Member Profile - Nick Ambrose

Member Profile

By Nick Ambrose

"You want to learn to dive with me?" That question (posed to me back in 2002) and my corresponding answer of "No way, it's way too cold and there's nothing worth seeing down there anyway." Seems oddly quaint (not to mention entirely incorrect) in 2009 as I prepare to take UTD Trimix 1.

What changed? Two intro to scuba dives on Maui about 3 years later. As soon as the beatuty of the underwater world came into view, my world was changed, not to mention that of all the coral I probably abused because the guide told us to, on no account, touch or try to operate our BC's.

It was the same thing with technical training, "Oh, I'll never want to do that," and caves "What is there to see inside of a cave anyway?" So now here I am with both GUE cave 2, and UTD Trimix 2 scheduled for 2009.

I've been extremely fortunate that all my training and diving has been under the DIR umbrella, and this has allowed me to dive the exact same way regardless of whether I'm diving with a buddy I have hundreds of dives with, or for the first time with a diver I have just met through the DIR community, which affords me easy access to dive buddies throughout the world.

Being able to full trimix up into two separate steps (UTD Trimix 1 & 2, separated by over a year was the perfect option for me, as the gap from single deco bottle diving in the 150 range to multiple stage and deco bottles in the 200+ feet range seemed too much to manage in one go.

But for me, the most satisfying thing about diving is being able to share my experiences with other divers and non-divers via a combination of still photography and videography, and expanding my skills in these areas will be a big focus for 2009 and beyond.