Archive for ‘Aquatics’

We have spent the past four weeks in Miami, Florida training Unit 44 ERT in Underwater Search and Recovery. ERT was spit into two groups of about twenty new divers, and each group spent two weeks in Miami. The first of the two weeks was spent training them in Open Water and Advanced Open Water Diving. After successfully completing Advanced Open Water, they met the certification requirements of the National Academy of Police Diving (NAPD) for Special Response Diving (SRD). The second week was spent diving in canals as part of the SRD course.  By the end of the two weeks they all were certified in Open Water, Advanced Open Water, and Special Response Diving.

First Group

The first week started out rough with about half of the group having colds. Despite this setback they all did well and were ready for SRD by week two.  During the first week they got to enjoy the pristine waters of Crystal Lake and Winston Park Lake.

Week two – SRD. Most of them were pretty nervous about searching in the alligator infested canals with minimal visibility, but after several days of searching in the canal they were ready to go look for cars. On the last day they found two cars.

Second Group

This group got off to a better start because unlike the first group they were healthy when they arrived. Other than the healthier start everything went about the same for the second group. They did Open Water and Advanced Open Water the first week and Special Response Diving the second week. At the end of the second week we went back to where the first group had found the two cars and searched again. This time we found a Corvette that had been dumped there during the two weeks since the first group had been there.

This past week unit 43 went through the NAPD SRD (Search & Recovery Diving) training. They started in canals on Monday and practiced all the different search patterns along with actual training in an low visibility to no visibility environment.

It was great to see them all improve each day as they get more used to the public safety side as opposed to the sport diving side.  They all enjoyed their training and progressed more and more each day.  At the end of the week they had a chance to put their skills to the test and do a search for vehicles.  They searched 2 lakes with a depth of 60′ and visibility of about 25′.   Two vehicles were successfully found – 1 had been reported stolen in 2008.

The past week the aquatics dive masters and past aquatic graduates  (dive instructors) taught Unit 43′s ERT open water and advanced open water SCUBA training. The week started Sunday night with class, the day they arrived, and continued to the next morning when they were in the water and doing the skills.

With a class of 25 students and 7 Dive master/Instructors the week went well and everyone adapted quickly from class room teaching to in water practicals.  Each day the students dove twice to get the appropriate amount of time underwater to be able to be certified.

They all did extremely well.  The dive masters worked fast and quickly taught all the appropriate skills for open and advanced SCUBA, including underwater navigation, night diving and deep diving.   The students all excelled each day to learn the required skills in hopes of completing the required certifications to make it to a public safety diver this next week through NAPD.

The Aquatic Dive masters had the chance to participate in the first NASE Instructor conference at the NASE Worldwide head quarters starting July 30. Arriving in Ocala, FL on Thursday the 28th, on the following morning they were treated to a tour of the facilities and were invited to dive in a narrow but deep blue hole. The visibility in the water was close to 50′ vertical and 72′ horizontal ans the water dark blue in color.

This past week was lift specialist instruction taught through NAPD (National Academy of Police Diving) .  The class went well and all passed their skills demonstration test. Students practiced boat recoveries, car recoveries, and moving and positioning of underwater pipe lines.

The boat was lifted in two stages, one just to get it close to the surface and off the bottom and the second to get the sides out of the water.  (In order to bail water out of the boat so it would be independent of the lift bags.)

This pontoon contained all the gear needed to make a safe controlled lift of any vehicle, small boat, small aircraft, or anything needing to be lifted. It was easy to move and the swim to get more gear short and fast.  It was able to be lifted while the divers were standing right next to the object, and keeping an eye on the lifting process.

On Sunday July 18th, The ALERT Dive team was called out to a search for a drowning victim.  When we arrived we met up with the the game wardens who were overseeing the search.  The boat they had on scene could only take one diver.  Colin Price was sent out with a crew of two game wardens.  Colin went down on the lines they had dropped on high probable areas (about 5 or 6) and searched just around the buoy.   He collected information on the temperature, bottom composition, and visibility.  The rest of the dive team (Mark Sowash, Josh Thomson, and Joel Talley) waited until a second boat was brought on scene and when it arrived, loaded all their gear and went out to assist him.   When they arrived, they immediately dropped down and began to search the areas.  After covering approximately 1,884 square feet and having yet to come up with a body, the team waited for the first boat that was equipped with side scan to search for more high probable areas.  After covering an area equivalent to four football fields or 180,000 square feet, dusk was long since pastand the search was called off for the night.   We are confident that the victim was not in the area covered by our divers.
Some might say that we failed, or did not succeed, but that is not how search and recovery is conducted.  We did our job to the best of our abilities and we knew that the body was not in our assigned search area.

Agency’s involved: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department , Whitehouse FD and Smith County Sheriff’s Office.

We are glad to report that they did find the victim later the next day.

Aquatics 2 has started off well.   Starting June 28th we had several classes on campus.   The first week was dive experience and the following week was equipment specialist run by NAPD (National Acadamy of Police Diving).

This past week (July 12th through the 16th) we had Marina Diver training held in Louisiana. We road tripped down Monday morning and started class that night. The following day we went out the Lake Pontchartrain to the 24 mile long bridge and did pylon inspections.

We each inspected several pylons to get a handle on what the work is like.

We cleaned a fishing boat, a pontoon, and a yacht.   All were in bad shape and had not been kept up, so the work took longer than usual.

They all did well and all students passed their practical skills with flying colors.

At the end of Equipment Specialist training, we had an opportunity to take out out the hurricane, our rescue boat.   The hurricane is a ridged hull inflatable swift water rescue, small coast guard boarding craft.   We practiced maneuvering with limited room, insertion and extraction from hazardous areas, quick deployment of divers, and controlled turns at high speeds.

On May 13th 2010, the Gilmer Police Dept. called the ALERT Dive Team to search for a stolen safe.

The ALERT Dive Team arrived on scene Friday morning at 9:30 and began to search. Because of zero visibility and shallow depths, the search was difficult and longer than expected.  Another factor that slowed the search was the amount of garbage found in the river.

Items found were one computer screen, a car bumper, two motorcycle exhaust pipes, a weed eater, four news paper machines, a candy machine, two fishing poles, a washer, an oven, a refrigerator, a dolly, two safes, a safe door, a machete and two rifles.

Neither of the safes were reported stolen and the guns, including one .22 caliber and one 12 gauge shot gun, both came back clean when their VIN numbers were run on the sheriffs and police’s data base.

The reported safe was never found.

Divers on scene:  Mark Sowash, Colin Price, Collier McGehee, Brandon Sprunger, Benjamin Stoner, and Micah Justice. Tenders:  Jedidiah Backus and Caleb Hard. Dive Team Coordinator:  Capt. Joel Talley.  Assistant Coordinator:  Casey Zachry. Photographer:  Josh Thomson.

Other agencies involved:  Gilmer Police Department, Gladewater Police Department and Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

We had a great training session with ERT Unit 42.  Classes taught included Openwater, Advanced Openwater through NASE (National Academy of Scuba Educators), and Special Response Diving through the NAPD (National Academy of Police Diving).

• Aquatics
• Basic Training
• Battalion
• News Release
• Training

• Admissions
• Student Life
• Training Calendar
• News
• the ALERT store

ALERT Training Blog

• Unit 47 – Three Hour Hike
• Unit 47 – Micro Hike
• Unit 47 Basic Training – Week One
• R-Night – Unit 47
• READ MORE NEWS