Taking On New Skills Technical diving and specifically, rebreather diving, is a continual learning process. If we closely examine how we learn, we can better prepare for the pitfalls associated with each stage of the learning process. Gordon Training International is popularly considered to be the originator of the conscious competence model, which describes the steps of learning any new skill. This model is particularly applicable to rebreather diving. The model describes the first stage of learning as “unconscious/incompetent” or “unconscious-unskilled.” This stage describes the rebreather diver on his or her first day of class; they are unaware of the…
Where Whales Went to Die We went diving in a graveyard of whales in Dildo, Newfoundland. Thankfully the practice of whaling has long passed in the these waters, but I was struck with the sadness of such a place. Whale carcasses were stripped of all their useful parts and then discarded in this bay. The backbones lead the dive through ribbons of solemnity and when you arrive at a great skull, you are stopped by the magnificent size. I’m hopeful we will swim with these great creatures on our expedition and celebrate them in their majestic life.
I was diving on the wreck of the Rosecastle this morning with Cas Dobbin and used my new Santi heated gloves for the first time. It was glorious. I can’t imagine how I worked without them. We had an hour on the wreck which sites in 150 feet of water. The temperature is 1°C on the bottom and I was comfortable for the duration of the dive. The under gloves are great insulators even without the heat. They sit inside my Kubi dry gloves and mate to the suit with a metal ring that is sealed with an O-ring. A small…
Few Canadians are aware of the time when WWII came to the shores of Newfoundland. During the Second World War, mines on Bell Island, Newfoundland supplied iron ore to Cape Breton’s steel mills, accounting for one third of Canada’s steel production. Germany knew that if they interrupted this flow of ore, even temporarily, Canada’s war output could be seriously affected. On the night of September 4th, 1942, a German U-Boat followed the ore carrier Evelyn B into its anchorage. The next morning and under the guns of the Bell Island Battery, the U-Boat sank two ships: SS Saganaga and SS…
Professional Shooting in a Lightweight Solution When you have to travel light, you have to make difficult choices about imaging gear on an expedition. Becky Kagan Schott will be bringing...
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This video almost brought me to tears this morning, but I'm not sure whether it was tears of frustration or tears of determination or great hope for the next generation....
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A Valuable Tool Tip I have always liked using wrist slates. Notebooks are useful for some purposes, but I find that I use a wrist slate much more often due to ease of access. I write down turn pressures or other dive details, teaching notes to review with my students and other tidbits I want to log later. To add to convenience I take a standard pencil eraser and drill a hole through the center, then skewer it with the bungee that secures the pencil to the slate. Having the ability to erase the slate makes it ever more useful….
Ambit 2S and Movescount.com I have been playing with my Suunto Ambit 2S and Movescount.com to look ahead at my route for the next month. Using the tools in Movescount, I created a route and saved it as a .kml file. In Google Earth I could open the file and then view the full route. It looks like I will have over 15,000 km of travel ahead. That may seem like quite a bit, but considering I completed almost 7,000 on a bicycle last summer, it should be a piece of cake! Planes, cars, boats, underwater scooters and swimming will make…
A Great Idea from Zeljko Dundov of Submorski.com On a recent trip to Croatia, I was giving a presentation about sidemount diving. I met Zeljko Dundov who was manufacturing gear under...
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