Adventure Travel Tech Diving in Egypt

Egypt Technical Scuba

We learnt with some of the best at Ocean College, and they are serious hard core Tech divers, holding previous records for the worlds deepest wreck dive on the Yolanda, 145–160 metres (476–525 ft) to providing “Angel” divers for free dive records of 100m or more in Dahab Blue Hole, on the Sinai peninsular, where we saw Tanya Streeter and Sara Cambell, who used to live there and teach yoga. We celebrated her “win” with her. Unfortunately the 120m deep sink hole is also know as the “divers cemetery.” Many from rebreather incidents.

One thing you might notice from the photo is that there is a spare - everything - mask, regulators, cylinders, computers, plans, double BCD, two separate bladders. You are you own self contained replacement service. The only thing you don’t have two of is lives.

Tech Diving is all about planing, planing and more planing and staying in control. Staying in control is big thing, and you understand it more when you have a “drama” (we did at 35 msw) and realise that you cannot “bolt” for the surface, there is no escape route, except by staying in control. We practiced lots of Cave Dive techniques and Cave Diving itself is a seriously “hard core” sport, at the pinnacle of what is achievable by mankind underwater. If you have ever listed to a professional fighter pilot on the radio when things are going wrong, you will understand that it is this level of control you need to give yourself the optimum chance of survival when things go wrong at depth.

Tech Diving is very rewarding, you can dive deeper and longer to see a glimpse into a world that few will ever see, including all the television shows, but it is not without risk - serious risk, and the walls around the Blue Hole in Dahab, are scrawled with memorials to those who didn’t make it. Technical Diving or more precisely mixed gas diving, includes open circuit, (where gases are used and discharged - see bubbles in photo opposite) and rebreathers, which are closed circuit. When we breath in some of the oxygen is consumed by our metabolic processes, (about 4%) and we omit gases we don’t want. These gases are scrubbed of toxins and then topped up with oxygen. Closed circuit predates open circuit diving, but the technology has only fairly recently become sufficiently reliable for common use. (it was used by navy divers). Tech Diving it is a sport which is on the cutting edge of our understanding and technology, and we are learning all the time.

To explain mixed gas diving (open circuit, which means you use the gases and then expel them, and you take all your gas in bottles - aluminium or steel cylinders, which you carry with you - or spares can be hung on lines in the case of ultra deep dives and cave diving) it is usual that you have different phases of gases (which can be a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and replacement gases such as helium in the case of tri-mix). For example you might have a travel phase gas, to get you to depth, a bottom phase gas, (this will have part of the inert gases - nitrogen replaced with Helium to stop the build of Nitrogen in the body) and a decompression gas (usually with a higher level of Oxygen to reduce decompression time).

Unlike commercial diving where you have a Hyperbaric chamber to decompress in, in Technical Scuba diving (as with most sports diving), you decompress in the water, or risk getting the life threatening bends, or decompression sickness (DCS) as it is more correctly known, that occurs in scuba divers when dissolved gases (mainly nitrogen) come out of solution in the bloodstream, forming gas bubbles in the circulation system.

Unlike PADI and BSAC (other dive clubs are available), in which you mainly practice a “buddy” dive system, where you can share air, and help each other, in technical diving you can help - but you can’t share. Your gas is your gas, and my gas is my gas. You don’t carry enough for both of you to survive and share if something goes wrong. So either you both die, or one of you does (in extreme circumstances). It’s harsh. Yes of course you would share what you had, but this is likely to be enough and if it comes to this you are in trouble. You may have spare gas, but it is more a question of if it is the right gas at the right time, for example 100% 02 is toxic at just 6 meters of seawater, and would cause CNS Oxygen Toxicity with brain and body convulsions, which can be fatal. I guess the best that may be done in some circumstances is to get to surface and to an emergency Hyperbaric chamber, (which is to re- pressurise you and then gradually depressurise to let bubbles disperse), but this would be pretty desperate stuff.

We used Pyle stops (named after Richard Pyle who discovered it) - short 2-3 minuet regular stops at depth before a longer terminal phase decompression stop - often just hanging there in the big blue in 9 - 6 meters of seawater. These regular short Pyle stops help to disperse nitrogen including micro bubbles. We would calculate these manually and add them to a dive slate. Modern dive computers do this for you, but you should always have a back up plan in case the tech fails.

Staying in control is everything, and one terrifying example I was told was by a dive instructor whose friend had gone cave diving and something had gone wrong. They searched the caves and eventually they found him meters away from the air supply, his hand still gripping the follow line. This was the part that he was most proud of his friend, in that he hadn’t let panic set in and had followed procedure; yes he hadn’t made it, but he gave himself every opportunity to do so, and that is what it is all about staying in control, even to the end, and hopefully you will live to fight another day.

DAN - Diver Alert Number is a great source for anything medical / scuba related, we would recommend you join if you are into your scuba.