Cavern Class 8/16

[tstormdiver]

My course will start Tues. We will have class/ pool Tues. & Thurs. & be in the actual water Sat.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

well good luck and be ready for some awesome dives, though they are hard too

 

[tstormdiver]

I love a challenge! I may not get it on the first couple of tries, but I eventually get there. Thanks for the encouragement. Good to hear you enjoyed your course.

 

[Fox-Cousteau]

Starting my cavern class with Jeff Bauer next weekend, and really looking foreward to it, but also a bit nervous which I suppose isnt a bad thing. I will let you all know how it goes when im through.

Anyone have any last minute tips, and advice lol

I'm doing my Cavern with Red Sullivan -- Blue Water Diving in South Daytona. I'll post the results when I complete the class.

 

[Scubastud16]

Glad to hear you had fun Ryan! We'll go hit Blue or something soon.

Danny

 

[tstormdiver]

Well,... went through the first classroom/ pool session last night. It went alright, I guess. I really didn't get a lot of feedback from the instructor, yet. I will see him today & hopefully get a few more details. We practiced doing tie offs in 3ft of water & from my perspective (which could be waaaaaay off base) my buoyancy wasn't too awful bad for a first attempt. I got on the bottom once or twice, but felt decently neutral for most of the exercise. I would say that I could have done better, but I could certainly have done worse.

 

[tstormdiver]

YESSSSSS! I made it! There's a new crop of cavern divers just created today. Of course, as the instructor put it, we had just earned our "learner's permit" & that we need to practice, practice, practice our newly learned skills to perfection (looks like I'll be busy for quite a while). We conducted our class in the local quarry as the logistics to get to an actual cavern wasn't possible at this time. I would say the roughest part was the part where we had to run reels in water starting at 20ft deep & ended up at 10ft. We were trying to tie off & secure the line whilst also controlling buoyancy. Going shallow, of course, my buoyancy got light & I tended to want to float off & going deep, I tended to go quite negative, making it difficult to stay off the bottom & not stir up the silt. To top that off my mask kept either fogging up or flooding, so I couldn't see a basted thing the entire exercise. It started to tick me off after a few minutes. Exercise 2,an OW Instructor & I teamed up to follow a line course with duct taped masks (blind folded) & doing an air sharing drill. We actually managed to survive it. It wasn't pretty, but we made it. Exercise 3 we did the actual overhead environment. We ran reels through a sunken RV, followed the line back trough & out, then went back through again with the blacked out masks & air sharing & then took up the reel & wound it all back up, then switched roles. It was a long, tiring day, but very educational & rewarding.