Great posts so far:
2009:
-TDI Advanced EANx
-1 week wreck diving South of France with the club (Donator, Grec, etc... 45-55m)
-2 weeks cozumel diving with Living underwater (can really recommend)
-I will have done about 110 dives this year... up to about 310 dives. (about 360 if you count oldschool dives)
-Haven't done any North Sea wreck dives this year because of bad weather (although I was listed on 8 different weekends to go out.. but all blown out, there you have global warming).
- Did some serious deco diving.
- Dived alot with my girlfriend.
- Started on my Assistent Instructor (CMAS ****) open water tests
- got a can light for my birthday... completing my hog setup.
2010
Sigh... I'm on a sort of a diving crossroad. Difficult to explain. I'm a very regular local diver, I'm very active in my local club, I like diving with my mentors, with regulars, with new divers showing them the ropes. I've done loads of deeper dives on air with proper planning (40-50 m range, max 20 min bottom time, max 20 min deco). However although most of the experienced divers I dive with believe I'm already one of the experienced guys I personnally don't think so.
The TDI Adv EANx was a farce... The theoretical side of it was good, but the pratical skills were not. No valve drills, just deco dives and practiced gas switches. I have a card but don't feel I'm ready to do those dives with gas switching.
I'm interested in getting my skills up... (UTD, GUE stuff) but I also fear losing my buddy's (who are big deep air proponents... but are very accomplished wreck divers with 1000+ dives)... next to that the next level isn't really necessary in Belgium. Cave... there are no caves in Belgium... Tech... well the deep wrecks on our side of the North sea are max 45 m. Why be CAVE or TECH diver if you cannot do regular dives that require those skills... how can you be a cave diver if you only dive caves on holiday once a year?
If I lived in Florida, Mexico or France I would do Cave.. of course.. that's your local diving. If I lived near the french riviera (deep wrecks in 40-80m range) of course I would follow the tech direction.
Long story short... my plans that can change:
- Complete CMAS **** / Assistant Instructor
- Contemplate doing GUE fundies or UTD intro in tech
- Keep diving with my local buddies
- 2 week trip to Norway to dive the wrecks with girlfriend and club
- 2 weeks Meditteranean or 1 week liveaboard Egypt with girlfriend
- Marry