My dive buddy for the week <BG>

Our Illustrious Instructor David

Garth and Trixie from Utah.

4th July Party

Wohoo... We passed

I had been making some practice dives over the last couple of days with friends  and then headed over to David Rhea's house on Sunday night.    David was the instructor and we were staying at his place for the 5 days of the class.   I was terribly nervous and to make things worse I couldn't find the place.    Finally with a little help from Tina (David's wife)  I managed to arrive and met everyone.     I also met another Tina who we called Trixie so that they didn't get mixed up, and her boyfriend Garth.  They were from Utah and were here for a week of cave diving.    I also met my new class buddy Mark, who was also staying there.     The place was really beautiful and was way back in the countryside and was on big high stilts so that we wouldn't get flooded by the river.   I was really nervous meeting David, since his fearsome reputation precedes him, but he turned out to be really nice and not anywhere near as scary as I had expected.   We were all tired and so turned in early.

Up at 7:00am sharp, and leaving by 7:30 we headed out to Ginnie.   My car was packed with 2 sets of full 95's and the remainder of my gear.    We spent the morning doing the swim tests, followed by line drills in the trees.      Our first shakedown dive was at Ginnie where we all got in the water and did our drills.   Of course this was the first time David had seen me in the water and he did have alot to say about everything.. =:-o,     We parked our Oxygen bottles at the chain on the log, and to my total discomfort he had picked me to be in the lead and run the reel into the ear!    Since Mark had sat through David's cave 1 class the previous week just for fun,  I was the newbie and as a result was getting way more attention than usual.     On the first day we did two dives in the Ear,  and made our first jumps.  Woohoo..  On the first dive we did a very short penetration,  on the second dive it was somewhat longer yet we did the exact same dive.     I also learned that like most cave instructors (in my experience anyway)  David is a master at turning off your Isolator without you feeling it (hmm....).     It was on the second dive that David noticed something that was a cross I had to bear throughout the whole class until I fixed it.   Apparently I had all this time been doing some kind of weird inverted frog kick :-(, that wasn't normal at all.   A few other comments were that for Cave Deco I was supposed to find a place to wedge myself in or fix myself in place.  My usual mode of drifting decompression was incorrect for the environment, so hanging at 20ft in the ear was quickly deemed unacceptable and I had to remember to stop doing that. 

The next day it was decided that we would do our first circuit, and proceeded to go to peacock.     We went in at Olsen.     We were supposed to place a clothespin when we reached thirds, and then return the way we came leaving all the jumps in place, but you can imagine the big grins on our faces when we emerged back at Olsen at the end of the circuit still with gas to spare :-). high fives all round.      We were also popular in that we had managed to do the safety drills without silting out the sink :-). This was a good day,     We then made the return journey carefully taking out all of our goodies.    It was really exciting to see new parts of the cave that I had never seen before :-) but with my newly corrected  frog kick I felt as though I was going at 1/4 speed and poor Mark was wondering what had happened to his speedy buddy from the day before.   We managed three dives on day two, and then exhausted we returned back to David's to fill our tanks, with classroom stuff following after dinner.  

Day three was back at Ginnie.    By this time my drills were improving yet still had to work on managing the valve shutdowns without moving an inch and looking up at the same time.    I was also developing a severe case of mystery valve shutdown paranoia, to which David's response was that the more often I check my spg the less likely he is to shut off the isolator..   Hmmmm...    This time we entered in the eye, and mysteriously David took my reel and put it in there himself on the way in,  all the way through the catacombs and placing into some very weird spots,  running out almost 400ft of line.    We were going to make a jump on this dive but it was really busy at the jump so we just continued in on the main line.    This was pretty nice actually and we went as far as the far end of the sand dunes.     Of course on the way back was when the trouble started, and as usual our lights went out.    By this time it was a regular occurrence ;-).     Then suddenly I heard a huge gush of air by my right post.    So frantically I signalled Mark and shut off the offending valve,  switching to my backup reg in the process.     Mark was ready to share but I showed him my now useless primary and that I was on the backup and we proceeded further along.    After a little while,  suddenly the same thing happened to my left post. and this time I was really ready to share air with him as I was forced to shut it down.     So now here I am sharing, and I am thinking that I have no inflator either so I had to make a quick buoyancy adjustment orally.   Only later did I find out that in fact David had turned back on my right post just to make sure that I was not ever really without air and I did have my inflator all along (instructor priveleges again ;-)... )    We headed back to the reel with me in front On Mark's long hose, with him then picking up the reel behind me we started to exit.    Hmm.. now I am in the catacombs with David in front of me,  and he started stealing my backup lights.    First one, then the other, then my buddy kindly let me have one of his, then David stole that one too.. and then finally our last light ended up clipped off somewhere on his person and we were completely in the dark.      Ha.. it was at this point I found out why he had wanted to put in the line himself,  it was stuck in tiny corners, and wedged under rocks and I learned the true meaning of touch contact, by your leg and not even by the arm because we couldn't fit side by side.      It was a real challenge, thank goodness it was only a drill.   My drysuit was leaking and I was so cold that on deco I was shaking.    With two more full days of diving to go I decided it was time to get the new underwear that I had been looking at and got myself some nice Poofy C4.    I also picked up a friend's Pro 14 light for him that was being repaired and after some consideration got permission to test it for the rest of the week since I figured it would make up for all that extra underwear with it's immense weight.  That evening was  spent first watching a video of Wakulla which was really fun, and then working with Decoplanner and having some really interesting discussions on decompression.   Including advice on many other situations besides cave deco,  thanks everyone for bearing with me and all my non-cave questions.

Day four was back at Peacock.   We made a longer circuit beginning at the Pothole tunnel.   This time we did not make it all the way around on 1/3.     On the way into the cave my buddy spotted that my left post reg had sprung a little leak and was bubbling.    He signaled me,  and I was about to turn the dive when David zoomed up and gave me the hold signal.      He then proceeded to fix my reg underwater by unscrewing it and reseating it while I was holding.   It was amazing and very impressive that he could do that.    It  was  definitely a little uncomfortable being frozen in position for a while getting my reg fixed but worth it because we were able to continue.    I was now having the new buoyancy challenge, with the poofy underwear, the remodeled frog kick and the extremely large light.   Jeez..   But it was awesome to have a big 18watt light to see everything with.    A pity David kept turning it off for me ;-)..  I discovered that venting my suit with the new underwear was a never ending process.. bubbles just keep coming out no matter how much you dump them.. Very interesting.. and I always dive with very little air in my suit too.     On the way out of the cave we also had an impromptu lost buddy drill.      Dive two started at the peanut tunnel side of the circuit,  and we made our way all the way around, but by this time I was pretty sick of my new found buoyancy challenge and simply made the whole dive with almost no air in my suit, feeling like a stiff twig, but I certainly never got cold all day :-).     We spent the evening having a 4th of July party which was really awesome.   We had a barbecue and fireworks and all kinds of fun.

On the last day we dived Telford Spring.    I really like the cave there,  I have no clue why, perhaps because it changes so dramatically as you go along, or perhaps because it is a bit challenging in the low parts.. who knows. but I was having a blast  playing around in there.     I was also really happy that we were going to learn how to do a survey, which was something I had always wanted to know about.   We had a very excellent penetration into the cave, lots of fun, but then as usual the lights went out on exit and now it wasn't so much fun, for some reason it was much more difficult to keep on the line in this cave and I had to constantly check for it.     I also found my isolator off again <G>  this time I caught it right away hehe.   The survey was difficult because of the backup lights and having chosen a silty part of the cave to do it.  But I learned how, now all I have to do is practice it.   :-)..    We headed back to Gainesville and then took our final exam.     To my surprise David had our cards all ready and so at about 8:00pm I left and headed back to Miami feeling VERY tired but very happy that I had learned so much and survived.

There were so many new things I learned that it would take a week to put them all in the report, but I certainly think it was well worth every bit of effort.

I'd like to say thanks to David for being such an excellent instructor, and kicking my bum extensively throughout the week,   and thanks to Tina for making such great food.    (I drank several Pepsi Twists onthe way home though :-)..  ).   Now I am ready to go off and see some new caves :-)...

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