Descend Downunder

A piece of history.

Dive It Hard... With less than 1 week to go, the countdown is on!! One of Des’s favourite events of the year is again to be staged here in Albury – The Historical Diving Society Rally.

Commencing with Welcome Drinks at Descend on Friday night 26th March (that’s this week!!), followed by an action packed weekend. We have a range of presenters & participants coming Australia-wide. Don’t miss this great event.

Saturday would have to be the highlight of the weekend with an array of working vintage diving equipment (complete with vintage owners – opps, sorry Des & Geoff)!! Everything from brass hard hats, double hosed regulators, Porpoise equipment, & even a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) & much more. If your keen to dive, spectate or even just photograph this amazing equipment – Book your place now!!

Meeting at Descend @ 9:00 am Saturday 27th, and then it’s off to Latchford Barracks pool to see the equipment in action. You must be accompanied by us to get access to Latchford – for security reasons, and you MUST let us know you are coming prior to Saturday so a pass can be arranged!

Saturday night there will be a dinner at the Commercial Club for those interested and Sunday a workshop with a range of guest speakers including the legendary Ted Eldred (the designer of the first single hose regulator in the world!!!) 

Call NOW if you’d like to come – 60 411 405

Historical Diving Society Rally – Albury

26th/27th/28th March

Weekend Program:

Friday night 26th March -

Welcome and drinks to be held at Descend UTC

6:30 – 9:30. BYO drinks – Nibbles provided

Saturday 27th March -

Working diving equipment – commercial & historical at the Latchford Barracks Pool, includes lunch - Meet at Descend at 9:00 am Finish approx. 4:00 pm

Dinner at the Commercial Club – Albury $38/person

Sunday 28th March –

- Ted Eldred (the designer of the first single hose regulator in the world) - Porpoise workshop

- Bob Scott on the early days of the Australian offshore industry – Classic diving videos

- Mel Brown with his fantastic vintage Australian Scuba collection & other guest speakers  

- Bookings Essential on 60 411405!!!

Costs: Full Weekend: The rally costs $30 , which includes the Friday evening nibbles, (no alcohol supplied) Saturday working group – including BBQ lunch, and Sunday presentations – including morning and afternoon tea. The Saturday evening meal is $38.00 incl. GST Don’t miss this rare opportunity – Book NOW...

Jervis Bay – Easter

We have 1 final place left – first in with a $100 deposit gets it. For those that have already booked - final payment MUST be made to Descend by 3rd April. We must receive full payment 1 week prior to the trip.

Ian & Scott with graduates from one of our February courses

Congratulations...

To our latest Open Water Graduates; Paul Tucker, Kate Rafferty, Andrew Graham, Michael O’Callaghan, Wayne, Michael and Blair Curtis, Mitchell Knorr and Paige and Andrew Jay. Please select the link below for some great photos from their course:

Also to Peter Leahy, Ian Torok, Adam Dixon, Aaron Frauenfelder, Russell Polson & Ross Hall who completed our last Open Water course for the season on the 20/21st March.  For photos select the link below:

Gordon & Kristy with our latest Open Water graduates

Truk Lagoon

Only 4 places left – if you want to go don’t leave it any longer – Book now. All you need to do is fill out a booking form and pay a $220 deposit – that’s it – easy!!

Stress & Rescue Course

The course everyone has been waiting for. We’ve got a list of names already down for this course and YOU may be on it but if you definitely want to do this course you will need to call and confirm. Commencing 27th April – involves 2 night’s theory, 1 x pool session and 1 x practical session at The Pit. A great course for the newly certified diver or diver wanting to update skills. Keep reading for full Details..

The In’s & Out’s of DMT Training

By Andrew Weppner

Have you ever watched E.R or RPA and wondered what it would be like to work in such a hospital? Ever had the hankering to be able to stitch wounds? With these thoughts in mind (and many others), both Geoff Reed and myself headed off to Adelaide – destination Royal Adelaide Hospital, for our Diver Medical Technician’s (DMT) course. On arrival, we went and checked into our accommodation at the accommodation at the nurses quarters. Now some guys might think that living in accommodation with a heap of nurses might be fun, but the rooms consist of a bed, cupboard and not much more else – you could almost touch both sides of the room if you reached out. As for the nurses? Turns out they are medical students from all parts of the world. Showers and toilets are unisex and communal, which is sorta ok. Only hassle was that certain countries haven’t worked out that Aussie hand basins are for washing, not urinals. (As Geoff found out while cleaning his teeth. Someone came in and flopped his pecker in the basin beside him). Apart from all of this, it had one big thing going for it, it is close to the hospital.

The first three days consisted of getting to know our classmates, finding our way around the hospital (and getting lost) and the ever-present lectures. These lectures consisted of advanced theory on a host of diving and medical related subjects such as decompression illness, lung injuries, airway management, resus etc. After 3 days of theory, they decided to let us loose in the hospital. The way this works is you are on a 24-hour roster. You go to classes, as soon as they are finished it’s off to work and you eat and sleep when you can. We were rostered on in groups of two into four different departments – Accident and Emergency, Theatre, Day Surgery and Recovery.

Geoff and I started out at the accident and emergency ward. Here we learnt how to insert and set up IV drips, suture, give injections, take the patients history, take blood pressure, ECG’s and urinary catheters. In this ward you pretty much see it all, the drunks, drugo’s motor vehicle accidents, patients with gangrene etc.

It was then off to the operating room. Here we learnt how to maintain patient’s airways, and use various types of airway devices. If blood and guts makes you squirmy, then this is not the place for you. I think I could equip the operating room from my garage, complete with saws, hammers, chisels etc. It’s an incredible feeling being in there when it’s all happening.

Next stop was the recovery ward, where patients go after theatre. While here we learnt airway management, control of pain, IV cannulation and observations. We also learnt how to read and fill out patients record forms. We learnt a lot in this department, as the other areas are busy where as in recovery things (generally!!) are more relaxed. The nurses and doctors are more than happy to take time to explain things. After this it was off to day surgery. Here we got to go into surgery with a patient and watch them right through until they left the hospital. We had a lot of hands on experience in this section, and also learnt how to make beds!!

We learnt really, the more you help the nurses the more inclined they are to teach you. We also spent a fair amount of time in the hyperbaric unit, assisting with patients being treated in the chamber. Their chamber is about the same size As our classroom.

Obviously this course is not for everyone, but anyone who is interested in advanced First Aid would be hard pressed to fault the diver Medical Technicians Course.

What is this Stress & Rescue Course?

Too often diving accidents occur because of divers being stressed. Divers fail to recognize this stress due to lack of experience and failing to take necessary precautions. The Stress and Rescue course will teach you how to prevent, recognize & then deal with stress. This training will help you and your buddy avoid the need to be rescued or becoming the victim of a diving accident.

This is the perfect course for the newly certified diver. It will teach you new in-water skills and self help skills that you need to become good divers.

The course includes both in-water and dry resuscitation techniques, rescue techniques, accident management and concentrates on the recognition of stress and diver related sickness. It is a pre-requisite course required as a SSI Master Diver, Dive Control Specialist and Instructor Training.

The course is all run locally in a combination of our theory room, a heated pool, and "The Pit" 

Course Dates:

Tuesday 27th April 7:30 – 10:30 – theory

Thursday 29th April 7:30 – 10:30 – theory

Saturday 1st May 1:00 – 6:00 – pool

Sunday 2nd May 10:00 – 3:00 – The Pit

Please Note: A current First Aid certification or a DAN O2 provider certification is required for this course. You can complete this with Descend after this course.

Course Cost: $275.00 incl. GST Book Now on 60411405..

My First Sea Weekend

By Cass Walters

I began my Open Water course a little apprehensive. The thought of breathing underwater both excited and scared me.

The theory sessions were very interesting but the real fun started once we got to the pool. Wetsuits – What can I say? I have never had so much trouble getting on a wetsuit again (fortunately). I am sure I heard fits of laughter as the instructors watched the students struggling and asking "Are you sure this suit is not too small?"

Once kitted up (feeling like a Michelin Man) we had the first step into the pool. This isn’t so bad. I can see all the way to the other side! What do they mean poor visibility? I can do this!

Portsea – well what can I say, beautiful one day, crappy the next. But fortunately for me, a perfect weekend, (except for the 10,000 people around for the Portsea swim classic!)

Kitting up was fine but no one told me I would have to walk from the shop to the beach carrying all this gear! Where was the golf car? I am sure someone could make a fortune.

The first dive was simple – just walk in off the beach, do your skills and then go for a dive under the pier. Well, the visibility was O.K. but what was there to see except sand and my buddy? Why would anyone want to do this for fun?

Then we went under the pier. It was beautiful. There were so many fish and I was fortunate enough to see two different types of Leafy Sea Dragons. These creatures had always fascinated me, AND seaweed was not so disgusting after all. In fact, it was quite pretty.

Six years have now passed and I will always remember my first sea weekend as one of the highlights of my diving.

Dangerous Marine Mammals of the Human Kind. 

By Stan Bugg.

The vast majority of dive instructors go about their duties professionally and energetically, and for surprisingly little financial reward, so I seethe when I see the collective reputation of the industry dragged down by dodgy instructors cutting corners, and providing sub standard training. Their actions reflect badly on all instructors.

The following examples of outright incompetence, all of which occurred in the Port Phillip Heads area over the last few years, illustrate that "they are out there."

Consider the instructor who booked on to a charter boat with six students. No problem so far, but what he failed to mention was that they were doing three different courses! Once underwater at Portsea Hole he descended to 15m and left the two open water students on the ledge unaccompanied, with instructions to stay put until his return. He then dropped to 25m and abandoned the Advanced Open water students with similar instructions, and took the deep diver students to 33m!

Or perhaps the vote should go to the tech instructor who, due largely to an extremely poor equipment maintenance regime, has had personal equipment failures twice within a year in depths exceeding 45m. Each time he has been forced to make an undignified ascent, leaving his students on the bottom to fend for themselves.

Then there is the instructor who arrived for a deep diver course so drunk that he could barely stand up. His boat driver had to inform the four students, and cancel the dive, while the instructor stood nearby, swaying from side to side and grinning stupidly.

But the LIMP SNORKEL AWARD for sheer incompetence in supervising students goes to the instructor whose student was rescued first by two others in the class, then by members of the Descend team, all without him knowing it. Des, Scott and Fred were exiting with students off Portsea jetty when they saw a diver being dragged up the beach by two other divers. The victim was unconscious, and very blue. Scott went for oxygen, Fred ran to phone an ambulance while Des dealt with the patient who was not breathing. Fortunately breathing was restored when his airway was extended, but he remained unconscious. In quick time the victim was on oxygen, and quite a crowd had gathered. When Des asked what had happened, a voice said, "He’s OK. He’s just anxious." This turned out to be the instructor, who seemed totally unconcerned, and offered no assistance to the victim.

When the ambulance arrived, one of the ambo’s asked what the victim’s name was. Limp Snorkel looked puzzled, turned to the rest of his class and said, "It’s John isn’t it? " "No, its George. " one replied. "I think it’s Fred", another said. Lively debate followed regarding the victim’s identity, until he opened one eye, pulled the mask off, vomited at his instructor’s feet and said," My name’s Robert. "

 Copyright 2004 sbugg.