H2Andy
Contributor
well... over this weekend (April 8-9), Jeandiver, Simon (from Savannah) and
myself did our apprentice cave with Johnny Richards.
Johnny is a geat instructor, put us through our paces, scared the crap out of
us, and taught us a lot. he's a great guy, calm, self-assured, with nothing to
prove, and knows his cave diving.
(things to do if you want to piss Johnny off: show up one hour late day one;
show up half an hour late day two. i did this... ack... almost didn't get to
dive day two... bad vibes, man... but still... he was a gentleman and it all
worked out).
DAY ONE
Dive 1: Devil's Ear. The goal here is to GET INTO THE CAVE. if you can't
GET INTO THE CAVE, you can't cave dive, right? so... easy enough. so...
let's get INTO THE CAVE. yeah.... ok... i proved i can GET INTO THE CAVE,
but with only 200 psi left so... (hahaha.. not really... made it as far as the
Bone Tunnel. i couldn't feel my legs).
on the way out, i ended up out of air with no primary. it's all a blur, but i think all
of us ended up without primaries at some point.
then it was time to FIND THE LINE. see, if you can't FIND THE LINE, you can't
GET OUT OF THE CAVE, and you can't go cave diving again if you can't GETOUT OF THE CAVE. in the immortal words of Johnny, finding the line is a simple drill:
you keep looking until you run out of air.
now, a moment of gloating: i found the line, i found the line, i found the line...
did i mention, i found the line? no thanks to johnny, who stuck me in the catacombs
to try to find my way back to the line. i woudln't have found it but my fin hit
the line. i was like... THANK YOU!
i found the line, i found the line, i found the line!!
Dive 2: Devil's Eye to Ear. This dive was all about THE CRAZY BUDDY.
Johnny "played" a member of our team. we made it all the way to Hill 400 tunnel.
upon turning the dive, Johnny dropped his light and started acting "addled." so,
we put him in the middle, and out we started. he wasn't quite cooperating, wanted
to go the wrong way. so we had to calm him down, get him going the right way.
i was in front, he was behind me, the other two team members were bringing up the
rear.
well... all of a sudden, i see him bolting by me, so i figured he's panicked. i swam
as fast as i could and managed to grab his valves, so i tried to calm him down
and get him back to the line (he was heading down a different tunnel). the others
caught up, and we managed to get him back on the line.
so we kept going. all of a sudden, he's nowhere to be seen as we turned
a tight tunnel. so, lost buddy search. when we did our "hide the light"
portion, Simon spotted Mr. Richards light up above us, so he headed
right for him and nabbed him! ha! serves you right
at that point, excercise ended, and we headed out as i had used up more
air than intended.
DAY 2
Dive 3: Peacock 1, Peanut Tunnel: God bless low flow systems. i'll say it
again: God bless low flow systems. on first dive, made it to the Crossover tunnel.
on way back, we all lost a fin. all three of us. lost a fin. what are the odd? eyebrow
anyway, eventually we fixed them. then more lights out. then air shares.
then air shares in zero vis. by the time we were done, my hands were cut to
heck from the rocks. then jean and simon got to search for the line while
johnny and i observed. simon came about four feet from the line, then veered
off. then jean and simon collided (what are the chances?). jean headed off
in the right direction and found the line. simon never did (but he came SOOO close).
Dive 4: Over to Upper Orange Grove. major problem for me here.
i was leading, and my suit had a sudden inrush of water. not sure what it was.
then i tangled my reel still in the cavern area. tried to fix it, but.... thumbed
the dive. up we went. we couldnt' fix the reel. so we decided to use spools
instead.
down we went, spools went as planned (i tangled my fin on the spool, had to let
Simon untangle me), and once tied to the gold line, all went well.
we reached the Distance tunnel, but i had to call the dive on gas just as we
got there. didn't get a chance to cross over.
on way back, everything was eerily quiet. i kept waiting for something to go wrong.
nothing. ok... nothing is going wrong. ok.
so we finally make it to the tie-off point. at that point, i lost my light and
Simon ran out of air as well as losing his light. then, we noticed someone had
removed our tie-off. there was a new line there, but not our tie off.
jean called it right, and she started a line out to open water. i took lead and simon
was between us, OOA. i did notice we had some silt happening. it wasn't much,
but still not acceptable.
out we made it, and we were really tired and exahusted, but we had learned
a lot. the difference was even noticeable from our first dive to the last.
simon and jean were superb buddies, alert, aware, thoughtful. they just
exhude confidence under water. i was very happy to be with such good buddies.
johnny richards is a great instructor. i have now taken three classes with him
and each one is a learning experience. i highly recommend him.
myself did our apprentice cave with Johnny Richards.
Johnny is a geat instructor, put us through our paces, scared the crap out of
us, and taught us a lot. he's a great guy, calm, self-assured, with nothing to
prove, and knows his cave diving.
(things to do if you want to piss Johnny off: show up one hour late day one;
show up half an hour late day two. i did this... ack... almost didn't get to
dive day two... bad vibes, man... but still... he was a gentleman and it all
worked out).
DAY ONE
Dive 1: Devil's Ear. The goal here is to GET INTO THE CAVE. if you can't
GET INTO THE CAVE, you can't cave dive, right? so... easy enough. so...
let's get INTO THE CAVE. yeah.... ok... i proved i can GET INTO THE CAVE,
but with only 200 psi left so... (hahaha.. not really... made it as far as the
Bone Tunnel. i couldn't feel my legs).
on the way out, i ended up out of air with no primary. it's all a blur, but i think all
of us ended up without primaries at some point.
then it was time to FIND THE LINE. see, if you can't FIND THE LINE, you can't
GET OUT OF THE CAVE, and you can't go cave diving again if you can't GETOUT OF THE CAVE. in the immortal words of Johnny, finding the line is a simple drill:
you keep looking until you run out of air.
now, a moment of gloating: i found the line, i found the line, i found the line...
did i mention, i found the line? no thanks to johnny, who stuck me in the catacombs
to try to find my way back to the line. i woudln't have found it but my fin hit
the line. i was like... THANK YOU!
i found the line, i found the line, i found the line!!
Dive 2: Devil's Eye to Ear. This dive was all about THE CRAZY BUDDY.
Johnny "played" a member of our team. we made it all the way to Hill 400 tunnel.
upon turning the dive, Johnny dropped his light and started acting "addled." so,
we put him in the middle, and out we started. he wasn't quite cooperating, wanted
to go the wrong way. so we had to calm him down, get him going the right way.
i was in front, he was behind me, the other two team members were bringing up the
rear.
well... all of a sudden, i see him bolting by me, so i figured he's panicked. i swam
as fast as i could and managed to grab his valves, so i tried to calm him down
and get him back to the line (he was heading down a different tunnel). the others
caught up, and we managed to get him back on the line.
so we kept going. all of a sudden, he's nowhere to be seen as we turned
a tight tunnel. so, lost buddy search. when we did our "hide the light"
portion, Simon spotted Mr. Richards light up above us, so he headed
right for him and nabbed him! ha! serves you right
at that point, excercise ended, and we headed out as i had used up more
air than intended.
DAY 2
Dive 3: Peacock 1, Peanut Tunnel: God bless low flow systems. i'll say it
again: God bless low flow systems. on first dive, made it to the Crossover tunnel.
on way back, we all lost a fin. all three of us. lost a fin. what are the odd? eyebrow
anyway, eventually we fixed them. then more lights out. then air shares.
then air shares in zero vis. by the time we were done, my hands were cut to
heck from the rocks. then jean and simon got to search for the line while
johnny and i observed. simon came about four feet from the line, then veered
off. then jean and simon collided (what are the chances?). jean headed off
in the right direction and found the line. simon never did (but he came SOOO close).
Dive 4: Over to Upper Orange Grove. major problem for me here.
i was leading, and my suit had a sudden inrush of water. not sure what it was.
then i tangled my reel still in the cavern area. tried to fix it, but.... thumbed
the dive. up we went. we couldnt' fix the reel. so we decided to use spools
instead.
down we went, spools went as planned (i tangled my fin on the spool, had to let
Simon untangle me), and once tied to the gold line, all went well.
we reached the Distance tunnel, but i had to call the dive on gas just as we
got there. didn't get a chance to cross over.
on way back, everything was eerily quiet. i kept waiting for something to go wrong.
nothing. ok... nothing is going wrong. ok.
so we finally make it to the tie-off point. at that point, i lost my light and
Simon ran out of air as well as losing his light. then, we noticed someone had
removed our tie-off. there was a new line there, but not our tie off.
jean called it right, and she started a line out to open water. i took lead and simon
was between us, OOA. i did notice we had some silt happening. it wasn't much,
but still not acceptable.
out we made it, and we were really tired and exahusted, but we had learned
a lot. the difference was even noticeable from our first dive to the last.
simon and jean were superb buddies, alert, aware, thoughtful. they just
exhude confidence under water. i was very happy to be with such good buddies.
johnny richards is a great instructor. i have now taken three classes with him
and each one is a learning experience. i highly recommend him.
