December 4th 2021 I woke up feeling really good. I had gotten a good nights sleep, quite possibly the best I’d had in several weeks and on top of that, the BnB prepared a super delicious breakfast of yogurt with avocado toast. It was truly fantastic. On top of that, it had lightly snowed sometime during the night, which to… Read more »
December 3, 2021 Suffice to say I woke up feeling like hammered shit from very little sleep. I had been up for over 24 hours by the time I finally fell asleep the night before. Really this was just an extension of the day before with a few hours of what might be considered sleep smattered in. But I got… Read more »
November/December 2021 The days following my return from Canada, I had been contacting Kirill, Guy, and anyone else that I knew that could help me complete Tech 2. I only had 1 dive to go but there didn’t seem to be any real opportunity until maybe the following spring; and even that was up in the air. I was feeling… Read more »
October 30th, 2021 I woke up feeling great, I was well rested and ready to crush the last day. I think we were all ready to be done but the excitement of the last day superseded that feeling. And in truth I was feeling somewhat anxious about leading the last dive but I was looking forward to plunging one last… Read more »
Friday, October 29th 2021 I woke up excited for the day but also very anxious. The weather was looking beautiful. The rain we had all week was long gone and the sun was already burning off the morning dew. Today would be our first experience dive and the first “real” Tech 2 dive, with real obligated deco. All the previous… Read more »
If you think about it, the idea of adding helium to a compressed breathing gas mix seems pretty ingenious. It has a super low atomic mass so it’s far less dense than oxygen and nitrogen, it’s an inert gas, it’s easily soluble in the body which makes it good for perfusion, and it makes you talk funny under water. Seriously… Read more »
October 27, 2021 Day 3 already? I remember thinking as I ate my oatmeal and had some coffee. I was feeling good, rested, and healthy. I believe a big part of this was making sure I had energy dense yet “clean” foods to eat during the week. Salads for dinner with some kind of protein, snacks like nuts and fruits,… Read more »
October 26, 2021 I woke up feeling rested which actually surprised me considering I have have struggled in previous classes to get good sleep and not have tons of anxiousness. I remarked to myself “Day 2 here we go”. I got out of bed and gathered my things in what now had become a routine. I made some Tim Hortons… Read more »
October 25, 2021. I woke up before my alarm feeling rested and content. I was in a really good headspace despite feeling anxious and nervous about the week ahead. The stress of just getting to Vancouver to even start Tech 2 was long gone, and now I could focus on what needed to be done. Guy had mentioned the day… Read more »
It was the morning of October 24th 2021, the day before Tech 2 was scheduled to begin. I slept great and I was well rested. It was really nice that I had a free day to relax with no real agenda but I did want to dive. During dinner the previous day, a few people had talked about going for… Read more »
I desperately needed to sleep. I tried my best to turn my brain off but it just wasn’t happening. I tossed and turned and got more annoyed as realized I had to be up in only a few hours. At one point might have gotten an hour of actual sleep, but the rest was just dozing. I was too hopped… Read more »
The Canadian boarder opened up just a few short weeks prior to my scheduled departure. Tech 2 was a go, however it wasn’t just a matter of hopping on a plane and showing up. During the days leading up to my flight, I had a checklist of things to accomplish, including to schedule a PCR test (required to fly internationally/enter… Read more »
The summer months following my decision to register for Tech 2 were mainly focused on preparation for the class and finalizing the dates with Guy, Jon, and Kelvin. We settled on October 25 to 30 2021, because the boarder was likely to be open by then. However even that seemed too soon and risky. Just when you thought things were… Read more »
Since I started my journey in diving and my discovery of GUE in 2013, I’ve always viewed Tech 2 as the pinnacle of GUE dive training. Sure, one could argue that PSCR (RB80) and CCR2 are widely considered capstone courses in the GUE curriculum, but as far as open circuit diving goes, Tech 2 is probably it. And to be… Read more »