After completing an amazing week with Holly Bourbon at the National Aquarium, I got to head right into my next assignment. I got picked up from the aquarium and we started the journey to our new home for the week. After picking up another member of our crew from the airport, we arrived at our hotel and got unpacked for the fun week of work ahead! The International Sub Races are a biennial event in which students from around the world are challenged to design, build, and then race a human powered submarine. The event is sponsored by FURE, the Foundation for Underwater Research and Education, and held at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division. For this week I got to join Vin, Kim, Bobbie, Ryan, Jessa, and Lissette as a member of the dive staff! At the races, the dive staff works with the help of the the Navy and other volunteer divers to ensure the races go smoothly and all of the contestants are safe in the water!
For our first day at the facility, we spent the bulk of the time setting up the dive station. This included a medical station for any emergency we may have to deal with, a method of organizing divers’ ID’s while they’re in the water, as well as all our or personal gear. After the station was all set up, I got to meet some of the Carderock staff, some of which are even previous contestants at the sub races!
The races themselves are held in the David Taylor Model Basin, which was a super impressive body of water which is twenty two feet deep, fifty feet wide, and over a half mile long! Prior to all of the contestants arriving, we all got into the water to go for a dive and make sure the bottom of the basin was clear of any major debris. We swam the length of the basin in a line as to not miss anything, and picked up a shocking amount of zip ties from previous races.
Once our dive was finished, we headed back to the hotel to organize some paperwork, and got to sit in on the briefing for the contestants participating in the races. It was super interesting to learn more about the history of the races, and even get a better idea about how the general procedure works with sub inspections and more! After hearing from a list of distinguished FURE board members, we went to get dinner at the local Thai restaurant. It was a great first day with everyone, and I look forward to the week ahead!
Day 2
After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way back to Carderock. We all got their nice and early to prepare for everyone to arrive. Bobbie and I went through paperwork we had received prior, making sure we had all of the forms for both contestants and volunteer divers. This ensured that no one who had a possible medical condition or even the risk of one would be allowed in the water, as well as verifying that every diver was certified and safe! Once we had all of the paperwork prepared, we got ready to take on the rush of divers coming in, this included a station where we could inspect the tanks that divers brought with them, ensuring they were all within visual and hydrostatic inspection, and had no obvious causes for concern.
With everything ready to go, Kim, Jessa and Lissette began taking in the volunteer divers for checkout dives! The purpose of the checkout dives was to guarantee that divers were confident in their skills, that way they could work together on their submarines underwater.
After a fun day at the base, it was time to head back to the hotel. Here we were able to sit through a briefing given by both Navy staff, as well as FURE members. This meeting was super helpful to listen too, as it provided a great outline for how the week would go! Contestants go through a series of presentations and inspections leading up to their races in order to ensure the submarines work as designed and that the Navy is comfortable recovering divers from each sub.
We listened intently to all of the briefings presenters, including staff who had previously been a contestant in the races! Once the briefing was concluded, A few of us went out to enjoy a nice dinner before an even busier day tomorrow.
Day 3
Time for contestants to arrive on base! Since today would be a busy day, Ryan, Lissette and myself headed to pick up donuts so all of the staff, including the navy, would have some motivation for the day. After doing or coffee/donut run, we arrived on base to attend the first daily meeting for team captains, which provided a great method of organizing teams and streamlining how teams were informed of the days proceedings. Following the meeting, contestants were ready to get checked in and geared up for checkout dives! The experience from previous races really showed in Vin, Bobbie, Kim, and Ryans organization, as they already had methods of checking divers in and out of the water, which kept things moving super quick and organized. The dive staff took groups of contestants into the water, entering using a huge elevator which would come in handy for lowering submarines into the water later on. The elevator was super fun to both watch and use, as it moves slowly and can be stopped at varying heights to make donning and doffing fins much easier.
The checkout dives went on till a bit later in the after-noon, and then we headed back to the hotel to organize the paperwork from all of the divers who checked in today. Once the days work was over, we found a local Mexican restaurant in an area that the staff hadn’t checked out previously, so we ventured over and found a ton of restaurants that we planned on trying throughout the week! Dinner was great and then we headed back to the hotel to relax before another day begins.
Day 4
After another great breakfast at our hotel, it was off to the base! Today we started the day by setting up dive gear, since there were a few checkout dives to complete from the previous day. I was lucky enough to get to shadow the instructors on the dive staff, which was super insightful as I was able to experience and learn from minute differences between each individuals teaching styles and preferences! Some of the most important things I was able to learn pertained to teaching and safely motivating students who may be slightly nervous, as well as methods of teaching students complex skills by breaking them down into simple parts! Thank you to all of the instructors who allowed me to learn from them!
Once the checkouts had been completed, it was time for something completely different. The race course consists of a 100 yard straight away, and at the point when a races was ended for any reason, the pilot would be safely removed from the sub, and it needed to be brought back to the starting area. The subs were often brought back utilizing a combination of a tow line from the dock, as well as a swimmer in the water to prevent the sub from dragging agains the concrete walls. My job for the afternoon would be to both observe teams and ensure they were safe, as well as assist in swimming submarines in, should it be an extremely heavy vessel, or if the team had a limited number of contestants available to help. As the day went on, teams become more and more efficient at retrieving their subs, and were even creative enough to through buoyant objects such as pool noodles into the submarine to keep in on the surface and easy the efforts of the swimmers.
Throughout the afternoon, it was a great experience being able to not only talk to the contestants, but also to some of the Navy divers who were helping retrieve the subs and their pilots! Their experience and efficiency was impressive, and it was great to watch their methods of diving for a while.
The teams raced until later in the afternoon, and then it was time for dinner! The dive staff continued to explore the new group of restaurants we found previously, and tonight was Lebanese food! While we ate, we spent time talking about how everybody’s day had gone, as well as any areas we could think to improve. These cooperative sessions were definitely an important part of each day, and I’m grateful to have been included in them! Any suggestions or changes made just got us more excited for the next day.
Day 5
Today started bright an early to do some maintenance prior to contestants arriving on base. I was lucky enough to buddy up with Kevin, Carderock’s very own dive safety officer (DSO). Our goal was to sweep the bottom of the race course to search for some items possibly lost in the tank by divers the previous day. After about 30 minutes of searching, we came up empty handed with the exception of a bouquet of zip ties.
I started the morning helping out again with the submarine recovery teams, and was able to see some great improvement in the team organization from the previous day! Along with the teams working even better together, the Navy staff had even built a platform for swimmers to enter the water in an even safer manner to recover the subs more easily.
After some time observing and helping out here, I eventually moved to the busier side of the races, where dive staff on the dock was managing all of the teams, as well as their submarines as they entered the water via elevator, and then moved to and from large beach like platforms between races. It sounds like a hectic setting, and it was even crazier in the water! Luckily the dive staff, including Vin, Kim, Jessa, and Lissette were all great at organizing and guiding the teams to keep them safe and out of the way. The system worked out perfectly, having our dry staff organizing and planning which subs needed to come in and out of the water, and the staff in the water organizing and moving submarines and their carts around the beaches and floor of the tank.
We worked in this format until the end of the day, and ready for dinner we went to our next stop in the dinner exploration, Japanese Barbecue! The restaurant was super fun and Kim showed me the best ways to cook some of the meats we got, and we all enjoyed some great food. Today was another great day of new experiences, and I can’t wait for the next!
Day 6
As a continuation of yesterday, I started the day helping the staff manage subs from the water. One of the tasks that the dive staff is responsible for rather than the contestants themselves is moving the carts which the subs rest on into the water. These carts allow teams to store the subs for longer periods in the water, and also provide a stable work platform for any modifications they need to do in the water! Because the carts themselves are usually built out of metal, they are to negatively buoyant to carry without the help of a flotation device such as a lift bag. Using one or two lift bags allows the dive staff to gently lower the cart to the bottom without straining themselves moving it, or by dropping it quickly to the bottom of the basin. Being able to make so many trips with these carts for teams was a great opportunity to get practice using lift bags, and I was much more confident by the end of the day in using them!
Today was a super busy day of racing, but we also had a special lunch today since a food truck was brought for the contestants and staff! After enjoying lunch, we got back to work in our newly stablished system, cycling through roles as either dry staff, sub recovery, or in water staff. The day went great and a ton of subs got to race for the first time, and some even broke their own records for the week!
Day 7: The Final Day
For the last day of the races, I was lucky enough to have some time to dive and take some photos using the incredible TG-6 setup provided by Backscatter Photo and Video! While there were less divers in the water, the ambient lights dropped in the tank provided some unique opportunities for photos to take, and I was able to learn a ton shooting the still subjects, which were drastically different than photographing moving animals at the aquarium.
While I’m no photography expert yet, it was super fun trying to take some creative approaches with the photos!
Today the races only went until noon, but teams were all able to get their final races in, and the encouragement for each team throughout the basin was amazing. Once the races had concluded and all of the subs were removed from the water, the volunteers as well as dive staff did out final sweeps of the tank, making sure there wasn’t any trash left behind. We cleaned up the basin itself, and then began to break down out dive station on the dock. Before finishing however, we got to attend the award ceremony!
It was great to listen to some of both the Navy and FURE’s distinguished members, as they reiterated the values and goals of the International Sub Races. The teams then took photos together after the awards were announced for best design presentations, top speed in each category and so on. One of the teams were even gracious enough to give us all donuts! After the ceremony was finished, we went back to the dive station and completed the clean up.
For our final meal of the week together, we went to a combo restaurant that had pho and crêpes.
This past week has been one of the most unique and amazing experiences ever! Thank you so much to the Navy and The Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock for hosting, as well as FURE for funding and organizing the entire event! And finally, thank you to Vin, Kim, Ryan, Jessa, Lissette, Bobbie, Bill, and all of the other staff and volunteers who showed me the ropes and helped me learn so much!