After freediving training in Cayman Islands, I made my way to Florida to now take my training in a different route with Technical Training with SDI/TDI at their International Training Headquarters http://www.tdisdi.com in Stuart Florida.

When I arrived in Florida, I worked with Brian Shreve, an experienced tech instructor, to work my way through the Advanced Nitrox and Intro to Tech course material. As we finished our classroom sessions, we practiced in the pool with twin doubles before heading upstate to dive in a freshwater grotto. As I donned my twin tanks, I worried a little that I would still experience the same sinus issues I had with freediving during scuba diving. I crossed my fingers and toes that the time out of the water and medication had done their work and I would be able to dive sinus pain free.  As I clumsily clambered into the water with the extra weight of a second tank, Brian and I did our safety and buddy checks before heading under. The familiar feeling of water all around enveloped me as I descended, completely pain-free! Brian and I practiced our skills underwater and even though I have done many dives, I struggled with my buoyancy and balance as I adjusted to having two tanks on my back instead of one. Brian was extremely patient and would do skills over and over with me as often as I needed to feel comfortable with them and he laughed with me underwater as I tried a very unsuccessful attempt of the backward finning technique used by technical divers. 

Brian and I finished my technical diving courses, and then we did a Rebreather Discovery dive in the pool, where I got to practice wearing a rebreather and learn the basics about how a rebreather functions and how to set it up. I discovered that I liked the feeling of the rebreather a lot more than the twin tanks and that I found it far easier to balance with underwater. The rebreather felt surprisingly light and the silent bubbleless breath caught me by surprise after so many years of open circuit diving. The taste of rebreather had me curious to get to try more later in my year. 

Doing my tech training courses at the International Training Headquarters came with the added perk of being able to meet the whole team. The staff at International Training were extremely welcoming and engaged me in all aspects of their work. The creative team helped me trouble shoot with my camera and Stephanie Miele, the COO of International Training, had me shadow her for several days when she learned I was interested in project management. The time spent with them truly became an immersive experience, where I got to see the worldwide impact of a scuba training agency in action, especially one filled with people who are dedicated to improving diving and stewardship for the worldwide community. 

During my time in Florida, Reef Photo and Video graciously offered me a spot on their photography workshop at Blue Heron Bridge. At this point I had not yet had the opportunity to try out my macro lens or practice much with my strobes. What better opportunity to do it than with the knowledgeable team of Reef Photo and Video who had sponsored my camera equipment! As someone who has shot primarily natural light and wide angle, this was all going to be quite new to me. 

I showed up for the first day of macro shooting under the bridge, determined to practice these new skills until I was comfortable. I told myself I was only going to shoot with my strobes, since this is the skill I’m trying to develop. But once I got underwater, I was seeing so many cool critters, and every time I tried to photograph them with my strobes the photos were coming out terrible, overlit but somehow underlit at the same time with nothing in focus and everything in focus all at once. So I shut off the strobes and focused on maximizing the natural light, getting a few beautiful shots of the creatures I was seeing. But I still wasn’t practicing the skill I was meaning to, which was getting comfortable shooting with strobes. 

I was photographing a particularly charismatic pipe blenny when Tanya Burnett of Island Exposure, who was helping with the workshop, came up to me and tapped on my strobes looking at me in confusion. She asked with her hands, why are they pointing nowhere?? A stream of bubbles came out of my regulator as I laughed– she had caught me not using my strobes like I was meant to. She saw my desperation and helped me position them in a way that made sense for the shot I was attempting, she guided my camera positioning and settings and helped me get my first successful macro shot with strobes! Tanya stuck with me for the rest of the dive pointing out beautiful creature after beautiful creature. I continued to practice strobes consistently over the next few days of diving until it I was feeling confident. All of the staff at Reef Photo and Video were so helpful and ready to answer my photography questions and help me improve. There’s still so much to learn, but at least I was able to get a start, and just in time before I am to head to the Philippines to spend two weeks shooting primarily macro with the Atlantis Imagemakers group.

A huge thank you to Rolex, Our-World Underwater Scholarship Society, DAN, and my product sponsors Aqua Lung, Diving Unlimited International (DUI), Fourth Element, Halcyon, Light and Motion, Nauticam and Reef Photo and Video, for making these opportunities possible. A special thank you to Reef Photo and Video for inviting me to join this photography workshop and a huge thank you to International Training for making tech diving training available to me! I look forward to exploring photography and technical diving more throughout my scholarship year.