My Cave Diving blog... On my way to the Abe Davis Award.

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30: 09/28/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. With Tim Waldo... This was the dive that almost never happened. It took me several trips to the Sprinter and back to resolve a bubbling regulator leak and then I had a mask that was way to foggy, so it got thrown away. We made it to just past the Keyhole and turned on a technicality. Dive time 34 minutes

31: 09/28/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. With Tim Waldo. We had barely made it 100 feet in when my primary light failed. Dive time: 11 minutes.

32: 09/29/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. Solo! I went looking for the whale bone off of Hill 400. This was my first solo dive with a stage in a cave and it went very well. I breathed down to thirds on the stage just before the Hill 400 jump. Switched to primary gas, and ditched the bottle after I tied in the jump. Found all the jumps, but my reel just wasn't long enough to get back there. The final passage was a bit tight, and there was def river water intrusion back there: very gloomy. It was good to do the turn and see absolutely no additional silt from my passage. :D The way back was uneventful and I think I was the only one in the cave. Picking up the stage and taking out the jump seemed to take forever! Also, I had to keep reaching back to keep the now fairly light AL80 from bouncing against all the walls. I need a better solution for this. Any ideas? PDC seemed to clear deco a bit quicker than I thought it should. I thought it was telling me "High NI", but a subsequent dive showed me I was wrong. Finished with oodles of primary gas (2700 and 2400). Dive time 1:32

33: 09/29/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. With Dave ???. He was hoping to find a buddy, and I was the only one around. I had plenty of primary gas, so why not? We made it to just past the Keyhole and he turned it. Dive time :26

34: 09/30/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. With Jim Wyatt on his Optima Rebreather. TRAFFIC JAM!!! Two rebreather divers preceded us and two scooter divers followed us. The plan was to head up to the Bats and possible to the Hinckle Tunnel. Jim wanted to move s-l-o-w and I was OK with that. We entered at the Devil's Ear and I dropped my deco bottle at the sign. Dropping and picking it up again has become fairly routine, and I like it like that. Then we waited for the two rebreather divers in front of us to make some headway. Was that flutter kicking? Jets sufficiently cooled, I followed Jim but his primary completely outclassed mine. My second Primary didn't work either... I think I have a charging system failure. So, I tried one of my back-ups and it was more than bright enough to serve as my primary. My first primary then became a back up and I had one more back up in reserve. Three functioning lights and I'm OK with that. Jim was leading and kept checking to be sure I was there. Sorry Jim. I'll get my 21 Watt Light Monkies back today so I can see again. :D

We got to the Lips and had to wait again. We got to the Key Hole and had to wait again and I heard the distinct sound of scooters behind me. They waited too. We got to the Park Bench and had to wait again. We were almost to the Hill 400 jump and, you guessed it, we had to wait again. At this point, the scooters had enough room to pass us all. It was then I realized that I wasn't mistaken before either... one of them is flutter kicking. Neither is using pull and glide. There's a lot of CO2 being made in front of us. They duck up Hill 400 and I put in the jump for us. Then they go left on another jump and we stay on the line. Now we settle into a gentle rhythm of pull and glide. No, it's not fast: just right to keep moving and not start huffing. We made it to the Bat Cave and since I was 200 psi off of thirds, I turned the dive. I was a bit concerned about the amount of Deco I had, so I went a little faster than Jim probably wanted. I kept back, so as not to outpace him and we made good time. Picked up my bottle at the sign and we exited at the Eye. I was 1:08 into the dive and after I switched to O2, I had 12 minutes of deco. At 1:15 I got the error message again, but then I actually paid attention and it said "High PO2". I was at 14 feet and simply stayed until my PDC said I had been down 1:20.
 
OK, some non diving errata... picked up my Light Monkey 21 Watters from the factory. New batteries installed, one of the chargers replaced and... they engraved :sblogo: on it! Woot!!! It looks great! Can't wait to get them wet again. I'll be posting pictures in Light Monkey's forum soon.

Stopped by Dive Rite this morning and Lamar allowed me to shadow him. Saw the new back mounted counter lungs for the Optima, the new Kydex cover and the new frame. Then I got to meet Tom Mount and Mark Fowler and then got to see Lamar assemble Mark's new Optima with all the goodies. He won't get the frame and the cover for a couple weeks as they have to be built, but I don't think Mark wants to wait that long! Lamar then showed me the prototype for the drysuit heater controller, a new super duty light and their nifty new reel. The reel is sweet. I met Lamar, Jim and John Jones at Little River to do a dive. Unfortunately, that's when I found out that one of my cylinders had not been filled :( It was still at 1500. It was bad enough that I was going to be the only not on a rebreather, so I called my dive in the parking lot. I think I needed a day off to catch up on things, anyway. Well, at least I caught up on some sleep and this Blog!
 
One last surprise... I finally got to meet Jeff Hancock while at Little River. He's the guy who created the best map of the Devil's System at Ginnie Springs. Before he left, he presented me with my very own copy! Thanks Jeff! It will certainly be used as I explore some more.
 
31: 09/28/2015, Ginnie Springs, High Springs, Fl. With Tim Waldo. We had barely made it 100 feet in when my primary light failed. Dive time: 11 minutes.

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At one time Abe Davis carried minimums for a dive to be counted, and not sure if a dive of 11 minutes would be countable.
 
At one time Abe Davis carried minimums for a dive to be counted, and not sure if a dive of 11 minutes would be countable.

Dunno if this still applies, but:

Having safely completed and logged 100 safe cave dives
All dives were done after the completion of Full Cave Certification.
All dives have 30 min. of bottom time or more (excluding deco).
Dives total 75 hours or more of bottom time.
Dives include a minimum of 10 different sites.


Compare to that, the IUCRR has similar requirements for volunteer divers, except they require them to be "significant" dives, being 60 min. of bottom time, greater than 35ft, and the use of a reel, usually involves a traverse or circuit.

Not a whole lot of difference except in minimum bottom time, compared to a typical cave dive (at least what I'm used to). The NSS-CDS website doesn't even include those restrictions anymore, just saying "safe" cave dives. You could make the argument that because Netdoc called the dive, he was being extra safe, regardless of time or penetration distance. I wouldn't log it, but then again I don't care about getting the award.
 
Used to be similar to that, for some reason 45 minutes sticks with me. At one time you had to have 10 different systems
 
I'm sure I won't stop right at 100, nor will I count any of the extra cave activities that I am recording here. I think that it is important to note (and record) that not all dives go the way you want them to. I'm sure that some have lied about how many dives they have had to obtain the award... but the award itself is not that important to me. It's more of a milestone, a progress check mark or a goal that I am working towards. I think it's valuable for me to write down my obstacles and the solutions to those obstacles clearly. That way I won't think too highly of myself as being a 'perfect' caver. Hopefully, it will help others to assess themselves against the progress that I am making as well. I definitely approach caves differently than a dozen years ago. I am less intimidated but more cautious. My range has increased but my propensity to push my range has dramatically decreased. I worry more about my buddy's limits than my own, but I adhere more strictly to my own limits than ever before. My limits have never been more elastic nor have they been so well defined and adhered to. I feel at once a stranger and completely at home in a cave. It's the Yin and Yang coalescing into a lot of fun and a feeling of accomplishment. I feel empowered with the Rule of Fun: You can call a dive at any time, for any reason, with no questions asked and no repercussions. That doesn't mean you can't work around the obstacles but there's always an 'opt out' button waiting to be pressed.
 
I think you have a good attitude. There are many who are obsessed with getting Abe Davis that they will swim to Olsen, surface and then swim back to get 2 dives. I have guided for many years, and it becomes self evident those that got their award with time and gathering experience, versus those just chasing a number.
 
I once saw a pair of DM candidates doing dives on a twenty foot platform at twenty minutes a pop. They were clearing 10 dives of boring ass dives a day just to get 50 dives to qualify for their DM badge. Their loss in my opinion. The only ones they are really fooling are themselves. :D :D :D

This blog exists for three reasons: Primarily it's for me. It helps me to remember as well as to work through issues in my head. Secondly, it's to encourage those who might want to learn about cave diving. They can see that the issues are surmountable, and they might also learn a thing or two to avoid! Finally, I think that cave diving and the Abe Davis Award needs a bit more press. This is my bit to do just that. I've been told by a few that it's a useless task, and I invite those people to stop reading! :D But then, I've been encouraged by others to keep posting as it helps them relive their quest to earn the award.

Took a second day off here in Cave Country. Elena and I drove around looking at things. It was quite fun and I think this is a beautiful area.
 
I've seen people walk back and forth from Catfish Hotel to Manatee Springs using the walk as their SI in order to do the same thing. There should be something about the quality and variety of dives before someone can become a DM...

Pete, you're tilting at windmills about promoting cave diving. We don't need more cave divers, we need better cave divers. They should have the buoyancy, trim, awareness, and conservation mindset necessary to protect the cave environment. The need for better cave divers was one of the reasons I decided to become a cave instructor.
 
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