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HELITROX !!!!!!  Recreational Helium Diving
We have had so much fun with this class I can't wait to teach the next one.   This is not a technical diving class it is  for recreational dives on helium.  The use of Helium increases safety and divers have more fun, see new things and guess what! they seem to find more of the lobsters the others miss :-).   It is not difficult to learn, and in fact simpler than learning to use Nitrox.   Recently I made two dives back to back in a brand new cave system,  I was in unfamiliar territory.     The first dive was on Nitrox 32%, I had a nice dive and the cave was interesting.    The second dive I used about 20% helium in my tanks left over from a previous dive,  and the cave system seemed like a different place,   I noticed in crisp detail,  spectacular drop offs,  large high ceilings in the caverns and many many side tunnels I had completely missed on the first dive.  We looked for a small godzilla monster that someone had placed in the cave, and I found it, my buddies on Nitrox swam right past him.      This cave was only 70ft deep, but even that small amount of helium made a world of difference to my dive.   If you haven't tried this, then you are missing something very special.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED THEN PLEASE READ BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS

The class requires 4 dives, and can be done in a weekend, starting Friday night, ending Sunday night.  I have found this schedule to work well for local and out of town students.

 The goal is to train divers in the use of Helitrox (up to 17% helium) as a diving gas for recreational diving. The class is not intended to teach decompression or technical diving. But the use of helium implies deeper diving and the skills emphasized in the class will be geared towards the safe planning and execution of deeper dives. All dives however, will remain within the limits of no stage decompression and students therefore will at all times have direct access to the surface.

NOTE: If you are planning to take the decompression class this class will provide you with the knowledge you need to use  Helitrox in that class and afterwards for decompression dives.   I offer this combined with the decompression/tech nitrox class for this reason.

CLASSROOM:

  1. Equipment
  2. Gases used for diving & their properties
  3. Physiology of deeper diving
  4. Deeper Dive Planning and execution
  5. Contingency and Emergency planning
  6. Briefing of in water skills prior to diving.

IN WATER SKILLS
  1. Maintain control of buoyancy, should be within 3 ft of intended depth at all times.
  2. Accurately maintain correct ascent rate,  safety stop at ½ the maximum depth 5 min safety stop at 15ft and 5 minute ascent from 15ft to the surface.
  3. Trim: should be within 20% of midline at all times.
  4. Efficient Propulsion Techniques.
  5. Comfortably Use Correct technique for sharing gas in an out of air emergency using 7ft long hose.
  6. No mask/zero visibility  skills.
  7. Each student will perform a rescue of a diver simulating oxygen toxicity from a depth of not more than 30ft
  8. Students must deploy a lift bag from a specified depth during the ascent and then manage the lift bag for the remainder of the ascent.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS FOR THOSE STUDENTS INTENDING TO MOVE ON TO THE DECOMPRESSION CLASS.
For those students diving with double tanks, demonstrate the ability to perform controlled and appropriate valve shut downs, while maintaining control of depth and trim.

Lift bag must be deployed within 3 minutes.