My first dive ~25 years ago on our honeymoon in Hawaii. We signed some paperwork, sat in the surf for 15min with the instructor and then off we went. Looking back...probably not a great idea. Never dove again until....
I spent my first summer of diving at Three Oaks Recreational Area in Crystal Lake, IL getting more comfortable and learning new skills.
On April 19, 2024 I completed my 50th dive in Cozumel with Dressel Divers out of the Iberostar with the awesome guide Marta. I was shortly after awarded the Master Diver level with SSI. However, I still don't think I know more than about 1% there is to know about scuba diving!!
Realizing I wanted to dive the wrecks in Lake Michigan and this hobby wasn't going to stop anytime soon...I went ahead and invested in a "buy once / cry once" Dry Suit system from Santi and 4th Element, with the awesome help of Chris at Dive Right In Scuba.
>Yeah, that's Richard Tessell again...Wreck certification and first two wreck dives on Lake Michigan. The Material Services Barge and the Tacoma.
In late July 2024, at the spur of the moment, I jumped into a local GUE Fundamentals class and got a Recreational PASS. The absolutely hardest and most rewarding scuba training I've ever taken. Highly recommended if you want to nail your buoyancy, trim and basic skills...instead of just winging it.
On the left is Francesco Cameli and on the right is Emőke Wagner
On the left is Francesco Cameli and on the right is Emőke Wagner
In early September 2024 I had the opportunity to dive the Georgia Aquarium in their massive 30ft deep Ocean Voyager exhibit that holds 6.3million gallons of salt water and two whale sharks as well as other large species like manta rays, jacks, goliath groupers and several shark species. It is a fully "VIP" diving experience which may not appeal to some divers. You must use all of their gear (minus mask) and they put it together for you and take it apart for you. It's a little strange to run no "safety" checks on the gear and just trust them before splashing, but their process is extensive and well organized. Not really a dive you would do twice, but certainly a great experience that I'm glad I did.
After two years of diving I had collected enough gear that it was laying around the house in scattered bits. I decided to build a "dive locker" for all my stuff as I was putting things away until the 2025 dive season opens in Chicagoland.
In the final week of 2024 I traveled to the Yucatan, MX to do my first cenote dives with GoDiveMX the diveshop of my GUE Fundies instructor Emőke Wagner. We visited Dream Gate and Nohoch. Amazing water clarity and beautiful caverns.
Work began on a pet project of mine on January 24th, 2025 with a "what if" email thread with John Knoepfle from Midwest Underwater Explorers. Within 72 hours the initial prototype was done and I was off to the races with trying to figure out how to take temperature readings at depth and transmit them to the Internet for Project Baseline