LiteWeight
Contributor
My wife and I had the pleasure of taking UTD Essentials this week with UTD instructor James Mott. The 3 day course was held in Madison (Huntsville) Alabama (about halfway between each of us) at Madison Quarry. The LDS, Better Diver, let us use their classroom and provided air fills on site at the quarry.
James is an excellent instructor, and very passionate about his diving and helping others achieve their goals. He is a great guy to hang out with, and I was fortunate enough to get his perspective on his own career as well as the history and formation of the UTD organization. In the water, he moves like a fish, and was very patient with my wife and I. We are new divers, certified for one year only, and I thought this would be the best way to be a better diver myself and a better teammate for my wife.
Saturday started with meeting up at Better Diver's shop and going through our online class materials. We finished up by doing equipment fitting and configuration then headed to dinner for a preview of the next day's dives. Sunday was an intense day of trim, buoyancy, propulsion techniques, and the Basic 6. I definitely came away with a laundry list of skills and drills to work on to improve my diving. Sunday evening we finished up the classroom portion and had the video review of the day's skills (or attempts). The video feedback from an instructor who knows how to teach well is worth the price of the course itself, there's nothing like seeing it on the big screen. Monday we got back in the water and added some air shares and SMB deployment to our skills. By the end of dive 3 I swear I almost had a little bit of a back kick working. We finished up with more video debrief and a list of things to work on to better ourselves as divers. We said our goodbyes and got on the road home.
My wife and I did a day of practice at Alabama Blue Water Adventures in Pelham, AL yesterday while the skills (and James' recommendations) were fresh in our mind. We are definitely looking better as divers and once the building blocks are there we can go to the next level.
This course with James Mott was some of the best money I've spent on diving, and I look forward to taking my dive training further with him in the future.
James is an excellent instructor, and very passionate about his diving and helping others achieve their goals. He is a great guy to hang out with, and I was fortunate enough to get his perspective on his own career as well as the history and formation of the UTD organization. In the water, he moves like a fish, and was very patient with my wife and I. We are new divers, certified for one year only, and I thought this would be the best way to be a better diver myself and a better teammate for my wife.
Saturday started with meeting up at Better Diver's shop and going through our online class materials. We finished up by doing equipment fitting and configuration then headed to dinner for a preview of the next day's dives. Sunday was an intense day of trim, buoyancy, propulsion techniques, and the Basic 6. I definitely came away with a laundry list of skills and drills to work on to improve my diving. Sunday evening we finished up the classroom portion and had the video review of the day's skills (or attempts). The video feedback from an instructor who knows how to teach well is worth the price of the course itself, there's nothing like seeing it on the big screen. Monday we got back in the water and added some air shares and SMB deployment to our skills. By the end of dive 3 I swear I almost had a little bit of a back kick working. We finished up with more video debrief and a list of things to work on to better ourselves as divers. We said our goodbyes and got on the road home.
My wife and I did a day of practice at Alabama Blue Water Adventures in Pelham, AL yesterday while the skills (and James' recommendations) were fresh in our mind. We are definitely looking better as divers and once the building blocks are there we can go to the next level.
This course with James Mott was some of the best money I've spent on diving, and I look forward to taking my dive training further with him in the future.
