TDI Wreck Diving Instructor School Cyprus February 1999

Άρθρο: Γιώργος Πέτρου

Photo: Hellas Underwater Explorers Archive

A historic school for the technical diving scene in Greece.

HUE brought the president of TDI Asia, Mr. Mike Lim, to Cyprus (at that time you did not have the legal ability to run such a school in our country) and this 1st Wreck Instructor school was held with the participation of distinguished colleagues with a significant career in the field of professional educational diving. The educational elements of that school are pioneering even today since they were extremely modern in terms of both methods and equipment. Long two-meter tube around the neck (Hogarthian gear configuration by William "Bill" Hogarth Main), aluminum stage tanks, miter techniques, deep stops, etc.

At that time, we were criticized in our country for using those methods and equipment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hogarth_Main

William "Bill" Hogarth Main is a cave diving pioneer who is best known as a developer in the 1980s, and the namesake of, the "Hogarthian gear configuration" that is a component of the "Doing It Right" (DIR) holistic approach to scuba diving. According to Jarrod Jablonski, the Hogarthian style "has many minor variations, yet its focus asserts a policy of minimalism." The configuration was refined in the 1990s, partially through the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP), established in 1985 and considered among the most aggressive cave diving initiatives in the world.

Main began diving in 1966 or early 1967 after completing the NAUI Open Water Course, made his first cave dive on a single tank in 1969, and switched to double tanks on a single regulator in 1972. Main describes this period: "There was no formal cave training back then. We just worked things out as we went along, and made the things we needed that didn’t exist." Following a challenging dive, Main decided with fellow diver Bill Gavin that all WKPP deep dives would be on mixed gas.

Main, along other members of the WKPP such as Lamar English, George Irvine, and Jablonski all cultivated the idea that there was an ideal equipment configuration that should be standardized among the WKPP divers. As Main put considerable efforts towards streamlining configurations, his middle name was taken to represent the approach. Main asserts that term "Hogarthian" was initially used as a joke by fellow diving pioneer John Zumrick.

While Main continues to work with equipment to create more efficient configurations, the "Hogarthian approach" became widely known, largely through the WKPP breaking every distance record for cave diving without any fatalities or serious injuries. The configuration is sometimes abbreviated "Hog" or "hog," often by divers who are unaware that it refers to a person, with at least one claim in the DIR diving community that William Hogarth Main is a fictional person. While "Hogarthian" and "DIR" were sometimes used interchangeably in early descriptions of the approach, by 2010, "Hogarthian" referred to gear configuration, as opposed to the holistic system of DIR of which Hogarthian rigs were a part.

Participants: George Petrou, Michalis Tzenevrakis, Yannis Diamantopoulos, Yannis Lygos, Michalis Tsirponouris, Orestis.

Η εκπαίδευση χωρίστηκε σε τρία μέρη:

1. Για την θεωρία, η οποία αποδείχθηκε πολύ μεγάλη σε όγκο, απαιτήθηκε πολύ μελέτη για αυτές τις overhead enviroment καταδύσεις.

2. The activities in and outside the pool were very enjoyable.

3. Underwater. The dives were of course carried out in the now well-known ZINOVIA (and another one whose name escapes me) and as expected they were very difficult. Our instructor, Mike Lim, was very kind but extremely demanding. The educational elements of that school are pioneering even today since they are extremely modern in terms of both methods and equipment. I am glad that everyone today uses these methods and equipment for which we were criticized back then and have become safety standards. I should note here that the DEEP STOPS decompression method, which I and a few others used and promoted back then, is now used by EVERYONE.

Πάρα πολλές τεχνικές και διαδικασίες που είχαν να κάνουν με θέματα όπως συλλογή στοιχείων ναυαγίου, σχεδιασμός κατάδυσης, συνεργασία ομάδας, τοποθέτηση μίτου, φωτιστικά συστήματα, κοπτικά εργαλεία, μέτρα ασφαλείας, καταστάσεις εκτάκτου ανάγκης κλπ.

School was a real delight and looking back on it now as I write these lines, 25 years later, I realize how advanced it was.