On the water with the RCMP Dive Team

The team dove for a total of 27 hours in the search for teenagers Eric Keizer and Kyle Dowd who drowned in Lower Sackville’s First Lake last month. They found the boys’ bodies within a few meters of each other.

Constable Darryn Sampson, a four-year member with the URT says although these are difficult situations to deal with, there is a comfort in knowing that what they do helps to provide closure for the victim’s families.

“We find it very rewarding to go out there and to be able to bring back the victims to the families. It’s very difficult for us to deal with when you can’t find the bodies,” he said.

Roughly two weeks after that search two customized vans towing zodiacs pull off a secluded back road along the Blanche peninsula and park near a small rocky beach for training.

It’s a beautiful, hot, sunny day, great for diving. But the weather isn’t always so nice when the 10-person URT comes out to train.

In March the divers travel to Bathurst, New Brunswick and cut holes through three feet of ice to conduct search patterns below. Training is conducted in different locations to expose officers to a variety of conditions.

Team members are allotted 25 days annually to re-qualify in 21 different sections to keep their training current. Scenarios and emergency drills include diving to a maximum of 130 feet, line-tended searches, surface supply practice wearing large helmets, current (fast water) diving, contaminated water diving and hull and pier searches.

Today, in Shelburne County, the officers are dropping six buoys in the water to designate a search area referred to as a grid. Two divers are pulled back and forth by the zodiacs on submersible sleds shaped like T-bars to search for the mannequin, a large doll sunken somewhere in the grid. GPS units are also used to assist search patterns.

Const. Sampson is the safety guy. Suited up and sprawled in the bow of the zodiac he’s set to assist divers if necessary.

Const.. Jay White and Sgt. Peter Keirstead slip into the water and swim over to grip the sleds tied by a long rope to the zodiac. The 35 horsepower outboard is put in gear and the divers slowly submerge. The tow begins.

Kierstead is trying out a new piece of equipment – a buoyancy compensator device - and is having problems with a stuck valve. He has trouble staying below the surface.

“It’s actually good that they have problems like this during training,” said Sampson. “We use the training to iron out the kinks before an operation.”

The divers never know what search conditions they will encounter during searches. Sampson recalls searching a river and coming mask to snout with a six-foot long prehistoric-looking sturgeon.

Call outs can come at anytime. The team employs a metal detector and has been also been tasked to search for evidence such as guns, knives and bullet casings.

The Nova Scotia URT has assisted New Brunswick and Labrador officers with searches. The demand for their expertise is such that more divers are required from the ranks of the RCMP. Diving is a part time job for the officers, who come from detachments throughout the province. Constable Raphael Vezina from the Yarmouth Rural Detachment is a member of the team.

Sampson says being a member of the team is sometimes a difficult thing because it takes officers away from their home units.

“We all work somewhere else so when we’re not working there someone else is filling in and doing the job for us. So ‘releasability’ is a big issue,” he said.

Those slated for the course must write a pre-selection exam and take timed swimming tests.

Initial training takes four weeks at the National Underwater Recovery Training School in Nanaimo, B.C. Training includes an explosives recognition course. Some divers receive further training in marine ops, supervisor and instructor courses.

On the second run of this training session the divers find the mannequin. It’s thrown back into the water several times that afternoon so all the team can re-qualify. Novice members also receive instruction on piloting the zodiac with divers undertow.

The team has responded to as many as 10 callouts in one summer. Depending on where the incident happens, they can be on the scene within two hours.

“We never hope to be called out,” said Sampson, “but we’ll be ready.”