Tag Archives: GUE

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 12: The Wreck Of The Robert Kerr and Heading Home

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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 11: The Final Dive

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 10: Back To Reality

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 9: A Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly-Day 6/7

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 I think we were all ready to be done but the excitement of the last day superseded that feeling.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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 8: The Thermocline-Day 5

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 7: He is for Trimix-Day 4

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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 6: A Little Bit Deeper-Day 3

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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 5: Maple Bay-Day 2

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 4: Maple Bay-Day 1

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 3: Vancouver Island

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 2: Nanaimo

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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 »

GUE Tech 2-Chapter 1: Canada Bound

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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 »

Purchasing Scooters and NSS-CDS Cave DPV Class: Part 1

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 »

GUE Tech 1-Day 6, The Last Day

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It was 3am on Sunday July 22nd and Tina and I were wide awake desperately trying to sleep.  Marley woke up around 2am because of a storm and was bumping around, crashing into the walls and closet door.  She’s a 14 year old Golden Retriever, that’s totally blind,  and hates thunderstorms.  So when she gets upset,  she wanders aimlessly around…. Read more »

GUE Tech 1-Day 5 The Deepest Dives To Date

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It was the morning of Saturday the 21st of July, 2018.   We were up earlier than Kirill and Per, but as we started moving around both of them woke up shortly after.  We gathered our stuff for the day and put some drinks in the cooler.  Everyone had their undergarments in the dryer from the night before. We we… Read more »

GUE Tech 1-Day 4 At Pompano Beach Florida

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I got off work early, the truck was already packed from the night before, so all we had to do was put food in the cooler, load the dogs, and head south. It was Thursday July 19th and our fourth day of Tech 1 was in the morning. We rented an Air BnB a few miles from pompano dive center… Read more »

GUE Tech 1-Day 2 at Blue Grotto

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Ahhh Blue Grotto.   By now we are intimately familiar with this place. Virtually all of our GUE classes have started here (except for cave 2).   It’s a great place to train and the facilities are very nice.  Picnic tables, covered pavilions, showers, and nice bathrooms.   The downside is that It’s also fairly crowded on the weekends with… Read more »

GUE Tech 1-Planning, Logistics, and Day 1

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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 »

A Journey to Tech 1

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Technical and cave diving has always seemed to be such a distant goal for us.  I can remember the feeling I had when starting to discover Global Underwater Explorers  back in 2013 while living in Houston. I was in awe of the divers that I would watch in videos.  They just made it look so easy and fun. They had… Read more »

A Real Cave Dive-Manatee Springs Via Friedman Sink

It’s been just about 6 months since Cave 2 and we have been busy diving as much as we can. Tina and I have spent a fair amount of time exploring  a little bit of Madison, a lot of Peacock, and a lot of Ginnie springs. We pretty much try a different dive or try to see something new every… Read more »