UTD WAtersports
monterey bay
By UTD Instructor Dan Walters, Monterey Bay Watersports
Ask any diver for their short list of diving destinations in California and they will
almost always include Monterey Bay. Known for it’s towering kelp forests, nutrient rich waters, and deep water granite pinnacles, all just a short swim from shore,
it’s no wonder that divers will get up before the crack of dawn and drive from as far
away as Las Vegas.
Dave and I started out like almost every other diver. We learned our skills on our
knees on the bottom of a pool, which then was repeated at a local Monterey dive
site called Breakwater. As the years progressed we continued diving and to this day
can swim out and see the same people training the same bad habits. After spending
some time as a NAUI instructor, I approached Dave about trying something different
as an instructor. I had come across some videos on YouTube about UTD’s Extreme
Scuba Makeover course and was very impressed with UTD’s approach to dive skill
instruction and how, just by changing a few elements and rethinking the approach to
teaching buoyancy, you could introduce a diver to proper buoyancy and control not
seen in typical divers today.
In Monterey Bay – a mecca for divers – there is a lot of environmental impact and
opportunity for change. “We see rows of divers lined up on their knees doing skill
drills, it’s these people we want to introduce to ESM and the path to becoming a
thinking diver,” Parker says. So together Dave and I travelled to UTD HQ in San
Diego for upgrades. I crossed over from NAUI and Dave took the big step up from
NAUI Divemaster to UTD instructor and together we have formed UTD Watersports Monterey Bay with the goal of bringing like minded divers and UTD’s existing
community together under one
roof in northern California.
UTD Instructors Dave Parker (left)
and Dan Walters.
There has also been no exposure
to the benefits of side mount
diving here. Since learning,
it’s pretty much been my style
of diving. As an instructor it’s
been a great conversation starter.
There’s a lot of curiosity with
side mount – every day I’m being
approached about it. As instructors, we couldn’t ask for more.
As a diver in the Monterey area,
it saves you the long haul across