There’s a difference between being alive and living.

Name: Andrea | Base Camp: Hamburg, Germany

My first dive life

From 1994 when I learned to dive until 2001 diving was the center of my life. Weekends, holidays and most of my finances were spent on diving. I dived summer as well as winter, sweet and salt water, accompanied by different buddies mostly from the dive club I was a member of. I liked taking classed and specialities. My goal was to pass CMAS** (Silber) to become an independent diver. Soon after my OWD I possessed my complete gear incl. tanks. In that time I loved all kinds of dives, as long as they were interesting. I enjoyed drift dives, really liked wreck diving in the baltic sea, loved sweet water lake dives boasting with flora&fauna or just shallow baltic beach dives just hovering above mussels and starfish. The better part of my dives back in the days took place in Germany and Denmark. Trips included Austria, Norway, Greece, Florida and Egypt.

2001 – having logged 300 dive – many things in my private life changed and for quite a while diving stopped being the major issue. I kept all my gear though and knew somehow that it was a pause, not the end. Admittedly the pause expanded …

Restart.

2017 first genuine desires popped up and in 2018 I bit by bit took all steps to get me and my gear back in shape and in the water. 30.12.18 I logged dive 319 and with 320 on 1.1. declared 2019 to be my dive year.

From rec to tec.

Next thing you know an information evening themed „What is technical diving?“ got me hooked. The dive year 2019 held a variety of dives in sweet and salt water, many training dives in Hemmoor and the baltic sea. But I also step by step changed all of my recreational diving equipment to DIR/GUE requirements and switched to double tanks. Beside taking all the main SSI courses like nitrox, navigation, wrecks, currents, stress&rescue, the most important course that year was the GUE fundamentals. It changed many aspects of my diving routine and from that moment on GUE’s philosophy was sure to be and stay the only way for my further dive life.

Dive, dive, dive.

After completing the „Fundi“ with a rec pass in 7/2019 I was excited and thankful for all the new routines but didn’t plan to care too much about further certificates. I kept on diving as much as possible, always keeping the newly focussed aspects in mind. After 75+ dives in 2019 the next year 2020 brought even more dive experience with 100+ dives. The dives in 2019 and 2020 were diverse regarding locations and buddies, with many wreck dives in Germany and first stage, first D12 and first trimix dives. Also I acquainted myself with the She-P system, that I henceforth always use.

On to new shores.

Not entirely unexpected I did feel the desire to move on with my education with GUE, though. Especially after enjoying two weeks of cavern diving in Mexico, the wish to take the Cave1 class came up. So first the tec upgrade had to be done. After some delays due to many private diving projects/trips on one hand and restricted possibilities due to the pandemic situation on the other hand, it took several more months until the tec upgrade finally took place.

The next step, I determined, was a steady access to GUE standard gases, which unfortunately is not too easy to come by in the city. First I took the GUE Gas Blender class. Having established that base I then found a room and together with 5 buddys rented it and founded a private gas filling collective. The collaborative purchased compressor as well as the oxygen and helium cylinders since then allow us the independency we were looking for.

While mentally and training-wise focussing on the next steps in my GUE education – T1 and C1 – I could not resist and took the GUE DPV Level 1 course in May 2021. As someone who only had one scooter dive prior to the course I was a bit nervous about my performance but was glad to find out that the ability to handle a scooter developed in a fairly steep curve in that course. So the seed of desire was definitely planted. Who would have guessed that I’d have my own underwater pony one year later B-)

Full stop.

Phew … sometimes Karma has different plans. Physically and mentally in full swing I was forced to a full stop in summer 2021. 1 Week before my C1 course was about to start, a herniated lumbal disk landed me in hospital. It needed to be operated right away and not only the C1, but also the T1 course scheduled later that year, had to be cancelled. Suddenly a completely new competence had to be strengthened: patience. After 2 weeks in hospitals and 4 weeks of rehab I was able to resume not only my job but also my diving.

Back in the game.

Sweating in rehab lessons twice a week I step by step inched back to normal, determined: 2022 will atone for this sh*t. And it did.

In June 2022 I completed my GUE Cave1 class on Sardinia/Italy, in September the GUE Tec1 in Croatia. While T1 certification allowed future diving up to 51m depth, the C1 opened up a whole new dark world to explore. Definitely a path that fascinated me immediately.

Deeper into the darkness.

Since then various mine dives, cave dives in the thermal caves beneath Budapest and in the amazing caves in the french Lot region followed.

In November 2023 I returned to Mexiko’s Cenotes – this time to continue my cave diving education. The GUE Cave 2 class, that I took together with my by then long-time favorite (cave)dive Buddy, was as challenging as it was wonderful. Unnecessarily on a fall on day 3 tore some ligatures in my knee, which added quite some pain to the pleasure for the rest of the course and holiday. But altogether it was just amazing!

Just 2 months later, in 1/2024, I was able to enjoy the caves of Lot once more. Already it was clearly tangible, how the awareness and routine in the caves improved after the C2 course compared to one year earlier. Some months later this was also very helpful when I took part in the Sardinia Science Week – a week of cave diving loaded with tasks like mapping, sand/water samples and marine life survey in Sardinia’s beautiful Bue Marino cave.

In 11/2024 my buddy and me will return to Mexico to enjoy relaxed cave dives in the amazing Cenotes without any class or goal, just for the pure enjoyment of it 😀 Can’t wait…