Ron Gordon – Training to work at SETT

When I left Porpoise I did the SETT.

Simon: And that’s something you volunteer for, going to SETT is it?

They offered it to me, and it was obviously … I had to volunteer to it ‘cos you don’t just say well you’re going to that, just make or do. I had to go up and I was saying to Julian that I got a call from the pointer saying, “Would you like to be Docks SETT up at the Escape Training Tank, so he told me to get off my backside and go and have a look and see what it was all about, and when I saw what it was all about, I said, “Yeah, I’d like to give that a go.” 

Simon: But you’d been through that training already had you.

I’d only done the escape. I don’t know how much Brian told you how long it takes you to qualify to become a Member of Staff. It takes about six months.

You have to do all sorts and as an Officer, you had to do a ship’s divers course as well, so you had to do what you call equivalent to sub-aqua diving. You had to do a four-week course in ship’s diving.

You also had to do the six months in the Tank where you had to do every single position in that Tank, you had to be capable of doing it, and so many a time when I wasn’t at the top of the Tank doing the lecture, I was in the water at the different blisters, coming out and looking after the trainees or down at the bottom.

And then when we did the demonstrations, I’d take a bucket on my head and make the ascent from the bottom.

You also had to do a descent from the top of the Tank, all the way 100 feet to the bottom and then get into the bell. And then the final one that you had to do, you had to make an ascent with just your swimming trunks and goggles on and nothing else, no buoyancy aids, take a big deep breath in the bell at the bottom of the Tank, and then control your ascent just by blowing out.

So, you’re blowing out and the bubbles are going up slowly ahead of you and as long as they’re going up slowly ahead of you, you’re still rising, you’re fine.

If they suddenly get ahead of you and then you sink, you’ve failed, and you have to try and have another go at it, or if it’s worse and you overtake your bubbles, that means you’re going faster, and you’ve lost control.

And so, you have to do two runs, like that from the same depth, and both times, the other Members of Staff that qualify, they come out and as you’re going up, they start blowing bubbles, so you’ve got to try and distinguish which bubbles are yours. And all it’s doing is making sure that you’re aware.

At any time during the training when you’re looking after trainees, that you know exactly where you are in the Tank.

What amount of air is in your lungs, that you’re not going up through the water without blowing out in case you damage your lungs, so that’s why it’s six months it takes you to do it.