Rachel Frank, a meteorologist with Fox61 in Hartford, recently completed her PADI Open Water Diver certification in the Cayman Islands after completing confined water training with Scuba Shack instructor Peter Katz.

Rachel sent this great note to Peter after her trip in April, and posted a detailed report on her blog.

Hi Peter!

I passed with flying colors and got the good version of “who trained you?” I think most of my problems during the practice session involved the back style BCD (just not used to it). But I used a jacket for all my training sessions. I LOVE SCUBA!

I had sooooooooooo much fun and it was even more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I am so glad we did the buoyancy exercises on the pool wall during the review. It was so helpful to know you can adjust buoyancy just by breathing differently. I really got the hang of it on my last few dives! It’s amazing how everything you taught us just kind of mentally snaps into place.

My instructor was mad at me because he says I saw more in 3 days than he saw in 100 days of diving. I saw a nurse shark and a moiré eel up close (both were hiding under a ledge—as pointed out by my instructor), I saw a lionfish, tons of huge parrot fish, a lobster, a spotted drum (my favorite) and two turtles! Of course I saw so many different other fish as well…but those were the highlights.

I even went on a deep dive on the last day after being certified. We went to trinity caves and it blew my mind. I wrote all about it on my blog and even gave a shout out to Scuba Shack if you want to check it out.

Thank you so much for the amazing teaching! And I hope to see you back at Scuba Shack for continuing scuba education!!

Take care,
Rach