Hocking College's Lead Rope Rescue & Scuba Instructor, Jon Tobin, led a Full Diver Dress MK V Hardhat Diver Certification Class at the Student Center pool last month.
The goal of this class was to familiarize participants with the official diving gear the U.S. Navy used from 1916-1984.
Training included classroom work, pool sessions, open water diving sessions, learning how to maintain diving gear, performing safety checks on equipment, supervising divers, and rescuing divers in distress.
Students who completed the program became certified non-commercial Professional Diving Instructors College (PDIC) Full Dress Hardhat Divers.
The term “Hardhat Diving" refers to a unique type of diving suit that was used for exploration that allowed divers to breath underwater for extended periods of time.
Typically, anyone who was required to wear a hardhat diving suit was involved in marine salvage, civil engineering, pearl shell diving, or commercial diving.
A hardhat diving suit consists of the following pieces of equipment:
Jon Tobin was the primary instructor and has been the Lead Rope Rescue & Scuba Instructor at Hocking College since 1985. Tobin also has been a PDIC Scuba Instructor/Trainer since 1995. He owns The Pedaler and The Packer outdoor store in Athens, OH.
Anyone interested in taking hardhat diving classes can contact Jon Tobin by email at Jon@pedaler.com