TDI Gas Blender

Having started down the road of TEC diving I thought it would be better if I knew how to mix the DEVIL GAS myself. I booked myself both the TDI GAs Blender and Advanced Gas Blender courses at Wraysbury. The Gas blender was the first course which gets you mixing nitrox blends upto 40% however with the simple formula's you can mix anything upto 100%.

AS Wraysbury has a HASKEL pump they can get the most from there O2 cylinders which makes blending more fun. There approach is more old school none of these modern mixing panels that do it for you. There your the one watching and controlling the dials to blend the gas.

Well I mixed around 6 different mixes, and it amazes me still that giving it a simple shake can make all the difference, all of my mixes were within the 1% allowed.

Twinset Familiarisation

Booked a place to do twinset familiarisation with Mark Powell of  dive-tech yes that's the bloke who writes is Sports Diver, however I didn't know this before booking. I'd had a long converstaion with Mark before the big day and I was told there could be a few more students.

Well the sunday morning had  arrived so it was time to set off to Wraysbury from Hastings I noticed that the temp outside was a crisp -1C, the drive up there was no problem.

I arrived and parked up and waited for Mark to arrive, we sat down with a coffee and I filled in the forms and had a chat as to why I wanted to use twinset and also what I thought I was going to get out of it.

Once I'd finished the forms we went to the back of Mark vehicle where he had a selection of twinsets starting at 7L and going upto 15L, also with a few different wings to choose from.
Mark setup a twinset for me which was twin 12L's, Apeks XTC40 wing which was attached to a stainless steel back plate and harnes system, and a set of Apeks ATX Regulators.I got change into my drysuit and we put the twinset on for the first time, it was amazing how much they weighed. Well into the water for the first time with a twinset this wasn't as bad as I thought.

We went down onto a platform were Mark would demonstrate the skill then I would try my best to do it. the first skill was just a simple hoover over the platform so I could get used to the weight and feel of it all, then followed by swimming round the platform also also over it without touching it. Skill 2 was a gas shut down which simulates that one of the cylinder valves is leaking, so you have to switch of the manifold valve, then swap onto your backup regulator, and reach behind an isolate you right cylinder and see if this clears the problem, if not it's then open the right cylinder valve and swap regulators again and switch off the left cylinder valve. Finally you have to open both the manifold and right cylinder valve. We continued with a swim around and then out for a warm drink and a chat of what had happened with the dive.

Dive 2 Mark went over finning technique and was yet again a quick hoover over a platform and then a nice long swim making sure I was getting used to the wing for my bouyancy.

The day ended far to soon with my head just exploding with Tec this and Tec that, what shall I buy.

From on I was hooked into the Tec world.......!