🆒🤿 Technical Wreck on the USS New York Armoured Cruiser Wreck in Subic Bay.

After a week of challenging training, this is the final qualifying ("checkout") dive from a technical-level wreck diving course held in Subic Bay.
The video shows line-laying through several decks and engine spaces inside the armoured cruiser USS New York (ACR-2). The route followed passes through very confined areas, multiple tight restrictions and is heavily silted.
Read more about the USS New York wreck in Subic Bay:
scubatechphilip...
The dive was approximately 75 minutes long, including 20 minutes of O2 decompression before surfacing. Over 150m of line was laid during the penetration and the turn-point occurred after 25 minutes inside the wreck. The team were all equipped with XDeep Stealth Tec sidemount BCDs and the footage shown was captured via helmet-mounted GoPro.
Divers attempting dives at this level must demonstrate a high degree of psychological control; and possess justifiable confidence in their equipment, skillset, procedures and team.
RAID Technical Trimix, Sidemount and Advanced Wreck specialist instructor; based in Subic Bay, Philippines.
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ANDY DAVIS TECHNICAL DIVING
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[@pinnacledivingco]

Good job on some skills here! Some things of note (since these are all in the video): At 1:00 in, a diver with orange fins had sidemount cylinder lower hose clamps and connection points way too high up on the cylinders, resulting in practically no torque or tension control of the cylinders themselves against the divers body, allowing them to float around instead of being held firmly in trim with the body. That same diver had a loop of material (possibly 550 cord) on the end of each fin through the no-go holes (the hole used to hang them up in the shop with), which is a snag hazard and violates a cardinal rule for penetration diving. At 2:51 in, there was a section of line crossing a bulkhead edge and rubbing on the edge. This would have been an opportune time to pull it away and secure it away from any edges. In wrecks, line should never run along walls or bulkhead corners, or anything with an edge, as these things are typically sharp and will sever the line. The exact same thing was seen at 4:55 in as well with regards to loose line. Great job in following the line and keeping it in sight though! At 5:02 in, you can get a great glimpse of exactly how loose the cylinders are on this diver due to the incorrect placement of the lower rigging being far too high up. 7:44 in, improper line securing, not tight, loose loop-over allowing it to hang far away from the secure point. Same thing seen at 8:17 in. Wrecks are extraordinarily dangerous and unpredictable due to being in a continuous state of degradation. One wrong hand placement or "bump" could potentially cause an object, hatch, or bulkhead, weighing a ton or more, to come down on top of you. Even bubbles have been known to break loose brittle overheads. Skills practice is highly important, but so is getting things right before venturing inside. All in all though, nice video. 😎🤙

[@AndyDavisTechnicalDiving]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. The cylinder bands are correctly located. Perhaps you're mistaking the elastic deLuxe hose bands for a cam-band setup? However, the sidemount bungee *does need* a swap out - they've lost some elasticity with usage. The loss of elasticity over time accounts for some reduced torque from the loop bungees, which degrades cylinder trim. I typically change them annually, given a very heavy diving schedule. The waist D-rings are actually a little out-of-place on the dive shown; I'd loaned that rig to a student previously and hadn't yet dialed-in my hardware back to its optimal position. I'd normally use a Razor sidemount for very confined environment dives like this - and it's especially setup for the task; but in this case I decided to match my student who was diving an XDeep.
The 550-cord on the fins is definitely worth debating. I started with the same hypothesis/assumption that it'd be a snag hazard; but I tested that hypothesis diligently - seeing if I could even deliberately engineer a snag. I couldn't. Literally thousands of dives later, they've still never caused an issue. I also tested how difficult it would be to resolve a snag with the cords. Just jiggling the fins is enough in most instances. I tried literally bolt-snapping the cord to the wreck to simulate a worst-case scenario: you can use your other foot to pop off the spring steel strap and remove your foot from the fin entirely - even in very tight spaces. Given the enormous utility of the loops for holding the fins during shore-entries when carrying sidemount cylinders (especially in rougher weather) it's a worthwhile compromise IMHO when considering the inconsequential risks. It's always a trade-off though.
The important thing is to thoroughly test and evaluate one's presumptions when it comes to kit configuration and risk management.
Overall, I found a very low risk of occurrence, coupled with very low consequence. The utility and safety benefit of having the loops for shore entries outweighed the risk/consequence, as tested.
I do however understand why some would choose not to use them; especially if they were less psychologically resilient to incident stress or less skilled at operating in very confined environments. Small issues, like a momentarily snagged fin, could cascade into a significant incident without effective stress management and fundamental diving skills. That said, technical wreck penetration probably isn't a recommendable activity for divers who haven't remediated weak stress management or fundamental skills.
I'm not sure of your point regards line-laying on "edges and bulkheads". I've never had a line severed in a wreck over decades of routinely teaching technical wreck diving. - even using the same reels/line for years the line doesn't get worn or frayed.
Perhaps you've just encountered an issue whereby divers are crudely/forcibly manhandling your guidelines and putting inadvisable tension upon them? There shouldn't be *any* force applied to the line - it shouldn't even be touched unless visibility is lost; and even then, it's a loose 'o' with the fingers around the line... it should never be physically grabbed.
That's something I teach my students from day one. While I sometimes have to reiterate that in early dives, especially during black-mask drills, they aren't grabbing the line by the time we undertake challenging checkout dives (as seen in this video). If they were still error-prone, we wouldn't have advanced training to this stage.
The 'loose line' issue at 7.44 is actually due to some video editing. I sneakily spliced in a few interesting bits of footage from the exiting line recovery. In those cases, I was behind the diver who was filming - recovering the line on exit. Whilst I'm pretty skilled at avoiding loose line when exiting, it's never as ideally tensioned as when it's laid and tied-off. Good spot though. 😉
You make a good point about the fragility of wrecks. I've been hit by debris on numerous occasions over the years. Exhaled bubbles can be enough to dislodge objects sometimes. On one occasion I nearly had both legs broken by a 2m x 1m section of bulkhead dropping onto me from high above. Situational awareness and quick reactions got me out from underneath it before it slammed down with great force. Luckily, despite the weight, it came down flat and moved slowly enough. Dive often enough and you'll encounter freak incidents... and teaching technical wreck penetration diving on sidemount has been my primary job since I moved here to Subic in 2008. 👍