My Journey To Cave Country...

[Omicron]

Okay, I'm posting this in several parts as it turned out to be too long for just one post...yikes.

Ever since I've started diving, I've wanted to go cave diving. It seemed to be just about the coolest thing one can do underwater - the pictures, the stories, the skill required to do it....to me, it was the stuff of legend.

By chance, I got to plan a trip to the Keys this year. While planning, someone said we should stop by Ginnie Springs on the way back so that we could rinse the salt out of our gear. As long as we were stopping there, I signed up for the cavern course. Everyone else did pretty quickly thereafter too. After talking some more...we decided that as long as we were down there, we should take the Intro To Cave course as well. So we registered.

We made our way down to the keys and got some good easy reef diving in, as well as some good little drift dives in shallow sea grass. An interesting time - got to hang out in Key West for New Years and see some fun stuff. On New Years day, we began the trip up to Ginnie Springs. We arrived around 10 at night and I went to look at the spring. All I could think was....This is IT?!?! That little...puddle?? It's not real impressive looking from the surface. That night we went to bed fairly early as class started at 8AM.

The first day, we met our instructor. We filled out paperwork, waivers (LOTS of waivers....) provided C-Cards and headed upstairs to the classroom. A funny note - our instructor was glad we only each showed our highest C-Card...he said they have a saying at Ginnie that the diver’s skill is inversely proportionate to the number of C-Cards they lay on the table when registering.

Class was interesting - cave geology, how it forms, what to call things (faults, bedding planes, phreatic tunnels, etc, etc). Went over emergency drills, line laying, exit protocols, gear configs, weighting, conservation, gas turnaround calculations, stress management, hand signals and so much other stuff. It was a lot to absorb! After a good day of class we had a few hours to do gear configs.

We set up our rigs on picnic tables and our instructor went over them. It's funny when you get down to cave country....up here, you hear how certain gear configs are supposed to be because one group or another says it's the correct way. Down there, you realize that most of these people's claims are pretty much BS and the things we think are interesting up here are just normal cave diving rigs. Streamlining and no danglies are the key goals in gear configuration. In looking at what I did to my setup, here is a short list: Removed all hose protectors, removed knob from line on reels and replaced w/ a hairball, Removed dust caps from tanks, removed dust caps from din 1st stages and replaced w/ screw on covers, removed whistle from inflator hose, added D-Ring to lower left tank band, zip-tied bolt snap to primary reg (zip tying preferred on reg over actual tying – everything else is tied on with cave line ONLY), added a wrist slate, made a line arrow/line cookie holder for arrows/cookies, added D-Rings to waist belt on harness. I had most of it set, but there were a lot of little things – get rid of all unnecessary bulk, items and danglies.

After doing gear config our instructor made us put on our stuff and double check D-Ring placement and light/reel locations. We were set and ready to begin land drills. We practiced running a line, primary/secondary tie-offs, placements and line traps. We also did several exercises on following the guideline – eyes closed alone, eyes closed w/ touch contact, etc. Some of the drills were designed to show you that you really can’t dawdle when the lights go out in a cave. You really need to move!

The next morning we met @ Ginnie Spring and geared up and got into the spring. The first portion of the class was weight. This was worth the price of class alone. I went from 14lbs to 0. None. Zip. I couldn’t believe it – with just a little extra time and work, I’m down to no weight. The ankle weights got tossed out the window too. As our instructor called them, “weenie weights” – I couldn’t dare wear them after he said that So…anyone want to buy a nice weight belt??

The next portion of class was fin kicks. Our instructor demonstrated the modified flutter, frog, 3 shuffle kicks, 360 turns and pull n’ glides (or if you do it incorrectly, the pull and pain for the sensation of your fingertips scraping along the limestone rock). After his demonstration of each kick we had to do the same to his satisfaction. So far, so good.

[Omicron]

Part 2...

We then began in water line drills. Our instructor ran the line and first gave us a tour of the Ginnnie cavern. Wow!! I was pretty impressed – it was pretty neat in the cavern…we went down to the great and my trim and kicks were perfect until I swam in front of that dang grate. Yikes….you can hear about it, but nothing preps you for hitting that huge flow coming out of that grate. I was also enjoying how much smoother I felt in the water without all that extra lead strapped on me. I now truly and firmly believe that lead is evil and I’ll only use it if absolutely forced to (ice diving probably….).

We did our open water line drills. Once around alone w/ eyes closed, once w/ partner in touch contact, once doing OOA w/ touch contact as donor, once doing OOA w/ touch contact as victim, once alone without your mask. After we did all that, we were doing in the cavern and ready to begin our actual drills in the caves.

We moved over to the Devil’s system and did the pre-dive briefing and got in the water. After doing the pre-dive check (bubbles, equipment, s-drill, turns) we made our way down into the spring. Good trim, good finning, nice hover as my team member made the tie offs and tied into the line. Then we began making our way into the cave – my god….I’ve been thinking about how to describe what I saw for two weeks and I still can’t bring it to words. I was like a kid in a toy store – looking everywhere, looking at the divers 200 feet ahead of me (I can actually see that far?!?! This is like swimming in air!!) looking at the cave walls – everywhere except my instructor who was swimming near the top of the cave while I was huffing & puffing in the high flow right in the center of the tunnel. Time to play follow the leader and get near the top. We made our way to the lips – and grabbed on. It’s kinda like trying to pull yourself through the grate at Ginnie. Pull and don’t let go. After the lips we got off to the side and did our lost diver drills and then made our way out of the cave. Line yourself up with the lips like a cruise missile, shoot out, hard left, gain altitude and just let the cave carry you out. We did our safety stop and the post-dive briefing. Our instructor made us frog kick up the spring run to the other spring as some extra practice for the night. Call it homework

The next day was at Peacock Springs on the Peanut line. Peacock is pretty neat because it is a low flow cave and it’s a little bit easier to concentrate on some of your technique. Our first dive we made it 400’ in and did our lights out drill. Kinda cool actually. We also did lights on OOA on the way out of the cave. Our second dive was lights out OOA w/ my partner using touch contact to exit. Another lights-on OOA on the way out. Our third dive I was OOA w/ lights out and touch contact. Another lights-on OOA on the way out. Our fourth dive I did a simple touch contact w/ a member from the other team as she had missed a dive earlier in the day and had to make up a drill. It was as good day of diving – my partner and I kept screwing up the lights on OOA though….either one of us would spin into the hose the wrong way, someone would go a little vertical during the drill…a little frustrating to screw up something so simple so many times. That night we spent considerable time back @ the campground with regulators around our neck using the road as the tunnel and doing OOA’s to get the spins and touch contact down to a science.

Our last day was also at Peacock. We had bagged so many drills the two days before and were doing well enough that we had kind of an enjoyment dive. Our instructor took us into the Pothole line on the first dive – you have to turn sideways and make your way down into the cave along a huge fault. It is soooooooo cool. You can see down to the bottom of the fault and the other divers below you, 50 feet down. But your buoyancy has to be amazing as it’s a mud buttom…come down the fault to fast and you have just destroyed the cave for the day. We didn’t even stir up a particle. As we did this, I was really starting to feel proud – here I am, three inches off the bottom of a cave, shuffling my fins along to get out from under the fault…and not a bit of silt, no bouncing up and down...man…this class was really starting to bring my skills together. It’s kind of like getting a cool new piece of gear to play with – you want to try it out, mess with it. You want to see how tight your control is, how fine your buoyancy is…your instructor has been working with you for a couple of days to hone these skills and all of a sudden they all just come together and they just click. Your chest gets huge and a grin hits your face – what a time. We turned the dive and made our way out…did lights on OOA again on the way out. That nice big feeling of pride I had a moment ago was quickly blown out of the sky as I grabbed onto my partners arm….the one that didn’t have the hose. Arrrrgghhh!!! So much for the skilled diver part. Can’t even share air properly….

[Omicron]

Part 3 (An Final Part...)

Our second dive was a distance dive. We made it to the breakdown room on the Peanut line, and into the large phreatic tunnel after that room. You could drive a Mack truck through this tunnel. It is HUGE. It’s kind of the stereotypical that you would imagine in your head. You can see as far as your light will light up the twists and turns. You can also see clay – thick, sticky, silty clay just waiting for you to get cocky again and nail it. You can see the occasional hand/knee/fin print in the clay from others that have nailed it. I stuck my finger in it just a little bit to see just how bad it was…yikes. On our way out from this dive I had to do my lost line drill.

My instructor set aside the rest of the dive team and led me away along the line. He pulled me off the line and led me to a rock about the size of my fist. I got out my safety reel and began making my tie off. I got the line behind the rock, began putting the reel through the loop aaaannd..whoops. Slipped off. Again – line on the rock, begin the lockdown…slip. Argh. Again…rock, line, loop, slip. Shoot – now there was a whole bunch of line off the reel. I started reeling up and next thing you know I jam it. Oh man….now in the real world I’m a dead man. I turned on my light and showed my reel to my instructor. He set me on the rock next to the team and took another over to do the drill. He did it in like a minute or two. We exited the cave after the drill. Let me tell you how low your head can hang somedays. I knew what I did wrong. My instructor didn’t even have to say it. During our break (the other team was doing their two dives) I practiced. I ran lines all around that parking lot. There wasn’t a stump, rock, fencepost or bumper that I didn’t do a tie off on with my eyes closed. I couldn’t understand how I screwed that up.

Our next dive we just made it quickly to the edge of the breakdown room again. Turned the dive and I had to do lost line again. My instructor put my hand on the rock, I ran the line, got it looped, started to lock it..and nailed it. I had that thing LOCKED – I started my wrap…and wrapped, and wrapped, and wrapped. That line was NOT coming off that rock. I turned around and started my sweeps…did one..two…three…okay, a little nervous here…started the fourth….nailed the gold line! What a feeling again. I made my tie off onto the gold line, placed my line arrow and started my exit. I felt my instructor tap me on the head signaling that the drill was over. He flashed me OK – YES!!!! I did it. On the way out we did our final lights on OOA drill. I handed the hose, he spun like a top and I locked onto his arm perfectly. That was it – the hard part was over!

Our last dive was a short one again – 400’ in, and simulate primary light failure using backup lights on the way out. At the end of this dive we also had to do a valve shutdown sequence. Now, I’ve never really managed to do that. Especially after adjusting my tank height for improved trim in the class. But…by the time we made it to the cavern entrance where we had to do the valve drill…it was the only thing standing in between me and passing that class. There was nothing…and I do mean nothing…that was going to stop me from getting to those valves. Our instructor signaled to start – I ripped my waist belt apart, got feet up in the water and just slammed my hand back looking for something to grab onto. I felt a 1st stage – perfect!! I got my other hand back there and pulled a little more until I felt valve. Wooo! Got the valve shut down, opened…felt for the other one, found it, shut it, opened it…nailed it. My instructor looked over at me and signaled “two?”. I just nodded back “yes”. I did it.

That evening we corrected our exams at the Luraville store which is quite the place of cave diving culture. We aced the exams pretty well….and that was it. Our instructor gave us our cards, we thanked him about a million times over for all his work and tips…got a few pictures with him…we actually ended up meeting him for dinner the next night too.

We stayed @ Ginnie for a few more days to do some more diving @ Peacock. Essentially the same dives we did during training, but we just wanted to savor these…that night we also did the glowstick dive in the Ginnie Cavern. Pretty neat stuff…swirling stars all around you, swimming through it….it’s a cool dive.

The trip was awesome. Even if I wouldn’t have passed the class, the things I learned are invaluable. The touch contact, the proper way to share air, the weighting, the buoyancy tuning…dang. This has forever changed the way I will dive….changed my outlook on diving…it was awesome.

This ended up being a little bit longer than I had thought – sorry for some of the rambling, but it just kinda started rolling along once I sat down to type this. Thanks for reading…and like I said, I’ve got a weight belt for sale

[Cavern Junkie]

Congratulations on passing the courses. Cave diving is some of the best diving around. I really want to get back up there and do Intro to Cave myself.

[dfreeman]

Jason,

Sounds like a great time and great diving. I have never had the cave diving bug, but could get it from your descriptions. Looking forward to hearng the tricks that you learned and seeing your new gear configurations.

Looking forward to some ice diving, this is what I like to do.

Doug

[Vtach]

Nice review Jason!! Glad you had a great time and learned alot. The review makes me look forward to the class, hopefully next year.

Todd

[Omicron]

It was an awesome time - I'm really glad that I took the class...like I said, even if I would have failed it would have been a benefit.

[Cavern Junkie]

Now that you are hooked do you plan on taking apprentice caver and full cave?

[Omicron]

Definitely thinking about it ;D

It's more gear to buy though, more classes....so we'll see how it works out but I would really, really like to.

[Omicron]

Me, my girlfriend and I instructor getting on our fins @ Peacock: