meal plan includes continental breakfasts, bagged lunches and a bbq steak dinner Saturday night.

Cost: $555 + tax

Includes: Two days boat charters, unlimited shore diving, two nights shared accommodation (double occupancy), meal plan and fun.

Not Included: scuba gear, tanks, air fills, & gratuities.

Terms and Conditions

Diver Responsibility: All Divers are responsible for insuring they have the appropriate scuba gear for cold water diving, redundancy and exposure protection. No scuba gear, tanks or weights are included. If rentals are needed the diver is responsible to pick them up in store during retail hours. DDS Charters are not guided, private Divemaster can be arranged for an additional fee. All divers are expected to only attend dives within their diver certification level and experience. Lastly, unsafe divers putting themselves and others at risk may be asked to leave.

Cancellation Policy: All payments are non refundable. If the trip/charter goes full or you are able to fill your spot you will be credited for everything accept a $100 cancellation fee. If the charter is cancelled by the boat operator due to weather or unforeseen events a refund or credit will be issued.

DDS Diver off the boww of the Arabia.
A DDS Diver in the Niagara II.
Diver's love the historic Trail's End Lodge.

Tobermory Dive Extravaganza July 2024

Sign Up Now

Call (905) 984-2160

Email info@dansdiveshop.ca

Tobermory Dive Extravaganza with Dan’s Dive Shop July 2024

Join us July 5 – 7, 2024 in Canada’s Dive Capital for one of our most popular dive trips, the Tobermory Dive Extravaganza! Nestled in the Northern Bruce Peninsula, Tobermory is known as one of the most beautiful places in the world- above and below the water.

Explore the Fathom 5 Marine Park and the many beautiful shipwrecks, rich walls and drop-offs that only Tobermory’s crystal clear deep blue waters can offer. Dan’s Dive Shop hosts dives for the Advanced Open Water Diver to Technical, Trimix or Rebreather diver on this trip.

Diving

Popular sites include but are not limited to: Arabia, Forest City, Dufferin Wall, Niagara 2, Grotto, James C. King, Philo Scoville, Wetmore, Bad Neighbour Rock, Flower Pot Island Wall and many more.

Boat dives begin Saturday morning with 3 dives Saturday and 2 dives Sunday planned. DDS divers will be there diving from shore on the Friday afternoon so contact us if you would like to join the fun.

Diver Level: Minimum Advanced certification with cold water experience to join. Drysuit, semi-dry or good quality 7mm recommended. Hoods, gloves, smb and dive computer required. Regulators must be in good working order and suitable for cold water diving.

Options to add the PADI Advanced Open Water Course and PADI Drysuit Course to your weekend. 

Start your PADI Advanced Course with your eLearning at home. Then meet your DDS Instructor Friday afternoon for shore diving to start your training and then complete the rest of your training on the boat Saturday and Sunday. Finish the weekend as a certified PADI Advanced Diver.

Details

Diving: The boat departs at 8:30am both mornings. Saturday is a full day (3 dives) charter and Sunday is a half day (2 dives) charter.

Accommodation We will be staying at a historic waterfront lodge Trail’s End with unlimited shore diving available from the shore. All accommodation amenities (kitchen, bathrooms and lounge areas) are shared with 2 divers sleeping per room. Meal plan includes continental breakfasts, bagged lunches and a bbq steak dinner Saturday night.

Cost: $555 + tax

Includes: Two days boat charters, unlimited shore diving, two nights shared accommodation (double occupancy), meal plan and fun.

Not Included: scuba gear, tanks, air fills, & gratuities.

Terms and Conditions

Diver Responsibility: All Divers are responsible for insuring they have the appropriate scuba gear for cold water diving, redundancy and exposure protection. No scuba gear, tanks or weights are included. If rentals are needed the diver is responsible to pick them up in store during retail hours. DDS Charters are not guided, private Divemaster can be arranged for an additional fee. All divers are expected to only attend dives within their diver certification level and experience. Lastly, unsafe divers putting themselves and others at risk may be asked to leave.

Cancellation Policy: All payments are non refundable. If the trip/charter goes full or you are able to fill your spot you will be credited for everything accept a $100 cancellation fee. If the charter is cancelled by the boat operator due to weather or unforeseen events a refund or credit will be issued.

DDS Diver off the boww of the Arabia.
A DDS Diver in the Niagara II.
Diver's love the historic Trail's End Lodge.