Thoughts On Technical Configuration

Written By Dave Ross. IANTD Instructor Trainer.

Absolutely none of what you read here would I try to take the credit for. More this is a collection of ideas and quotes that have guided my own thoughts on configuring equipment, which have helped take my own set up from something cobbled together 'which seemed to work ok', to something where every component has a justifiable reason for what and where it is.

We've all heard the stock phrases during our courses about 'Redundancy, streamlining, utility, keeping it simple' etc, but what I've observed is that when given only this and left to their own devices divers can be pretty creative in coming up with some less than ideal interpretations of these words. A suggestion to change can then often be hard both to deliver and to receive since equipment choices tend to be personal choices and critique looks like personal critique.

But just to give a little food for thought, lets have a look at the basic ideas and what they are really driving at.

Redundancy - careful here, often what we need is better equipment, not necessarily more. Five of everything doesn't really help. Have a look at anything written by Jarrod Jablonski for some ideas.

Streamlining - the gear is easy, its not hard to avoid hoses going all over the shop and dangling gear, but achieving proper trim is much harder and too often overlooked. Gear choice and placement can make or break this issue. Be it singe tank diving or full trimix configured it becomes startlingly easy to move through the water once horizontal. Without that you can't even fin properly, which causes all sorts of trouble near anything silty, let alone being tiring.

User friendly/Utility - "If you're gear isn't HELPING you in the water, you MUST change it". Sometimes Alex Santos doesn't formally lecture much during a course, but what he does say cuts straight to the point. This comment has stuck with me for years, Why on earth, in this most task loaded form of diving, should you tolerate any piece of gear that isn't the best for the job and causes a distraction (i.e.. stresses you). Everything must be at hand and be operable without conscious thought.

Beyond the above basic ideas I'd like to add a few things I've gradually come to terms with myself. Of course if you don't believe the next couple of points none of this makes any difference anyway, but if you do, then I hope careful consideration of them can go a long way towards guiding your decisions.

Number One. You should configure yourself the same for every dive, regardless of environment. Why? Because all your emergency responses need to be automatic. When a buddy is starving for air you don't have time to think "uh, I'm on a wreck dive today, so my long hose is probably stored here" it has to be instantaneous. IANTD's materials quite rightly and quite clearly emphasize that under stress the first skills you lose are the ones that were never really learned in the first place. If your gear is different dive by dive will you ever really learn which regulator to hand off or valve to shutdown? Or where is that knife? Don't kid yourself, it'll never happen and will one day cause trouble. To that end, at the earliest opportunity, choose a set up that will serve you in a wreck or a cave, or good old open water deep diving. That way your problem solving responses will start to become ingrained.

Number Two. Most Technical Diving takes place inside the overhead environment. Yes, believe it or not there is far more going on in the world than us folks going out on a simple dive to Sweetlips Corner for twenty minutes. In the beginning, as I did, you may find yourself thinking "I'm never going to dive inside wrecks so why worry which post my SPG goes on, or where I put my long hose?" Well, truth of the matter is that if you keep at it for long enough you'll get tired of Sweetlips Corner, and you WILL find yourself wanting to go to Mapating Cave, or go that bit further into the Irako Maru. And then it matters a great deal where you have put your basic open water kit because now you have lines and lights and lord knows what else to manage as well. Set it up right in the first place and then when you start adding things like canister lights you don't have your attention half taken away by the fact that you had to reconfigure all your hoses to be able to do it.

You'll find many pearls of wisdom if you start sifting through the literature and thinking about what these most experienced of divers are trying to tell us. Much of it can't help but put a smile on your face by the simple honest truth of the statements ("as many divers will attest, an out of air diver will usually take the regulator straight from your mouth, despite training, discussion, and promises to the contrary" by Bill Gavin in The Art Of Safe Cave Diving - that should be something which at least makes you consider breathing the long hose!). For a good start I'd suggest logging on to www.gue.com and having a look at The Anatomy Of A Technical Diver. It won't lead you far wrong.

The concepts above are quite basic stuff. Acting on a full understanding of these ideas has lead a number of us to now be able to achieve dive objectives that simply would not have worked the way we were diving a few years back. And on top of having all that extra fun, its all now more comfortable, safer and far easier than ever before. I only wish I'd have picked up on this a little sooner - going straight to the right kit would have saved a lot of money!

• Thoughts On Technical Configuration
• Truk Lagoon - May 13-20 2001
• Technical Wreck Diving on the USS New York

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