I have been diving a lot, but also it’s been a whirlwind of training the past 4 years. Much of my desire to get more training has to do with being confident to take on bigger dives, utilizing more gear, and wanting to see new things. Also the way that most GUE classes are structured, is that most of… Read more »
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 »
Cave 2 has been a different class compared to other GUE classes we have taken. The challenges were there, the struggle with new skills were there, but the learning was different. Mark and Mer gave us the tools to make good decisions underwater; in a positive and controlled way. Of course there are a number of ways to deal with… 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 »
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 »
After actually getting some sleep and waking up at a reasonable hour to prep gear, Tina and I hopped into the truck and drove towards Wes Skiles Peacock Springs. It was cold and rainy but eventually it was supposed to clear up (we hoped). We met Mer at the gate around 8am and she showed us to the parking lot… 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 »
Class started on Sunday the 18th at EE, with Meredith Tanguay as our instructor. We did the normal morning lectures followed by some gear inspection. There are some slight gear changes for cave diving that we hadn’t done prior to class, but Mer got us all fixed up. Really not much changes but you will see once you take the… 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 »
When I first started diving in 2009, I didn’t realize there were many many choices for scuba gear. And I didn’t even realize the back plate and wing existed. The shop we went through had a good selection of quality recreational gear, but like most shops they are limited to what agreements they have with manufactures and what makes sense to… 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 »
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 »
Much like our dive profile from the previous day; our third day of Fundamentals was going to have some ups and downs, and some awesome ah ha’s. Mer met us at the Dive house for video review early in the morning and we definitely had some cringe worthy moments. However Mer did a great job showing us that we… 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 »
Tina and I started diving mainly because of a trip to Puerto Rico. But my passion for diving started long before that. I have been in love with the underwater world since I was able to walk. My mom had me in swim lessons basically as a baby and as I got older, I remember watching underwater documentaries and thinking how amazing it… Read more »