PENETRATE, PENETRATE, PENETRATE!!!!!!!!

Ok so recently I penetrated my first wreck. Meaning I swam into a sunken ship located 25 metres below the surface of the ocean. Oh man that was a huge rush. This is why I got into scuba diving in the first place. It took 3 years of training and practice before I felt I was ready but it was well worth it.

It is actually quite a difficult task. You have to be very good with your buoyancy so you can hover in mid deck without banging your tank on the ceiling or dragging yourself along the floor. You also have to learn special finning techniques so you don’t kick up a lot of silt and screw up your vision. For safety you use a line when you enter a wreck which you tie to a point outside the wreck. It prevents you from getting lost and, if you laugh at getting lost in a ship you have to realize that it is very easy to get disoriented when you are neutrally buoyant. Also if you kick up a lot of silt you can loose site of the exit or even the end of your hand. Also for safety we limit how far we go in ( 140 linear feet from the surface ) and you limit your air use. The rule is 1/3 of your air going in, 1/3 coming out and 1/3 for emergencies. Considering you start with 3000 psi that means you have 1000 psi to get down to the ship, find an entry point, tie you line and enter. This seriously limits you time if you are not very good with your air consumption.

If you want to see some pictures from that weekend check these out. They are of the first wreck I was on, the HMCS Saskatchewan, a destroyer escort sunk in the late 90's. I did not take my camera on my penetration dive as that would be an entanglement hazard. Oh and divers really like using the term penetrate so I think I will penetrate again.