By Scott Gabara

Twelve days is not a lot of time to absorb everything you need to know to be a scientific diver, but we spend long days learning and coffee helps us get through.  During August we teach a two-week long intensive scientific diving course.  Students learn different rescue techniques, get exposed to boating and engines, assist with filling of our SCUBA cylinders, learn basic knot tying, and collect data about fish, algae and invertebrates.  During the second week of the class we camp and dive at the magical Big Creek Reserve in Big Sur.  The state marine reserve is some of the best diving I have done with large understory kelps that you navigate through like 6-foot tall trees out of Dr. Seuss.  The class learns important fish, algae and invertebrate species and completes a Reef Check California survey by the end of the course.  We had some great conditions and a great class, see this link for a short video of one of the dives.