TLDR: Best week of training I've ever had. My instructor is now definitely a life long friend. I've become a much more aware and safety focused diver than before, and i can't wait to go back again!!
So I went for fun dives with wife and friends Aug 26-Sep 2 missed hurricane Ida hitting Texas coast. I flew back home worked for 1 more week, and flew back to PDC alone for training Sept 9-19 also missing the hurricane Nicholas hitting directly where I live. Lets just say the wife at home no power for 6 days and i'm enjoying PDC having fun i'm kinda in the doghouse here fellas. I definitely have to buy my way out of this one!!
I ended up able to sneak away and go my cavern and intro to cave done in 5 days and did a 6th day for a fun dives in Nahoch Na Chich. My instructor was Peio he came recommended to me by my usual cavern guide. I was shocked to learn Peio was 1yr older than me @ 36yrs old but now has over 7,000 logged cave dives hundreds of deep trimix dives. Peio worked and trained under Steve Bogaerts. Working all week with Peio was awesome. He does alot of Cave Exploration and DPV Stage dives and Trimix diving. He was very upfront about expectations and corrected some small fundamentals I had from my sidemount class. It was minor things such as my hose routing and swivels vs a 90deg. It was frustrating at first as i was used to diving with my regs clipped off and both regs on swivels but after doing the drills it made 100% sense what he was saying. I was great on trim and buoyancy he said so we didn't spend but 30 mins the first day on just helping me perfect my backwards kick. After he broke that down and showed me i picked it up quickly. Working with him 1:1 was awesome since i didn't have to wait on someone else to finish a skill or have them struggle with them if i was doing ok.
The EYE opening experience for me was the lost line drill. I always had respect for the caves and ensuring proper buoyancy and trim and proper kicking techniques to not disturb the silt. However when i did the lost line drill i QUICKLY found an entire new level or respect for these basic fundamentals! I did the lost line drill 2 times. Blindfolded being flipped upside down spun around and then moved off the line for what seemed like 2 mins before him saying ok now your turn to the find the line. The first time i was able to find it in 7 mins blind folded doing the drill as he showed me. I clearly got lucky and found it on my first direction after making the initial first and 2nd tie offs. Those 7 mins quickly silted up the training portion of the cave he said the area is used to do the drill and then proceeded to do a zero viz exit still while wearing the blind fold. Once we exited we debriefed and he said you did great except small things like my hand placement on the line while spooling out the line. I understood exactly what he ment. So to my dreaded anticipation he said we are going to do it once more but this time.
The 2nd dive on the lost line drill was another story.... i did not get lucky on first attempt and he said my technique was perfect and understood and fixed the mistake I was making the 1st time. Now on to the best part.... Deep down i always knew he was there and clearly told me if I get at any point uncomfortable and want to end the drill to signal and he would end it and bring me to safety. So having that "safety net" in my head during the first drill was calming. The 2nd time I decided I was not going to rely on this safety factor unless he determined it was needed. He came and checked my air 4 times during the drill. We went about 50-75yds into the cave for the drill. So i knew the exit was well within reach and we decided on very conservative air usage for the drill.
On to the fun part.... 2nd drill It started again by just a normal swim after tie on to cave line about 30yds past the cave tie i was quickly met by the dreaded stop here's a blind fold over your mask and lets begin the roller coaster of flipping spinning and complete disorientation. I did my absolute very best to keep track of where i thought the line was but in the end i most certainly had no clue haha. It took me a glorious 37mins to find the line the 2nd drill as i didn't find it the first 3 directions i went and finally found it on the 4th. To add to the fun he placed random lines tied off and markers to make it more challenging on the exit as we did that again in zero viz and then threw a diver out of air drill just 2 mins after i found the line. We exited the cave let the silt calm down and went back to retrieve the spools and markers. The amount of silt in that 37 mins i stirred up lead to a true zero viz exit. I have a gopro footage of it i can share here once i upload it to youtube. After we exited he had a good chuckle and say now that's a true lost line drill if I've ever seen one. He said around the 30 min mark he had expected me to give up and i told him no this was being done as if i had no safety net with him there and this was fighting for my life to escape.
The lost diver drill I think it was caught me the most and put it into perspective of just how real cave diving truly is. We did establish limits for searching with air consumption and predive planning for all of our dives so it was never a shock and well understood briefing. He would swim behind me and then disappear and watch me perform the search pattern for him. i found him 2 times rather quickly and the 2nd one he insisted i don't see him and proceed with the drill of exiting as planned. After putting 2 of 4 lights on the line marking the directional arrows showing him the way out i went out and located the nearest diver and proceeded to give him instructions where i lost him and such. Low and behold it was all planned ahead of time with the other diver. He said i completed the drill perfect and wouldn't change a thing. For me this was the worst part of the training it wasn't difficult physically but holy smokes what an emotional roller coaster. I knew he was completely ok but knowing i didn't find my dive partner and left him down there with the best possible chance with my lights showing him the way out but would i ever see him again was the stressful part. I cant even begin to describe the deep down feeling inside this gave me should this ever happen not in a drill. Doing all you can and hitting your air limits searching for a friend and having to choose your life vs theirs is gut wrenching.
The training left me with a whole new found respect for saftey and following the dive plan, extra attention to the details laid out and limits clearly never push limits this is just plain stupid to do.
So as a new intro to cave diver following the rule of 1/6ths since sidemount we did 2 separate fun dives at Nahoch Na Chich on my 6th day. Both dives were planned to have a 32min and 34min penetration and then exit. It was so beautiful back there in the cave i took all my notes at each arrow as planned and used those for my navigation map i made after each dive on how far the dives actually got. This was the interesting part. There was one part for a good 30 secs on the 1st dive right when reached our penetration in time we set. I hit my turn pressure 1min and 32 secs later after we were on exit. I thought to myself i really am almost 29mins swim back to daylight!!! While i know this absolutely NOTHING compared to what most of you who are full cave/stage cave/ dpv/rebreather cave divers on dive time, but this for me was eye opening. The thought of doing super long deep penetration cave dives for me will definitely take time to want to push to full cave. I am 100% comfortable now with these small quick penetration cave dives ( for me this is "exploring the unknown"), even with the permanent lines laid out.
I've decided i will do at a minimum 20 more of these type dives before i think about proceeded to full cave. I want to ensure i am comfortable and even more practice of the drills before proceeding on. I look forward to my next trip down to see my now friend Peio and go explore "for me" the vast unknown just around the corner and out of limits for some.
So I went for fun dives with wife and friends Aug 26-Sep 2 missed hurricane Ida hitting Texas coast. I flew back home worked for 1 more week, and flew back to PDC alone for training Sept 9-19 also missing the hurricane Nicholas hitting directly where I live. Lets just say the wife at home no power for 6 days and i'm enjoying PDC having fun i'm kinda in the doghouse here fellas. I definitely have to buy my way out of this one!!
I ended up able to sneak away and go my cavern and intro to cave done in 5 days and did a 6th day for a fun dives in Nahoch Na Chich. My instructor was Peio he came recommended to me by my usual cavern guide. I was shocked to learn Peio was 1yr older than me @ 36yrs old but now has over 7,000 logged cave dives hundreds of deep trimix dives. Peio worked and trained under Steve Bogaerts. Working all week with Peio was awesome. He does alot of Cave Exploration and DPV Stage dives and Trimix diving. He was very upfront about expectations and corrected some small fundamentals I had from my sidemount class. It was minor things such as my hose routing and swivels vs a 90deg. It was frustrating at first as i was used to diving with my regs clipped off and both regs on swivels but after doing the drills it made 100% sense what he was saying. I was great on trim and buoyancy he said so we didn't spend but 30 mins the first day on just helping me perfect my backwards kick. After he broke that down and showed me i picked it up quickly. Working with him 1:1 was awesome since i didn't have to wait on someone else to finish a skill or have them struggle with them if i was doing ok.
The EYE opening experience for me was the lost line drill. I always had respect for the caves and ensuring proper buoyancy and trim and proper kicking techniques to not disturb the silt. However when i did the lost line drill i QUICKLY found an entire new level or respect for these basic fundamentals! I did the lost line drill 2 times. Blindfolded being flipped upside down spun around and then moved off the line for what seemed like 2 mins before him saying ok now your turn to the find the line. The first time i was able to find it in 7 mins blind folded doing the drill as he showed me. I clearly got lucky and found it on my first direction after making the initial first and 2nd tie offs. Those 7 mins quickly silted up the training portion of the cave he said the area is used to do the drill and then proceeded to do a zero viz exit still while wearing the blind fold. Once we exited we debriefed and he said you did great except small things like my hand placement on the line while spooling out the line. I understood exactly what he ment. So to my dreaded anticipation he said we are going to do it once more but this time.
The 2nd dive on the lost line drill was another story.... i did not get lucky on first attempt and he said my technique was perfect and understood and fixed the mistake I was making the 1st time. Now on to the best part.... Deep down i always knew he was there and clearly told me if I get at any point uncomfortable and want to end the drill to signal and he would end it and bring me to safety. So having that "safety net" in my head during the first drill was calming. The 2nd time I decided I was not going to rely on this safety factor unless he determined it was needed. He came and checked my air 4 times during the drill. We went about 50-75yds into the cave for the drill. So i knew the exit was well within reach and we decided on very conservative air usage for the drill.
On to the fun part.... 2nd drill It started again by just a normal swim after tie on to cave line about 30yds past the cave tie i was quickly met by the dreaded stop here's a blind fold over your mask and lets begin the roller coaster of flipping spinning and complete disorientation. I did my absolute very best to keep track of where i thought the line was but in the end i most certainly had no clue haha. It took me a glorious 37mins to find the line the 2nd drill as i didn't find it the first 3 directions i went and finally found it on the 4th. To add to the fun he placed random lines tied off and markers to make it more challenging on the exit as we did that again in zero viz and then threw a diver out of air drill just 2 mins after i found the line. We exited the cave let the silt calm down and went back to retrieve the spools and markers. The amount of silt in that 37 mins i stirred up lead to a true zero viz exit. I have a gopro footage of it i can share here once i upload it to youtube. After we exited he had a good chuckle and say now that's a true lost line drill if I've ever seen one. He said around the 30 min mark he had expected me to give up and i told him no this was being done as if i had no safety net with him there and this was fighting for my life to escape.
The lost diver drill I think it was caught me the most and put it into perspective of just how real cave diving truly is. We did establish limits for searching with air consumption and predive planning for all of our dives so it was never a shock and well understood briefing. He would swim behind me and then disappear and watch me perform the search pattern for him. i found him 2 times rather quickly and the 2nd one he insisted i don't see him and proceed with the drill of exiting as planned. After putting 2 of 4 lights on the line marking the directional arrows showing him the way out i went out and located the nearest diver and proceeded to give him instructions where i lost him and such. Low and behold it was all planned ahead of time with the other diver. He said i completed the drill perfect and wouldn't change a thing. For me this was the worst part of the training it wasn't difficult physically but holy smokes what an emotional roller coaster. I knew he was completely ok but knowing i didn't find my dive partner and left him down there with the best possible chance with my lights showing him the way out but would i ever see him again was the stressful part. I cant even begin to describe the deep down feeling inside this gave me should this ever happen not in a drill. Doing all you can and hitting your air limits searching for a friend and having to choose your life vs theirs is gut wrenching.
The training left me with a whole new found respect for saftey and following the dive plan, extra attention to the details laid out and limits clearly never push limits this is just plain stupid to do.
So as a new intro to cave diver following the rule of 1/6ths since sidemount we did 2 separate fun dives at Nahoch Na Chich on my 6th day. Both dives were planned to have a 32min and 34min penetration and then exit. It was so beautiful back there in the cave i took all my notes at each arrow as planned and used those for my navigation map i made after each dive on how far the dives actually got. This was the interesting part. There was one part for a good 30 secs on the 1st dive right when reached our penetration in time we set. I hit my turn pressure 1min and 32 secs later after we were on exit. I thought to myself i really am almost 29mins swim back to daylight!!! While i know this absolutely NOTHING compared to what most of you who are full cave/stage cave/ dpv/rebreather cave divers on dive time, but this for me was eye opening. The thought of doing super long deep penetration cave dives for me will definitely take time to want to push to full cave. I am 100% comfortable now with these small quick penetration cave dives ( for me this is "exploring the unknown"), even with the permanent lines laid out.
I've decided i will do at a minimum 20 more of these type dives before i think about proceeded to full cave. I want to ensure i am comfortable and even more practice of the drills before proceeding on. I look forward to my next trip down to see my now friend Peio and go explore "for me" the vast unknown just around the corner and out of limits for some.
