Dolphin Underwater & Adventure
Club
December 2011 Newsletter
Next Club Meeting:
Wed. 14th December
7:00pm
Pot Luck
XmasDinner Night
Club’s Mail Address:
14 Gails Drive
Okura
RD2 Albany
Ph/Fax: 09 473 8069
Mob: 0274 839 839
Email: marg.howard@xtra.co.nz
Venue: The Club Rooms
Northcote Rd Ext’n,
Lake Pupuke, Takapuna
What’s Inside
Coming Trips & Events
Committee Contacts
Reports
www.dolphinunderwater.org
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 2011/2012
President
Steve Boundford
476 9286
sbounders@xtra.co.nz
Vice-President
Martin Brett
418 2332
m.brett@auckland.ac.nz
Secretary/Treas
Margaret Howard
473 8069 Ph/Fax
marg.howard@xtra.co.nz
Editor
Denis Adams
444 0501
triden@clear.net.nz
Clubroom Management
Denis Adams
0275 970 922 Mob.
Web Site
John Freeman
478 4958
johnf@witblitz.net
Dive Trips Officer
Dave Dobbie
479 8334
dobbie@paradise.net.nz
Adventure Trips
Martin Saggers
410 2363
msaggers@xtra.co.nz
Committee
Tom Butler
624 3505
trbutler@xtra.co.nz
Peter Howard
473 8069
Bob Shaw
473 1711
Bruce Nixon
478 7186
Fiona Warwick
482 0135
442 4148
aucklanddive@xtra.co.nz
Honorary Dive Instructor Kevin Hodgson
Life & Honorary Members
Barry Barnes – Life
Reg Lawson - Life
Graham Thumah – Honorary
Peter & Margaret Howard – Life
Roberto Tonei – Life
Tony & Jenny Enderby - Honorary
Brian Horton – Life
Dave Quinlan – Life
Eileen Slark – Honorary
Cover Page Photo: A Happy Carefree Dolphin
Look for more of his photos at Oceanz
Dolphin UAC Trips & Events Coming Up
14th December - Wednesday - Dive Club Meeting - Club Rooms Northcote Road Extension - 7.00pm –
Pot Luck Xmas Dinner bring along your favorite dish to share with everyone
14th January - Saturday – Goat Island Marine Reserve - Club BBQ on the beach and early evening dive meet on beach from 3pm onwards – high tide 8.36pm – still plenty of moon.
Late January early February - Small boats weekend at Tairua - Club members in camping ground or
motels. Hot pools if weather unsatisfactory for diving. Register interest with Dave Dobbie.
March/April/May - Stewart Island Hunting/fishing/diving - 10 days. Exact date to be confirmedInterested
people register with Dave Dobbie. This will be a real adventure. One party of 4 full, if numbers are
sufficient we can make up another but we need to know early. Can anyone source a shore based compressor?
12th – 25th August 2011 – Maldives 12 night Live aboard on Sea Queen – for more information contact
Marie Hodgson on marie@divepacific.net.nz or visit her website www.divepacific.net.nz
Other suggestions Dave is looking at organising is another Poor Knights on the Mazurka in late February.
Mid February Tauranga Bay or Port Jackson – camping long weekend. Northland Dive staying at the
Cowshed in March (also a great trip for non divers) – diving the Canterbury or Rainbow Warrior. April
another Aldermen Island trip including Slipper Island. Please contact David or it won't happen.
Our Club’s Trip Rules
A.
B.
Bookings allowed on all trips.
A deposit or full payment to be made at time of booking.
C.
D.
E.
F
Full payment MUST be paid at least two weeks before departure date.
Trips Officer to handle trips & bookings, & Treasurer to handle finances. Cancellations due to
weather will be refunded in full, or transferred to another trip.
Members cancelling for any reason will lose full monies unless they find a replacement for their
position on the trip.
The trips Officer will determine if there are enough people to run a trip & if not will notify
cancellation two weeks prior to departure.
Non-Members & non-financial members will be charged an extra $10 on trips.
Two trips & club membership is a must.
Please send Club Fees to Margaret Howard, 14 Gails Drive, Okura, RD2, Albany
Or Internet bank to 06 0122 0074227 00 & don’t forget your name.
Family Membership $55 – Single $45 – Junior $30 – Social $30
If members need to hire or buy any new gear from Performance Dive, they have offered the Club great
discounted rates, phone Alan or Tony on 09 489 7782. Dive trips available from them & Kevin as well.
Have You Ever Wondered How DAN Helps Divers?
Travelling around the Asia-Pacific to attend various dive shows we often
encounter a common question: “How Can DAN Help Me?”
Members are often concerned that there is not a DAN office in each country
throughout the region. We try to explain that an “office” in each country will not
impact on the assistance provided to the diver.
For this reason we have created a flow chart that highlights, step-by-step, what
happens from when DAN receives a call for help from a Member.
www.danasiapacific.org/main/_pdf/how_dan_helps.pdf to download. We hope
this will provide members with a simple overview of DAN’s assistance
process.
Club Diving
And believe or not some of us are trying to get in some diving, only wish the weather would settle in the
weekends & not during the working week. The dive trip on the 3rd did happen even if four softies pulled out
at the last minute.
The scallops were easy to find, about one out five requiring a check measure & they were in good condition,
which is a good sign. Plus no reason for anyone else out there to break any regulations. Bruce & Martin I
believe got some mussels as well & were staying on to do a bit of fishing.
The water looks settled here but it was quite a rough ride there & back with a few sore arms & hands the next
day. But the old Haines can handle it even if the skipper nearly loses it trying change speed. I have since
repaired my collapsed shelf under the console & put a sliding door in place to stop stuff falling on my feet in
rough conditions.
Martin & Bruce about to go under
Sue & Steve pre-dive checking
Sue gone only to return soon!
Trish supplying the additional weights required
Bob getting
stuck into
another great
roast dinner
before our
regular movie
night. Always
interesting to
see who turns
up & a very
popular night
as usual.
Trish shucking the scallops, very tasty!
A web site you may want to investigate www.marine.ac.nz.
DAN Member Story: Don’t Think It Will Never Happen To You
Following are my recollections from a diving incident I experienced in the Philippines on November 16,
2009.
I have been diving in tropical waters since 1994 and have clocked more than 1700 dives. I have never
had a dive accident and am fit and healthy with no medical issues.
My partner and I stayed in Bohol for three days. Here we mainly explored top-side attractions and
undertook one 50-minute dive, which was very relaxing dive along a beautiful wall.
We then took a ferry to Dumaguette on Negros Island for more diving.
On our first dive day at Dumaguette we went out with the dive boat around 9am to a dive site called
"car wreck" located 10 minutes from the resort. To keep hydrated I had my usual two cups of water on
the way to the dive site. The dive was on a sandy slope, between 25m - 30m deep, there was no
current and the water temp 28°C - ideal conditions.
I dived with my buddy on air with good hire gear from the dive shop. We did a standard nodecompression profile to 30m with a slow ascent and a 10 minute safety stop to film garden eels at 5m.
The whole dive was within the no-deco limits on my Suunto Favor computer.
I surfaced, got on the boat, drank some water and joked about what we had just seen on the dive with
the other divers on the boat. There were no problems. We returned to shore and after leaving my gear
at the dive shed I went for a quick swim in the resort pool. When I exited the pool I immediately felt a
distinct weakness in my left leg, it felt like rubber.
Although I never had DCI in my life, from my training as a dive instructor I had sufficient information on
the condition to know immediately that it is what I was experiencing.
I went to the dive shop and asked to be put on oxygen. I started breathing high concentration oxygen
at which point the symptoms at first increased slightly, plus I felt light pain in my left lower chest. After
about 20 minutes breathing oxygen, the symptoms subsided and after about one hour I felt almost
symptom free.
In the meanwhile my wife and the dive shop manager contacted the DAN DES
Hotline in Australia. The doctor on the Hotline recommended that I rest and
continue breathing oxygen for another 4 hours. I was free of symptoms all
afternoon. At around 17.30 we contacted the DAN DES Hotline again and via
conference call I spoke to Dr. David Wilkinson and John Lippmann, Executive
Director of DAN Asia-Pacific.
On this conference call they jointly went through the day with me and we
discussed the symptoms and the treatment I had received to that point. It was
decided to take me off oxygen for the night to observe if the symptoms
returned. I had an oxygen tank on standby in case of reappearing symptoms.
The next morning I woke up free of symptoms after a good night sleep. I got
up and walked over to the restaurant for breakfast. After about 60 minutes I
got up and felt a slight recurrence of the symptoms in my left leg. We
contacted the DAN DES Hotline again and because of the relapse the decision
was made to evacuate me to the chamber in Cebu.
For the road journey to Cebu I breathed oxygen for 1 hour on and 30 minutes off. Breathing oxygen
controlled the symptoms immediately. At 9am we left the resort for the 3.5-hour trip by car and ferry to
Cebu.
In Cebu I was treated by Dr. Reynaldo Cruz at the Lapu Lapu Military Hospital, which hosts the
hyperbaric chamber; a real museum piece, but in good working order.
As I was clear of symptoms they decided to put me on a Table 5 treatment. After 2.5 hours I left the
chamber and it was suggested that I was not to fly for 4 days. I was also asked to check into a lower
floor of the hotel, as they wanted to avoid any complications.
So my wife and I were on a forced extended holiday. As I was feeling really well I had a discussion with
the DAN DES doctor and the doctor in Cebu and I was cleared for flying after 4 days.
The question we all had is “What happened that morning?” We went through all the contributing factors
but we could not really identify any behaviour that might have contributed. I didn't have any alcohol in
the 24-hours prior, I was 48 years old at the time, healthy, well-hydrated, it was an easy dive, I'm not
obese - there was just nothing we could point the finger to. The only logical explanation left was a
possible hole in my heart chamber (PFO), however this was ruled out when I saw a heart specialist back
home in Australia.
I returned to diving six months after this incident and have been diving since without any symptoms.
Lessons Learnt
Don't ever think it won't happen to you. Our bodies are well researched but s--- can still happen!
I'm very happy that my mishap occurred while I was diving with an operation where all the staff were
knowledgeable and helpful and that the operator was equipped with sufficient oxygen. Without
immediately available oxygen my small incident might have easily become a major problem. I will never
go on a dive boat that has no oxygen on board.
Both my wife and I are eternally grateful for the amazing support we received from the DAN DES doctor
and DAN in Australia. I had no idea how stressful an incident like this is on yourself and on your
partner. It was so reassuring to get competent support and human comfort at the same time.
Next time you think that you don't need your DAN Membership, think twice!
I'm fortunate that I can still enjoy my passion and keep diving.
Comment by John Lippmann (DAN AP Executive Director)
This diver had reported doing a single, apparently problem-free dive to 30m for 58 minutes with a 10minute safety stop. He felt well and properly hydrated before the dive, did not exert himself and had a
controlled ascent. As mentioned, he was diving within the no-deco limits of his computer and was
therefore surprised that DCI resulted. However, the reality is that, although dive computers are helpful
in guiding decompression, they are not always accurate. These days, most divers who are treated for
DCI have been diving within the limits of their computers and still got sick. They need to be used
conservatively. The deeper and/or longer the dive and the more dives in a series, the more the
computers algorithms are stretched.
When we received the call, the diver was reporting some tingling down the side of his left leg but was
otherwise well. The on-call doctor advised immediate oxygen administration and the symptoms
improved quickly. As the chamber wasn’t immediately available, oxygen administration was continued
and symptoms completely resolved. However, a couple of hours after waking the next morning, mild
symptoms returned and, after contact was made with the nearest chamber, it was arranged for the
diver to be taken there. We were assured that sufficient oxygen was available for the car and ferry ride.
It was interesting to read now that oxygen administration was stopped to give air breaks en route. This
was not necessary. Oxygen should be given continuously unless advised otherwise by a diving medical
expert. In any case, the symptoms had cleared completely on reaching the chamber but the local doctor
gave a short treatment as security.
It was also interesting to learn afterwards that the diver was advised to sleep on a low level of the
hotel. This was unnecessary as the hotel was not particularly tall. It could become a consideration if the
room was above about 250m but this was nowhere near the case here.
Article taken from the latest DAN Newsletter. www.danasiapacific.org
We strongly recommend membership if you’re going to dive overseas.
As the Boy Scout’s motto says “Be Prepared”. Editor.
A few photo from our OCEANZ experience in Tauranga.
Dinner with Sue & Steve’s old friend Michelle
Guest speaker Peter Mesley
Part of the photo displays
Canvas photos for sale – neat humpback photos
Close up section
Rena wreck photo display
Anne (Nelson UWC) Sue & Steve enjoying a drop or two
Pete Bathune signing his books
Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year, Safe Diving from Denis & Trish.