France Trimix course 2003

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In May 2003 I had the opportunity to do my closed circuit trimix course in the South of France. Course leader was Dave Thompson. Rob Postma did his ECCR trimix instructor course, and we did the ECCR trimix course. The photo’s are screen captures of an digital Video made by the late Rob Postma (RIP). Unfortunately the quality of screen captures is rather poor, due to simple capture equipment.

Divers on this trip:

Dave Thompson – course leader
Rob Postma (RIP) – trainee trimix instructor
Jan Willem Bech – trainee ECCR trimix diver
Ivo van Dam – trainee ECCR trimix diver
John Wittenberg – trainee ECCR trimix diver
Aldo Ferrucci – guest diver
Penny Glover (RIP) – guest diver

Boat: Nautica of Bormes Plongee

Therebreathersite France2003 000 — The Nautica of diving centre Bormes Plongee

Our most important dive was the dive on the Togo. On this shipwreck our skills were tested and judged by both Rob and Dave Thompson. The execution of the exercises was judged by both gentlemen to be more than sufficient, so the trimix ECCR certificate of IANTD, which we coveted, was in our hands.

Therebreathersite France2003 001 — preparing the dive in a concentrated manner

Therebreathersite France2003 002 — Bailout – Tables – Gaspreperation – concetration – food ….

Therebreathersite France2003 003 — Bringing all stuff onboard, helped by the superb crew of Bormes-Plongee

Therebreathersite France2003 004 — Fortunately, our hobby does not require much equipment…

Therebreathersite France2003 005 — All divers used rebreathers, twin tanks are used by the crew

Therebreathersite France2003 006 — The moment is there to proof our skills..

Therebreathersite France2003 007 — Last check before departure

Therebreathersite France2003 008 — Tine and Rob

Therebreathersite France2003 009 — Great Mediterranean sun and landscape!

Therebreathersite France2003 010 — Dave relaxing on his way to the dive

Therebreathersite France2003 012 — The Late Penny Glover (RIP) and Dave Thompson preparing their dive

Therebreathersite France2003 014 — John (red suit) en Jan Willem (blue suit) descending

Therebreathersite France2003 015 — down to 70 mtrs

Therebreathersite France2003 016 — On the Togo we planned a 30 min bottomtime

Therebreathersite France2003 017 — The wreck was great, visibility superb!

Therebreathersite France2003 018 — A small tour inside the wreck

Therebreathersite France2003 020 — portholes..

Therebreathersite France2003 021 — The ships deck is 8 mtr above seabed

Therebreathersite France2003 023 — start of the ascent

Therebreathersite France2003 026 — deepstops

Therebreathersite France2003 027 — decostation in site

Therebreathersite France2003 028 — Old school deco tables

Therebreathersite France2003 029 — making the long shallow stops, John Left, JW right

Therebreathersite France2003 030 — This was one of the many skills we had to demonstrate. Completely against our instincts, we had to make bubbles. This was only to prove that we could switch to a breathing technique where all the precious gas was carelessly dumped into the environment!

Therebreathersite France2003 031 — Hanging out @ 3

Therebreathersite France2003 013 — From left to right: Ivo, Aldo, Jan Willem, John, Rob(RIP), Penny (RIP) and Dave

We ended the dive with a fantastic message, Rob had become Trimix Instructor and Ivo, John and I all three passed for ECCR trimix divers. Rob and Dave thanks for your wise lessons!

Therebreathersite was founded by Jan Willem Bech in 1999. After a diving career of many years, he decided to start technical diving in 1999. He immediately noticed that at that time there was almost no website that contained the history of closed breathing systems. The start for the website led to a huge collection that offered about 1,300 pages of information until 2019. In 2019, a fresh start was made with the website now freely available online for everyone. Therebreathersite is a source of information for divers, researchers, technicians and students. I hope you enjoy browsing the content!

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