I debated posting this but finally decided what the heck. Probably nobody cares except the people who will post to tell me what was wrong, but... okay. Whatever. My grandmother used to tell me that's why there's chocolate and vanilla. Maybe this will present a contrast to some of the groupthink around here that will be meaningful to someone who reads it. On...
I wen to FL to learn how to dive in caves from December 11 - 20. I've been home 2 days now and I'm still tired. It's 8:20p and I want to go to bed, but I'm staying up to write this and avoid waking up at oh'dark thirty.
My cave instructor was Joe Citelli. I've been friends with him for a few years and talking to him about being my cave instructor for almost 2 years now. He's 70 years old or so and still way more fit and capable than I am. He is formerly Chairman of the NSS CDS. He wrote some of the IANTD Cave Diving text book. And he is an all-around awesome guy.
He let me know about 6 weeks ago that he had a hybrid class coming up, and had 1 student with room for 1 more. A "hybrid" class means that we would start with Full Cave training on OC and then do a crossover to CCR when that was done. I jumped at the opportunity.
A little of my back story: Going into this class, I had certifications for full trimix (100m) on OC and CCR. And I had done Advanced Wreck Penetration class with @Trace Malinowski a little over 4 years ago. I had no other training for overhead environments. No Cavern, much less Intro to Cave. Also, I bought a sidemount rig about 5 years ago. I played with it in the pool some and then did 4 actual dives with it. Then decided I had no use for sidemount and sold the rig. No further sidemount diving since then. All my OC tech diving since then was with back mount doubles.
Unfortunately for me, I've been having some range of motion issues with my left shoulder. So, as soon as I signed on to do the class with Joe I realized that I could not do the OC portion in BM, because I cannot reach my left post on my doubles right now. So, I bought a Hollis Katana 2 sidemount rig, which I received 10 days before cave class was to start.
The weekend before class, I did a couple of short, shallow dives in the local lake, and then one more a couple of days later in the pool, to get the SM rig adjusted and my tank rigging adjusted, so I would HOPEFULLY not start cave class immediately looking like a total doofus. Huge thanks to my friend Scuba John Baker for getting in the water with me to look at how my tanks were hanging and helping me adjust rigging to get squared away.
Off I went to FL the following weekend with my new Katana, 2 sets of HP100 cylinders, set up for SM, and my rEvo CCR. I was very apprehensive about most aspects of the class - my ability to perform well in a new SM rig, my level of fitness to do the dives in high flow, my buoyancy and trim on CCR, my stamina to hang in there through 10 days of class and diving. I told Joe about it. We have dived together on a few occasions and he assured me that I would be fine. That definitely helped to ease my mind somewhat.
Day 1, I met up with Joe, the other student, whom I call Doug (name changed, to protect the innocent), and a former student of Joe's that I'll call Randy, who was there just to tag along and dive with us. We met at Dive Outpost, made introductions, and headed right over to Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State park.
Joe outlined the plan for our class. We were starting on OC cave, working towards an NSS-CDS Full Cave certification. That required a minimum of 16 dives and 600 minutes (I think is what he said). Once (if) we finished that, then we would do a crossover to CCR Cave, which would require a minimum of 3 dives and 300 minutes. And if we finished that and still had time, we would (if we wanted to) switch back to OC and continue the training to get Stage Cave, requiring another 4 dives and 240 minutes. Doug and I both regarded CCR Cave as the real prize and anything beyond that was just bonus material.
We started with land skills, learning how to run a reel and use line markers. Fortunately, my original SDI Wreck instructor taught me how to run a reel and later, Trace confirmed that I'd been taught correctly, during my Adv Wreck class. Joe runs reels and does tie-offs the way I'd previously been trained, so that was great for me.
Then we got in the water for some shakedown diving action.
I'm not going to go blow-by-blow through all 10 days of the class.
For the first 4 1/2 days, we did everything at Peacock. We did a bunch of in-and-out on the Peacock 1 line and Peanut line. We did circuits where we went in on Peacock 1 or Peanut, went through the Crossover tunnel, and came out the other. We swam in to Olsen and then came back.
At the end of day 5, after 2 morning dives in Peacock, we went to Little River Springs. Our first high flow cave. The river was way down and Joe said the flow was even higher than normal. Little River was the first cave that I really enjoyed. Everything I'd seen at Peacock was (to me) boring. Just a plain old rocky tunnel. But, Little River was really cool and interesting looking on the inside! Unfortunately, we were on OC and my RMV is not great. We were swimming in to thirds, so I was definitely the limiting factor. Our total dive time in that one was only 46 minutes. But, I am definitely looking forward to going back there and diving it on CCR, so I can see a lot more of it.
By this point in the training, we had done a lot of skills stuff.
Setting a primary reel.
Placing cookies and jump reels.
Swim out on backup lights.
Swim out with no lights.
Breath hold swim with no mask.
Lost line drill.
Air sharing while exiting.
Probably more that I forgot.
I really enjoyed the lost line drill. We swam into a big room just inside the cave (past the cavern zone and the cave sign) on the Peanut line. Joe had Randy go further and "guard" the exit of the room that would take us further into the cave. Then, he swam Doug and I each to separate places well away from the line and everybody turned their lights off. Once all the lights were off, I found a rock outcropping by feel and tied off my safety reel. Then I found another close by outcropping and did a secondary tie-off. Then I turned and swam in the direction I thought seemed right. I found the line fairly quickly, tied off my reel to that, then turned and followed the line by feel until I exited the cave. When I got back to where our primary reel was tied off, I checked my computer. Total elapsed dive time to that point was 14 minutes. LOL!! I would say I got VERY lucky in picking the right direction and actually finding the line, much less so quickly.
Also by this point in the class, I had been dinged a couple of times for kicking up the bottom. Usually, when I was trying to tie off the primary in the open water basin, where the wall is very steep. But, also once or twice when tying off a jump reel in the cave. Fortunately for ME, my classmate Doug had earned himself the nickname the Siltmeister, so most of the heat was directed at him. Thank you, Doug, for taking the attention away from me.
Going into day 6, we had 2 dives left to do to complete Full Cave. We were back to Peacock and knocked those out in Orange Grove Sink. Then got fills and came back to do the first dive towards the Stage Cave requirements. For that, I carried an AL80 stage bottle in addition to my 2 HP100s. We swam in on Peacock 1 and went all the way to just past Olsen Sink, then turned and came back. I have carried 3 x AL80 for deco/bailout in the past, in addition to either BM double 120s or my CCR, so adding 1 to my SM rig was not a big deal. Just another skill to be demonstrated that I could do.
I wen to FL to learn how to dive in caves from December 11 - 20. I've been home 2 days now and I'm still tired. It's 8:20p and I want to go to bed, but I'm staying up to write this and avoid waking up at oh'dark thirty.
My cave instructor was Joe Citelli. I've been friends with him for a few years and talking to him about being my cave instructor for almost 2 years now. He's 70 years old or so and still way more fit and capable than I am. He is formerly Chairman of the NSS CDS. He wrote some of the IANTD Cave Diving text book. And he is an all-around awesome guy.
He let me know about 6 weeks ago that he had a hybrid class coming up, and had 1 student with room for 1 more. A "hybrid" class means that we would start with Full Cave training on OC and then do a crossover to CCR when that was done. I jumped at the opportunity.
A little of my back story: Going into this class, I had certifications for full trimix (100m) on OC and CCR. And I had done Advanced Wreck Penetration class with @Trace Malinowski a little over 4 years ago. I had no other training for overhead environments. No Cavern, much less Intro to Cave. Also, I bought a sidemount rig about 5 years ago. I played with it in the pool some and then did 4 actual dives with it. Then decided I had no use for sidemount and sold the rig. No further sidemount diving since then. All my OC tech diving since then was with back mount doubles.
Unfortunately for me, I've been having some range of motion issues with my left shoulder. So, as soon as I signed on to do the class with Joe I realized that I could not do the OC portion in BM, because I cannot reach my left post on my doubles right now. So, I bought a Hollis Katana 2 sidemount rig, which I received 10 days before cave class was to start.
The weekend before class, I did a couple of short, shallow dives in the local lake, and then one more a couple of days later in the pool, to get the SM rig adjusted and my tank rigging adjusted, so I would HOPEFULLY not start cave class immediately looking like a total doofus. Huge thanks to my friend Scuba John Baker for getting in the water with me to look at how my tanks were hanging and helping me adjust rigging to get squared away.
Off I went to FL the following weekend with my new Katana, 2 sets of HP100 cylinders, set up for SM, and my rEvo CCR. I was very apprehensive about most aspects of the class - my ability to perform well in a new SM rig, my level of fitness to do the dives in high flow, my buoyancy and trim on CCR, my stamina to hang in there through 10 days of class and diving. I told Joe about it. We have dived together on a few occasions and he assured me that I would be fine. That definitely helped to ease my mind somewhat.
Day 1, I met up with Joe, the other student, whom I call Doug (name changed, to protect the innocent), and a former student of Joe's that I'll call Randy, who was there just to tag along and dive with us. We met at Dive Outpost, made introductions, and headed right over to Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State park.
Joe outlined the plan for our class. We were starting on OC cave, working towards an NSS-CDS Full Cave certification. That required a minimum of 16 dives and 600 minutes (I think is what he said). Once (if) we finished that, then we would do a crossover to CCR Cave, which would require a minimum of 3 dives and 300 minutes. And if we finished that and still had time, we would (if we wanted to) switch back to OC and continue the training to get Stage Cave, requiring another 4 dives and 240 minutes. Doug and I both regarded CCR Cave as the real prize and anything beyond that was just bonus material.
We started with land skills, learning how to run a reel and use line markers. Fortunately, my original SDI Wreck instructor taught me how to run a reel and later, Trace confirmed that I'd been taught correctly, during my Adv Wreck class. Joe runs reels and does tie-offs the way I'd previously been trained, so that was great for me.
Then we got in the water for some shakedown diving action.
I'm not going to go blow-by-blow through all 10 days of the class.
For the first 4 1/2 days, we did everything at Peacock. We did a bunch of in-and-out on the Peacock 1 line and Peanut line. We did circuits where we went in on Peacock 1 or Peanut, went through the Crossover tunnel, and came out the other. We swam in to Olsen and then came back.
At the end of day 5, after 2 morning dives in Peacock, we went to Little River Springs. Our first high flow cave. The river was way down and Joe said the flow was even higher than normal. Little River was the first cave that I really enjoyed. Everything I'd seen at Peacock was (to me) boring. Just a plain old rocky tunnel. But, Little River was really cool and interesting looking on the inside! Unfortunately, we were on OC and my RMV is not great. We were swimming in to thirds, so I was definitely the limiting factor. Our total dive time in that one was only 46 minutes. But, I am definitely looking forward to going back there and diving it on CCR, so I can see a lot more of it.
By this point in the training, we had done a lot of skills stuff.
Setting a primary reel.
Placing cookies and jump reels.
Swim out on backup lights.
Swim out with no lights.
Breath hold swim with no mask.
Lost line drill.
Air sharing while exiting.
Probably more that I forgot.
I really enjoyed the lost line drill. We swam into a big room just inside the cave (past the cavern zone and the cave sign) on the Peanut line. Joe had Randy go further and "guard" the exit of the room that would take us further into the cave. Then, he swam Doug and I each to separate places well away from the line and everybody turned their lights off. Once all the lights were off, I found a rock outcropping by feel and tied off my safety reel. Then I found another close by outcropping and did a secondary tie-off. Then I turned and swam in the direction I thought seemed right. I found the line fairly quickly, tied off my reel to that, then turned and followed the line by feel until I exited the cave. When I got back to where our primary reel was tied off, I checked my computer. Total elapsed dive time to that point was 14 minutes. LOL!! I would say I got VERY lucky in picking the right direction and actually finding the line, much less so quickly.
Also by this point in the class, I had been dinged a couple of times for kicking up the bottom. Usually, when I was trying to tie off the primary in the open water basin, where the wall is very steep. But, also once or twice when tying off a jump reel in the cave. Fortunately for ME, my classmate Doug had earned himself the nickname the Siltmeister, so most of the heat was directed at him. Thank you, Doug, for taking the attention away from me.
Going into day 6, we had 2 dives left to do to complete Full Cave. We were back to Peacock and knocked those out in Orange Grove Sink. Then got fills and came back to do the first dive towards the Stage Cave requirements. For that, I carried an AL80 stage bottle in addition to my 2 HP100s. We swam in on Peacock 1 and went all the way to just past Olsen Sink, then turned and came back. I have carried 3 x AL80 for deco/bailout in the past, in addition to either BM double 120s or my CCR, so adding 1 to my SM rig was not a big deal. Just another skill to be demonstrated that I could do.
can’t imagine 10 days!! Congrats!
