Sad to leave Steve and Micronesia but excited about the coming experience, I headed off for the southern most state of Australia, Tasmania. Early on in the scholarship year I had been offered the opportunity to undertake my scientific diver course through the Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme (ADAS). The course is run through the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in Hobart. Having never been to Australia’s southern most town I was pleasantly surprised, home to cobbled streets, old English style pubs, and the deepest natural harbour in the World made for a beautiful city to visit.

Simon Talbot, the dive safety officer for UTAS very generously offered to host me on the course. Both Steve Lindfield and Matt Carter undertook the course last year with Simon who has become a very strong supporter of the OW-USS. The ADAS Scientific Diver course is essentially an ADAS Commercial Diver Level 1 course with a scientific spin on it. The course will allow me to undertake paid scientific diving work throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The course spans three weeks and has an intensive schedule. The first week covers the majority of the theory that had my fellow classmates and myself knuckling down for full days in the classroom. We covered everything from physiology and physics through to equipment, health, safety and legislation. We also had the chance to do a 30m dry dive in the Royal Hobart Hospital hyperbaric chamber that was a lot of fun. Taking in balloons and syringes filled with water we were given a hands on lesson in diving physics.

One week in found me geared up with so much equipment I resembled a tacky Christmas tree; every clip and pocket utilised on my BCD and drysuit, dangling with reels, lift bags, torches, hacksaws, SMB’s and slates. The dive sites were located in and around Hobart’s harbour, often near the outflow of the Derwent River. Water temperature was around 10 degrees Celsius coupled with visibility that was often really low, the sites are chosen to make us cope with poor conditions, allowing us to be totally comfortable for any situation that may arise in the underwater scientific working environment. Undertaking a multitude of tasks when you can’t see your own hand in front of you certainly teaches you how to rely on your equipment and stay calm underwater.

Underwater tasks that we were assigned included radial searches, lifting concrete tires, excavating sediment, and deep rescues to name a few. We would also don unfamiliar gear such as twin/sling tanks and full-face masks which added another element that had to be dealt with during the dives. Finally, just to make things extra interesting, Simon or one of the other instructors would often shout “DIVER IN TROUBLE!” indicating the need for a rescue to commence. This scenario had standby divers hurriedly throwing down their lunch, shouting out commands while simultaneously gearing up and entering the water to commence the rescue.  It made for an environment that requires you to be constantly vigilant of what is happening around you.

At the completion of the course I was glad to have finished and was happy in the knowledge that I had become more aware, a safer diver all round as a result of the training. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for all  his generosity with hosting me on the course and for being such a passionate teacher. Also a huge thanks to the other instructors on the course; Mike, Dane, and Adam and to all my fellow classmates throughout the three-week scientific diving marathon!