DEEP diving photos from Grand Cayman Tek Week

I just got back yesterday from Tek Week in Grand Cayman. The event was hosted by Dive Tech (www.divetech.com) and Cobalt Coast (www.cobaltcoast.com). There were morning boat dives with everyone stratified by level of training – recreational, normoxic trimix, and full trimix. The afternoons were free for unlimited shore diving with a several thousand foot dropoff just a few minutes offshore. There were both open circuit and rebreather divers and run times were up to 2 ½ hours. A trip to Stingray City was included the last afternoon so everyone could “off-gasâ€. One afternoon there was a “rebreather experience†where participants could demo closed circuit rebreathers in the pool. There were units and instructors from Jetsam (Kiss), Silent Diving Systems (Inspiration/Evolution), and Dive Rite (Optima). The evening activities included a welcoming party, a mini trade-show by the various manufacturers and a raffle of some great prizes the final night of the trip. If you’ve not been to Cobalt Coast and Dive Tech you really should go there. The attention to detail is unmatched, the dive staff is incredible, the rooms are large and very comfortable, and the food rivals any place I’ve ever been. It was truly a great event and one I would highly recommend. I’m already planning next year’s trip!

FYI -- all photos were taken with a Canon 300D with the 10-22 lens. Also, while my Sea&Sea housing is rated to 200fsw I did manage to (carefully!) take it to 264 fsw without flooding. The only problem was I could no longer change f stops or shutter speeds as the controls were frozen in place by the pressure.

Here are some photos from the week:

Kim Smith (owner of Jetsam – KISS rebreathers) and Curt Bowen (editor of Advanced Diver Magazine)

Kim Smith with a VERY large barrel sponge at 220 fsw

Carrie Lee wreck – stern at 170fsw with the bow at around 260 fsw

Diver on the Carrie Lee

Deco on the Carrie Lee

The walls from 150-250 fsw were amazing!

Here’s a few shallow shots:

The rest of the photos are here:

http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=114

Some nice shots there ... divetech do an awesome job with all the tech stuff .. I am not into that myself .. but I always see the techies up there at the weekends.

The Cari Lee is quite special isn't she, I am sure there are a few others around the world that beat it, but it always seems so pretty to me. I guess if I learnt some tech diving I would be able to spend more time on it than when I go down with just air.

I love the photo with everyone on the line .. great little snap.

Nice shots Doug, though a little "deep" for me. One of these years I will have to hook up to one of those UW anesthesia machines. My wife and I are off to Wakatobi for two weeks this month. I must admit it would be nice to have +2 hour bottom times there. See ya in Bonaire for the Med Sem this February.

imasleeper

Very nice! I have some photos that I took during my training to use the Inspiration and I will post them soon... I am only certified to 130fsw with the rebreather, but I am logging hours to start the deep training hopefully next year (our instructor requires 100 hours of shallow diving with the rebreather before the deep diving training).

Luiz

Just out of curiosity ... there is quite a bit of invertebrate life but no fish on your deep shots, in contrast to the shallow water pictures. Does that reflect a relative absence of fish at greater depth or were you just looking for non-fish objects on this dive.

Bart

Just out of curiosity ... there is quite a bit of invertebrate life but no fish on your deep shots, in contrast to the shallow water pictures. Does that reflect a relative absence of fish at greater depth or were you just looking for non-fish objects on this dive.

 

Bart

A little of both. I was shooting at 10mm for wide angle images of the walls, sponges, etc. but there also wasn't a lot of fish life down there. I did see one reef shark on the wall way below me when I was at a little over 200 fsw. Beyond that, there were a couple of angel fish but not much more.

And Rocha -- I don't think the agencies require 100 dives before moving on to normoxic trimix training but it sounds like a good idea to me!

This is a cool shot and there are LOT of divers on that upline.