I spent spring break taking a course offered through Stanford's marine science branch in Monterey to get certified as a scientific diver. In five days we completed the prerequisites--PADI's advanced open water and rescue diver certifications--and then also made good headway towards finishing the AAUS scientific diver requirements (I'll have to go back down sometime to finish up, but I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend or two).
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| 50 degree water means squeezing into a lot of neoprene. |
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| Doing a survey for invasive tunicates on the Monterey wharf for one of our scientific training dives. |
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| Getting ready to head out to the deep reef. |
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While scuba takes place in a very different medium, there are definitely parallels that can be drawn to climbing--especially the high level of breath and mind control that is helpful to, or even required of, both activities. Overall a very cool way to spend break (now back to the grindstone). |
