OP
Thanks Dave!
an honor??
many words come to mind but that is not one of them 
Congrats to both you ladies! That's wonderful! Enjoy your new training/skills.
Thanks Ranier!
Now, what you ladies need is a trip to Mexico . . .
Sam and I dived together in the Cenote "caverns", after what we learned in class, it now occurs to me now that those dives were just a bit beyond our training and equipment setups, but due to the ease of the dives it seemed like it was ok at the time. Sam and I are far from geologists, but as quarry divers, we have an appreciation for beautiful underwater rock formations. As one can imagine, if we think a rock wall in a quarry is pretty, the Cenotes and FL caves blew us away. I remember thinking at Peacock, how wonderful it was to be able to go in one entrance and visit the equivalent of an art museum with all the gorgeous scalloped walls at the Peanut line to the left and mini Grand Canyon like rock formations to the right. I felt like a kid in a candy shop, with the imagination in overload
Glad my favorite northerners had fun, I think...
Had a great time diving with you guys and it was really nice watching it all come together (kinda!) on the last day. Perrone was definitely good to y'all and I'm happy things worked out.
Hopefully you can pass on that cave diving's an activity that's not to be undertaken lightly and I expect to see you guys down here soon or Mexico/Bahamas practicing your new found skills! As we talked about, if you decide to head down to North FL, gimme a shout, we'll go cave diving and I promise I won't turn out any lights or harass you, at least underwater.... :mooner:
Congratulations on your hard earned Basic Cave certs and I'll talk to y'all soon.....
Safe diving,
Rich
Thanks Rich :daydreaming: you bring up a good point about the "undertaken lightly" bit. Sam and I were doing what we love most, dive and it is not our style to bitch or brag about how hard something is that we accomplished. We laugh and poke fun at ourselves, probably so we dont break down and cry like girls when the going gets tough. We have received a bit of feedback when we said the class was fun, that is must not have been hard enough and I had to dig deep not to feel insulted. Neither one of us listed all the gruesomely embarrassing details of our struggles, mostly because we felt we provided enough entertainment as it was
We know there are living witnesses to our shenanigans just in case our own humility wears off, which I doubt. Thinking how to take care of all living witnesses . . .Thanks Orrin!
how exciting! i'm thrilled for you both.
i got to meet spf before either one of us were really cave divers - back in the 'wannabe' stage.
Thanks BD!!
Awesome reports, Donna and Sam. Thanks for sharing your learning curve. Sounds like you got soooo much out of your training. Meeting Scubaboarders is awesome...local guides, mentors, saviors, patient saints, and/or comedians.
I had to laugh all the way through your descriptions as I see myself being the
in April when I take my cavern class. I hope Capt. Jim takes an extra dose of "patience" pills with his morning vitamins those days.
I'm looking forward to the class but not at being the entertainment for all those participating in the annual Spring Megadive that weekend. I'm sure there will be photos and bonfire depictions
Elena, We chose Rich based on a number of things, personality fit amongst the top criteria. I think all CI's must have standing refill orders at their pharmacies on the "patience" pills
And you can just forget about all pride and be prepared to eat humble pie, might as well consider yourself the main act ok, ok, I take it back, you are a far more advanced diver than Sam and I, so I am sure you will ace Cavern without incident :bounce4: While I thought both of these reports were awesome I wanted to add just a couple things now that I have a few moments.
1. Donna and Sam are two good friends and dive buddies. It cannot be overstated how helpful this is when taking a challenging course. I noted how much they were able to communicate WITHOUT words at times, or with very few words. This was expedient, and efficient both in the water and above the water. That understanding can really help move things along when the need arises.
2. I noted that the question came up here in the thread about "continuing cave training." Personally, I feel that divers should progress slowly and deliberately though these levels. There is MUCH to see and do at each level of training. Sam and Donna should probably be concerned about honing their currently learned skills so that when they proceed to further levels, these skills are well ingrained. For those NOT able to cave dive regularly this is challenging, and I hope they try to replicate as much of the experience as possible in open water.
3. I was very happy to be able to re-do a day of cavern and watch Rich work. Running the reel has never been a strong suit of mine but I picked up some good tips from the class and will be doing some land work to hone my skills. Thanks for the refresher Rich.
4. It's always entertaining to me to see people come in from other areas and get immersed in "cave country" and the culture around it. I find that culture unique in the world of diving and enjoy it quite a lot. The shops are different, the dive stories are different, and sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. Sam and Donna took it all in stride, and it was great to see how much they took from the entire experience.
I'll be looking forward to a nice relaxing dive with them the next time they are down in cave country.
SPF! :daydreaming: I have to agree wholeheartedly with the advantages of taking this type of training with a well known dive buddy. Despite all the new info/drills, I definitely had a base level of comfort because I trusted Sam implicitly in the water. For better or worse, we knew each others habits and easily moved past personality quirks another dive buddy may have found frustrating.
Nice relaxing dive? Well, we should probably schedule our next shakeout dive with someone else before we meet up with you then
