ccr myths

Myth #22 – I’ll fix it in the morning! PREPARATION- AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE! *How many times have you found yourself staying up until the wee hours of the night the night before a big trip or a big dive trying to fix gear, prepare fills, change out...

Myth #21 – I don’t have time to mentor! For those instructors in the audience, please make a commitment right now to not only teach courses, but to actively mentor your students afterwards. One of the key components missing in today’s technical dive training is mentoring. If you look at...

Myth #20 – Come take my class, I’ll train you on the Andrea Doria! Really bad idea! Whether it is training for a Trimix class in Eagles Nest, Andrea Doria or on the Britannic, mission oriented classes are a disaster waiting to happen. Too much pressure to reach the goal of the stated...

Myth #19 - That girl’s too young, what does she know? In my opinion, it’s not the age of the instructor that is important, but it is the skill level, experience and professional teaching abilities of the instructor that are critical. I also feel very strongly that all CCR instructors should...

Myth #18 – I’m the exception to the rule! Watch this video first! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoFW2msxP6Q Everyone wants to assume that he or she is the exception to the rule! Do we really need to spend more time talking about this? If you skip your pre-dive sequence enough times...

Myth #17 – I’m an experienced guru. The prerequisites don’t apply to me! When we took over the manufacturing, distribution, training and marketing of HammerHead CCR, we inherited a list of 70+ instructors who were listed as qualified to teach the HammerHead CCR. As part of our due...

Myth #16 – No need for continuing education – At both the diver and instructor level perhaps it is time to join other safety critical industries and require periodic recertification. Medical personnel, attorneys, pilots, accountants, school teachers and many other professionals are...

Myth #15 – Agency level – If we publically release our standards and procedures for a specific course, we will increase our liability exposure. Too many divers complain about not having been taught specific required skills, or not having had access to existing training materials. I...

Myth #14 – A rebreather is only a tool that should be used on the rare occasions when the dive is beyond the capabilities of OC. I hear quite often “OC is much safer, so the only time I dive CCR is when I really need that capability”. At the risk of endlessly repeating myself, skills...

Myth #13 – Manufacturer level – The more instructors I create the more units I will sell! Too many CCR Instructors means that many will not be teaching CCR on a regular basis. I don’t believe that every CCR instructor needs to be a full time professional that only teaches CCR. I do believe...

Myth #12 – If I make a rebreather more sophisticated, with more bells and whistles, it will make divers safer! There is no data to support this argument. The all singing, dancing, fully automated, do everything for you models do not have a superior safety record. There also seems to...

Myth #11 – Agency Level – Our Instructors can be trusted to do the right thing! Several weeks ago, I had a student show up to do a HammerHead CCR crossover. Allegedly, he was an Advanced Trimix CCR diver with several years experience. His HammerHead CCR crossover was to be at the TDI Air...

Myth #10 – Agency Level – No need for Advanced manuals, we’ve got Dive God Instructors! Many of the major tech diving training agencies do not have materials for advanced CCR courses. Some have entry-level materials, but several major training agencies who pride themselves as significant...

Myth #9 – I don’t need no stinkin’ basic dive skills! Too many times, I’ve seen students show up for CCR courses with very poor general diving skills. I am not of the opinion that CCR is a tool for brand new divers or old divers for that matter, who have not mastered basic diving skills...

Myth #8 – Standardization is for non-thinking divers! Over the past 30 years of so, we have seen the open circuit technical diving community gradually adopt equipment configurations and protocols which have by and large been borrowed from the cave diving community. Hogarthian...

Myth #7 – I’ll start the dive and it will get better! A couple of years ago, I was teaching a CCR Cave course at Ginnie Springs. A well-respected industry guru showed up to do a CCR cave dive with his buddy. As the guru was preparing his gear, he very publicly announced that his unit would...

Myth #6 – Advanced Open Circuit Knowledge & Skills are basically the same as Advanced CCR knowledge &skills – No need for further training! One of the age-old arguments on the diving forums revolves around the topic of “Exactly how much additional training is necessary for CCR divers” I...

Myth #5 - I’ve been doing it this way my whole diving career- What could possibly go wrong? Check out this video first - https://www.facebook.com/Kurdsat/videos/10152804050344390/?pnref=story (Thanks to Gareth Locke for referring me to this!) We like to refer to this as “normalization...

Myth #4 – The only time I can practice is in the water Mental rehearsal is the foundation for all high performance activities. Whether it be athletic competition, music performance, brain surgery or tight rope walking, no successful participant jumps first and then starts to practice...

Myth #3 - My Dive GURU /Dive Instructor does it so it must be correct! Industry professionals have a special responsibility to lead by example. Their knowledge base, skill level, personal habits and adherence to accepted safety protocols are watched very keenly by students and other...