Ever since my first set of OW training dives at Morrison Springs, FL I've always wanted to explore beyond the reaper sign. My instructor, Nicky, took us down into the spring basin and showed us the sign in March of 2002... Since then it has been a life goal to experience where that dark rabbit hole leads. I got out of diving for several years while stationed in Arizona, and eventually got back into diving January of 2009. Since then I have been working on trim, buoyancy, and general comfort while task loaded in the water. I certainly want to thank some of the great PNW mentors like Margaret, Scott and any others I've dove with. I still have a lot more to learn, but you guys have been awesome!
Travel:
It was a long travel experience to get from Washington to High Springs Florida. I worked all day Thursday and then headed to the airport for a midnight flight. Surprisingly I got through TSA checks really fast, and waited for hours for my plane. The flights were pretty uneventful, and after getting no sleep I was pretty ragged when I finally got to Orlando. After some confusion with the rental car, cause someone put the wrong car in my pickup spot... I was on my way sleepily through all the toll roads to get to I-75 and head north to the promise land. After 7.5 hours of plane travel and 3+ hours of driving (I hit traffic...) I was finally to where I was staying for the night.
Cavern:
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The day of the Cavern training was a long and strenuous day. I guess you could say it was our eye opener to what we were getting into, running reels with slight flow, overhead environments, and emergency drills. I had a couple times I would of died in a real environment, but not in 4' of water luckily. But 10 to 15 minute dives without a mask is certainly interesting. Jim was very thorough and professional even when we made mistakes. I learned to grip the hell out of the cave line and shared reg on zero viz exits!!!
Zero viz skills are not the easiest drills, along with things like lost line or air share exit drills. It really teaches you the need to problem solve. Actually everything in this training is about thinking and problem solving and not panicking. Things that a normal open water diver would consider an emergency and surface is just a problem to solve in a cave. The skill and drills were all about teaching us to keep our heads on straight in stressful environments.
The third or so basic cave dive we dove a different gold line from the entrance of Peacock where you go down this nice little crack that angles steeply downward and at the bottom where it opened up to these beautiful passage ways. We made it to about the emergency exit, and turned around to hammer in a few more drills. Shortly after the first dive through that tunnel on the Peacock line, I knew I was hooked. Not even close to done with my training and I was hooked, there was no way I wasn't coming back for more at this point!
Another day of diving and the lessons in flow began. Flow is a B&#$@ that first trip through the Ear in the Devil's Cave System was a swift kick. Installing a line in the opening is even more fun. The whole stay neutral goes out the window and you have to get negative and pry your way in. After entering the cave we shot to the roof and tried to read the cave to find the eddies and pull our way through the cave. Over another 4 dives that day we actually made it past the key hole and almost to where the Hill 400 jump starts on 1/6ths. The air share no viz exit through the lips was a lot of fun as well!
After a few days of diving we actually completed basic cave a day earlier than the schedule had us penciled in for. Since an instructor never knows what kind of student they are going to wind up with they schedule extra time. We were doing fairly well and were cut loose to do a day of diving 1/6ths with some fresh ink on our c-cards.
We started the morning out with getting fills and Brandon returned the extra tanks he rented and planned on using his 108's for the day of diving. At the dive shop, one of the valves had a small leak, so the o-rings got changed out. On the way to Peacock we figured it'd be a good idea to pick up some extra o-rings so we stopped at Cave Excursions and got some more O-rings. Brandon changed out the other knob's o-rings and off to the dive site we went and got geared up. During our gear checks and bubble checks I saw that his isolation valve had some small bubbles coming out, so he got out to replace some more o-rings while I stayed in the nice spring water cooling off. At the point I heard the hissing of his tank, I knew the day was over. Yes, I had a spare set of tanks, but this slow progression of problems made me decide the cave god's didn't want us in the cave that day and we packed up and went home even though we really wanted to get back into Peacock.
At this point I also moved accomadations to Rum Island, which is a fairly nice little 2 bedroom trailer, and I think for me it was the perfect size. The Hotel California was a lot bigger than I needed for myself.
The first day of apprentice I was introduced to a new cave system, Little River! Apparently the flow was up from what it had been the last few months as well. More skills, and learning the ways of pulling to minimize over exertion. We navigated some T's and did some jumps in and out of the Mud Tunnel, and I was introduced to carrying the deco bottle in a cave environment while running the primary reel in flow. The rest of the dives were done in the Devil's Cave and the Hill 400 area.
Post class we did a fun dive in Little River past the second T and to where the Florida room starts really opening up into a room. It was another awesome dive in cave country. I will certainly be back for more! Cave diving isn't for everyone, but I now understand how some people make it a life style and spend all of their vacation time in the caves.
On the way to the airport I got the treat of navigating in the torrential rains that were starting to fall as tropical storm Debbie was brewing to hit...
It might take awhile till I quit missing this kind of tank filling service!
So what did I learn? A lot, and I didn't go into all of the details, because everyone's experience will be different and tailored to highlight your weaknesses. I believe I came out as a better diver from the experience and have a thirst for more knowledge!
