Review Apprentice Cave Course Review

[AeroSpartacus]

I recently completed the first 5 of 8 dives for my Apprentice Cave level (I split it over 2 weekends for my schedule). I found it useful to read about others' experiences before I took the course, so I thought it may be useful for others to share my own experience/thoughts. I took my course with Chris Brock out of Lake City; I've previously taken TDI Cavern with him as well. I know cavern isn't a requirement for further cave classes, but I wanted to use it as kind of a litmus test to see if I wanted to progress further before committing more effort (I also didn't quite feel ready yet for Cave).

In general, the first few dives involved pretty scripted drills. But once we had done any of the drills in a more 'scripted' fashion, it was basically free game from then on out to happen at any point in any dive. I appreciated the debriefs we did after every dive; it helped a lot to identify issues (or recurring themes in some cases) and for the most part I didn't make the exact same mistake more than once.

Day 1 - Orange Grove

Dive 1
For dive 1, we spent ~20-30 minutes at the start doing a review of the cavern skills with a line circuit we put up. This wasn't too eventful, but I did have a little bit of rust to shake off. After that, we checked our remaining pressure and went into the cave with me running the primary reel. I believe we got to about 900 feet penetration when I thumbed the dive. The most notable thing on this dive happened when Chris (in position 1 after turning) went straight when the line went left (into a small fissure). I was a little suspicious for just a second, but I followed him thinking 'oh he's the instructor, maybe he's showing me something over here'. In retrospect, this was an obvious failure on my part, but I let the context of being in a class and with an instructor override the rule that I knew I shouldn't break.

Dive 2
This dive went much the same way as the first on the way in, and we turned at around the same point (~900 feet). The main event of this dive was I accidentally "killed" Chris because of some initial confusion/delay on my part when he simulated running out of gas.

Day 2 - Devil's Ear

Dive 1
Oh man, this was one of the dives of all time. We had a 3rd diver join us on this day - a former student certified to the full cave level. As it turned out, this was actually my overall dive #100, and we made it a memorable one by having me run a primary reel into Devil's Ear. Before this point, the most 'flow' I had been exposed to was drift diving in Cozumel. Unsurprisingly, we ended up only making it to just before the Keyhole when I had to turn the dive (I think that's 200-250 feet?). We did a lost line drill right after turning it, and I found the line the first try! This was the drill I was most worried about ahead of time, so that felt good. We left the primary reel in for the next dive of the day.

When it came time for the debrief, I was pretty surprised at the time by what came up. The summary of several points was that I was basically a terrible dive buddy for the 3rd teammate. I didn't do a good job (or any, really) of checking with them at any point, we ended up getting a bit too far ahead at one point, and they actually had a real issue come up with their regulator mouthpiece that I had no idea about until the debrief because I was so unaware. I think this acted as a bit of a reality check at this point, and I really tried to stay extra-cognizant of team communication for all dives going forward.

Dive 2
The plan for this dive was to go in as far as we (read: I) can within our limits, then turn around, do some drills, and pull the primary reel. Without having to run the reel on the way in, it turned out we made it all the way...to the park bench, right by the 300 foot marker! I'm beginning to gain an appreciation for Peacock now. We had some air share drills on the way out (which wasn't very far lol). I pulled the primary (which someone had dropped their O2 bottle on top of) with some help on the last few tie offs. I ended up overcorrecting a little too much from the previous dive and turned around a couple times to make sure the 3rd diver wasn't left behind like they were before.

Day 3 - Peacock

Dive 1
We only did one dive this day because I had to drive back to Atlanta. The dive plan was to go up the Olsen line until turn pressure, then make our way back while various shenanigans ensued (and ensue they did). I won't cover everything that happened, but while I did 'survive' all the drills (found the line, etc.), there were small issues with technique with all of them that could be improved. For example, when my primary light "failed" I first worked on stowing it before deploying the backup. This kind of points to one of the larger themes, where I have several options and don't pick the one that's actually "the problem" at the time.

Another example of this is in an earlier dive when reeling in the primary reel, I realized I had left the boltsnap on instead of stowing it on a D-ring. I had been told a couple of times not to do that, so when I noticed my first instinct was to fix that issue right then. But, the original boltsnap I use for that was swapped at some point with my backup double-ender that's a little smaller, so I was having issues getting it off. In the meantime, I hadn't quite locked the reel well enough and it was letting out line because there was flow. That ended up causing a bit of a tangle of line that I had to finish fixing on land later. In retrospect, I should've just accepted that I forgot the boltsnap at that point and finished reeling it in because that was the issue at hand, but I caused it to cascade into even more issues.


I'll add to this review when I finish the course in ~2 weeks, but so far I feel like I've learned a lot about cave diving that isn't really included in the specs/requirements of the course/reading. In particular, I think the team dynamic is something that I've learned to appreciate and look forward to expanding on as I go forward. As a final "review" so far, I would definitely recommend Chris Brock as a cave diving instructor at any level from my experience.

 

[AeroSpartacus]

Day 4 - Peacock

We dove (dived?) Peanut and Olsen lines on this day. We did most of the drills on the shallower Peanut line. On that dive, we did lights out air share, lost diver, and some brief "exploration" into "The Mistake" with a reel. There were a few small hiccups, but overall I feel a lot better about my performance on this day than the previous a couple weeks earlier. In my mind, the biggest thing I did right on these dives was team communication. I was more deliberate with telling my teammate which position they should be in or what to do when a scenario came up. I also remembered to still switch my own regulators during lights out drills (in sidemount).

Day 5 - Madison Blue

This dive was basically a final 'graduation' dive, since we had covered all the drills (a couple times) at this point. It was my first time at MB, and it sounds like the visibility was a lot worse than usual (the water level was a lot higher - covering 6 or 7 steps - so the river water was flowing over). There was still some flow, but I was told it was less than usual (almost not noticeable after diving the Ear hehe). This was a pretty straightforward and enjoyable cave dive, even though it was a little bit washed out. I'm used to diving quarries in GA / AL, so that part wasn't too big of a deal to me. I'm looking forward to coming back when it's actually blue.



After all that, I'm now a certified apprentice cave diver! This was definitely a humbling experience, but I feel a lot more confident and comfortable than I did when I started (still a lot of progress to make though!).

I happened to already have a week off in August, so I went ahead and signed up for full cave then, but I'm going to try to get a few good weekends down in cave country before the class so I've got a bit more experience going into that.

 

[grantctobin]

Congrats, and thanks for putting in effort to the writeup. Were you the only student for the full duration of the course?

 

[AeroSpartacus]

Congrats, and thanks for putting in effort to the writeup. Were you the only student for the full duration of the course?

Yes, I was the only active student for the apprentice course, but we did have a third diver that was a previous student for some of the dives. Those dives with three of us were good experience particularly with passive team communication. I got the impression that even if it is a "private" class, Chris will generally still facilitate having someone else join at some point.

Ultimately in this case it probably comes down largely to me having to split it over two weekends, so it's unlikely another student would have the same schedule.

 

[grantctobin]

Yes, I was the only active student for the apprentice course, but we did have a third diver that was a previous student for some of the dives.

Glad you had a teammate once or twice. I’m quite opposed to private classes at any of the early and middle tech levels and there are a few agencies that thankfully prohibit the practice.

 

[Manatee Diver]

I got the impression that even if it is a "private" class, Chris will generally still facilitate having someone else join at some point.

He often had interns during my classes, so the intern acted as the instructor telling me what drills to do and Chris acted as the often terrible buddy.

 

[AeroSpartacus]

He often had interns during my classes, so the intern acted as the instructor telling me what drills to do and Chris acted as the often terrible buddy.

You finished full cave with him, right? What were your thoughts on that coming from apprentice?

 

[Josh the diver]

I recently completed the first 5 of 8 dives for my Apprentice Cave level (I split it over 2 weekends for my schedule). I found it useful to read about others' experiences before I took the course, so I thought it may be useful for others to share my own experience/thoughts. I took my course with Chris Brock out of Lake City; I've previously taken TDI Cavern with him as well. I know cavern isn't a requirement for further cave classes, but I wanted to use it as kind of a litmus test to see if I wanted to progress further before committing more effort (I also didn't quite feel ready yet for Cave).

In general, the first few dives involved pretty scripted drills. But once we had done any of the drills in a more 'scripted' fashion, it was basically free game from then on out to happen at any point in any dive. I appreciated the debriefs we did after every dive; it helped a lot to identify issues (or recurring themes in some cases) and for the most part I didn't make the exact same mistake more than once.

Day 1 - Orange Grove

Dive 1
For dive 1, we spent ~20-30 minutes at the start doing a review of the cavern skills with a line circuit we put up. This wasn't too eventful, but I did have a little bit of rust to shake off. After that, we checked our remaining pressure and went into the cave with me running the primary reel. I believe we got to about 900 feet penetration when I thumbed the dive. The most notable thing on this dive happened when Chris (in position 1 after turning) went straight when the line went left (into a small fissure). I was a little suspicious for just a second, but I followed him thinking 'oh he's the instructor, maybe he's showing me something over here'. In retrospect, this was an obvious failure on my part, but I let the context of being in a class and with an instructor override the rule that I knew I shouldn't break.

Dive 2
This dive went much the same way as the first on the way in, and we turned at around the same point (~900 feet). The main event of this dive was I accidentally "killed" Chris because of some initial confusion/delay on my part when he simulated running out of gas.

Day 2 - Devil's Ear

Dive 1
Oh man, this was one of the dives of all time. We had a 3rd diver join us on this day - a former student certified to the full cave level. As it turned out, this was actually my overall dive #100, and we made it a memorable one by having me run a primary reel into Devil's Ear. Before this point, the most 'flow' I had been exposed to was drift diving in Cozumel. Unsurprisingly, we ended up only making it to just before the Keyhole when I had to turn the dive (I think that's 200-250 feet?). We did a lost line drill right after turning it, and I found the line the first try! This was the drill I was most worried about ahead of time, so that felt good. We left the primary reel in for the next dive of the day.

When it came time for the debrief, I was pretty surprised at the time by what came up. The summary of several points was that I was basically a terrible dive buddy for the 3rd teammate. I didn't do a good job (or any, really) of checking with them at any point, we ended up getting a bit too far ahead at one point, and they actually had a real issue come up with their regulator mouthpiece that I had no idea about until the debrief because I was so unaware. I think this acted as a bit of a reality check at this point, and I really tried to stay extra-cognizant of team communication for all dives going forward.

Dive 2
The plan for this dive was to go in as far as we (read: I) can within our limits, then turn around, do some drills, and pull the primary reel. Without having to run the reel on the way in, it turned out we made it all the way...to the park bench, right by the 300 foot marker! I'm beginning to gain an appreciation for Peacock now. We had some air share drills on the way out (which wasn't very far lol). I pulled the primary (which someone had dropped their O2 bottle on top of) with some help on the last few tie offs. I ended up overcorrecting a little too much from the previous dive and turned around a couple times to make sure the 3rd diver wasn't left behind like they were before.

Day 3 - Peacock

Dive 1
We only did one dive this day because I had to drive back to Atlanta. The dive plan was to go up the Olsen line until turn pressure, then make our way back while various shenanigans ensued (and ensue they did). I won't cover everything that happened, but while I did 'survive' all the drills (found the line, etc.), there were small issues with technique with all of them that could be improved. For example, when my primary light "failed" I first worked on stowing it before deploying the backup. This kind of points to one of the larger themes, where I have several options and don't pick the one that's actually "the problem" at the time.

Another example of this is in an earlier dive when reeling in the primary reel, I realized I had left the boltsnap on instead of stowing it on a D-ring. I had been told a couple of times not to do that, so when I noticed my first instinct was to fix that issue right then. But, the original boltsnap I use for that was swapped at some point with my backup double-ender that's a little smaller, so I was having issues getting it off. In the meantime, I hadn't quite locked the reel well enough and it was letting out line because there was flow. That ended up causing a bit of a tangle of line that I had to finish fixing on land later. In retrospect, I should've just accepted that I forgot the boltsnap at that point and finished reeling it in because that was the issue at hand, but I caused it to cascade into even more issues.


I'll add to this review when I finish the course in ~2 weeks, but so far I feel like I've learned a lot about cave diving that isn't really included in the specs/requirements of the course/reading. In particular, I think the team dynamic is something that I've learned to appreciate and look forward to expanding on as I go forward. As a final "review" so far, I would definitely recommend Chris Brock as a cave diving instructor at any level from my experience.

so why did you choose apprentice cave instead of just continuing down the path with TDI intro to cave? could of saved you a couple days. but I guess more time and practice is better.

 

[rjack321]

so why did you choose apprentice cave instead of just continuing down the path with TDI intro to cave? could of saved you a couple days. but I guess more time and practice is better.

Apprentice gives you a little more line to work with (vs intro) while you gain experience for full.

 

[rddvet]

Glad you had a teammate once or twice. I’m quite opposed to private classes at any of the early and middle tech levels and there are a few agencies that thankfully prohibit the practice.

Fully agree. Make sure your future courses aren't you and the instructor. The difference between a single student class and a multi student class are night and day. Your instructor should be able to perform his skills needed as your buddy easily. Another student will not, which will give you much more opportunity to learn. Add to that the topside discussions are more interactive and another student will see things differently than you, adding another layer to the process.
I will take one step above grant's comment: I think single student cave classes are a huge disservice to the student and should not be allowed by agencies. The good instructors will bend over backwards to find an additional student or a former student to take the class with you. The instructors that are internet darlings that I would never take a class from typically are the ones happy to teach classes solo. Not meant to be a crack at your instructor, so don't take it that way. It's a generalization of my opinions on cave instruction as a whole.