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 Not even a life-threatening virus could prevent UCI's Michael Cocks from fulfilling a long-standing ambition to dive and work at 50 metres Having been brought up in London during the Blitz and having flown to Houston soon after the events of September 11, the SARS outbreak in Canada was not going put me off going to Toronto even though the scheduled International Diving Schools annual meeting had been postponed. Moreover, British Airways would not allow me a refund on my ticket - but they did upgrade me. I wrote about my February ice dives at Ontario's Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology in the March/April issue of UCI. Now, four months later, the students were close to finishing their nine-month course. This must be one of the most intensive and tough diving training regimes in the world. A quarter of those who had started the course had left, and I was told it was even possible to be failed on the last day of the course through disobeying orders. Again, I was highly impressed by the standard of training and the friendliness of the students who looked after me very well, especially when getting in and out of boats. Purpose
Watchful Earlier, I had two 15-metre dives from the Cato II boat under the watchful eyes of Wayne Churcher (soon to retire from the police force) and Jim Murphy in Simcoe Lake. A student kindly lent me his drysuit - students have to provide most of their diving equipment but, as the course costs just a little over GB£1000 to Canadians, this is no real burden. As usual, the dressing-in and communications were first class, and I am sure all the divers I met would meet the needs for a newly trained diver as outlined by QQS. I only wish more UK diving officials would visit and learn from overseas diving schools. I was also able to meet David Parkes, the executive director of the newly set up Diving Certification Board of Canada, while in Toronto. He had just returned from Seattle where he had assisted in the accreditation audit of the Divers Institute of Technology. Anyone who wishes to dive in the Canadian offshore sector has to obtain a certificate from David - an air certificate costs CA$300 and a saturation one CA$500. Both certificates last for five years, and to be renewed the diver has to prove he has dived sufficiently. Issuing of the certificate, as some British divers working for a Norwegian company found out, can be done in less than 36 hours. Details of the scheme, which is being replicated in an increasing number of countries (but not in the UK where a diver has his ticket for life), can be found on www.divercertification.com. It is always a pleasure to give my views on commercial diving training to someone as knowledgeable as David. I then spent three days at Wiarton, on Georgian Bay (part of the Great Lakes). The students spend two weeks there, living in rustic conditions. They dive from a barge designed by Seneca and based in the middle of the lake - two divers stay on it overnight and at weekends for security, useful training for working on an offshore rig. The wet bell I used was specially built for the college and had a glass dome. It was much easier to get into and out of than others I have dived from. Play pen On one day I dived to 44 metres with Marek Mika, a new instructor, and did a simple task in the "play pen" hanging below the wet bell. The next day I dived to 51 metres and walked on the lake bed. After 45 minutes in the bell, I had to do a slightly longer decompression in the chamber. On this dive I was accompanied by a student, Chris Davies, who was a third of my age. I said it was a compliment to him and me that we were allowed to dive together and be each other's stand-by. I have seldom seen a group of divers so well disciplined and professional. Everything ran like clockwork and I never had a moment of doubt about my dives. Those who train at Seneca are very fortunate - they also spend two weeks work placement with a diving company to see what it is like in the real world and most seem to have jobs lined up. Professional As I have often said, in order for a country to have a highly professional commercial diving school it is essential that both government and industry take a keen interest in it and put some money into training. I hope to be invited to dive at a new school that has been set up off Canada's eastern coast at Holland College on Prince Edward Island. It is always good to go back to a school, and at Seneca I could not have been made any more welcome by teacher and student alike. It was pleasing to find how hard it is to pass the various tests set at the college - in one welding class only three out of the 11 reached a sufficiently high standard. The students get stretched on the course and Seneca is determined that only divers who will do well in the industry are allowed to get a certificate. I will be back at Seneca at the end of September for the reconvened International Diving Schools meeting, severe acute respiratory syndrome permitting. |
© 2003 Underwater World Publications Ltd.