Diving with other people

GUE is often associated with clones, We look the same, We have all the same gear, We Almost seem to think the same!

I would like to introduce you to two of my dive buddies.  Over the last three days I have dived with both of them;

Hilde flew in on Thursday and we have been in contact before her arrival in Mexico as she is doing Cave Survey with me.

From Germany she loves the caves and strives to be out here for as much time as work affords her. We met the morning after her arrival and the then proceeded to make a checkout dive followed the next day by A huge stage dive in Cenote Crystal  (Naharon).

average 18m 150 minutes 3x jump lines (one of which 35 minutes long and all included restrictions!)

Federico Is a freind of mine and we dived together as Cave 1 level when I lived in here Mexico. He is Italian and once again we have been in touch about the trip before coming to meet. An avid diver he is currently focussed on the deeper wrecks of southern Italy.

Today Fedo teamed up with mike and I to dive double stages in Cenote Regina.

Average 18m, 140 minutes, 1 jump heavily restricted, Zero viz exits and halocline areas.

My question is this; How many people would you be prepared to make a dive of this scale with? Who do you trust enough in terms of in water skills to be able to deliver the goods after two hours in a cave? Maybe a handful of people? Maybe less?

This is why I believe in GUE training! Not once have we discussed dive plans until the morning of the dive, Nor have we sat for hours fascinating over maps and computer software to make these dives.

My answer is as follows; I would make any of these dives and more with ANY GUE cave 2 level diver! We are trained to perform decompression, Handle stages, Perform complex navigation and we have to keep our skills current! if we don't dive We stand to loose our certification levels, no other agency is this committed to maintaining this level of skills within its divers!

If you know this blog thus far you know that I have dived to Full Cave and Advanced Trimix levels before engaging with GUE technical training. This training was GOOD! I have had the benefit of learning from awesome instructors and I am truly thankful to have been guided within my technical career by such interested and skillful friends but there was always an obstacle presented once I was certified.....

I have lacked availability of similarly trained people to dive with, also I have been unsure  weather they have been trained the same way, in the same kit and with the same procedures.  A core part of what we do within GUE's diving communities is to keep training and configurations consistent and this has once again provided me an awesome set of people to enjoy my dives with! No hassle Just meet up and get stuck in!

Weather you are Fundies, Rec, Tec or Cave I can Guarantee that you will gel underwater with anyone else qualified through GUE's curriculum.

Anyway that's enough GUE bashing for me.... Time to go back to school again and learn how to survey caves for the next week, Wish me luck amigos :)