I had wanted to do Tech 1 for a long time. I had put it off several times, and finally lined it up with Jim Dixon to complete it. We had Dan Mackay come out from Ontario, and Alan Johnson did video and assisted.
At the start of the course, it seemed pretty straightforward. The swim test (400 yards in under 14 minutes) and the breath hold (20 yards) worried me most. I had spent a day every week for 2 months practicing, and it was a good thing. Otherwise I don't think I would have passed! We did the swim test at the Burrard pool. This was done on the first day. We also did a lot of preliminary paper work and lecturing on the first day too.
Diving started the next day, and continued every day until the end. A lot of our time was spent on failure scenarios, and ascents from 70 feet. Jim and I had problems on the ascents. We chalked it up to performance anxiety because we had nailed the ascents on practice. Also, Jim had his gauge in feet, and had only just switched over to meters. Anyway, it was pretty much just an excuse. The ascents would be our problem until the end of the course, because we just ran out of time.
Fortunately, Dan set us up to finish off the course after some additional practice. The plan was to get together with Guy Shockey on the Island, in February. It was disappointing that we didn't finish when we wanted to, but heartening that we'd finish!
The best bit was a small young seal who came to play with me at the end of one of the dives:
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