Leigh Cunningham

Something I find surprising in the 21st century is the amount of divers that have had no formal training below 40 meters, which chose to conduct dives regularly beyond this depth going to 50 or 60 meters on air and in some cases even deeper.

From the Basic Nitrox levels through to advanced Trimix, we base our calculations of dive profiles on a specific partial pressure of oxygen—pO2. Managing and controlling the pO2 lies at the foundation of any level of technical diving as it enables us to perform longer, deeper and safer dives compared to diving air. But there are also a few points to watch.

A long time ago, I sat in hoosha (Bedouin tent) after a deep air dive in the Blue Hole (Dahab, South Sinai, Red Sea). My good friend and dive buddy had less than an hour ago peeled me of the wall near the bottom of the Blue Hole. I had succumbed to deep water blackout, caused by a high degree of stupidity, wrong kit and inadequate training.

For the last 30 years or so, dive training agencies have been certifying recreational divers as competent to plan and carry out non-decompression and no-stop dives to a max depth of 40msw. This naturally leads to a perceived level of ability, the “advanced scuba diver”. But how “advanced” are they really?

I checked in at Gatwick Airport on Saturday, the third of December, with three very large dive bags containing all the necessary equipment to make a descent, hopefully,
to the deepest wreck ever dived.

Mask clearing and deployment of the Surface Marker Buoy. What's the connection between these two unrelated skills, you may be excused for thinking. They are both giving many students problems during training, that's what. In both cases it's all about getting it right from the beginning.

When divers run out of gas in open water it can only be down to two possible explanations. Either they haven’t been monitoring their pressure gauges and plainly run dry. Or they have suffered some equipment malfunction such as a regulator free flow or a split hose which are technical breakdowns that can happen even to the most conscientious, experienced and well trained diver.

I was on a deco stop in the cold waters of the national dive centre in the UK when my thoughts turned to diving the warmer waters of the Red Sea and particularly the wreck of the Yolanda, or should I say, to the question of where the wreck of the Yolanda came to rest.

Since the introduction of Scuba diving in the mid 1950s, one of the most hotly debated subjects in the world of technical diving is that regarding the best type of gear configuration. Over the years, many experienced divers, instructors, and training agencies, have all claimed that their method and style of kit configuration is the best.

In the world of technical diving, a direct ascent to the surface is not an option if you run into a problem or emergency. For this reason, technical divers are required to carry back-up systems to resolve problems associated with equipment malfunction during a dive.

But what about the rest of us?

Regardless of the type of dive, shallow non-deco recreational dive or the 120 metre deep mix wreck dive in the Atlantic, correct weighting will increase the safety and comfort of any dive tenfold. However, it is often the case that not enough emphasis is put on correct weighting from the very beginning, i.e. at the Open Water course.