Welcome to 2012!!!!

Welcome to 2012! 

It is truly hard to believe, but this is UTD's third anniversary, and what an incredible ride the past three years has been.  Before I outline what to expect from UTD in 2012, I want to say thank you for your support and friendship.  I personally believe that every UTD instructor, dive master, student, member, diver and supporter is part of UTD’s success and part of the UTD team. 

Let’s go back and take a look at what we were able to accomplish in 2011:
 

Educational side:

• We completely redesigned the UTD student enrollment process. We released an all new look and feel for the UTD Member Portal (my.unifiedteamdiving.com) with many cool new features.  One of these features is that you are now able to get your 30-day temp c-card online which is valid for 30 days from the time your download and print it.
• We developed the Essentials of Scientific Diving Program in partnership with the Seattle Aquarium.  Several university and aquarium programs now use the program for their in-house scientific diving programs, including UCSD, UCLA, and University of Hawaii (Hilo) to mention a few.
• We developed and integrated into the UTD diving philosophy a complete equipment package and training program for side mount diving, including online classroom materials and DVD videos and so on, all to support  the Z-Side Mount System.
• We published four (4) new printed classroom materials (A printed book and DVD). We now have printed classroom materials for:  Essentials of Recreational Diving, Essentials of Technical Diving, Essentials of Scientific Diving, and Technical  Diving. http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/utd-books-and-manuals
• We published and printed the UTD Student and Diver Procedure Manual. A complete resource for UTD/DIR skills and protocols. We also published it in digital formats (PDF, Amazon, Nook, iPad) http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/utd-student-diver-procedures-...
• We rolled out the UTD iPad application 1.0 for classroom materials.
• We continue to translate all of our materials into Italian and Spanish, and added Russian, German and French.
• We completely redesigned our Cave Diving Programs to not only be 1,2,3, levels but to include higher levels Cave Training including Technical Cave Diving, Cave Scooter, Cave Rebreather and Advanced Cave Side-Mount. http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/overhead-classes 
• We developed 5 Training Paths (Foundational, Master, Technical, Trimix, Cave) to help students understand a more specific direction that they would like to focus on, and direct them to the classes they will need and the possible electives that they can choose to supplement their knowledge. These training paths are supported by package training materials that can be purchased in advance. http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/packaged-training-overview

Equipment:

• We developed the MX-KISS in partnership with Jetsam Technologies. Then we expanded the configuration to include the Z-Side-Mount system. Thus creating the MX-Z backmount/sidemount mCCR rebreather. The first in it's class.http://utdequipment.com/mxsystem1.html
• We developed the Z-Side Mount System, including the Z-Harness, Z-Trim, Z-Plus, Delta, and Z-Manifold . This equipment creates a side-mount system that is consistent with the UTD/DIR philosophy, allow "mixed" team diving, is scalable from single tank side-mount, to double tank side-mount to Rebreather side-mount. http://utdequipment.com/zsystem1.html
• We developed the Alpha Singles and Alpha Doubles Wing/Trim devices for back mount diving, using the technology of Side-Mount Diving systems. http://utdequipment.com/alphasystem1.html.
• We developed and brought to market the UTD Vision LED lighting system, including a Primary and Video system. http://utdequipment.com/visionlights1.html
• We completely redesigned and brought to market the new Solar dry suit heating system. http://utdequipment.com/solar1.html

Community:

• Continued to expanded the UTD Social network site including adding new features and integrating our Facebook pages. 
• We conducted two UTD Cave Week Adventures - 1 in France and 2 in Mexico.
• We did a UTD Wreck Week Adventure in the Red Sea - Egypt.
• We hired an in house customer service representative, Costa Haramis, to manage the UTD Equipment purchasing and shipping.
• We have added an in-house UTD Instructor (Kelly Shaw) to serve the San Diego/Orange County and Los Angeles communities. We are offering a full line of UTD classes through HQ in Carlsbad, CA.
• We participated in four trade shows - Los Angeles, Seattle, Belgium, and DEMA.
• We moved to larger offices and increased warehouse space.

This is of course a very short list of the happenings throughout 2011. However, overall you can see that we have spent the last three years building the various components of a UTD/DIR Back Mount System, Z-Side-Mount System and MX-Z Rebreather System.  By components we mean the actual physical equipment, the training programs to support the education, the instructors who can provide the training, and the training materials to support those classes. These three years of building and developing the 3 independent systems or "tools"  that are ALL compatible, scalable and can easily be integrated into a Unified Team has certainly being a great experience.  The most important thing is that they all meet the 10 UTD covenants and make MIXED TEAM DIVING effortless. 

Moving forward:

So where to from here.....Well, it gonna be exciting year for sure. In 2012 we are going to expand the use of  these 3 different configurations - “tools”, into a large variety of UTD Projects conducted around the world. These UTD Projects include everything from local recreational based UTD Projects, such as fish counts, to more technical based cave surveys, to broader based projects such as working with governments to document their cultural heritage. You will see a new UTD Projects section http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/group/utd-projects on the website, that has the general information on about each of the UTD Projects, their ongoing efforts and their findings. We will also be holding a "Project Leadership Seminar" in the middle of 2012. (We will be announcing the dates) This will help develop Project Leaders throughout the world. Keep in mind, now that we have the 3 “Tools” to support any environment, the instructors to develop the divers and many trained and experienced UTD Divers and Members in place to help with these goal-orientated dives, it is certainly going to be easier to co-ordinate some fantastic exploration efforts this year and years to come. 

In the other facets of UTD you will find:
UTD Education:  We are continuing to expand our reach with both translations of materials and IDC’s throughout the world, including going into Brazil with the appropriate language translations - Portuguese.  We will be adding new printed materials including an Open water Manual.  We will also be releasing the new iPad Classroom application 2.0 and many many more exciting things from our training department. 

On the equipment side, we will stay focused on the five (5) signature series lines we have - Z-System Side Mount, Alpha Trim Devices, MX Rebreathers, Vision Lighting, and Solar Dry Suit heating.  We will continue to market them towards divers who are looking for equipment that integrates into the UTD philosophy.  We have hired a design consultant who will be helping us upgrading the website (look and feel). We will also continue to increase our Dealer Network by attending DEMA and other trade shows throughout the world. 

On the community side, as mention earlier, we have added a "goal oriented diving" program called UTD Projects, we continue to expand UTD Adventures.  In addition to Cave Week (Nov 2012 - http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/cave-week-2-tulum-mexico-nov) and Wreck Week (Aug 2012 - http://www.unifiedteamdiving.com/page/wreck-week-mv-tala-egypt), we will be hosting more dives and more projects.  We hope to see many of you participating.

Finally, we want to take one more opportunity to thank you all again for supporting us as we continue to work tirelessly to support you.  Our phones are always on and email always works, so please, call us anytime you need anything.  We welcome your ideas, constructive criticism, or random call to say hello.  Best of luck to all and we at UTD look forward to another great year. 

Sincerely,

Andrew Georgitsis

CEO UTD International LLC.