KENAI, Alaska -- The water temperature in the Kenai Central High School swimming pool was a comfortable 83 degrees Fahrenheit-- far too warm to replicate the frigid Arctic conditions in the Chukchi Sea, but a safe place to run a group of new trainees through rigorous helicopter rescue training.

Nine oil industry workers and I lined up along the side of the pool to pick up our watertight helicopter suits -- one-piece yellow nylon bodysuits with tight red neoprene hoods and green rubber boots.

We were in Kenai for Coldwater Survival and Helicopter Egress Training, a two-day safety course that Royal Dutch Shell PLC requires for anyone likely to ride in a company helicopter. The other trainees were paramedics, engineers, cooks and supervisors on Shell's rigs and other vessels in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

In a helicopter accident in cold water, trainees are instructed to preserve their body heat by linking up and inflating their neck pillows to keep their heads above water. Photo by Hugh Hobson.

For me, the training was a prerequisite to riding on a Shell helicopter for future reporting on Arctic offshore drilling and the company's North Slope scientific research. Each certification is good for four years.

Because of construction delays on its oil spill recovery vessel, the Arctic Challenger, Shell has yet to receive its final permits for drilling in Alaska's north waters. With summertime slipping away, company officials have scaled back their drill plan and are now aiming to sink one or two wells rather than the five they originally requested.

But the delay hasn't slowed the pace of helicopter safety training at Kenai's Challenger Learning Center, according to Greg Olcott, the bearded lead instructor at the center's Coldwater Survival and Egress Training program.

Since March, Olcott and his instructors have coached 700 Shell trainees -- mostly oil industry workers and contractors. But that's only the beginning. Olcott said he's been told an additional 1,800 workers might need training in the coming years if Shell ramps up oil exploration in the Arctic.

A program born in tragedy

On July 16, 2002, Pete Slaiby hopped onto a Bristow Sikorsky S-76 helicopter for a ride over the North Sea with a team of company employees. After dropping off Slaiby, the crew flew back to a gas production platform when a worn blade in the main rotor sent the helicopter crashing 400 feet into the sea. Both pilots and the nine oil industry passengers on board were killed.

The tragedy made a lasting impression on Slaiby, who now heads Shell's Alaska operations. At Slaiby's insistence, all helicopter passengers must go through the center's Helicopter Underwater Egress Training, known as HUET, which was specifically designed by Shell.

The Coldwater Survival and Egress Training program includes instruction on opening helicopter windows and exiting a helicopter simulator underwater. The $1.5 million simulator can rotate to imitate inverted exits. Photo by Hugh Hobson.

"They are by far at the top of the list as far as standards go," Olcott said. "For example, Shell doesn't allow us to do any more than 16 people at a time."

The center's two-day training program, whose motto is "saving lives, one dunk at a time," consists of morning classroom sessions and afternoon practical pool testing.

The instructors hammer home the message that survival isn't accidental. The course provides helicopter passengers with knowledge and skills needed to respond to an offshore emergency, abandon the vessel or helicopter, survive at sea and help with rescue.

The morning sessions are peppered with videos of severe helicopter and boat crashes -- sober reminders of the need for safety equipment and training in Arctic waters.

Olcott warns trainees to wear the cumbersome equipment no matter the weather, noting that water transfers heat 25 times faster than air. In the Arctic, where summertime water temperatures are around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it's best to stay dry.

The training covers methods of abandoning helicopters, locating and using survival crafts, and boarding and operating complex life rafts from the water. Where survival crafts aren't available, we were taught to link up with other survivors in rough waters and to huddle in tight groups to conserve heat.

We donned emergency immersion suits -- known as Gumby suits because of their shapes -- and learned to operate supplemental breathing equipment, personal locator beacons and pyrotechnic distress signals.

The second day of training is where the rubber meets the road. Trainees must assume a safety position as the helicopter simulator ditches, activate their emergency air equipment, open a helicopter window underwater, get out of the helicopter seat and escape through the window. We practiced those skills above water, below water and upside down.

The key was not to panic. And, yes, I passed.

Better, colder training

The Coldwater Survival and Egress Training program (CSET) is offered through the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska, a Kenai-based nonprofit science, math and technology education program for children.

"CSET and Challenger are separate," Olcott said. "But after the instructors are paid, and we pay for staff members and pool time at the high school, any profit goes back into the Challenger Learning Center to support educational programs for the kids."

Contractor John Anker completes helicopter submersion training. Photo by Hugh Hobson.

The center hooked up with Shell in 2007, when the oil company installed the $1.5 million helicopter simulator in the Kenai high school swimming pool. Shell hired outside contractors who used classrooms at the Challenger center next door.

In late 2009, Shell donated the simulator to the Challenger center, which trained in-state safety instructors and set up the CSET program.

Since the center took over training, Olcott has been around the world to learn about the latest high-tech safety equipment and water safety programs for helicopters and other vessels. He hopes to take the Coast Guard instructor training course later this year.

CSET now trains employees of about 90 percent of the oil companies operating in Alaska, including two companies that are about to begin drilling operations in the nearby Cook Inlet waters.

After the class, Olcott shared his hopes to begin work within the next year on a massive new cold-water training facility in Kenai. The new CSET building would be designed to train oil company employees all year long, rather than fitting the training sessions into the high school swim team schedule.

The new pool would be equipped with special equipment to simulate realistic Arctic conditions, such as high waves, cold temperatures and darkness.