Leaving Florida in the beginning of July I flew back to the West Coast to spend a few weeks and continue my month of training. My time on the West Coast turned out to be some of the most information-packed three weeks I’ve had in a long time. I started off in Southern California by combining my Inspiration rebreather course, taught by Jeff Bozanic, and Karl Huggins’ EDAM course out on Catalina
Jeff was kind enough to pick me up late at night after my flight into Long Beach airport had been delayed. It was awesome to be back in the cooler temperatures and drier air after having spent the last couple of weeks dripping in Miami. We quickly loaded up my gear and I jumped into the front seat to relax after a hectic day of travel. Having never met Jeff before I found it crazy that in the span of 24 hours I had been hanging out with two diving legends as if it was no big deal. But almost as soon as that thought entered my mind Jeff turns to me and says, “We need to get up early, you need to get to work”. My train of thought shifted instantly and I got back to preparing for the long days ahead.
My rebreather course started early the next morning with a full day in Jeff’s pool alongside my new dive buddy Gerry Smith, Diving Safety Officer of the University of Southern California Wrigley Marine Science Center. That day was nothing but learning for me as we spent hours going over setup and breakdown, underwater skills, and checklist after checklist. We finished up the day and Gerry and I rushed off to catch a ferry over to Catalina Island so I could spend the weekend hanging out with the Antarctic chamber crew while they practiced for their upcoming season. Karl Huggins, Director of the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, picked me up at the pier and took me to what would be my new home for the next ten days.
I spent the weekend with Karl and the Antarctic chamber crew running through simulated chamber treatments and before I knew it, it was Sunday and the Emergency Dive Accident Management course was off and going! Jeff arrived the following morning eager to continue my rebreather course and from that point forward it was a whirlwind. I was either in lecture or diving all day everyday for the remainder of my trip. Some people may think this sounds awful but for me…it was the dive “vacation” of a lifetime! I made awesome friends, people I never would have had the chance to meet in my daily life, and learned more about diving and accident management than I ever expected. After a last minute good bye to Karl, on the USC-WMSC pier, Jeff and I headed off on a friend’s boat to finish the dives for my Normoxic Trimix certification that I started in Florida.
