My next adventure has been spending the week attending Inner Space, a renowned rebreather event in Grand Cayman, hosted by DiveTech. I flew straight from Santo Domingo to Miami, and back down to Grand Cayman, where some really neat new experiences were in store for me.

Nancy and Jay Easterbrook, the owners of DiveTech, offered to host me for the week of Inner Space, which would allow me to get a glimpse into the vast and foreign world of rebreather diving. I also had the chance to get a start on my Closed-Circuit Rebreather (CCR) Training course with Mike Fowler, owner and president of Silent Diving, LLC.

I knew this would be a challenging week, as diving on a rebreather is definitely taking my training to a new, unchartered territory. But I was excited, as it would open so many new doors of opportunities.

 

I arrived in Grand Cayman Sunday afternoon and easily made it through immigration and customs, where my friendly bus driver was waiting outside to pick me up and take me to Cobalt Coast Dive Resort. We had an excellent conversation on the ride over, and he gave me all sorts of information and history about the Cayman Islands (plus a perfectly ripe mango!). Upon arriving at Cobalt Coast, I was promptly greeted by staff, checked in, and shown to my room, which I would be sharing with Mike, who I barely knew at the time. I met up with him moments later, and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the week ahead. Later in the evening, there was a bit of a meet and greet, where I was introduced to a few other attendees for the week, then a delicious dinner, and early bedtime.

 

Monday morning, Mike and I woke up early for a nice little run, then ate breakfast and met up with Karl Shreeves, PADI‘s Technical Development Executive, who was doing a refresher course with Mike for the day. They spent the morning meticulously going over the build procedure for the AP Evolution rebreather unit, which also allowed me the chance to see what I would be learning to do just days later. After a nice lunch, Mike and Karl hopped in the water for a dive and I went to do some of my online course material for the week. Plus a nice snorkel off the dock made for a lovely afternoon. The evening was spent listening to a lecture by one of the attendees, a bit more mingling, and another early bedtime.

 

I woke the next morning feeling a bit sick, with a runny nose and small cough. But always the fighter, I put it off as my sinuses disagreeing with traveling, and headed down to breakfast with Mike. Afterwards, it was my turn to be the one assembling the unit, as my first day of the course had started and I was a student all over again. Mike helped guide me through the important process of assembling the rebreather unit and I had it all completed by lunch (it took quite a while my first time getting the unit together but gets progressively faster as you get more familiarity with the gear). After lunch, we had a bit of a briefing about my first dive in the pool and what we would do, and then it was time to get splashing in the pool! My goodness, was it bizarre taking my first breath on the unit and having NO bubbles! We swam to the bottom of the 8 foot pool and kneeled. I just tried to get over how wild it was to not have any exhaust. The silence of it all! I also felt like half woman, half machine! But after a little, Mike had me go through a bunch of skills – from something as basic as clearing my mask to more pertinent skills, like a “3-H” drill where you are experiencing either hypoxia, hyperoxia, or hypercapnea and how you’d appropriately respond. After about 30 minutes, we surfaced and quickly debriefed the drills and some of the basic concepts. We submerged again to do more skills and let me attempt to swim around the pool a bit to see how my buoyancy feels, as I no longer control it with my breaths. After another 20 minutes of me feeling like a brand new diver all over again, we surfaced and talked about the skills, concepts, and differences between CCR and open circuit. We then had about an hour of in-pool demos, where attendees could give different rebreather units a try in the pool and talk about the differences between brands.

Wednesday morning I woke up with a horrible, hacking cough and a nose that would not stop running (who was it running from?) so we took an easy run and had a relaxed breakfast. The original plan was to get in the ocean for a dive in the morning, but Mike convinced me to spend the morning resting, which in retrospect, was the right move. My body needed to recuperate and have a chance to start healing itself, instead of pushing it more and getting even sicker. After lunch, we still didn’t dive but took the time to set up for Thursday and get my unit assembled for the morning. We also used the afternoon as a chance to go over material and theory for the course. I had another early evening, trying to get as much rest for my body as possible.

 

Thursday I woke up still feeling a little under the weather but more anxious to go diving than anything else. Plus I had no problems equalizing and my energy levels were much higher than the day before, so after the folks going out on the boats left, Mike and I went through our pre-dive breathing, geared up, then hopped in the truck to drive over to Lighthouse Point, another shore dive offered by DiveTech. Man, being out in the ocean on the rebreather was incredible! I still had a lot to work on, such as fine-tuning my one breath loop volume and figuring out my proper weighting (I was supremely overweight the entire dive) but I felt so comfortable with the rebreather. It definitely gave me more to think about throughout the dive, and I appreciate the challenge and the change. After about 85 minutes of diving, we surfaced at a buoy for 10 minutes or so, then submerged again. We went to about 40 feet and went over some skills that we did earlier in the pool sessions. The skills are all fairly easy and logical for me, and it sure is strange to be a student after so many years! It’s a humbling and refreshing experience for me. After the end of our second dive, we swam back to the dock, where we surfaced and were met by some great DiveTech staff who shuttled us back to the resort and shop to strip down our units and rinse our gear. We spent the afternoon rebuilding the unit for Friday, then covering more theory and discussing more in-depth concepts of diving on a rebreather. Most importantly, that evening was a Fourth Element fashion show, where I was asked to be one of the runway models for some of the gear being displayed! I got the chance to strut my stuff and advertise the excellent products made by Fourth Element, one of my sponsors for the year.

Friday morning came bright and early and I was feeling a bit better and even more excited to be diving! Once the boat divers cleared out, Mike and I again did the pre-dive preparations and this time hopped in right off the dock at DiveTech. This time we had taken out a lot of weight and I was determined to focus on maintaining an efficient counter-lung volume, as that was about the only thing I needed to work on. We entered the water and swam out to the mini wall. This time around I truly felt as if I had a grasp on what I was doing underwater and what I was supposed to be doing with the rebreather. I wasn’t just getting by because I was a good diver; I was doing well because I knew how to use the rebreather well. After a two hour dive with some skill practice, we headed back to the dock and I was one happy little clam! I actually really loved diving the rebreather and I knew what I was doing! What more could I ask for? After taking apart my unit and tidying up, I cleaned up for the evening, as it was the last official night of Inner Space. We had a rum tasting party to sample the local distillery’s products and chat about the exciting moments of the week. After a delicious dinner it was time for the last two presentations of the week, one of which was me! Nancy had asked me to do a presentation about my upcoming year as the Rolex Scholar and I jumped at the chance to spread the good news of OWUSS and the Rolex Scholarship with a new crowd. After my little 15-minute presentation where I explained who I was, what the scholarship is, and the year ahead of me, it was back to mingling with everyone before most people left the next day.

Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and said goodbye’s to everyone leaving for the day. But there was more business to tend to, as Mike’s second student, Matt, had arrived the evening before and was starting his course that day. Mike, Matt, and I spent a bit of the morning assembling units and while the boys jumped in the pool for Matt’s pool training, I stayed topside to continue reading through my Evolution manual and work on theory. At the end of their pool session, we had a quick lunch then suited up to dive in the ocean! We went for a nice little tour of the mini-reef outside Cobalt Coast then went shallow to work on skills. At this point, the diving is back to natural for me, I’ve learned to fine-tune my one-loop breath volume and have my buoyancy perfected. Now it’s about practicing skills and gaining more confidence and familiarity underwater on the rebreather. After completing a few rounds of skills, the three of us surfaced at the dock and headed in to debrief our dive and finish for the day.

 

All-in-all, it was a phenomenal week for me, despite being sick and not as able to dive as I would have liked to be. I greatly appreciate the generosity of Nancy and Jay for hosting me during the week, for the staff at Cobalt Coast for the wonderful accommodations, and the team at DiveTech for being so incredibly helpful and friendly during my training. I also want to say thanks to Mike, although my time with him is not yet finished, for his incredible training thus far and keeping me safe but also making sure I completely understand what I’m doing with the rebreather. I look forward to this next week in Grand Cayman, where we continue the course and I can be an official CCR diver!