Almost official

[DeepDiverBob]

down here in 70 degree Luraville right now. All dives have been completed, just waiting on John to get here to go over the paperwork stuff, and then I am on the road back home. As soon as all this paper work is done, I will officially be a cave diver. I will post a full report when I get home.

[MgicTwnger]

You da man!

[theskull]

Congrats. Can't wait to hear about it. And to make some cooler dives with you now that you are qualified to do so.

theskull

[DeepDiverBob]

Okay, first couple days down there, we had to wait for 2 other students to complete their cavern and intro, to get caught up to where we was at. No biggie, I knew that going in. My LDS had some classes going on down there anyway, so I helped out with those at Manatee Springs and then Blue Grotto the next day.

Then our fun started.

Day 1 we was back at Peacock. Again, we did the first half of the circuit from Peacock to Olson. The second dive was a lights out drill, alt air source in peanut tunnel. Thats always a good time. The cuts on my fingers from the pull and glide show proof I was there. We was going to do the other half of the circuit, but one of the other guys in the group needed to work on his finning techniques before we went into the cross over tunnel.

Day 2, we went to Little River. The water is way up now, and Telford is not diveable. I had never been to Little River, so I had nothing to compare it to. But for those of you that have been there, the steps that I am told leads down to a sidewalk to get to the sink was half way under water. Someone had put in a temp guideline from the steps to the enterence to the cave. This is also all tannic water, so that it that much more fun. Now for the fun part, seeing if I can correctly remember all the names of the passages. I was chosen to lead the team on this dive. We made it down to the Serpentine passage, which is rightly named. Winding all of the place. I dont recall if we was by the Florida room or not, if not, I know we was close. I know we did go around the merry go round too, and that was a lot of fun. We did hit deco on this dive. I had to make 2 deep water stops, one at 53 feet and one at 33 for 2 minutes each, and then 8 minutes at 10 foot. My buddy I guess wasnt sure what he was seeing on his VR3 computer, and blew his deep water stops, and had to do an 18 minute stop at 10 feet according to his other computer. I hung with him for the full time. I never hit thirds until a few minutes into my last deco stop anyway.

After little river, we went and got tank fills again, and it was back to Peanut for more lights out, air sharing drills. We also ran all the way up Peanut, to where the cross over room is, but didnt go through it at this time. But we was all warned about the potential for silt out conditions if we wasnt careful.

Final day of class, we completed the circuit, going through peanut, all the way up through the cross over room, which was like diving a roller coaster. Up and down, up and down. Just as luck would have it, I was again chosen to lead on this tour. It went really smooth. That completed out last day of training dives.

Friday, we was on our own to do whatever we wanted, while the other 2 people finished up their training dives. We decided we was going to go in Orange Grove, and see if we could make it to Challenge on thirds. I had a feeling my buddy wasnt really up for this dive, and I asked him about it, and gave him every chance to bail on it, but he kept saying he wanted to go. So we dropped down in Orange Grove for the first time, and saw 2 tunnels. Everyone kept telling us that the deep tunnel is hard to find, and the permanent line starts at about 70 feet. So we chose a hole, ran the reel, and at about 90 feet, decided we had chosen the wrong tunnel. We then exited that cave, and reran the reel into the other tunnel, picked up the line and we was on our way. I figured since we wasted so much time with the first tunnel, we should also recalculate thirds to be safe, which we did. Well, we got about 300 foot in, and my buddy thumbed the dive, which he was leading. I gave him the okay signal, and we exited the cave. I didnt ask, but he told me he was just beat from the week, which was understandable. We packed up, and went back and finished the paper work, went over the test and congradulated each other. Stood around and BS'd for a while, and I hit the road.

It was a great time, and I am really looking forward to getting down there again. I guess now that I have Cave completed, I am going to start looking into Trimix. Always something new.

[theskull]

Nice report. Sounds like a great time. Wish I had been there.

theskull

[steve2281]

Nice report. Congradulations on Full Cave!!

[juls64]

Good Job and good report. It sounds like you were very prepared and very ready for this class. Congrats!

[DeepDiverBob]

Good Job and good report. It sounds like you were very prepared and very ready for this class. Congrats!

I would like to think I was very prepared for this, and for that, I have to thank theskull for all the advice and help along the way.