Precision Diving

I was chatting with some friends on the west coast recently and we got into a discussion about technical diving education and whether it is in a state of decline, quality wise, like recreational diving (arguably). This got me reminiscing about my experiences in the past as well as some of the things I’ve seen other people experience.

I think back to my experiences as a tech student. Even though I learned the skills and was able to not kill myself or my buddy, I quickly learned that there had to be something more than my current performance. After a hard look at my skills, I quickly realized that I should not be diving on helium to 200+ feet, regardless of certification. This started my journey, my search for mastery. (more…)

I got an email from a reader a couple weeks ago. He asked me one simple question, “Do you hate dive stores?”. I know that some of my posts may come across as being highly critical of dive stores. All dive stores serve a purpose in the diving industry, but certainly I don’t hate any one of them. Some are better than others. Below is a list of dive stores and charter operators, in my area, that I do business with. (more…)

A little while ago, I had someone locally contact me to evaluate his technical diving skills. He had already been through a technical diving class from a well known tech instructor in the Lake Michigan area. He was looking for an assessment of his technical diving skills and knowledge as he was a newer technical diver. Always willing to help out those in need, I agreed if he bought me lunch at the quarry. I spent the day with him and his skills were less than spectacular. After talking to him, he mentioned that he only had to do the skills for his class once or twice. This got me thinking, perhaps he had a bad day when diving with me or perhaps he just had a lucky day during his training. The light bulb went off in my head. (more…)

As October approached, I knew that our days to get on Lake Michigan were numbered. Rob and Dave called me up and said they wanted to get one more big dive on Lake Michigan before the weather completely shuts us down for the year. I haven’t had a chance to dive with Rob and Dave much this year. All of us have had the usual stuff creep up in our lives and our schedules would never line up. We looked at a couple charters still going out this time of the year and saw that Shipwreck Explorers operated by Captain Jitka had an opening for a two tech dive day. We booked it. (more…)