The cold fronts are coming in more frequently now and the leaves are falling all around us. It is winter in Houston and for many it is not contusive to diving. Of course there is diving at the local lakes but for the most part this is dry suit diving.
If you are not excited about jumping into a temperate Texas Lake in the winter, you probably think there is no way to go diving until Spring, right? Wrong! Maintaining your diving skills over the winter months just requires a little creativity and some water. What I am alluding to is going diving in the swimming pool. Here you can work on your buoyancy control, trim and swimming attitude.
This is the perfect time to try some new equipment. As a photographer you can work on strobe placement, critical focusing, color balancing or just perfecting your “people” photography.
The winter months are the perfect time to work on your skills and to practice your safety skills. That way you can be ready when the spring diving season rolls around.
Did you know that Oceanic Ventures offers a free SCUBA Skills update the first Monday of every month? Do you realize that this is done in a nice warm indoor pool with clear water and lots of light? Did I mention free? You can also set-up a pool session for you and your friends or open it up to others; just call Dive Mom and ask how you can get wet in the pool this winter.
How to Be Warmer in Your Wetsuit or Dry Suit
Today’s post comes to us from Dick Long, founder and CEO of Diving Unlimited International, the world’s leading manufacturer of dry suits. Dick hated being cold and built his first wetsuit to keep himself warmer while spearfishing off the coast in San Diego. He then had friends wanting suits so he built them for his friends as well. Thus, DUI started as a wetsuit company but Dick still hated being cold so he pioneered the dry suit industry in his quest to stay warm underwater. He has a great deal of diving experience and has always believed that through his doors stepped the greatest divers in the world. Everyone in one of his suits is a great diver in their eyes and they strive to build the best products for their clientele.
In his article, Dick draws upon his years of diving experience to help divers stay warmer underwater, either in a wetsuit or a dry suit.
Most divers don’t think much about the problems associated with diving in cold water. Either they grin and bear it, or if they complain, other divers give them a hard time and say they aren’t tough enough. The reality is that diving in cold water poses a significant threat to your safety and robs you of diving enjoyment.
Why Be Warm in the Water?
Warm diving is fun; cold diving is miserable. Although being cold is tolerated in many types of diving, cold is a factor in most underwater accidents. This is a big mistake. Cold is predictable and preventable. We have the knowledge, technology, and equipment to eliminate cold as a problem in the modern diving world. Our goal is to keep the diver’s body at its normal operating temperature. We do that by controlling the rate of heat loss from the diver to the water.
Where Does Your Body’s Heat Come From?
The muscles are the body’s heat engines. They create heat by metabolizing food during exercise. The circulatory system distributes the heat generated by the muscles. If we exercise a lot we produce a lot of heat. If we exercise little, we produce little heat. To keep warm, we must maximize the blood circulation within our body.
Heat is lost primarily by conduction through your skin. In conduction, heat is transferred from your skin to the water by direct physical contact. Your diving suit is used to control the rate of that heat loss. Large divers tend to produce more heat than smaller divers. Bigger people have less surface-to-mass ratio so they cool slower, and thereby need less thermal protection. Female divers tend to chill faster than males. Divers with low metabolic rates and older divers also tend to chill faster. The colder the water, the more insulation you will need to control the heat loss.
The important thing to remember is that each individual has separate, distinct thermal needs. Two divers of the same size and sex may require different amounts of insulation. This difference may be as much as three times what the other person must wear to be comfortable.
Even the same diver will require different amounts of insulation depending upon his activity in the water. There’s a big difference in the heat production created by strenuous wreck diving and casual underwater photography.
Being warm is not a comfort issue — it is a safety issue. Today we know that running out of heat is just as deadly as running out of air.
Principles of Operations of Wetsuits
Wetsuits are made to cover your body with foam neoprene. The water enters the suit and the diver gets wet. Your body heats the water that enters the suit. The air bubbles in the rubber insulates the water and keeps it warm just like a thermos keeps your coffee hot. The proper fit of a wetsuit is critical to minimize water circulation within the suit. Water circulation draws heat energy away from the diver’s body.
What Can You Do To Improve the Efficiency of Your Wetsuit?
A hood-attached jacket is recommended to help eliminate water flow coming in around the neck. Any wetsuit that is open at the top, despite how the hood is flanged, allows water to enter between the jacket and suit body. That water circulation, no matter how small, will drain heat from the diver’s body.
Any zippers in the suit allow water circulation unless they are totally waterproof. The use of “skin in”, or smooth neoprene inside, rather than a nylon lining, will eliminate the wicking that naturally occurs through nylon linings.
What Can You Do Prior to Your Dive to Reduce Heat Loss?
Before you dive, avoid drinking anything with caffeine in it, or smoking. Both of these actions cause a shutdown of the blood vessels in the extremities, reducing blood flow and making you colder sooner.
Alcohol increases your blood flow to your skin. It is a depressant and will ultimately increase your heat loss.
Prior to the dive you want to keep warm. Make sure you have had good quality food and lots of rest prior to the dive. Your body should be properly fueled with fluids.
Avoid heavy meals just prior to diving and have a diet high in carbohydrates. It’s always wise to do some good stretching and warm-up exercises prior to the dive to get the heart moving in anticipation of the exercise rate.
Overheating prior to the dive causes sweating and disrupts your fluid balance. Overheating also diminishes the body’s capability to produce heat during the dive. It hastens the onset of hypothermia (reduced body temperature) once the diver enters the water.
How to Reduce Heat Loss Between Dives and on Subsequent Dives
If your suit is wet on the outside, stay out of the wind to avoid cooling from evaporation. Cover yourself with a large plastic bag with a hole cut for the head and arms. This helps keep the wind from evaporating the water on the outside of your suit during your transit to and from the next dive site.
On your second and third dives preheat your suit in a hot water shower before you put it on to reduce body heat loss. Start the dive by putting warm water inside your suit, eliminating that first cold shock.
During your dive, avoid urinating in your wetsuit. Although it feels good, it will cause your body to open up your blood vessels in the groin region. This brings warm blood up to reheat cold tissues. The area soon cools off and you end up with a greater net heat loss. The best way to rewarm is to get out of your wetsuit, dry yourself off, and put clothes back on. If warm water is available such as from a shower or the cooling system of an engine, it’s acceptable to use it for rewarming.
The Limitations of Wetsuits
Wetsuit technology is a good reliable technology, but it has its limitations. Do not expect it to do what it cannot. Wetsuits can’t keep you warm at depth. Remember, the wet suit’s ability to keep you warm is more controlled by the water depth than by the water temperature.
What About Dry Suits?
A dry suit is a waterproof shell, the sole purpose of which is to keep the diver dry. It does not keep the diver warm. It is the insulation that is worn under the dry suit that keeps the diver warm. The primary advantage of a dry suit from this perspective is that it allows you to vary your insulation with the needs of the dive.
There are many factors that will affect the selection of insulation to be worn under your dry suit. These include your exercise rate, your body size and type, and the water temperature. The colder the water or the less you exercise, the more insulation you will need. How insulation is applied is critical to its effectiveness. Your insulation must be equal to the demands of the dive. It’s important to adjust the system to meet your needs and to choose insulators that are highly efficient. Some are much more efficient than others. It is also important that the underwear be loose enough to achieve maximum freedom of movement.
You need to develop an insulation strategy. You want to maintain thermal equilibrium so you are neither too hot nor too cold. These goals can be achieved by layering your insulation. You can use up to three layers of insulation of varying thicknesses. If this is not enough, don’t add a fourth layer but make one of the layers thicker.
Most people don’t need more than four undergarments to choose from to achieve their desired level of insulation for diving. You can probably use some of the garments you already own from other outdoor activities. Your insulation should include the use of polyester or polypropylene expeditionary underwear or a non-absorbing liner. You might also want to own a heavy vest and a primary set of underwear. For very cold water (under 10 degrees C), or for less strenuous activities, you may want an even heavier set of primary underwear. You now have many combinations from which to choose.
In the warmest of waters, the synthetic liners may be all that you need. As your insulation needs increase, use the liner plus the vest. As the water cools down, you may only use your primary underwear. In colder water, use your primary underwear plus the vest. In the coldest waters, you will want to use the liner, your primary underwear, and the vest. Using this strategy, each person will switch their combinations at different temperatures.
The temperatures at which the individual will change combinations will depend on their being “warm-blooded” or “cold-blooded”, and their anticipated exercise rate. Trial and error is the best way to work out your personal temperature reference points. Keep in mind too that as you change your underwear, you will need to change your weights. The more insulation you wear, the more weights you will need to wear.
What Can You Do to Be Warmer in the Water in Your Dry Suit?
The best insurance to being warm in the water is to maintain your dry suit properly. Make sure your suit is in good repair and doesn’t have any punctures or gouges.
Make sure your dry suit zipper is well lubricated and the valves are clean. A clean, well-lubricated zipper won’t leak, nor will clean valves. Make sure the seals are in good condition and not deteriorating. Be sure they are adjusted for the proper size of your wrist and neck. They should be tight enough to keep the water out, but loose enough to allow blood circulation to be high.
Prior to the dive, you should know the water temperature and your expected activity so you can choose the proper kind of insulation. It is helpful to record water temperatures, exercise rate, insulation used, and the amount of lead required to neutralize buoyancy in your logbook for future reference.
Remember that the insulation combination you choose will be the major determining factor in how much weight you will require. If you want to wear less weight choose efficient insulation material.
Keep your underwear dry prior to the dive, particularly the boots if the decks are wet. Check to see that your seals are adjusted properly and make sure the zipper is totally closed. A zipper left slightly open is the most common cause of leaks in dry suits. During the dive, you can control your thermal insulation in several ways. If you expect a high exercise rate at the beginning of the dive, you can create a squeeze in your suit during descent and never quite equalize it once you reach the bottom. This will reduce the insulation of your dry suit system.
You can also modify the gas you use to equalize pressure in your suit to help control your warmth. There are some divers who use air in their suits only during the descent and working part of the dive. When they come to their decompression obligation, if it’s a long one, they purge their suits of air and fill them with argon.
Argon is a more efficient insulator than air. Divers who use argon in their dry suits carry a special small cylinder for this purpose. This can increase the insulation capacity of your undergarments by as much as 25 percent.
Underwater photographers may choose to use argon in their dry suits throughout their dives. The best procedure is to inflate the suit with argon prior to the dive from a spare bottle. Allow the argon to mix with the air, purge all the gas mixture out of the suit, then refill and vent three times prior to the dive. As long as you don’t break the seal prior to the dive, you will have close to pure argon in your suit, and maximum warmth.
During the dive, fluid control by the diver is highly important. You want to maintain good hydration. Underwater, due to weightlessness, there’s a natural desire to urinate. There are urination elimination systems that are somewhat complex or you can simply use adult diapers for long-duration dives. The adult diapers are usually good for two ventings which will cover the requirements of almost any recreational diver.
Keeping your hands warm is very important. You will find that the use of mitts will always be warmer than gloves. Likewise, the use of dry gloves or mitts will be warmer than wetsuit mitts or gloves. Wrist rings provide a special sealing system between your dry glove and your dry suit. They lock together to form a watertight seal. The use of wrist rings with your dry gloves will be warmer than using the standard cone latex seals found on some dry gloves and mittens.
After Diving With Your Dry Suit
Even in a dry suit, you want to be sure to stay out of the wind after your dive. One way to add insulation after diving is to put additional air in your suit.
It is as important to keep yourself warm after the dive as it is before the dive because this will affect decompression. You want to restore blood circulation to its maximum potential as soon as possible after you have exited the water. The placement of a dry suit necklace in the neck seal can be used to take the pressure of the neck seal off the neck. This is an inexpensive ring that relieves the pressure on the neck seal.
If you are cold and want to rewarm, drink warm fluids such as soup and hot cocoa. Again, avoid alcohol for all the obvious reasons.
Between dives keep your underwear dry. Dry out the condensation that has occurred in your suit after each dive.
Most good quality underwear can be wrung out if it gets wet and put back on if necessary. Even though it will feel cold when you first put it back on, once the moisture inside the underwear becomes warm it will still trap a great deal of air. Good-quality damp underwear will still be reasonably effective.
Get the Most Out of Your Diving!
Whether you dive with a wetsuit or a dry suit, you can increase your diving safety and pleasure by following these simple tips. Given what we know about keeping divers warm, there is no reason why anyone should not dive in complete comfort. If you get cold on your next dive it’s because you want to be, not because you have to be.
To learn more about Diving Unlimited International, DUI, Drysuits, see their website at www.dui-online.com. This article appears courtesy of Diving Unlimited International.
Photographic Equipment…How to get it there
Traveling with photo equipment on your diving vacation may be as simple as tucking your camera in your pocket or may be more like taking an extra person with you. The more equipment you have to take on your trip, the larger your travel bags need to be. Like any commercial photographer, an underwater photographer will have multiple lighting sources, spare parts and possibly even spare cameras and lenses. With new airline luggage regulations, getting all of your equipment to your destination may be a challenge.
Once you get it there, you need to be able to use it effectively. You probably wont need to carry all of those spare parts with you on your daily shoots but you do want to carry what you will need.
Your underwater camera, once it is assembled, usually requires no special carrying case to transport it to and from the dive destination. However, if you plan on taking above the water shots or go touring while on your diving trip, you may need a bag or two to help you transport your equipment.
Transporting Your Equipment on Airlines
Today, the airline luggage regulations can impact your trip and your budget. Most airlines are now charging for bags, charging for heavy bags and limiting carry on bags. Dealing with all of these ever changing regulations can be a challenge. Small underwater camera systems, can be easily carried in your standard luggage. However, a specialized bag like a photographic equipment backpack or roller will give you more protection.
With the advent of digital photography, gone are the lead lined film bags and plastic film cans. However, these have been replaced by laptop computers, portable hard drives and cables for everything. This means that an effective photographic equipment bag must also provide storage for these items. Additionally, since laptop computers must be scanned separately from the remainder of the bag, having an easy access pocket for the computer is helpful.
International airlines tend to be stricter with carry-on bags. Many allow for a maximum length of 20 inches rather than 22 inches for US airlines (see Continental Airlines), and generally they have more restrictive weights. For example, Continental Airlines allows carry-on bags to weigh 40 pounds, while Singapore Airlines is 22 pounds and Air Lingus is even lower with 15 pounds. To make matters even tougher, many of the international carriers have scales at the check-in counter and require passengers to weigh their bags.
Keeping your photographic equipment with you is the best option. However, larger underwater camera systems will not generally fit in these carry-on cases. In the past, photographers used ice chests to transport their camera equipment but airline regulations will not pay for anything damaged in these “unapproved” suit cases. A better option is a Pelican hard plastic case. I am fond of the 1620 case with photo inserts. This allows me to organize my underwater housing, electronic strobes, cables, mounting arms, batteries, chargers, spare parts, etc.
The Pelican cases protect your photo equipment and make it easier to organize your equipment. By keeping it organized, you can easily review your stock of spare parts before a trip and have easy, fast access to your equipment during a trip.
The downside of this organization is that it makes it more organized for thieves. In an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal online, Delta Airlines found a number of employees stealing from patron’s bags. As divers we have often been warned about flying through Miami and Los Angeles, both known for problems with luggage being lost and items stolen.
Having been the victim of such theft, Ann now zips the trays in plastic blanket storage covers which have clear tops that allow TSA and other security personnel to look inside the case but makes it difficult for the items to “fall out.” You could also use mesh bags which allow the agents to look through the mesh at your equipment.
An added problem with these cases is the weight. The Pelican 1620 weighs in at 21 pounds empty. This leaves you 29 to 49 pounds for your photographic equipment, depending if the airline allows 50 or 70 pounds.
With most airlines charging for checked luggage and overweight luggage, consolidating camera equipment, clothing and dive equipment is important. Ann is fond of putting clothing and other travel essentials in her photo case and minimizing her carry-on weight. This is important for her especially on trips involving multiple plane changes.
This brings up another point; it is important that you have a method of moving all of your equipment, photo and diving, as well as your clothing, easily. I am an advocate of diving with dollars, meaning that there is usually someone at a destination who will carry your bags for a small fee. But the operative word is “usually.” There are some locations where porters have disappeared (e.g. Cozumel, Mexico) and you will be moving your own luggage. Because of this, wheels are important as are straps designed to turn your luggage into a caravan if necessary.
Carrying Your Photographic Equipment on Location
Diving
Once you arrive at the destination and your equipment is safely stored in your room or cabin you can abandon your traveling bags. After your system is assembled, you are the mule to transport it back and forth to the dive site. For some people, carrying their camera systems is awkward. By adding a padded food carrier to your equipment, you now have both a carrier and your own “rinse tank.”
Non-Diving Activities
For many, meeting and photographing the areas and people we meet is just as important as the diving. But these non-diving activities mean carrying photo equipment away from the boat or resort. Dealing with your camera and the related equipment means you may need something other than the bag you use to travel with.
Where you are taking photographs and the related activities will have an impact on the way you carry your camera, lenses, strobes and accessories. In urban settings, you may not want to advertise that you are loaded down with expensive camera equipment. Here a nondescript bag like ThinkTank’s Urban Disguise or a small backpack may be a better choice. These systems appear more like common bags or briefcases while providing protection for your equipment. One feature of many high end camera bags is a custom designed rain cover to help keep things fry in a wet environment.
Many nature photographers, sports photographers and travel photographers use a modular bag system that fits on a belt. Often termed, speed belt mounting, these systems provide easy access to equipment and allow you to change lenses quickly and easily without having to take a pack off and dig inside.
Sporting events are constantly moving so you may need more mobility and lower concentration on keeping up with a bag. This can also be important on nature hikes where the animals won’t wait for you to change lenses.
A speed belt system also places the weight of your equipment on your hips rather than on your shoulders. The better units also include rain protection for the holsters.
A photographer’s vest is another option for carrying equipment. Like its equivalents in the hunting and fishing sports, it has large pockets that allow you to carry your equipment in the vest. These tend to work well in temperate climates but less so in cold climes because of other outer-wear. In extremely warm conditions, they also tend to be warm.
Selecting an Equipment Bag System
Like the selection of your diving equipment, what type of bag scheme you choose for your camera system depends a lot on the quantity and size of your system as well as the destination. Before purchasing a bag or a system of bags you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- How much equipment do I need to carry?
- Can I carry it on the plane with me or will I need to check some or all of it?
- How many bags am I willing to check?
- Where will I be using it?
- Is security or protection from pick-pockets or other thieves an?
- How much walking will I be doing while taking photographs?
- How fast do I need access to the camera, lenses, strobes or other accessories?
- How much weight am I willing to carry?
Answering these questions will help you select the system that works for you on a given trip. Remember, the system that works for one trip may not be the ideal for another trip.
—– Eric V. Keibler
New rebreathers introduced at show.
Dave and I recently attended a trade show for diving retailers in Los Vegas. It was a chance to visit with old friends, visit with the inside sales staff from our manufacturers and see what products will be coming out over the next year.
We found it interesting that two rebreather manufacturers have introduced semi-closed rebreathers targeted at the recreational diver. The unit available from Jetsam Technologies, makers of the KISS retbreathers, is a fairly simple rebreather while Technology in Depth, manufacturers of the Oroborus and Sentinel rebreathers have approached the unit with a lot of electronic sophistication. Both units use a Micropore cartridge
Innerspace systems, manufacturer of the Megalodon series of rebreathers, have been working along the same lines but sticking with a fully closed model and introduced their Pathfinder rebreather. Like the other manufacturers, this unit is built around a Micropore cartridge. LeoScamahorn, CEO of ISC, talked about their new rebreather during a video interview.
I am not sure why manufacturers are revisiting the semi-closed rebreather. Fully closed rebreathers offer a number of distinct advantages and flexibility that are not present in a semi-closed model which is why ISC has chosen to go that route.
Perhaps one driving force is that in 2011 PADI is scheduled to introduce a rebreather course. It appears the semi-closed rebreathers are geared to this program. In talking with Kim Smith of Jetsam and Kevin Gurr or Techhnology in depth, it appears they are hoping to find a unit that appeals more to less sophisticated or technical minded divers. They are also trying to keep the price point for these units lower than their other offerings which may broaden their appeal to a more recreational user.
What Skiers Can Teach Technical Divers
I guess the cold wind blowing the other night really brought back skiing memories. I remember being in Steamboat Springs riding the chairlift all the way to the top and being greeted by a frigid cold wind blowing straight at me and kicking up the snow almost to a point I couldn’t see in front of me. Of course once we skied down the ridge a little, it was a beautiful run with fresh snow.
One year when visiting Wolf Creek around Christmas time, we met a retired ski instructor. His family would not let him drive anymore so his wife dropped him off every morning and picked him up in the afternoon. I really wish I could remember his name because he taught me a lot about skiing and about life.
One morning, we all went skiing and he offered to help me with my turns. We spent the next several hours skiing down the mountain making tight turns followed by some wide turns to loosen up the muscles. The goal for me, was to stay directly behind him and follow his skies making the turns as tight as he did. The object was not only to force me to make tight turns but to concentrate on staying the course and not getting frustrated and just skiing off on another route.
I have not skied for a while, but recently, I was working with a student at 288 Lake and he was having buoyancy issues. New rebreather students generally do. As we swam around the lake, I remembered my skiing lesson and I started using the same idea while swimming underwater.
Since local lake diving can sometimes get monotonous, you can use this same method to improve your diving skills and relieve your boredom during practice. So, get together with you buddy and vow to follow one another through a series of turns in and around the rocks, tires, or other objects. The targets do not really have to be at a point you can swim through, swimming over them works just as well. Concentrate on making the turns without using your hands and without kicking up the bottom. This forces you to refine your kicking style and your attitude in the water. If you are “tail dragging” you will leave a silt cloud behind you.
Why do all of this? By working on making tighter turns without using your hands, you will begin to develop a greater sense of control underwater and a better sense of where your feet, hands and head are during the dive. This increased state of awareness and the highly refined swimming skills will make diving in caves or wrecks safer and more enjoyable.
Escape the Winter Cold, Let’s Go Scuba Diving in January!
It is sometimes hard for me hard to believe that I used to be an avid skier. In college, I spent a number of weekends, a week around Christmas and Spring Break skiing. It was fun, exhilarating and challenging. My underwater camera saw more frozen moisture than liquid.
After mneung to Houston in…well let’s not go there…I changed from a skier to a sailor and a diver. White powdery slopes were replaced by soft sand beaches, boats, bikinis, dive equipment and clear blue water. Oh, and yes the warm weather.
Winters in Houston are a far cry from the cold wind-blown snow and ice of Lubbock, but I still find that winters can be cold. I guess I have just gotten used to the warmth so the mild winters here seem cold to me at times.
Despite the executives from Continental trading in their shorts and t-shirts for wool sweaters, wool pants and poly-propylene long underwear, Houston remains the gateway to the Caribbean and the soft sand and clear blue waters I discovered later in life. In the Caribbean there is plenty of warmth to go around and diving on some of the worlds most beautiful reefs. The walls stretch for miles down the coasts and in some places for miles down as well.
While Bing Crosby is singing “Let It Snow…” I am picturing a boat parked over a tropical reef, the top of the reef opening up eighty feet below me with the nearby wall plunging down 400 feet and the current guiding me along this natural aquarium. The fish are swimming, feasting in the current and the corals are gently swaying in the water.
The easiest place to go for a long weekend is Cozumel, Mexico a limestone island once home to the Mayan Oracle and a Mayan pilgrimage destination. Cortez removed the Oracle and used the island as a staging area for his conquest of Mexico.
Jacques Cousteau helped make the island a diving Mecca when he first visited the island in 1960. He found the sleepy little island a paradise above and below the water. Of course he probably would not recognize the Cozumel of today with 2 cruise ship terminals which can accommodate up to six ships. The current economic slowdown in the United States has thankfully reduced the number of ships visiting the island but unfortunately to the detriment to the local people.
Cozumel is the home of the second Marine Park founded in Mexico and is the first not to allow local fisherman to spear fish or line fish on the reefs. The primary industry in Cozumel is tourism with divers making up a large part of the tourist business, especially with the reduced cruise ship traffic.
The reefs, which took a beating in Hurricane Gilbert are still beautiful. The southern end of the island has steep walls and beautiful corals and fish, while the North end of the island was sloping walls and fast currents with up and down currents to boot. For rebreather divers especially, the areas without the up and down currents are more enjoyable and my favorite dives are in the vicinity of Palancar Gardens and Palancar Caves. It is really special to come up from the stark limestone depths into a garden of colour and lives, swirling around you as you swim in, out and around the pillars of coral. You float along, the currents carrying you along toward the north (generally) with the scene constantly changing and renewing the colour and life.
Hmm, I think I need to go diving! Luckily for me, the travel department at Oceanic Ventures, namely Ann, has put together a long weekend in Cozumel so I can complete some training for some students who are also looking forward to warm water and wetsuits instead of the cold water and dry suits I have been making them use for training up to this point. But, despite my being involved in a training class, there are a number of people who, like me, want to escape the cold and enjoy some warm tropical breezes.
If you can get away, you are welcome to join us in Mexico 13-17 January 2011. If you cannot make it this time, keep your head warm and remember someone else is staying warm for you.
