Drive & Dive report: Big response to Halcyon and GUE demo days at Dutch Springs

As the title suggests, there was a lot happening down at Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, Penn. this past weekend.

This was the scheduled weekend for the Halcyon / GUE demo days, with special guest speaker Jarrod Jablonski. Halcyon had all the “goodies” on display, ready for a test dive. (I had the pleasure of taking out the new 21 watt HID light.. I can sum it up in one word – AWESOME!)

Many people tried the lights, BP/W’s, Surface markers, etc. You name it, it was there ready to be used.

At 7:30 we had the privilege of hearing Jarrod speak about the recent events with the WKPP and GUE. They are accomplishing many great goals toward conservation and exploration. He also showed a video of the traverse performed by Casey McKinley and himself from Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs. An awesome dive and flawless execution of a record breaking event performed by the GUE team. The dive spanned a total of nearly 7 miles (36,000 feet) of cave at a depth of ~300′.

Since there was a REALLY good reason to go, Scuba Shack decided to include a “Drive & Dive” trip and a PADI Advanced weekend!

We had many divers representing our shop in fine fashion!

We also had three divers working towards their advanced certification as well. Bill, Sandy and Tim worked very eagerly to learn: Buoyancy, Navigation, Search & Recovery, Wreck, and Deep diving. Support was provided by Mark, Dave and Carol.

There was much to learn, and we packed a ton of information in the 2 days. Congratulations to all 3 as they passed their advanced class, and are now ready to explore new environments in the open water.

Here are a few pictures of the weekend..

Getting the gear ready