Quero is a Cave Diver!!!!!!!!!!

[Quero]

Congratulations, Quero... now try something really challenging. Dive our kelp forests in winter when the temperature hits the low 50s (or even the high 40s). Tee hee. One of my Harvard professors dove Antarctica back in 1957 with 13mm of neoprene wetsuit.

I actually did my drysuit training in Monterey in the kelp in water that was about 46°, Bill. It was a rental suit, and the seals leaked, so I did get a little wet and cold, but quite a lot less cold than in those Florida caves!

---------- Post added June 27th, 2013 at 09:53 AM ----------

Why wouldn't a cave diver wear gloves?

Oddly, my hands weren't cold (or maybe they were, but not so much in comparison with my upper body). I guess gloves would be an option, if they had Kevlar finger/palm pads.

---------- Post added June 27th, 2013 at 09:54 AM ----------

Congratulations Marcia ... now that you've experienced Florida caves, you should sign up for a trip to Mexico. The caves are different there, the water's a bit warmer, and you won't have to pull and glide to make it inside the entrance.

I commiserate on the Ginnie Fingers ... I think most of us who took the class in Florida know exactly how you feel.

If I may ask ... who did you take the class with?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob, I'll probably try some Thailand caves first.
My Florida instructor was Jon Bernot.

 

[TSandM]

Why wouldn't a cave diver wear gloves? For a large part, because you are doing a lot of fine manipulation when you are running line and making tie-offs, and being gloveless is a big advantage. You are also supposed to learn a technique that doesn't involve sliding your fingertips along the limestone, although I have utterly and totally failed to master this in all the trips I've done to FL. (I still think some of us have skin that softens more in water!)

though for full effect lunch afterward should have salt & vinegar potato chips.

Or jalapenos, which have the dual effect of lighting up your fingers, and making the subsequent dive a bit sporty.

 

[eelnoraa]

Congratulations, Quero... now try something really challenging. Dive our kelp forests in winter when the temperature hits the low 50s (or even the high 40s). Tee hee. One of my Harvard professors dove Antarctica back in 1957 with 13mm of neoprene wetsuit.

Hmm, I kind of think in 14mm neoprene is not any easier than a drysuit, maybe even harder. It is definiely less mobile in 14mm, at least the same amount of weight if not more than a 400gb undergarment. Suit buoyanace change with depth uncontrollablly espeically in shallower depth.

 

[Quero]

yes, ginnie fingers are a rite of passage, though for full effect lunch afterward should have salt & vinegar potato chips.

Or jalapenos, which have the dual effect of lighting up your fingers, and making the subsequent dive a bit sporty.

Thanks for the warnings ladies. I've already found out about the effect of holding anything the least bit warm when your skin is thin, how it feels to wash your hair with raw fingers, and how it's easier to open the pop top of an aluminum can with your toes than it is with sore fingertips. I've got a couple of ocean dives this morning and I'll find out how far the healing has progressed when my skin gets soft from the water.

---------- Post added June 27th, 2013 at 04:33 PM ----------

Why wouldn't a cave diver wear gloves? For a large part, because you are doing a lot of fine manipulation when you are running line and making tie-offs, and being gloveless is a big advantage.

I brought tropical-weight surfer's gloves along but didn't have cold hands and didn't wear them once. They're very, very thin, maybe .5 mm and have textured finger/palm panels. I believe that these gloves would be thin enough for good dexterity, but I also think they'd be shredded by the end of one dive in the ear.

I've often used fingerless gloves.

That sounds like a winning strategy, and it seems to me that it would be an excellent reminder to grasp the rocks with the palm of the hand rather than the fingers. I wonder, though, whether those among us with smaller hands, particularly women, have enough breadth in our hands to get a good palm grip. Guess that's an experiment that's going to have to wait till next time!

Edit: Here are my gloves:
https://radiator.net/product/inner-glove/

 

[Randy g]

Congrats Quero. We are taking our cavern/cave classes this fall with the CC. I will tell my dive buddy/SO that she better wrap her fingers well before jumping in.

 

[Quero]

Hmm, I kind of think in 14mm neoprene is not any easier than a drysuit, maybe even harder. It is definiely less mobile in 14mm, at least the same amount of weight if not more than a 400gb undergarment. Suit buoyanace change with depth uncontrollablly espeically in shallower depth.

Not exactly "uncontrollably" but yeah, there are significant buoyancy swings, particularly since in a cave your depths change according to the profile of the passage, so I was having to adjust frequently due to suit compresssion/decompression.

 

[TSandM]

I will tell my dive buddy/SO that she better wrap her fingers well before jumping in.

Her instructor may not permit it. Mine didn't. In fact, I posted a photograph of myself diving in Florida with my fingers wrapped in red electrician's tape on the Cave Divers forum, and took what I thought was an amazing amount of heat for doing it.

 

[Doppler]

Congrats!!! Welcome to the darker side.

 

[tracydr]

Congrats, Quero!
I'm hoping that someday I have the opportunity to sand off my fingerprints and join the club, too.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I
Bob, I'll probably try some Thailand caves first.
My Florida instructor was Jon Bernot.

Good that you have local caves. My one complaint about where I live is that there are very limited options for cave diving here ... and none that would interest me.

I had the pleasure of spending a week with Jon and Kristi in Mexico in April ... real nice people, and excellent divers.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)