I thought I would write something in the forum as I have not been on here for a rather long time due to a very busy dive season and various other things.

I did not do much diving this season, but I did learn a lot.

I had the fortune of getting a job as a deck hadn with a company that operates 5 dive boats in the St Lawrence and when I was not working at my real job I was out on the water. I was fortunate in that the other staff and owners were great, and I quickly went from loading gear to getting lessons on driving, to driving the boats most days and starting to log time towards my captains license, although lugging gear, cleaning boats, and emtying the on board toilets was still part of the fun.

I had a blast motoring up and down the river to the many great wreck dives both in Canadian waters and in US waters. I have met hundreds of divers over the course of the summer, heard many many dive stories, many of them tall tales I am sure, but I have also learned A LOT.

Simply being on a boat seeing how people dive, gear configs, and peoples dive planning provide a wealth of very valuable information that has really guided me this season and helped me move forward in my diving. Being on a boat with all tech divers and seeing their configurations, and of course hearing them discuss why they do things they way they do, which is often different from the next guy, and eventualy a serious discussion ensues between divers of why they feel their config is better, has been very helpful as I start to design my own tech rig. This season I have moved from a singles bp/w rig to a set of 130’s and into a drysuit. I am thankfull to some of the dives I made with other tech divers that gave me valuable tips, and showed me some techniques this season when I had the chance to dive on some of the trips.

I also learned a lot from the divers that I saw that maybe lacked some experience or were over eager and anxious to get into the water. Little mistakes that we have all made that can become bigger problems once under water.

There were several courses that took place on our boats over the season, again it was a great experience for me to be able to over hear the on shore teaching as we did surface intervals or simply motored along the river. There was always lots of open conversation, many of the instructors although they were doing the teaching turned to us as the crew for local knowledge and advice about diving these particular waters, the exchange of information, techiniques and knowledge was limitless.

All around it was great for me, and it provided a lot of insight to my progression in diving, as well learning that everyone, especially when new or getting into new equipment deals with, various issues like leaking drysuits, and how to best configure my regs and gear, and that no matter how long you have been diving there is always more learning to take place.

It is amazing how much you really can learn when you are not actualy diving, and I have a better regard for how much you can learn from other divers on that trip out to dive sites.