I took GUE DPV 1 May 2018, which certified me to use a scooter in open water but not in an overhead environment. That being said, I have less interest in scootering in open water than I have in caves for now. So the real goal even back in May, was to get cave DPV certified in the near future…. Read more »
Tina and I have been putting off Tech 1 for a while. Partly because we both felt like we didn’t need it, and partly because we didn’t think we were ready. But as much as we cave dive and feel somewhat proficient in that, we also realize that we had a major deficiency for diving in the ocean doing the… Read more »
It’s the 4th day of Cave 2 training. We are sore and tired. Our fingers are chewed up more than normal. I suppose it’s because of trying to mess with gear in the cold and dragging extra equipment that we aren’t used to in the caves. So far class is going ok. It’s certainly challenging and fun. But at the… Read more »
December 28, 2017 It’s day 3 and we finally got some sleep last night. However the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating with us. It was really cold this morning, and analyzing tanks with cold fingers was not fun. Now have even more tanks to analyze, ( 4 sets of doubles, 2 AL40 deco bottles and 2 AL 80’s) it… Read more »
December 27, 2017. Both of us slept poorly again last night, and this morning Tina was feeling worse than yesterday. She had a lot of congestion, and was up coughing all night. However, we managed to get moving fairly early. The morning started with the usual gear prep and breakfast. We analyzed gas, and I did some fixing of any… Read more »
With the anticipation of GUE Cave 2 training starting bright and early the following morning (December 26, 2017), Tina and I went to bed at our normal time-ish (10pm). Unfortunately neither of us slept very well. I ended up sleeping on the couch because we were tossing and turning keeping each other up. I suppose we were just anxious about… Read more »
Tina and I have been wanting to get some professional pictures taken of us in the water for quite some time. We always seem to be taking pictures or video of each other, and never have any of both she and I in the shot. So I contacted Lauren and Jon Kieren to see if they would be interested in… Read more »
Tina and I had been working hard all week and Mer was gracious to give us an open ended schedule. We pretty much agreed that it would take what it took to do the class and at this point we were just happy to be learning and growing as divers. As with fundies, we grew so much in just a short amount… Read more »
It was day 6 and we arrived at the front office of Ginnie Springs just before 8am. We waited a few minutes for the staff to open up but we were the only ones in the parking lot. We quickly checked in and everyone there was very nice. They gave us our “Cave 1” arm bands and we headed over the the… Read more »
We had trouble falling asleep from just being wired and anxious, and on top of that, we woke up cold in the middle of the night. The temperature outside had dropped to the mid 40s and the thermostat was set for the low 60’s. I couldn’t figure out how to reset it in my half-a-sleep stupor, so I just tried… Read more »
If you asked me two years ago if we would be getting ready to do a cave diving class, I’d have said “no way that’s happening!” In fact I remember when we first met Mer, she asked us what our goals were in diving. The subject of cave diving seemed pretty ridiculous to even think about. But I guess life tends… Read more »
We have been using the Light Monkey 9W 5.2 canister light for a few years now and it’s been pretty good for what we needed. And what we needed was to have a reliable LED light to dive in the murky Texas lakes, and on night dives. We used the 9Ws mainly for communication if we got separated enough that… Read more »
Shortly after Tina got her tech upgrade, I scheduled a weekend with Mer and also got mine. It’s still very much a challenge for me to have the type of precision in the water needed for the upgrade, but we have been practicing a lot and I was ready as ever. The day I went for mine was following a work/training trip to… Read more »
We find ourselves at the end of another year. Where does the time go? Since becoming a diver in 2010; this year, above all the previous years has been the craziest. It’s also a year that we didn’t get to do much fun diving despite having been in the water a lot. The training and gear changes have basically… Read more »
The whole week felt like a total blur at this point. Tina and I had mixed emotions about starting the final day of GUE Fundamentals. We learned so much in such a short amount of time, and we had made many new friends, it was definitely sad to know we had to leave soon. None-the-less we still had one more day of diving. The last… Read more »
We’ve wanted to transition to doubles for a while now; partly because we want to start getting used to them for going further with GUE training and partly due to laziness of not wanting to change tanks between our dives in these shallow Texas lakes. Because neither Tina or I have any formal instruction on diving doubles, I read the forums and watch you… Read more »
Both Tina and I were feeling pretty confident and I was definitely on a high note from the day before. My body was sore and my brain was reaching capacity but we had done at least a good enough job at Blue Grotto the previous days, to go to Manitee Springs/Catfish Hotel and work on more skills there. We all… Read more »
We woke up early and got some cereal that Tina was smart enough to bring with us from Texas. Mer and Stretch were going to meet us at the dive house to go over land drills. She told us to have our BC’s, lights and regs available for drills so that we could do the drills at the dive house to… Read more »
Finally they day had arrived. We were about to start our GUE training and we were both beyond excited but also pretty nervous. Mer had told us that the first day’s schedule would be lecture in the morning then head over to Ginnie Springs for the swim test. We needed to be at EE at 9am. The dreaded swim test… Read more »
The week before our trip to Florida was a total blur. I was busy at work with a big project and Tina was making last minute preparations getting the house ready for us to be gone for 7 days. We also were finally able to start doing our homework. The homework is due just a few days before the class and you’re required to… Read more »