I love Helium

This weekend we completed the final part of our GUE Rec 3/ Adv Nitrox and Decompression Procedure course. It was a weekend at the Poor Knights.The plan was - on Saturday we were to dive to a depth of 30m with 32% Nitrox as back gas and 32% Nitrox as deco gas, Sunday dives would be to a depth of 40m with 21/35 (21% oxygen, 35% Helium) as back gas and 32% Nitrox as deco gas.

Saturday started with a rough first dive, with a complete miscommunication between Hannah and I during our 21m deco gas switch. We were meant to take 1 min at the 21m. However, it took us a total of 17mins!... and we were "fighting" underwater! The whole "fighting" process was amusing to our instructor, Jamie who definitely had experienced the same situation with his wife. He told me later on the boat that he understand what I meant when I said "I can choose either to win the fight underwater and lose on the boat, or to lose the fight underwater and on the boat." Well, in the end we took a total of 20mins to reach the surface from 21m when we should have did it in 10mins! Things didn't look too well then!

Second dive, Hannah and I ironed out the kinks, and we decided on a plan which both of us were comfortable with. Second dive went on without any issues. Did a quick ascent from 30m to 21m as planned, switched to our deco gas, and up we went to our 6m deco stop for 5 mins. I lost buoyancy at the 6m for a while and went up to 4m after I kicked Hannah in her face with my fins. However, I managed to recover with style and we did a nice slow ascent to the surface.

After the second dive, we felt more confident. However, we were still nervous because tomorrow we would be diving on Trimix for the first time, and we need to get the ascent timing and depth very precise due to decompression obligations.

As we were analysing the gas on the boat, we couldn't control our excitement... the boat ride out was however even more exciting. It was quite rough and most of us were feeling a bit unwell in the stomach. Luckily, the wind was coming from the east, and the water was very calm on the leeward side of Poor Knights. We started to kit up and Hannah starting to feel a tension headache brewing! We talked about it and she decided she would be fine for the dive. Upon descent, we could immediately feel the difference breathing Trimix! The breathing was much easier, our mind was more alert and clearer, and the environment looked much brighter! Everything was very clear! Due to the environment, we only reached a maximum depth of 36m instead of our planned 40m, so we readjusted out bottom time to 20mins, instead of the planned 15mins. Jamie and Hannah even found a small cavern to crawl into :) Times up and we were started to ascend. Deco went well, timing and depth was spot on!

For the second dive, we were at a maximum of 42m. We could see the wall continue to go even further down, and unknowingly, all our lights pointed downwards to see what's down there! :)....one day we would go deeper to see what's down there, but for now, we would be good boy and girl :P Again, deco was spot on...

Jamie came to us at the car park after we unpacked all our gear from the boat and said "We passed!".

This course enabled us to be so much better in ocean diving, refining our skills in depth control and environmental and team awareness. Also we acquired new knowledge in decompression and ultimately, the use of Trimix as a breathing gas. There is still a long way to go before we are more proficient, and ready for the GUE Tech 1 and Tech 2 courses, but for now, we are enjoying the new frontier of diving to deeper depth safely.