From Kenya I flew straight to snowy Boston, where I switched gears to take a Human Factors in Diving course with Gareth Lock.  This course is designed to unlock high performance in teams and I took it with several other dedicated rebreather and technical divers.  Throughout the course you learn about why mistakes are made, how to mitigate them, how to deal with stress, and how to improve your leadership skills.  All of this is done while working with a computer simulation game called Gemasim.  The simulation controls are split into two parts which are located on two opposite-facing screens, so the team must divide and conquer as well as work together to communicate information in order to accomplish each mission.  After each mission is completed, you go through a structured debrief.  Lectures on various topics are sprinkled in over the two-day course.

I felt like this course really showed me the nuances to good teamwork and leadership in a very comfortable and workable setting.  It was interesting that the course was about stress and problem management, and at the same time the hotel we were located at had a power outage during a huge snowstorm.  Doing the course by candlelight in freezing rooms was certainly an added layer of complication!

After the course was over I attended the Boston Sea Rovers Annual Clinic.  It was great to spend time catching up with OWUSS supporters, listening to the interesting presentations, and attending the stellar film festival.  I gave my own daytime seminar during the show on “Using New Tools to Examine Old Tools:  Photogrammetry Inside Captain Roberts’ Mine.”  This was an excellent public speaking experience!

I grabbed my dive gear from home and headed out to sunny San Diego, where I met up with former scholar Jeff Hester for some shore diving, drone flying, and video editing.  From there I headed over to Sara Lind’s home.  Also a former scholar and professional photographer, Sara took me to the Carlsbad Flower Gardens for some photo practice.

During this time I also visited Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher Adam Young, who let me tag along on his lidar surveys of the California coastline.  We spent several days driving up and down the beaches, gathering data that would be used to examine coastal erosion.  This experience only reinforced my growing interest in remote sensing techniques!

I completed my San Diego stay with a stop at drysuit manufacturer DUI.  It was really interesting to see all the detail and handiwork that goes into every suit.

Thank you to Gareth Lock for the Human Factors course, and to the Malkoski’s for arranging me to speak at Sea Rovers.  Thank you also to Jeff Hester and Sara Lind for letting me into your homes in San Diego.  Thank you to Adam for showing me the ins and outs of lidar and to Faith Ortins for the excellent tour of DUI!  Finally, thank you to OWUSS, Rolex, and all the generous gear sponsors for enabling this year of opportunity!

I have one more stop before my scholarship year comes to a close in NYC…the Sea of Cortez!