Passing the PDA. (Diver selection)

I'm back, thought I would deliver an insight into the PDA(Pre-Entry Diving Acquaint) for anybody interested. well as much as I can remember been trying to repress them.

dive school, date unknown

This is a three day course carried out at the dive school on Horsea Island, if you wish to be trained as a diver in any branch of the military either army or like myself clearance diver for the Navy you must first pass the PDA. Not many know much about the divers... history, training or entry besides the divers them self but one thing is well known is that it is *painful* and if you mention it people respond in the same way not quite with words but a clear expression, with a squint in the eyes pouting of the lips as if they ate a sour grape accompanied by a sharp inhale(you doing it know?) & after experiencing it I can say I agree. You do receive a list of what is to come beforehand but is does not really prepare you for the actual intensity of it. If you are thinking of applying to be a diver you need to be committed & stubborn... really stubborn, it needs to be something that you *really* want and something that you will not allow anything to stop you or get in your way. This is because most(who prepare) can pass the PDA physically but those who fail are usually not asked to leave but voluntarily walk away as I witnessed time after time, even by those who swore they would keep going. The thought definitely crossed my mind a number of times at one point in particular, but I'll talk more on that further in.

I arrived a day before like most others coming down from the North East, some sort of mix up with train tickets but I took it as an opportunity to get settled and in the evening talk to the other group that came down before us. There was a constant fear of what was to come lingering over but I was there and as ready as I could be.

Waking from what was possibly the worst nights sleep in my life, I'm not saying they were uncomfortable but it was bunk beds with an old mattress and nothing but a sleeping bag/no pillow with other people snoring and a humming wall for some reason so... yeah I guess I am. We had a few hours before the start as they first had to dismiss the other group, we were told starting time would be between 10-12am... both nervous and excited to start the slightest footsteps or knock on the door everyone would just go silent.

my pain. 

Upon starting we got straight into it, first up was the DPFT(Divers Personal Fitness Test) in order to progress onto the rest of the course you must pass this, a number of exercises which I'll talk you though. The first thing was the 2.5km run to warm up for the timed personal best time 2.5km, there was a nice 3 maybe 4 second break between which was pleasant. My foot actually went in the warm up but I pushed on and finished, was my personal worst time I think but still a minute faster than the pass time of 10 minutes 30. after this run it was straight into the gym to complete dead man heaves(chin-ups) from a relaxed position(arms fully extended) lift your body weight with your chin above top of the bar and repeat, failure was less than 8. Then drop of the bar for the sit ups, 40 in the space of a minute anything less was failure, moved straight onto the dips, 16 to pass. The final part that we had to complete was the strength test, not my strongest area as I've always preferred cardio type workouts but it had to be done, this involved lifting two 30kg weights(heavy!, at least to me) and walking the length of the car park and back it was about 30m. We had some water after, lined up and one man further down the line just projectile vomited and then fell back in, he pushed on at least. our numbers had dropped from 12 to 8 at this point but no time to rest, next stage was to come.

we ran round to the little peer type platform on the other side of the lake to get kitted up with our dry suits, knives, fins, under suits & other things of that nature only another 400-500m run, you do not walk in dive school, must run, *always* run. After we acquired our kit we were introduced to "circuits" and the worlds most demoralizing things in the world known as "awkwards" and "unawkwards" these were not difficult but soul destroying. The awkwards and unawkwards consisted of stripping out of your "uniform" type clothing and into your dive kit in the space of under 2 minutes, and the unawkwards were simply the opposite, I hope you're not shy. you may think this not that bad and at first, & no its not but over and over its gets so annoying and once you're soaking wet from the lake water it becomes just about impossible and draining. The circuits were not to bad... well it came and went really you hated and loved them, It involved climbing to the top of an elevated diving platform suited up fins in hand diving off, hit the water throw your fins on(don't drown) swim the lake climb out run back round to the platform, was quite a long run and the suits were so compromised they took on water so diving off hitting the water and feeling gravity just slip away was a nice feeling, this was repeated three times and that was one circuit. there were also "shortie" circuits which involved standing on the edge of the platform peer jumping in spinning pulling yourself out and repeating over & over, to pull yourself up out the water there was about a meter difference from land surface to the water surface. we did a number of these on the first day, running as well as a brief classroom introduction a bit of front crawl swimming in a dry suit without use of legs as well, not enjoyable. we finished day 1 at about 7pm which gave us a bit of time to rest have a cup of tea & me a bit of time to read. normality even if my foot was dying.

picture above my bunk, there is nothing penguins can't fix.

following days either later or tomorrow.