Breathe in, breathe out…no bubbles, just silence.  Whoa.

Magic?  Maybe.  A whole new world?  Definitely.

You know your scholarship year is going to be incredible when just the first experience alters your entire perspective on diving…and that is exactly what happened during my Subgravity Defender TDI Air Diluent course with Jon and Lauren Kieren in the springs of North Florida.

The week-long class consisted of an entire day of theory and building the unit, as well as six days of diving covering the skills necessary to safely dive the Defender (not to mention excellent hot lunches made by the Kierens every day).

As an avid open circuit technical and cave diver who loves a challenge, I could not wait to take this class.  Learning to dive a rebreather was like learning to dive all over again — made simpler by the Kierens’ excellent instruction and the intuitive, carefully crafted design of the Defender.  No longer can buoyancy be controlled with an inhale or exhale, and the added task of maintaining PO2 led to a new kind of awareness underwater.

Rebreathers not only allow for quieter, longer, and warmer dives, but also constantly mix the ideal gas for your depth.  The potential these machines offer as a tool for photography, science, and exploration is huge, and I am grateful to have gotten my first taste of silent diving at the beginning of my scholarship year.  I am very excited to have earned a license to keep learning on the Defender throughout the year and can’t wait to see where it takes me!

Thank you to KIEREN Technical for such quality training and to Subgravity for providing me with a Defender.  Thank you also to TDI, DUI,

Aqua Lung, and of course to Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and Rolex for this opportunity!

 

Cover photo by Lauren Kieren.