Showing posts with label Class Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Class Reports. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
GUE Tech 2 - May 2008
My team just completed our Tech 2 class with Gideon Liew at Puerto Galera. The class was hosted by Tech Asia. Leon and I are still here until Sunday evening but Gideon and Michael already took off. We are doing an additional 2 days of diving before heading back to Singapore.
Leon and I arrived on Sunday afternoon from Singapore, after each paying about S$150 in excess baggage on our Jetstar flight (note to self: good example of the false economy of flying budget airlines). Michael arrived in PG a couple of days earlier and Gideon had just finished teaching another Tech 2 class, also with Tech Asia.
Throughout the class, the Tech 2 configuration that we dove consisted of double AL80s for backgas, one AL80 stage (with backgas), one AL40 with 50% and one AL40 with oxygen. On days 1 and 2, we used nitrox 32% in all the bottles, as we were not diving deep. We would start each dive with the stage and 50% chest clipped and the oxygen bottle on a leash. At some point along the dive, once we had switched off the stage, we would move the stage to the leash and the oxygen bottle to the front for the deco.
The class officially started on Monday morning. We did a series of shore dives in front of Tech Asia. We went down to about 12m and spent several dives doing valve drills, s-drills, and Tech 2 ascent drills (which consists of 1m/min stops, gas switches, and bottle movement). The current picked up at one point and we had to move to a more sheltered spot. After several ascents and descents, we did 2 scenario dives, where we laid line and simulated a dive, complete with simulated failures. All in all, we spent 5 hours in the water and exited at about 3.30pm. Since we were already wet, we jumped back in for our swim tests. We finally broke for lunch at 4.30pm… what a start to Tech 2! Fatigue and hunger were setting in and it was a relief to get some food and water. We reviewed video of our dives and debriefed over lunch. We all had definite points for improvement but overall our performance was decent, which was encouraging. We finished the day with a lecture on gas management and a late dinner.
Day 4 was 2 experience dives to 50m, using 18/45 for backgas. On these dives, I tested out Gideon’s Evolve wing, which I liked very much. I had to shift gas side to side a lot while using my Explorer wing due to the changing weight of the bottles on the left side. The morning’s dive was meant to be at Sweetlips Corner, but the current was counter to what we expected, and we ended up with a long sandy swim and at Marcus Cave instead. We attempted the same dive after lunch but the current had really picked up and there were washing machine currents at Sweetlips Corner. The team was at risk of being split up so Gideon called the dive early.
Our experience dive on Day 5 was a 63m dive for 25 min at Hibo wall. Hibo is about a 30 min boat ride from Tech Asia and consists of a small ledge around 18-21m, a sloping reef to about 30m, and a relatively steep wall down to about 88m. We had a nice drop and found the wall pretty quickly. There was a slight current that kept us moving along the wall. After breathing the stage down, we switched to backgas for a few minutes before calling the dive. We ascended along the wall through our deep stops and did a gas switch at 21m. By then, we were on top of the ledge and the current was quite strong, so we drifted and shot a bag. Total deco from 21m and up was 45 min. It felt like ages because we spent it all in blue water. On the boat, Gideon shook our hands one by one and congratulated us on passing the class.
PG is a great location for tech training. Deep sites are within a few minutes’ boat ride from shore. The currents can be unpredictable but there are always reasonable dive sites available; current and unpredictable conditions can sometimes be a boon to tech training, anyway.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that Tech Asia is a well run outfit well suited to supporting technical training and dives. They are knowledgeable about local sites and conditions, the staff and boat crew are very well trained and take their jobs seriously, and they are a nice bunch of people. This is why I keep going back.
Thanks to Gideon for not only having the knowledge and experience to be a qualified instructor, but for having the skill and teaching style to educate effectively. Gideon is a great ambassador for GUE.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
GUE Cave 2 - March 2006
I just got back from taking Cave 2 with Chris Le Maillot in Mexico. It was an extremely challenging course but I am pleased that I learned a ton and was pushed to constantly raise my diving skills to new levels.
Introduction
Chris and Danny Riordan run DIR-Mexico, a training facility based in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. They have lived in the area for some time and are the original explorers of several cave systems down there. They remain active explorers today, continuing to discover and map new cave passage. Immediately after our class ended, Chris went on to spend a few days mapping the Ox Bel Ha system. DIR-Mexico is run out of the retail store Zero Gravity. We met there each morning, did our lectures there, and stored our gear there.
Chris is a very nice guy and his love of the caves is evident. He always stresses conservation, so that we and others can enjoy the beauty of the caves for years to come. In class, his demeanor changes a little. He has extremely high standards when it comes to cave instruction and doesn't settle for half-assed efforts. He made this very clear at numerous times during the course when our (or should I say my) performance was not up to his expectations. Yet, he is patient and all issues are open to discussion. Just don't mess up in the cave and everything is fine with him.
The Place
I flew into Cancun airport and a car was waiting for me to take me to my hotel. I stayed at Hotel Villas del Caribe Xpu-Ha, a tiny hotel on the beach a short walk from Zero Gravity. My feelings about the place are mixed. On the plus side, the prices are reasonable, it is on a beautiful beach, it has a quaint beachside restaurant with great healthy food, and is run by very nice people. On the minus side, the accommodations are very basic - no hot water, no refrigerator, very dimly lit rooms, and I saw four cockroaches in my room in the course of nine days. If you are like me and are deathly afraid of cockroaches, this may not be the best place for you.
Zero Gravity is a 15 min walk or 5 min drive away. Each morning, I walked to the main road and Chris picked me up to take me to the shop.
Day 1
Day 1 started at 8am at Zero Gravity. We did our paperwork and made our introductions. My teammates were Markus and Andy from Germany. Both were Tech 1 certified and had a fair bit of experience diving deep lakes in Germany. Markus has also participated in EKPP projects in the past.
We discussed basic cave diving procedures and Chris gave us a lecture on how to do jumps and Ts. Then we drove over to Taj Mahal, a cave system only 5 min away from Zero Gravity.
Prior to every dive, we did our bubble checks and equipment checks on the surface. Then we descended to about 3m/10ft and took turns to do our valve drills and s-drills. Once the whole team was done, we surfaced to review the dive plan and calculate gas. Most dives (except in the Minotauro system due to the numerous restrictions), we took our deco bottles into the cave and dropped them on the line at 6m/20ft.
Dive 1: Taj Mahal
Depth: 13m/42ft
Dive time: 82 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
Markus led the first dive of Cave 2. We did 1 jump and 1 T, turning on thirds. I was immediately struck by how different the caves were from the ones I was used to in Florida. Visibility was excellent, the water was warmer, and the cave was beautifully white and decorated. The halocline was new to me. A halocline is the interface between fresh and salt water, and appears as a beautiful, shimmering layer until it is disturbed. The first person going through a halocline has good visibility, but the others will have their vis greatly blurred if passing through the same area. On this dive, I learned that team positioning relative to the line is very important when going through a halocline.
On this dive and the other dives, Chris left us alone until we turned the dive, then he started introducing "scenarios". These were simulated failures, including light failures, valve problems, out of gas scenarios, and others.
Dive 2: Taj Mahal
Depth: 13m/42ft
Dive time: 72 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
After a short lunch break and debrief on the surface, we went back in for another dive. This time, I led the dive. Chris' debrief was hard, with him telling me that I was rushing all the time, and I needed to work on my fin techniques. I would hear the same comments many more times that week.
By the time we got out of the water, it was getting dark and the bugs were everywhere. We packed up quickly and headed back to the shop for a lecture on circuits and traverses. It was a long first day of Cave 2.
Day 2
We started Day 2 with a lecture on the various valve problems and the protocols for dealing with them. This day, we would set up, and then complete a circuit in the Minotauro system.
Dive 3: Minotauro
Depth: 14m/47ft
Dive time: 90 min
Deco: min deco
Our objective on this dive was to drop our cookies at the furthest point of penetration. This would set up the circuit that we would attempt on the next dive. Minotauro was explored by Chris and some others some years ago and the original survey line is still in the cave. It's a very beautiful cave that has a lot of tight, winding passages near the entrance. This forced us to work on our precision finning techniques. We did not take our deco bottles into this cave, for fear of damaging the fragile formations.
Dive 4: Minotauro Circuit
Depth: 14m/48ft
Dive time: 70 min
Deco: min deco
Somehow, we were a lot faster this time around, and our dive was a lot shorter than the first one even though we completed the 4000ft+ circuit. Perhaps it was because the restrictions seemed a lot easier to navigate the second time around.
We had another lecture to end the day, but the topic of the lecture escape me right now.
Day 3
Day 3 we headed to Tulum, with is a town about 40 min south of Puerto Aventuras. We were to dive Naharon, a very black cave due to the tannic acid of a nearby swamp.
Dive 5: Naharon
Depth: 19m/62ft
Dive time: 88 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
I laid the line on this dive. On the way out, we stopped to do a lost buddy search drill. Again, during the debrief, Chris told me that I was rushing into the cave. I wasn't taking the time to read the cave and to make mental notes of key landmarks. While I managed to find the main line and jumps, the dive would have been smoother and more enjoyable if I had taken my time.
Dive 6: Naharon
Depth: 22m/74ft
Dive time: 64 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
As we were starting dive 6, I had a real light failure. My Helios 9 light had not been charged fully. We called dive, I switched batteries, and we headed back into the cave. This time, part of the dive was below the halocline, in very white passage (salt water had bleached the limestone), a sharp contrast to the blackness of the rest of the cave. This dive ended with no lights and me breathing off Andy's long hose. We managed the scenario well, feeling our way out of the cave successfully while remaining calm.
Once we surfaced, Chris laid a 20m line in the open water. We were to do a breath hold swim without a mask. This consisted swimming on a breath hold to a diver waiting on the other end of the line, and taking the reg out of his mouth in a controlled fashion. Being not a strong swimmer, it took me two tries before making it.
We picked up "roadkill chicken" on the way back to Zero Gravity, where we had a discussion on stage diving techniques and deco.
Day 4
Day 4 was by far the most strenuous day, "hump day", as they call it. It started out with the swim test and breath hold test in Mayan Blue cenote. The cenote was very beautiful but I was too tired and preoccupied to notice.
Dive 7: Mayan Blue
Depth: 24m/79ft
Dive time: 93 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
We were to do our first stage dive in Mayan Blue. Together with the deco bottle that we would drop at 6m/20ft, we would have 2 bottles clipped to us at the beginning and end of the dive. I had not done this before, having only dove 1 stage/deco bottle at once in the past. I had some balance issues during the valve drills and s-drills, but thankfully they resolved themselves as the day went on.
Dive 8: Mayan Blue
Depth: 23m/77ft
Dive time: 75 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
Our next dive was also in Mayan Blue, but to the Death Arrow Passage, so called because the original explorer put line arrows facing into the cave, potentially causing some confusion. It was truly a beautiful passage with breathtaking formations.
We ended the day practicing towing an unconscious diver up and down the cenote. While the technique is effective, it is also very tiring. I would hate to have to do that from deep into a cave.
I was really exhausted by the end of Day 4. We picked up "roadkill chicken" again, and went back to the shop for lectures on deco and cave surveying.
Day 5
Everything had to come together on Day 5 and I had to prove to Chris that I was capable of diving consistently at the level he expected from us. I had had my moments, but had also made mistakes and lapses of judgment that I could not afford to make today. My body was very tired, my back ached, and my legs were tired from all the kicking. But I could not let any of these niggles get the better of me.
Dive 9: Carwash downstream
Depth: 26m/88ft
Dive time: 64 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
On this dive, we got a taste of cave surveying. Andy laid line from the cenote to the main line in the Chamber of Ancients, which was a long way in. Markus was taking survey measurements and I was in the back helping out. When we reached the main line, Markus and I switched roles. In the Chamber, there are ancient fire pits, where you can still see the remains of the coals that people burned there centuries ago. Surveying was fun but challenging, and really showed us how involved the process of mapping a cave can be.
Dive 10: Carwash upstream
Depth: 12m/40ft
Dive time: 43 min
Deco: min deco
The next dive was a short one, where we practiced a lost line drill. In darkness, Chris took us off the line one by one and asked us to find our way back. I took a little longer than my teammates did to complete the drill, and this was a valuable lesson to not lose the line in the first place.
On the surface, Chris said we had done well and the last dive would be our graduation dive. For me, he said I had shown enough improvement throughout the week and enough consistency at the end to make him happy. Now, our reward was a dive without any scenarios, where we could enjoy ourselves and actually have our lights on the whole dive.
Dive 11: Carwash upstream
Depth: 18m/61ft
Dive time: 87 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
We made it past the Room of Tears and into a tight, restrictive passage before turning the dive. Apparently, the Room of Tears got its name when its original explorer, Mike Madden, was moved to tears by its beauty. It was indeed stunningly beautiful, though I don't think any of us shed tears over it.
The day ended with the final exam and a celebratory dinner at my hotel's cafe. Chris congratulated us on our passing the class but at the same time warned us to progress one step at a time, so as to not exceed our training/comfort level.
Conclusion
I took the next day off to recuperate, look around a little, and reflect on the class. After that, I did 2 more days of diving with my German buddies and a visiting EKPP diver from the Netherlands. We dove Naharon again, heading towards Mayan Blue, and did a 2 hour dive at Ponderosa, heading towards Xtabai. All in all, I did 13 dives on this trip, with a total of more than 1000 minutes of bottom time. Looking back, I really enjoyed Cave 2. It was very challenging and the bar is set very high, but that's really what you want when you are attempting long cave dives with complex navigation. Chris is a great instructor - very knowledgeable, a good teacher, and has his ways of making sure you never forget the important points. I'd recommend highly seeing Chris for cave diving training.
Now, I'm back to reality in cold, miserable Chicago, dreaming of the spectacular Mexican caves that I hope to dive again in the near future.
Introduction
Chris and Danny Riordan run DIR-Mexico, a training facility based in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. They have lived in the area for some time and are the original explorers of several cave systems down there. They remain active explorers today, continuing to discover and map new cave passage. Immediately after our class ended, Chris went on to spend a few days mapping the Ox Bel Ha system. DIR-Mexico is run out of the retail store Zero Gravity. We met there each morning, did our lectures there, and stored our gear there.
Chris is a very nice guy and his love of the caves is evident. He always stresses conservation, so that we and others can enjoy the beauty of the caves for years to come. In class, his demeanor changes a little. He has extremely high standards when it comes to cave instruction and doesn't settle for half-assed efforts. He made this very clear at numerous times during the course when our (or should I say my) performance was not up to his expectations. Yet, he is patient and all issues are open to discussion. Just don't mess up in the cave and everything is fine with him.
The Place
I flew into Cancun airport and a car was waiting for me to take me to my hotel. I stayed at Hotel Villas del Caribe Xpu-Ha, a tiny hotel on the beach a short walk from Zero Gravity. My feelings about the place are mixed. On the plus side, the prices are reasonable, it is on a beautiful beach, it has a quaint beachside restaurant with great healthy food, and is run by very nice people. On the minus side, the accommodations are very basic - no hot water, no refrigerator, very dimly lit rooms, and I saw four cockroaches in my room in the course of nine days. If you are like me and are deathly afraid of cockroaches, this may not be the best place for you.
Zero Gravity is a 15 min walk or 5 min drive away. Each morning, I walked to the main road and Chris picked me up to take me to the shop.
Day 1
Day 1 started at 8am at Zero Gravity. We did our paperwork and made our introductions. My teammates were Markus and Andy from Germany. Both were Tech 1 certified and had a fair bit of experience diving deep lakes in Germany. Markus has also participated in EKPP projects in the past.
We discussed basic cave diving procedures and Chris gave us a lecture on how to do jumps and Ts. Then we drove over to Taj Mahal, a cave system only 5 min away from Zero Gravity.
Prior to every dive, we did our bubble checks and equipment checks on the surface. Then we descended to about 3m/10ft and took turns to do our valve drills and s-drills. Once the whole team was done, we surfaced to review the dive plan and calculate gas. Most dives (except in the Minotauro system due to the numerous restrictions), we took our deco bottles into the cave and dropped them on the line at 6m/20ft.
Dive 1: Taj Mahal
Depth: 13m/42ft
Dive time: 82 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
Markus led the first dive of Cave 2. We did 1 jump and 1 T, turning on thirds. I was immediately struck by how different the caves were from the ones I was used to in Florida. Visibility was excellent, the water was warmer, and the cave was beautifully white and decorated. The halocline was new to me. A halocline is the interface between fresh and salt water, and appears as a beautiful, shimmering layer until it is disturbed. The first person going through a halocline has good visibility, but the others will have their vis greatly blurred if passing through the same area. On this dive, I learned that team positioning relative to the line is very important when going through a halocline.
On this dive and the other dives, Chris left us alone until we turned the dive, then he started introducing "scenarios". These were simulated failures, including light failures, valve problems, out of gas scenarios, and others.
Dive 2: Taj Mahal
Depth: 13m/42ft
Dive time: 72 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
After a short lunch break and debrief on the surface, we went back in for another dive. This time, I led the dive. Chris' debrief was hard, with him telling me that I was rushing all the time, and I needed to work on my fin techniques. I would hear the same comments many more times that week.
By the time we got out of the water, it was getting dark and the bugs were everywhere. We packed up quickly and headed back to the shop for a lecture on circuits and traverses. It was a long first day of Cave 2.
Day 2
We started Day 2 with a lecture on the various valve problems and the protocols for dealing with them. This day, we would set up, and then complete a circuit in the Minotauro system.
Dive 3: Minotauro
Depth: 14m/47ft
Dive time: 90 min
Deco: min deco
Our objective on this dive was to drop our cookies at the furthest point of penetration. This would set up the circuit that we would attempt on the next dive. Minotauro was explored by Chris and some others some years ago and the original survey line is still in the cave. It's a very beautiful cave that has a lot of tight, winding passages near the entrance. This forced us to work on our precision finning techniques. We did not take our deco bottles into this cave, for fear of damaging the fragile formations.
Dive 4: Minotauro Circuit
Depth: 14m/48ft
Dive time: 70 min
Deco: min deco
Somehow, we were a lot faster this time around, and our dive was a lot shorter than the first one even though we completed the 4000ft+ circuit. Perhaps it was because the restrictions seemed a lot easier to navigate the second time around.
We had another lecture to end the day, but the topic of the lecture escape me right now.
Day 3
Day 3 we headed to Tulum, with is a town about 40 min south of Puerto Aventuras. We were to dive Naharon, a very black cave due to the tannic acid of a nearby swamp.
Dive 5: Naharon
Depth: 19m/62ft
Dive time: 88 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
I laid the line on this dive. On the way out, we stopped to do a lost buddy search drill. Again, during the debrief, Chris told me that I was rushing into the cave. I wasn't taking the time to read the cave and to make mental notes of key landmarks. While I managed to find the main line and jumps, the dive would have been smoother and more enjoyable if I had taken my time.
Dive 6: Naharon
Depth: 22m/74ft
Dive time: 64 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
As we were starting dive 6, I had a real light failure. My Helios 9 light had not been charged fully. We called dive, I switched batteries, and we headed back into the cave. This time, part of the dive was below the halocline, in very white passage (salt water had bleached the limestone), a sharp contrast to the blackness of the rest of the cave. This dive ended with no lights and me breathing off Andy's long hose. We managed the scenario well, feeling our way out of the cave successfully while remaining calm.
Once we surfaced, Chris laid a 20m line in the open water. We were to do a breath hold swim without a mask. This consisted swimming on a breath hold to a diver waiting on the other end of the line, and taking the reg out of his mouth in a controlled fashion. Being not a strong swimmer, it took me two tries before making it.
We picked up "roadkill chicken" on the way back to Zero Gravity, where we had a discussion on stage diving techniques and deco.
Day 4
Day 4 was by far the most strenuous day, "hump day", as they call it. It started out with the swim test and breath hold test in Mayan Blue cenote. The cenote was very beautiful but I was too tired and preoccupied to notice.
Dive 7: Mayan Blue
Depth: 24m/79ft
Dive time: 93 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
We were to do our first stage dive in Mayan Blue. Together with the deco bottle that we would drop at 6m/20ft, we would have 2 bottles clipped to us at the beginning and end of the dive. I had not done this before, having only dove 1 stage/deco bottle at once in the past. I had some balance issues during the valve drills and s-drills, but thankfully they resolved themselves as the day went on.
Dive 8: Mayan Blue
Depth: 23m/77ft
Dive time: 75 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
Our next dive was also in Mayan Blue, but to the Death Arrow Passage, so called because the original explorer put line arrows facing into the cave, potentially causing some confusion. It was truly a beautiful passage with breathtaking formations.
We ended the day practicing towing an unconscious diver up and down the cenote. While the technique is effective, it is also very tiring. I would hate to have to do that from deep into a cave.
I was really exhausted by the end of Day 4. We picked up "roadkill chicken" again, and went back to the shop for lectures on deco and cave surveying.
Day 5
Everything had to come together on Day 5 and I had to prove to Chris that I was capable of diving consistently at the level he expected from us. I had had my moments, but had also made mistakes and lapses of judgment that I could not afford to make today. My body was very tired, my back ached, and my legs were tired from all the kicking. But I could not let any of these niggles get the better of me.
Dive 9: Carwash downstream
Depth: 26m/88ft
Dive time: 64 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
On this dive, we got a taste of cave surveying. Andy laid line from the cenote to the main line in the Chamber of Ancients, which was a long way in. Markus was taking survey measurements and I was in the back helping out. When we reached the main line, Markus and I switched roles. In the Chamber, there are ancient fire pits, where you can still see the remains of the coals that people burned there centuries ago. Surveying was fun but challenging, and really showed us how involved the process of mapping a cave can be.
Dive 10: Carwash upstream
Depth: 12m/40ft
Dive time: 43 min
Deco: min deco
The next dive was a short one, where we practiced a lost line drill. In darkness, Chris took us off the line one by one and asked us to find our way back. I took a little longer than my teammates did to complete the drill, and this was a valuable lesson to not lose the line in the first place.
On the surface, Chris said we had done well and the last dive would be our graduation dive. For me, he said I had shown enough improvement throughout the week and enough consistency at the end to make him happy. Now, our reward was a dive without any scenarios, where we could enjoy ourselves and actually have our lights on the whole dive.
Dive 11: Carwash upstream
Depth: 18m/61ft
Dive time: 87 min
Deco: 5 min on O2
We made it past the Room of Tears and into a tight, restrictive passage before turning the dive. Apparently, the Room of Tears got its name when its original explorer, Mike Madden, was moved to tears by its beauty. It was indeed stunningly beautiful, though I don't think any of us shed tears over it.
The day ended with the final exam and a celebratory dinner at my hotel's cafe. Chris congratulated us on our passing the class but at the same time warned us to progress one step at a time, so as to not exceed our training/comfort level.
Conclusion
I took the next day off to recuperate, look around a little, and reflect on the class. After that, I did 2 more days of diving with my German buddies and a visiting EKPP diver from the Netherlands. We dove Naharon again, heading towards Mayan Blue, and did a 2 hour dive at Ponderosa, heading towards Xtabai. All in all, I did 13 dives on this trip, with a total of more than 1000 minutes of bottom time. Looking back, I really enjoyed Cave 2. It was very challenging and the bar is set very high, but that's really what you want when you are attempting long cave dives with complex navigation. Chris is a great instructor - very knowledgeable, a good teacher, and has his ways of making sure you never forget the important points. I'd recommend highly seeing Chris for cave diving training.
Now, I'm back to reality in cold, miserable Chicago, dreaming of the spectacular Mexican caves that I hope to dive again in the near future.
GUE Cave 1 - March 2005
Cave 1 took place about a year before I wrote this so some details are fuzzy. I'm writing from memory so it's not going to be perfect.
I took Cave 1 in March 2005. Our instructor was Tyler Moon from GUE. Tyler doesn't teach diving anymore and I hear that he is focusing on becoming a commercial pilot. His departure is a true loss for the cave diving community. Tyler is a relative old timer in cave country, having taught cave diving for about 15 years. It seemed like he knew everyone and everything there is to know about the Florida caves. Like most GUE instructors, he sets the bar very high but is patient and committed to teaching you and helping you reach new levels. He's also a very laidback and nice guy. His experience as an instructor was evident, and he had a special "feel" for what we were experiencing during the class. There were times in the cave when I was task loaded and a little freaked out by the general experience, and was dreading the inevitable simulated failures Tyler would pull on us. Yet, during those dives, he left us alone. Having us freak out in a cave would be counterproductive and he could tell when we were uncomfortable. On other dives, when we were feeling confident and happily cruising along, everything would go wrong at once. I can't say enough good things about Tyler and wish he were still teaching so I could take more classes from him.
Cave 1 limits include using 1/6 or 500psi of a set of doubles for penetration, no jumps or complex navigation, and some maximum depth and minimum visibility requirements. In Florida, most of the caves we go to down't exceed 100ft deep and have great visibility, so those limits aren't really pushed. Using 500psi for penetration means we can get 2-3 dives out of a set of overfilled LP104s.
My buddy for Cave 1 was George, who I had dove with a few times in Northeast. He had recently got his Tech 1 cert so we were both Tech 1 certified going into the class. The class was 6 days along (the class is usually 5 days but Tyler budgeted an extra day just in case). We arrive a day early and left an extra day at the end for some fun dives.
Our trip started when we met up in Gainesville airport. We picked up a Ford Explorer from Enterprise and drove to EE to get our tanks. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Alachua for the week. We did 3 training dives in the Ginnie Ballroom area and Little Devil's Run. Nothing too fancy, just to practice the basic skills and get comfortable with each other. We eventually got bored and called it a day.
Day 1 of the class we stated completely dry. We were through some lectures with Tyler and refined our gear. We were both itching to get in the water by the end of the day.
I don't remember which day the swim test was on, but I do remember very vividly how unpleasant it was swimming up and down Little Devil's Run in swimming trunks. Can you say "COLD"?
Day 2 we still didn't get into the caves. We did 3 dives in Ginnie Ballroom. The first two, George and I took turns running the reel while Tyler shot some video. On the third dive, Tyler created a line course in open water and we navigated it 3 times - first solo with eyes closed, second solo with no mask, and third sharing gas with eyes closed. We performed up to par to Tyler told us we would finally be going cave diving the next day. Tyler treats the caves with a lot of respect and he wouldn't have let us in there if we weren't up to his standards.
Day 3 we did 3 dives in Devil's Ear. First, Tyler ran the reel, then George, and I did. I still remember the incredible rush that I got as we first went through the Ear. I'd been in strong currents before but nothing like that! The inside of the cave was so beautiful it took my breath away. The vis was endless and didn't even look like we were underwater. I knew I was hooked. Before our dives, Tyler gave us lots of tips for navigating the cave (stay high, pull n glide, etc.) but somehow when we got in the cave, we forgot everything. We went straight down the middle of the cave and got our asses kicked. We also learned to dump ALL the gas from our wings on the exit. It wasn't pretty, but we made it out in one piece. Of course , we didn't make it very far into the system that day.
Day 4 we went to Peacock Springs State Park. We did 3 dives, 1 in Peacock 1 and 2 in the Peanut Tunnel. Tyler generally left us alone for the penetration and starting pulling failures on us on the way out. We got to practice lost buddy drills, light failures, and gas sharing. I remember liking Peacock a lot due to the lack of flow and easy conditions. I was also impressed that the caves come in so many shapes and sizes. It was a real eye opener.
Day 5 Tyler took us to Manatee Springs. We did 2 dives at Catfish Hotel. After some lectures about the geology of caves, he asked us to find the cave entrance ourselves and lead the way into the cave. I didn't like Catfish Hotel at all. The vis was bad compared to Devil's and Peacock and the flow was ripping. The silty bottom meant we couldn't pull n glide our way in. We had to kick hard against the flow, and naturally, we didn't get very far.
We did our last 2 training dives on Day 6. We were back at Devil's, this time entering through the Eye. We went through lots of failures again and got to try a no vis lost line drill. I remember taking longer than I had hoped but eventually I found the line. When we got out of the water, Tyler congratulated us on passing the class and encouraged us to go diving. As if he had to tell us! That afternoon we were back for 3 dives in Devil's Ear.
The last day of our trip, we did 3 dives in Devil's Eye in the morning. We got to the winding tunnel past the Park Bench but short of the Mud Flats. Then we packed up, headed for the airport, and flew out that afternoon.
Cave 1 was a great experience. The class is long enough to teach you the basics of safe cave diving and instill in you a sense of respect for the caves. There are lots of things that can go wrong on a cave dive. But, for the most part, they are pretty uneventful, so there can be temptation to go just a little bit further, to see what's around the next corner. Here, I can draw an analogy to mountain climbing. A famous Mt. Everest guide once said "With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill. The trick is to get back down alive." Cave diving is much the same way. I've also come to realize that cave diving isn't about how far back into the cave you go, but the journey to get there.
I took Cave 1 in March 2005. Our instructor was Tyler Moon from GUE. Tyler doesn't teach diving anymore and I hear that he is focusing on becoming a commercial pilot. His departure is a true loss for the cave diving community. Tyler is a relative old timer in cave country, having taught cave diving for about 15 years. It seemed like he knew everyone and everything there is to know about the Florida caves. Like most GUE instructors, he sets the bar very high but is patient and committed to teaching you and helping you reach new levels. He's also a very laidback and nice guy. His experience as an instructor was evident, and he had a special "feel" for what we were experiencing during the class. There were times in the cave when I was task loaded and a little freaked out by the general experience, and was dreading the inevitable simulated failures Tyler would pull on us. Yet, during those dives, he left us alone. Having us freak out in a cave would be counterproductive and he could tell when we were uncomfortable. On other dives, when we were feeling confident and happily cruising along, everything would go wrong at once. I can't say enough good things about Tyler and wish he were still teaching so I could take more classes from him.
Cave 1 limits include using 1/6 or 500psi of a set of doubles for penetration, no jumps or complex navigation, and some maximum depth and minimum visibility requirements. In Florida, most of the caves we go to down't exceed 100ft deep and have great visibility, so those limits aren't really pushed. Using 500psi for penetration means we can get 2-3 dives out of a set of overfilled LP104s.
My buddy for Cave 1 was George, who I had dove with a few times in Northeast. He had recently got his Tech 1 cert so we were both Tech 1 certified going into the class. The class was 6 days along (the class is usually 5 days but Tyler budgeted an extra day just in case). We arrive a day early and left an extra day at the end for some fun dives.
Our trip started when we met up in Gainesville airport. We picked up a Ford Explorer from Enterprise and drove to EE to get our tanks. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Alachua for the week. We did 3 training dives in the Ginnie Ballroom area and Little Devil's Run. Nothing too fancy, just to practice the basic skills and get comfortable with each other. We eventually got bored and called it a day.
Day 1 of the class we stated completely dry. We were through some lectures with Tyler and refined our gear. We were both itching to get in the water by the end of the day.
I don't remember which day the swim test was on, but I do remember very vividly how unpleasant it was swimming up and down Little Devil's Run in swimming trunks. Can you say "COLD"?
Day 2 we still didn't get into the caves. We did 3 dives in Ginnie Ballroom. The first two, George and I took turns running the reel while Tyler shot some video. On the third dive, Tyler created a line course in open water and we navigated it 3 times - first solo with eyes closed, second solo with no mask, and third sharing gas with eyes closed. We performed up to par to Tyler told us we would finally be going cave diving the next day. Tyler treats the caves with a lot of respect and he wouldn't have let us in there if we weren't up to his standards.
Day 3 we did 3 dives in Devil's Ear. First, Tyler ran the reel, then George, and I did. I still remember the incredible rush that I got as we first went through the Ear. I'd been in strong currents before but nothing like that! The inside of the cave was so beautiful it took my breath away. The vis was endless and didn't even look like we were underwater. I knew I was hooked. Before our dives, Tyler gave us lots of tips for navigating the cave (stay high, pull n glide, etc.) but somehow when we got in the cave, we forgot everything. We went straight down the middle of the cave and got our asses kicked. We also learned to dump ALL the gas from our wings on the exit. It wasn't pretty, but we made it out in one piece. Of course , we didn't make it very far into the system that day.
Day 4 we went to Peacock Springs State Park. We did 3 dives, 1 in Peacock 1 and 2 in the Peanut Tunnel. Tyler generally left us alone for the penetration and starting pulling failures on us on the way out. We got to practice lost buddy drills, light failures, and gas sharing. I remember liking Peacock a lot due to the lack of flow and easy conditions. I was also impressed that the caves come in so many shapes and sizes. It was a real eye opener.
Day 5 Tyler took us to Manatee Springs. We did 2 dives at Catfish Hotel. After some lectures about the geology of caves, he asked us to find the cave entrance ourselves and lead the way into the cave. I didn't like Catfish Hotel at all. The vis was bad compared to Devil's and Peacock and the flow was ripping. The silty bottom meant we couldn't pull n glide our way in. We had to kick hard against the flow, and naturally, we didn't get very far.
We did our last 2 training dives on Day 6. We were back at Devil's, this time entering through the Eye. We went through lots of failures again and got to try a no vis lost line drill. I remember taking longer than I had hoped but eventually I found the line. When we got out of the water, Tyler congratulated us on passing the class and encouraged us to go diving. As if he had to tell us! That afternoon we were back for 3 dives in Devil's Ear.
The last day of our trip, we did 3 dives in Devil's Eye in the morning. We got to the winding tunnel past the Park Bench but short of the Mud Flats. Then we packed up, headed for the airport, and flew out that afternoon.
Cave 1 was a great experience. The class is long enough to teach you the basics of safe cave diving and instill in you a sense of respect for the caves. There are lots of things that can go wrong on a cave dive. But, for the most part, they are pretty uneventful, so there can be temptation to go just a little bit further, to see what's around the next corner. Here, I can draw an analogy to mountain climbing. A famous Mt. Everest guide once said "With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill. The trick is to get back down alive." Cave diving is much the same way. I've also come to realize that cave diving isn't about how far back into the cave you go, but the journey to get there.
GUE Tech 1 - July 2004
I did my Tech 1 course on board the MV Grace. It's a nice boat, very stable, with a great galley. It's a shame it's so poorly managed, because it has so much potential to be great. Don't even get me started on what went wrong during that week. How about running out of food (they kicked us off the boat and asked us to go find our own dinner) TWICE, running out of water (that one was truly classic), and having permanently flooded bathrooms? I also love it how nobody on board knew how to blend any gas, including nitrox 32%. So much for calling themselves a technical boat.
The instructor was Gideon Liew, a real class act. I had high expectations going into the class and they were all met or exceeded.
The classes started with critical skills in shallow water. We spent MANY dives at 20ft, out of sight of the bottom, with only the anchor line as a visual reference. Here, we did S-drills, valve drills, shot liftbags, and did timed ascents. By the end of the first day, Gideon was not pleased with our performance and ordered us to do an extra set of dives at 7am the next morning. We did these extra dives on days 2 and 3. By the middle of day 3, we were all exhausted and on the brink of diminishing returns. But we had improved significantly and were back on track. Day 4 we added deco bottles and started simulating gas switches and deco. We moved to deeper water and our simulated failures started getting more complicated. They ranged from cut lines, entanglements, valve failures, out of gas emergencies, loss of deco bottles, light failures, loss of visibility, loss of ascent line, and all manner of combinations of the above. Despite the ongoing challenges, we learned to adapt and and deal with whatever Gideon threw at us. Once you can deal with every failure known to mankind happening to you on the same dive, make it through your deco, and hit the surface on time, you're in good shape. Slowly but surely, we progressed through the course, rounding it off with a deep reef dive with 20 min of deco.
I had a lot of fun in Tech 1. It really pushed me and forced me to keep going beyond the point where I thought I would give up. Tech 1 is definitely a huge step up from DIR-F. On hindsight, I wish I had spent more time training before attempting Tech 1. That would have made the class a lot less painful. An alternative way to go about it is to take Rec Triox first, get some experience diving at that level, and later progress to Tech 1. That might break up the course into more manageable chunks.
I'm grateful to Gideon for having the patience to deal with us and teach us incrementally on each and every dive. It might not have been pretty at first, but we got there in the end. Doing the course on a liveaboard was both good and bad. On the one hand, we had Gideon's undivided attention for 7 days. We lived and breathed diving and DIR. But there was also nowhere to run. We were a captive audience. I don't think I'll forget those days of 6am starts, 8 dives in a day, 5 hours in the water, and midnight decompression lectures. But those are the things that made the class so special. You'd have a hard time finding a more dedicated instructor than Gideon.
So what would I recommend to people who want to take Tech 1?
Everything you need to know was covered in DIR-F. The most important thing is that you are solid in your fundamental skills. You don't want to be in the middle of multiple simulated failures when you realize that you can't shoot a bag efficiently or can't maintain your bouyancy when task loaded. This means that buoyancy and trim need to be second nature. You can't drop you knees when you aren't paying attention. Other fundamental skills, like hovering stationary, helicopter kick, backwards kick, shooting a bag, s-drills, valve drills, etc. need to be well practiced so you can do it under stressful conditions. You also need to be comfortable with maintaining buoyancy and doing ascents and descents with no visual reference. Ascending/descending in blue water can be disorienting until you've done it a few times. Make sure you can do it well when you're not task loaded because that's the only hope you have to do it when you are sharing gas with your buddy, he doesn't have a mask, and you need to shoot a bag.
Situational awareness, as always, is key. While the fundamental skills can be mastered by rote learning, situational awareness will come through experience and deliberate effort. Dive a lot and dive with different people so you learn how to communicate effectively with others. And don't just do training dives, because they sometimes create an artificial environment for learning. As you master the basic skills, you will have more mental capacity to focus on other things, like paying attention to what's going on around you. What's the depth? Time? How much gas do you have? Where is your buddy? What is your SAC rate? Where are you going?
Personally, I feel there's no real need to practice the specific things that you'll learn in Tech 1 (like no mask ascents, gas switching, etc.). If your basic skills are solid, adding some task loading shouldn't affect you too much. There is a greater risk of picking up bad habits that will later need to be unlearned.
The instructor was Gideon Liew, a real class act. I had high expectations going into the class and they were all met or exceeded.
The classes started with critical skills in shallow water. We spent MANY dives at 20ft, out of sight of the bottom, with only the anchor line as a visual reference. Here, we did S-drills, valve drills, shot liftbags, and did timed ascents. By the end of the first day, Gideon was not pleased with our performance and ordered us to do an extra set of dives at 7am the next morning. We did these extra dives on days 2 and 3. By the middle of day 3, we were all exhausted and on the brink of diminishing returns. But we had improved significantly and were back on track. Day 4 we added deco bottles and started simulating gas switches and deco. We moved to deeper water and our simulated failures started getting more complicated. They ranged from cut lines, entanglements, valve failures, out of gas emergencies, loss of deco bottles, light failures, loss of visibility, loss of ascent line, and all manner of combinations of the above. Despite the ongoing challenges, we learned to adapt and and deal with whatever Gideon threw at us. Once you can deal with every failure known to mankind happening to you on the same dive, make it through your deco, and hit the surface on time, you're in good shape. Slowly but surely, we progressed through the course, rounding it off with a deep reef dive with 20 min of deco.
I had a lot of fun in Tech 1. It really pushed me and forced me to keep going beyond the point where I thought I would give up. Tech 1 is definitely a huge step up from DIR-F. On hindsight, I wish I had spent more time training before attempting Tech 1. That would have made the class a lot less painful. An alternative way to go about it is to take Rec Triox first, get some experience diving at that level, and later progress to Tech 1. That might break up the course into more manageable chunks.
I'm grateful to Gideon for having the patience to deal with us and teach us incrementally on each and every dive. It might not have been pretty at first, but we got there in the end. Doing the course on a liveaboard was both good and bad. On the one hand, we had Gideon's undivided attention for 7 days. We lived and breathed diving and DIR. But there was also nowhere to run. We were a captive audience. I don't think I'll forget those days of 6am starts, 8 dives in a day, 5 hours in the water, and midnight decompression lectures. But those are the things that made the class so special. You'd have a hard time finding a more dedicated instructor than Gideon.
So what would I recommend to people who want to take Tech 1?
Everything you need to know was covered in DIR-F. The most important thing is that you are solid in your fundamental skills. You don't want to be in the middle of multiple simulated failures when you realize that you can't shoot a bag efficiently or can't maintain your bouyancy when task loaded. This means that buoyancy and trim need to be second nature. You can't drop you knees when you aren't paying attention. Other fundamental skills, like hovering stationary, helicopter kick, backwards kick, shooting a bag, s-drills, valve drills, etc. need to be well practiced so you can do it under stressful conditions. You also need to be comfortable with maintaining buoyancy and doing ascents and descents with no visual reference. Ascending/descending in blue water can be disorienting until you've done it a few times. Make sure you can do it well when you're not task loaded because that's the only hope you have to do it when you are sharing gas with your buddy, he doesn't have a mask, and you need to shoot a bag.
Situational awareness, as always, is key. While the fundamental skills can be mastered by rote learning, situational awareness will come through experience and deliberate effort. Dive a lot and dive with different people so you learn how to communicate effectively with others. And don't just do training dives, because they sometimes create an artificial environment for learning. As you master the basic skills, you will have more mental capacity to focus on other things, like paying attention to what's going on around you. What's the depth? Time? How much gas do you have? Where is your buddy? What is your SAC rate? Where are you going?
Personally, I feel there's no real need to practice the specific things that you'll learn in Tech 1 (like no mask ascents, gas switching, etc.). If your basic skills are solid, adding some task loading shouldn't affect you too much. There is a greater risk of picking up bad habits that will later need to be unlearned.
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