TEK DIVES

Rainy Chicago day. Perfect day to diagnose a sick first stage.

Poor stage. To the shop. :( I think it needs a new internal o ring.

I'm about to admit something that pains me:

I may like my Razor harness better than my XDeep... at least in a wetsuit, I do. I think I work less in it... hard to explain.

I've learned a s**t ton about self-reliance in this course and to expand the realm of what is possible and what I am capable of. I'm not done yet, but I am definitely a better diver and sidemount diver for it. I finally did my first "real" restrictions today.. had to go totally sideways and shimmy through. Hoping to attempt one tank off restriction before I leave in the cave (did it in open water already). I will tell you this:

Don't f**k around with s**t like that in a cave AT ALL unless you are trained. The restrictions I went though today weren't awful but I really had to think a moment before I tried and even when going through them since you have to work a little bit when you feel it tight on you and you just can't "GO" is definitely some kind of vibe. It's a mental game, for sure.

I also dove through two rooms of s**t I f**king hate: white silt mound and the even worse, black silt mound...right after a f**king restriction. I came out of the squeeze and boom! Silt pile of bulls**t! Yay! Lol. But I lived to tell the tale. I also had a slight free flow, which I thought was me being tested by my instructor but was legit, and I took care of it appropriately. So yay there.

I would like to dive that stuff, but only with someone I 100% trust. That s**t is definitely scary s**t.

Moral of the story: DO NOT DIVE S**T YOU "THINK" YOU HAVE THE SKILL FOR. You know for sure, or you for sure will die.

Now, I am legit really hungry which is rare. Let me finds some eats...

THANKS and for teaching me how not to dead myself.

I want to talk about imposter syndrome for a moment. The scuba industry is brutal, especially when it comes to tech and cave diving. Everyone has an ego, and most people want to be worshipped before they give you the time of day or listen to you. I'm not pretty or young, so I don't get a whole lot of respect from anyone. It used to bother me up until probably the last year when I finally became "f--k y'all. I would rather be by myself."* But because of the bad experiences, even though I have the certs and training and experience and because I don't have my own people, I have moments that I still doubt myself.

But I absolutely shouldn't. Take this reg, for example. If you look at it, a trained eye might notice it's a little different. I'm taking a course this week and needed to shorten and change the intake. I've never opened my regs up- I leave that for the shop tech but you know, I can fix computers, cars, the fuel pump and electrical on a motorcycle so c'mon, why wouldn't I be able to do this? So I looked it up, got my tools out, and asked a question on a forum and viola! I did it!! I was a little worried I'd break it or it wouldn't work, but I just tested it, and it's fine!

So what I AM saying isdont let how other people treat you dull your shine and don't let them gatekeep you from what you want to do. You can't make people respect you or like you, but so long as you know you put in the work and did no harm to anyone?

F**k 'em. Keep on keeping on and just forget about them.

*except when I went tech diving with I had SO much fun diving with them, I still think about it and hope to go back. There is ego there too- all tech divers have egos (even me)- but it wasn't the kind that made me not want to dive with them. It was the kind "I know my s**t" a day that's okay. I seriously keep thinking about some of those deep dives out there when I'm in a bad mood and it's on my list to get back out there even if I am not a fan of the island itself. I'm too old for the shenanigans that goes on after hours there. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The deep dives on GiliT though? 💯💯💯

If you dive off boats, I 100% recommend investing in one of these. It's an emergency GPS personal location device, and it could save your life. Yes, there are EPIRBs and Arc makes a nice personal location device that if you can afford it, I would recommend in a boat bug out bag, easily accessible IN ADDITION to this because this was made and rated for divers and going to depth where as EPIRBs are made to take a dump in the water to maybe a depth of a few meters but will break if kept at depth for an extended time such as when diving. I say get both if you can afford it as this should stay clipped to your scuba gear, and the personal location device should be easy to grab at all times if you have an issue on the boat.

The reason why I am bringing this up is that Nautilus has an upgraded model of this out this month, and if you trade in your old one, you will get a discount on the new model. Again, I recommend these in case you're on a drift dive that gets out of control or, God forbid, you come up from the dive, and your boat is nowhere to be seen. This rarely happens but happens enough that I don't dive in open water without one of these.

I'll be upgrading this. Remember, self rescue is the best recuse. Never trust your buddy or your boat to get you out of a bind. Know your limits. Plan your dive and dive your plan.

*no, I'm not sponsored. I was actually looking into something else and saw this was upgraded. With better technology and satellite systems coming online, I want the best way to find me if I get into trouble.

Is she, or is she not a tech diver?

✅️ Yes
❌️ No

Also, prove you're a tech diver without saying you're one...

I moved everything into a Milwaukee Pack Out system for two reasons:

On my future boat, this will stack nicely in the workshop and for now, I can pick what I need to take with me local diving. I've also learned to stocks multiple of some things because dive shops will sometimes do a 300% markup on thing...like something that's $10 at DGX ends up being $60 at the shop. So this is my personal dive gear shop. If it breaks, I probably have at least 3 spares here.

This makes me extremely happy.

I'm working on another idea on how to store my wings for travel as I am not happy with how I do it at the moment, especially when I have a sidemount set with me. Stay tuned. :)

This definitely was not on my bingo card for this year. I was thinking I'd be fine in just the stuff I have. I officially have FIVE BDCs now. I was going to sell two but I realized I could use them for students to use.

But hey, I need to know how to set up and trim more than just the XDeep.

There is A LOT of pool time coming up.

I seriously need to win the lottery.

This wing feels like paper compared to my other ones.

That's a super interesting bin you got there Tek... but whatever is the reason why it's in the middle of your floor? Such an odd thing to do. 🤔