125m TG Walchensee Gallery June 2007

Team: Roland Kring, Robin Sporrer

Saturday, the 23.06.2007

A rebreather-TG at the gallery was planned by us and was successfully accomplished on 23.06.2007. During this dive we will reach a maximum depth of 126m and at 122m we will find the corpse of a sport diver. During this dive we estimated a bottom time of only 10 min at an average depth of 110m due to the current thermocline situation (cold). The descent time was not considered in the bottom time. This TG was performed with RB 80/RB 2000 and double 20 with Trimix 12/75. The back gas in the double 20 served as safety gas and was not used during the TG - except for inflating the wing and for the gas breaks.

The primary gas source for the bottom time beyond 54 m was a stage (80 cbf) with a Trimix 12/75, in addition 4 deco gases in 80 cbf stages were used. Most of these were standard decompression gases (O2, 50/25, 35/35) with the usual MODs and, as an "exotic", a 25/45 with a MOD of 54 m set by us.

As a regular 4th decogas, a Trimix 21/35 is given in the relevant literature and in some TG reports, which is usually used for decompression from 57 m depth. Due to the He- and N2 drop that seemed unfavorable to us when switching from the bottommix (12/75) to the deco gas (21/35 -> 25/45), we decided, after various considerations regarding better deco quality, to use a Trimix 25/45 as the 4th deco gas, which we used starting at a depth of 54 m. In addition, we used this gas to descend to 54 m from a depth of 15 m on the rebreather.

The TG was therefore carried out with 5 x 80 cf stages and a heating tube for the supply of the 80 W or 100 W heating shirts, underwater support was not available.

Initially, the RB 80 was supplied with the Trimix 25/45 as "travel gas" during the descent and the scrubber was first breathed warm at the water surface. Subsequently, the descent OC was initially to a depth of 15 m, there was changed from OC to the RB and after the RB check with the 25/45 to a depth of 54 m, the scree was descended in the direction of the wall. At 54 m we changed to the stage with the Trimix 12/75 followed by the further descent. We passed the usual "sights" on the way down (Paulaner flag at about 80m, car wreck at about 93m, cross at about 100m) and kept descending the scree slope, moving about 10-15m away from the end of the wall. At 122m we sighted the corpse of an unknown recreational diver lying on his side half covered with silt and equipped with a first step and a mono-bottle. We circled the corpse, reaching a maximum depth of 126 m, after which we raised our thumbs and dove back to the steep wall, starting the usual deep stops at 94 m near the wrecked car and initiating the decompression phase. At 54 m, the change from trimix 12/75 to the first decompression gas 25/45 was made, followed by the change at 36 m to the second decogas 35/35, at 21 m to the 50/25 gas, and finally the change to O2 at 6 m depth. In each case, gas breaks with the Trimix 12/75 preceded the gas changes. At 6 m, breaks were performed with the back gas in a 12:6 ratio.

For the TG we used a Bühlmann based profile with GF low 0.1/ GF high 1.2, whereby we decided to cut about 10% of the 6m stop on the deco. The deco worked for us without any problems, unfortunately there was no Doppler available with which we could have objectified this, but the wheat beer and the sausages in the evening tasted good ;-)

Thanks to Holger M, Stefan G, Tibor, Andy for taking the stages and helping out of the water. Really super nice from you

In October 2007 the Kripo was at Roland's house and played him some U/W video sequences they made with the ROV. The police came relatively close to the corpse. It is to be seen on the video e.g. the wire mesh fence on approx.
120m to see. The corpse was max. 3-4m away from the fence. Unfortunately, since they "drove" the ROV in the wrong direction from the fence, they could not find the dead body. Since I knew the place however still very exactly, I could make exact data on the basis the video.

Unfortunately I (Roland) am not allowed to show the video shown to me.

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RB80 - Training 2007

RB80 Training for Robin and Stefan , Part 1, 24.02.07

On February 24, 2007 Robin came to me for a rebreather training. It was a very nice day in February and we started with the dry part, the theory. After that we explained and discussed every single part of the gyro. Now it was time to assemble the rebreather and do the various tests that are very important BEFORE every rebreather, such as the overpressure and underpressure test, just to mention one.

Different advantages and disadvantages of the configuration were discussed. Also the different configurations were discussed as it teaches e.g. GUE, or as it dives the WKPP or the EKPP. In this point GUE'ler agree, but not the rest of the DIR scene ;-) 

After this part, all the equipment was packed into the car and it went towards Echinger Weiher. It small pond with a maximum depth of 7.5m. This is a groundwater pond / lake. Because of the ground water the lake is all year round with approx. 10 - 12 degrees an ideal training lake for the winter. For safety reasons diving was done with pure oxygen. During this TG, which lasted about 4.5 hours, all safety skills were practiced and performed ad nauseam. The topic stagehandling and gas change was postponed to the next days. By the time we arrived back at my house, it had long been dark. We let the day end with a theory test and a few beers.

RB 80 training for Robin and Stefan, part 2, 04.03.07

On this day, the theory was briefly repeated and then it was off to the Echinger Weiher. The first hour was dedicated to safety skills. We continued with stages and throttle changes on the gyro.

RB80 training for Robin and Stefan, part 3, 17.03.07

This time we were not so lucky with the weather, it was storming pretty hard. But what the heck, most of the day we were under water anyway.  

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Habitat recovery Walchensee 2006

Team: Robin, Roland, Michi R, Markus, Michi W., Günther, Albert, Toni, Jürgen, Ferdinand

On the weekend before the planned French trip to the Lot we finally found a weekend where most of us had time to salvage the habitat of Oliver Kube and his colleagues which is located at the gallery at about 77m. Of course Roland asked Oliver before if he has another use for the habitat. He kindly left it to us and wished us a lot of fun with the part. All right, let's go!

This habitat was used for decompression by Oliver and his dive partners in 2005 and disappeared into the depths during disassembly. It was fixed to the gallery with spits and wire ropes at a depth of 6m.

Oliver and his men used it for dives in the 130-140 m depth range to improve deco quality and for comfort.

The weather was perfect, 25° C, sunshine, cloudless sky.

That day all hell broke loose at the gallery, surfers, surfers and surfers again! Everywhere camped these with your camper vans. It was a huge luck that we could park our armada of buses at the gallery at all.

There were several teams for the recovery of the habitat:

Team 1 (Trimix): Roland and Michi R, had the task to attach the lifting bag to the habitat and to fill it by means of the stage they had brought with them

Team 2 (Trimix): Robin and Albert, had the task to film, light, secure and support.

Team 3 (Nitrox): Markus, Michi W, Günther and Jürgen received the two Trimix teams on 21 m and took the Trimixstages and accompanied the further deco.

Team 4 : (Surface): secured the water surface with signal buoys, informed surfers, secured the danger zone

Surface Manager : Ferdinand, an experienced platoon leader of the Munich professional fire department coordinated all dives and the Surfacesupport and secured the danger zone in the water.

The two trimix teams dove from the 2 gauge tower down the slope to 77m with a 15/55 trimix. Each diver carried an 80 cf trimix stage with 15/55, 50/25 and oxygen. After about 7 min we reached the habitat and Albert started the video camera. Roland and Michi located a suitable spot to attach the lifting bag to the frame. They then unfolded the lift bag and filled it with air from a stage they had brought along for this purpose.

During the briefing before the TG, we agreed on a signal at the start of the filling process so that everyone would be warned in time and no one was above the habitat and would run the risk of being carried away.

With a loud roar, the air poured into the lift bag and after about 25 seconds the habitat shot towards the water surface like a phoenix from the ashes. The filling of the lifting bag was ensured via an inflator connection and a pressure reducer on the stage.

The lift bag was equipped with appropriate pressure relief valves to prevent it from bursting.

The surf team later told us that the habitat with the lift bag shot up a good 1 m out of the water.

Once the habitat was at the surface of the water, it was pulled to shore by the surfface support people and secured with a rope.

We had about a 15 minute bottom time and then initiated the ascent with the deepstops and what followed was an uneventful decompression. After about 90 minutes we were all out of the water again.

It was all in all very funny and we all had something to laugh about especially about certain underwater communication methods of a diver :-)

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