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Are You A World Class Diver?

(World Class Manufacturing and the 5 S’s)

Now you’ve read the title I’m sure you are wondering what the hell of this piece is all about. Well, it is rather convoluted but, trust me I’m an instructor and all will become clear in the fullness of time.

I guess most you know that I have been made redundant again (third time in 4 years, it’s getting to be a habit), anyway whilst trying to find a “proper” job I’ve been temping as a power press operator (damn! It’s really hard work!). The other day I was banging away (on a press) pondering over the subject of World Class Manufacturing, as this was something that was recently discussed at an interview and knew that it was going to come up again at the second interview. That was when it all came to me in a flash!

“What on earth is a World Class Manufacturer?” I hear you asking. Well there’s the rub. There are many misconceptions as to what a WCM is and is not, so here is my list of what it is and what it is not.

A WCM Does not have to be a large multinational company

Does not have shiny new high tech machines

Does not do everything perfectly

Does not attain the title of WCM instantly

Does maintain it’s title of WCM without further change and effort

Can be a company or organisation of any size

Uses the equipment it has to best advantage

Continually strives be better

Uses the tools of the WCM to achieve improvement

Trains its people in ways of the WCM

That’s all very well, but what has that got do with us, and what are the 5S’s?

The World Class Manufacturer accolade is achieved by ensuring continuous and maintained improvement in all areas of a business.

One of the mainstay tools of continuous improvement is the 5S’s (some of you in manufacturing may have come across the system in the guise of the 5C’s). 5S’s is a so-called Japanese philosophy, but most would see it as plain common sense.

I won’t bore any more than is necessary by giving you the Japanese S’s, so here are the translated S’s and a brief description:

Sort

Determine what is not needed in the workplace & eliminate

Set Locations and Limits

Ensure everything has a “home” and a specified quantity

Shine and Sweep

Eliminate all dirt and waste

Set the Standards

Standardisation of everything possible and set visual controls

Stick to the Rules

Correct procedures and training become a habit

Some of this may sound a little strange (and yes, I know there’s at least seven capital S’s) but I can assure you that it is just a common sense system that can be applied to any situation, either in part or whole, to most situations in the workplace or any organisation or even in home life. So how can we apply some or all of this to diving?

SORT

Do you have excess kit at home and packed in your dive bag? Do you carry stuff you don’t need, or use, around with you unnecessarily? If you don’t use it, don’t pack it and don’t dive with unnecessary bits and bobs. Put excess kit into long-term storage or if it’s never to be used again get rid of it.

SET LOCATIONS & LIMITS

When all your excess kit is removed, do the remaining essentials have a “home” so that you always know where it is when you need it? Also ensure that you have a full set of spares, which will fulfil all eventualities. 1 spare mask is probably adequate but you will want to carry more than one “O” ring, so in that way setting limits on the number of spares carried as standard is important.

SHINE & SWEEP

Kit should always be kept clean and the place it’s kept. Remember the bit in the kit lecture about rinsing off salt water etc? Regulators and cylinders etc should be kept somewhere clean and dry to ensure they stay in good condition.

SET THE STANDARDS

Standardisation of kit is generally done for the right reasons without really thinking about it, if you were buying a second cylinder you wouldn’t buy one a different size to your original so that it fit your jacket easily. Its just common sense that you buy and use kit that is compatible and interchangeable when required.

All training provided by BSAC Nationally Qualified instructors should be to the same standards, and to that end, when instructors are doing their thing they use instructor notes and standard slates as aide memoirs and can be considered as visual controls to ensure nothing is missed and quality and safety standards are met by doing what is necessary when it’s necessary.

STICK TO THE RULES

There are procedures and rules, which are set by BSAC, by the Branch and we have our own personal procedures and rules ( i.e. personal maximum depths etc. ) It must become habit that these procedures and rules are followed (to ensure that diver and instructor skills and knowledge are maintained and improved) and this will only happen with the application of discipline (generally self-discipline) to partake in further training and practice your skills. These good habits are (hopefully) set in part during initial training and all additional training reinforces the self-discipline required when SCUBA diving.

So there you have it, but not necessarily in a nutshell (unless, perhaps a coconut shell?) So, do you think that if you applied the 5S criteria to yourself, would you qualify as a World Class Diver? I hope that you do... and if you don’t yet, it’s never too late start becoming one!

Diver Safety from Dave White...

Just Add Water Are You Fit to Dive?

How do you know if you’re fit to dive or not and who decides? The simple answer to the question is, you do. So how informed are you on the requirements of dive fitness to be able to make that decision ?

Hopefully the pointers below will help access your own fitness to dive by reviewing four major aspects of dive fitness. Medical fitness, physical fitness, dive practice and honesty.

Medical fitness has to be the starting point, particularly with the recent abolition of mandatory dive medical. For divers having participated for some years this is relatively easy. Having entered the sport under the regime of mandatory medical assessment and having survived however many dives most people in this category can, with an educated guess, assume they’re medically able to dive. However, there are an ever-increasing number of new comers to the sport who do not have this benefit. The sensible choice would be to have a medical assessment anyway for peace of mind, but how many actually will? For information;

9% of divers who die have been specifically advised by a diving medical expert or their dive instructor that they were unfit to dive.

25% of those who die whilst diving were found to be medically unfit to dive and should not have been doing so. Of those who died 18% had a cardiovascular cause of death; their average age was 44 years.

Physical Fitness is essential when participating in any physically intensive sport. An average diver expends 300 calories during a thirty-minute dive, not including kiting up , exiting the water and de-kiting. If dive conditions are less than perfect, cold, poor visibility, high work rate, stress, etc. this number can increase further.

By comparison some other activities burn significantly less calories for the same duration, a leisurely walk 120 calories, cycling 240 calories, running 135 calories, aerobics 210 calories, swimming 150 calories and rowing 300 calories.

A combination of both strength and aerobic fitness is required for diving.

Strength simply to handle the equipment required for diving, typically 30 – 35 kilograms of equipment, more for technical diving. For some individuals this can be up to 50% of their body weight.

Cardiovascular fitness primarily for the process of metabolism, body tissues working to deal with on- and off-gassing, a process improved by good circulation, muscles working continually to maintain position in the water and diving in UK waters forces your body to work continually to maintain core temperature and supply heat to the extremities. All this before you even start fining.

Some believe diving makes you dive fit however to improve cardiovascular fitness the heart rate must be increased to 60% of maximum or higher, for a period of 20 minutes or more, at least three times per week.

A leisurely dive in the “Rezza” once a month will (very slowly) make you fit, but only fit for leisurely dives in 15 metres of still water and will not improve your base level of strength and fitness, skills, or guarantee the fitness required to dive from a boat, fin against a current, climb a ladder fully kitted or lift a casualty to the surface and perform a rescue if necessary.

Good Dive Practice comes from diving regularly but also requires “refresher” training. Diving alone will not refresh or improve acquired skills, ongoing training and practice is required at every level of experience. Novice divers will be undergoing or just completed a quite rigourous period of intensive training with most practical skills well learnt and fresh.

More experienced divers probably will not have taken formal training for some years and may not have refreshed skills previously acquired. For experienced divers diving deeper or longer in generally more adverse conditions all practical skills should be instinctive particularly skills dealing with equipment failures and rescue.

Whether novice, newly qualified or experienced diver, if not performed regularly all skills will become rusty and eventually be lost. Tom Mount (IANTD co founder and President) wrote, “It doesn’t matter how good you were it’s how good you are that counts”.

Honesty is the key to all of the above. Each individual must be honest to them self and also the dive buddy they rely upon, the same buddy who will be relying on you and your dive fitness, should things go wrong.

BMI (Body Mass Index)

BMI is an indicator of total body composition using the ratio of weight relative to height. An individuals BMI is calculated as follows:

Weight in Kg’s / (Height in Metres) ²

Relative body composition can then be read from the following chart:

Underweight < 20 Normal 20-24

Overweight 25-19 Obese 30 >

As stated BMI is an indicator and certain factors must also be considered. Due allowance should be considered to the individual whose excess weight is visibly muscular, more evenly distributed body fat is less symptomatic of poor fitness than areas of more concentrated body fat, generally around the abdomen.

Heart Rate Assessment

Resting heart rate (RHR) can be an indicator of fitness levels. RHR is measured in beats per minute (bpm) and should be measured after a considerable period of rest, upon waking is best. Women’s hearts generally beat slightly faster than men’s. Women should apply 5-bpm leeway to the following figures.

100 bpm 90 bpm 80 bpm 70 bpm 60 bpm 50 bpm

Unfit ------------------------ Average --------- Fit --------------------------- Very Fit

A more accurate gauge of general fitness is the hearts ability to “recover” from exertion. This can be accessed in many ways however the easiest is a simple step test conducted using a step, box or similar around 10 inches high. The test is conducted by stepping onto and then off the object for three minutes. The action of stepping is left foot on, right foot on, left foot off, right foot off and repeat, the frequency of stepping should be approximately 25 cycles per minute. Upon completion of three minutes stepping, rest for exactly 30 seconds, then count your pulse rate for the following 30 seconds. Apply this figure to the following chart:

Age 20 – 39 Age 40 +

Excellent 34 - 38 37 – 40

Good 37 – 41 40 - 43

Average 41 – 43 43 - 45

Acceptable 43 – 47 45 - 49

Poor 48 – 59 50 - 62

Again, women should apply 5-bpm leeway to the above figures.