ADVANCED WRECK COURSE DETAILS

Wrecks are a unique overhead environment. Advanced wreck diving allows divers to explore inside wrecks while managing the added risks of confined spaces, silt, entanglement, restrictions, disorientation, decompression obligations, and limited exits.

This course is not simply about swimming inside a wreck. You will plan complex dives, enter wrecks as part of a team, maintain a continuous guideline to the surface, navigate, solve problems, manage gas, protect the environment, and exit safely within all predetermined limits.

If you have heard the siren call of wreck exploration, the Advanced Wreck course will be one of the most important steps in your overhead environment training. We demand a lot from our Advanced Wreck students because we want you to succeed in the wreck environment. When you master the basic techniques, future wreck dives will be safer, more controlled, and more enjoyable.

Expect long days, hard work, blackout drills, air-sharing exits, lift bag work, emergency scenarios, and one of the most fulfilling dive courses of your life.

WHERE WILL I DIVE DURING THE ADVANCED WRECK COURSE?

New Mexico doesn’t have much to offer in the way of wreck diving, so travel is part of the program. Popular training destinations include Florida, San Carlos Mexico, and world-class wreck sites like Truk Lagoon. The good news: all foundational skills and prep work can be completed close to home before the trip. Once you’re ready to dive on actual wrecks, training dives will be conducted on sites suited for overhead penetration, guideline work, emergency drills, restrictions, and advanced wreck navigation.

ADVANCED WRECK COURSE THEORY

Classes will cover:

– Dangers and risks of diving in overhead environments
– Accident analysis and how it has shaped safer overhead and wreck diving practices
– Advanced Wreck diver limitations and responsibilities
– Dive planning, including the use of maps
– Wreck layout and special considerations for navigating wrecks
– Gas planning and management, including rule of thirds, SAC rate use, and accounting for dissimilar tank volumes —- – Team protocols for wreck penetration
– Active and passive communication, including light signals, hand signals, touch-contact, positioning, and light management
– Lost buddy search procedures
– Problem-solving procedures and protocols
– Stress management and breathing techniques
– Wreck diving etiquette and dive site access considerations
– Conservation and low-impact diving procedures
– Complex navigation
– Line marker choice, use, and considerations
– Planning dives that combine multiple complex navigational elements
– Risks and considerations of restrictions and how to manage them safely
– Decompression considerations in the wreck environment
– Proper techniques for staging decompression or contingency gas
– Emergency procedures for serious decompression sickness at the surface
– Emergency evacuation considerations

ADVANCED WRECK COURSE SKILLS AND DRILLS

Students will practice these skills on land, in open water, and during training dives as appropriate.

Guideline and Line Procedures

– Properly following and referencing a guideline
– Primary line deployment and retrieval as a team
– Following a guideline alone and as a team
– Following a guideline in zero visibility
– Following a guideline during air-sharing scenarios
– Review of line-following procedures and referencing with and without visibility
– Cutting and repairing guidelines in the event of entanglement or missing line
– Proper use of line markers

Safety Spool and Lost Line Procedures

– Safety spool deployment and use
– Lost line procedures using a safety spool to locate a missing, lost, or broken guideline, with and without visibility
– Lost buddy search protocols and using a safety spool to retrieve a buddy who is off the line

Team Communication

– Light communication
– Hand communication
– Touch-contact communication
– Team positioning and placement in the wreck

Advanced Navigation and Restrictions

– Making jumps and crossing T’s using team diving protocols
– Planning and executing dives involving complex navigation as a team
– Planning and executing dives through restrictions as a team
– Air sharing with a long hose through a restriction
– Planning and executing complex circuits and/or traverses as a team, when appropriate

Emergency and Failure Procedures

– Silt-out procedures
– Air-sharing exit procedures
– Air-sharing exits through restrictions
– Zero-visibility exits
– Zero-visibility air-sharing exits
– Simulated mask failures
– Mask removal and replacement while in contact with the guideline
– Simulated light failures
– Backup light deployment
– Regulator malfunction procedures
– Freeflow procedures
– Isolation and regulator-switching procedures
– Valve shutdowns, if doubles are used
– Loss of gas and air-sharing exit procedures

Surface Marker, Lift Bag, and Emergency Ascent Procedures

– Lift bag, SMB, DSMB, or up-line deployment procedures
– Lift bag deployment from depth as an emergency ascent line
– Lift bag deployment from depth as an alternative buoyancy device
– Deployment of a lift bag, surface marker buoy, or up line for decompression
– Emergency blue-water ascent procedures
– Emergency blue-water ascent with marker deployment from a staged stop below 6 meters / 20 feet
– Surface DCS response and emergency evacuation procedures

WATER SKILLS SESSIONS

As needed, students will review and practice:

– Fundamental diving skills
– Specialized propulsion techniques for an overhead environment
– Zero-visibility line-following circuits
– Following a guideline with eyes open, eyes closed, or in a blacked-out mask
– Air sharing while exiting a confined space
– Air sharing with eyes open, eyes closed, or in a blacked-out mask while following a guideline
– Mask removal and replacement while in contact with a guideline
– Team communication using lights, hand signals, and touch contact
– Simulated primary light failure and backup light deployment
– Lift bag, SMB, DSMB, or up-line deployment
– Emergency blue-water ascent procedures
– Silt-out procedures

ADVANCED WRECK TRAINING DIVES

Advanced Wreck training dives include skill development, wreck penetration, emergency procedures, and realistic practice scenarios.

Students will perform:

– Predive checks and planning procedures
– Proper execution of the planned dive within all predetermined limits
– Air-sharing practice before every dive
– Primary reel placement and retrieval
– Guideline deployment with attention to the immediate environment and conditions
– Line following and referencing
– Team positioning and placement in the wreck
– Proper navigational techniques for the specific dive
– Demonstration of basic wreck layout awareness
– Specialized propulsion techniques for an overhead environment
– Light, hand, and touch-contact communication
– Simulated gear failures
– Regulator malfunction and freeflow procedures
– Valve shutdowns, if doubles are used
– Loss of gas and air-sharing exits
– Air-sharing exits through restrictions and complex navigation
– Zero-visibility exits, including zero-visibility air-sharing exits
– Lost line drills in zero visibility
– Lost diver drills
– Safety spool use to locate a missing, lost, or broken guideline
– Complex navigation, restrictions, circuits, and/or traverses as a team, when appropriate
– Cutting and repairing guidelines in the event of entanglement or missing line
– Staging decompression or contingency gas outside the wreck
– Neutrally buoyant, no-contact, properly positioned safety stops

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

This course is demanding. Students should expect hard work, repeated drills, honest feedback, and a high level of precision. Advanced Wreck diving requires more than confidence. It requires control, discipline, awareness, teamwork, and the ability to solve problems while exiting an overhead environment.

The wreck does not care how experienced a diver feels. The only thing that matters is whether the team can plan the dive, execute the dive, solve the problem, and get out.

Course Prerequisites

Minimum age: 18

Certification: Advanced Diver and certified as a Wreck Diver or Cavern Diver, or equivalent

Experience: Proof of at least 50 logged dives