As you could read in my last entry I spent the beginning of my stay in Malta participating in the daily running of Divewise during the busy season. Then I transitioned to the more technical side of the operation and what they name Techwise. A special opportunity had risen as Alan who owns the business was being evaluated to become an IANTD Trimix Instructor Trainer. The man who came over to do the evaluating was the training director Phil Short who you may remember I have encountered before on several occasions. At the same time two of the Techwise staff were trained to become Normoxic Trimix instructors. Now all that was needed was a student! Lucky me. So under the watchful eyes of two instructor trainees, one instructor trainer trainee and one instructor trainer trainer I began my course in normoxic trimix. Now say that quickly ten times!

Lets say that this sort of instructor to student ratio is unheard of and can be slightly discomforting when you are the student everyone is watching, but you can be sure to learn a lot and that every move you make is monitored.
The short version is that I was in good hands.

The week built steadily up both in terms of the diving and the theory lessons. First of all it might be useful to put a short note here on what a normoxic trimix course actually is and why it is useful. Trimix is the gasblend that is the weapon of choice when deeper dives are to be made without the onset of narcosis. By adding helium (a non narcotic gas) to the breathing mixture this can be achieved, the resulting gasmix is thus made up of oxygen, nitrogen and helium, three gases hence the name trimix. Normoxic refers to the percentage of oxygen in the mix which is to be no less than normal (about 20 percent).

In Malta there is no lack of reasons to want to dive a bit deeper and stay a bit longer than the recreational no decompression dives permit. All around the island there is a multitude of wrecks and many of them lie deep. Only with the right training and equipment can they be dived safely. We started out as most training do at techwise, at the house reef. When donning twin twelves and two stage tanks to dive to an average depth of 7m feels a bit excessive but is of course necessary for training. So we spent a lot of time doing valve drills, out of air drills and stage handling. My favorite part was swimming around blindfolded and trying to find my own stage tank among five others attached to a line by feel alone. Challenging but fun best describes these training dives.

As the week progressed we started to add some helium and heading down to the depths. First wreck to visit was the Bristol Beaufighter, a plane wreck lying at 37m right outside the dive center. This dive can and is frequently reached by divers with a single tank of air but they seldom stay more than few short minutes before its time to go back up. We could stay and have a good look at the plane, do some drills and then swim around a second time before starting to head up the line. I dare say that we had time to appreciate details of the wreck that many miss.

We also had a good look at the Imperial Eagle which is also in the category of possible for divers with a bit of experience and some air on their backs but to have a good 20min+ to swim around and have a good look at 40m depth requires decompression.
The whole week was blessed by good conditions, clear water and next to no currents. We decided to make a shore dive from Gozo, we swam out through the azure window, followed the wall down and progressed towards the inland sea. All in all a stunning wall dive with beautiful formations and a lot of fishlife. Taking advantage of the conditions we did a dive at HMS Stubborn, a submarine from the second world war which after being severely damaged in the field of duty was sunk to be used for sonar practice. The wreck sits upright on the bottom and looks almost to be ready to spring into action again at any moment. Just looking down the length of a ship like this is magical and it is a wreck I would love to do again and again to look at the numerous details. I was certainly not the only one who came to the surface with a big grin after this dive.

Since conditions just kept being terrific we reloaded, blended gas and planned to make the last dive of the course on the HMS Southwold. Whereas HMS Stubborn was sunk on purpose after being damaged HMS Southwold which was a British hunt class destroyer which very much went down in battle and this is evident when you dive there. The ship is broken into two pieces with a few hundred meters between in a slope and we dived the bowsection. The bottom around the ship is littered with shell cases from the battle. Even though the ship is broken after battle and have been at the bottom of the sea since 1942 it is in very good condition. You can still peer in through windows were the glass is still in its frame or inspect the big guns now forever pointing towards the surface above.

Even my very experienced dive buddies could be heard making little helium enhanced exclamations of joy throughout the dive. After a nice long deco we were picked up again by the skipper and once again the smiles where ear to ear. This was my qualifying dive and I could not have asked for a better one but the diving wasn’t done since the next day the big boys wanted to go back and dive the other half of HMS Southwold and I got the pleasure of being a safety diver. For this me and Runar (one of the trimix instructors to be) met up with the bottom team on their ascent. With us we carried spare deco gases and took care of the tanks they no longer needed. Definitely a good experience as well and when the conditions are like that even decompression can be a pleasant.

Even though I am more of a critter nerd this week has definitely made me see why people spend a lot of time diving at wrecks, I for one hope to come back and do it again. Seeing how the Techwise team take the safety very seriously was very reassuring and made me feel relaxed during all the dives.