As I push the trolley to the check in desk, the flight attendant behind the counter can’t see my face for the piles of baggage stacked above my head. Dive gear, rebreather, underwater camera gear and clothes for a couple of months away. I feel more like a sherpa’s donkey than a scuba diving scholar.
Travelling with a rebreather is not one of the smoothest operations either, especially when every security point scrutinises the equipment. But after grappling with Manchester airport and then the infamous TSA in Miami, I finally arrived in the luxurious island of Grand Cayman.
The reasoning behind travelling across the Atlantic to this lush destination was to build up time and experience on my kindly loaned AP evolution rebreather, which I had not touched since training with Mark Powell.
Dive Tech, based up in West Bay, has been supporting the scholarship for many years and provides an environment brimming with knowledgeable technical divers! And since Grand Cayman offers diving daily due to consistently good conditions I knew I could rack up experience and have some great dives too.
It was just as you imagine a Caribbean island to be. The waters were sometimes so gorgeously clear you could see a 15-meter bottom from the deck of the boat. It was idyllic conditions to simply dive the unit as much as possible to build familiarity.
The staff were fantastic, particularly Steve Tippets who helped me out so much with the AP evolution. With a massive repertoire to teach me from, Steve aided me in practicalities of the unit and gave me a underwater mountain of tips and tricks for me to dig into. He even kick started my own little tool box so I could keep good maintenance over the unit! One of Steve’s favourite phrases to say was, “Makes sense?” and eventually after soaking in all of his advice, it did indeed all start to make sense…except some of his metaphors … they still managed to confuse me.
It was a hugely valuable time for me to start to comprehend the workings of the unit through diving with it incessantly. However, Steve reminded me of a famous quote from Richard Pyle, a T-Rex in the world of rebreather diving, which put into perspective how much further I had left to go with grasping the complexities of the unit;
“After my first 10 hours on a rebreather, I was a real expert. Another 40 hours of dive time later, I considered myself a novice. When I completed about 100 hours of rebreather diving, I realised I was just only a beginner…”.
Hence, I’ll always be wary to never become complacent when diving the rebreather, since you never know when “Mr. Murphy may come knocking”, (that’s another one of Steve’s favourites that he had to explain to me).
My goal for Grand Cayman was to collect hours on the unit, and after two weeks I leave this charming island with 34 hours now on the unit! Success! And with no bubbles, I could get up close and personal with gorgeous marine life such as eagle rays, turtles, groupers, silversides and much more all framed in the gorgeous back drop of swim throughs and drop offs on a sponge covered reef!
I have many people to thank for my time in Grand Cayman but first, to Dawn for helping me arrange accommodation. This golden star of a women put me in touch with Dee and Ivan, who generously put me up for a week in Cayman, soon followed by Drew who also hosted me during the second half of my time on the island. You guys are fantastic for letting me into your home and I will always be grateful for your hospitality. The kindness of people is always something to treasure.
Next, a big thank you to Jo for accommodating me at Dive Tech and to Steve and the rest of the Dive Technicians who helped me out and provided many smiles whilst we were in the shop or out on the boat. Lastly, thank you to AP diving for the unit and Silent diving for the amazing spares supplies, your support is much appreciated.
