Ben -
It was great. I learned a lot, and that was considering Vadim and I missed some of it in order to get some diving in. Here is a write-up I did on another board:
Wow...What a weekend. So much information/fun/diving and so little time to do it in. I'm sure others will post their thoughts, but here's my "report":
Friday morning came and I went to the airport to board a flight in Rochester bound for Philly where I was to meet Vadim and then fly to Jacksonville. It seems as though the diving gods were stacking the deck against us, as right from the beginning, things went wrong. I cautiously left my bags with the TSA "professionals", who were working notoriously slow, but I still hoped that they'd get my 2 bags inspected and on my flight before it left Rochester.
The DELTA flight from Philly to Jacksonville left 10mins or so early, and Vadim was unable to catch it in time. I had never actually met him, and only saw a few pics posted here and there, so I wasn't aware that he didn't make the flight until I arrived in Jacksonville. Upon getting to the baggage claim area, I waited and quickly realized that my bags had not made the flight. I turned on my cell phone in case Vadim tried calling, and I saw that I had 2 messages waiting.
Both of them were Vadim. He told me he missed the flight, but that he was hoping to get on the next one out of Philly. I had forgotten to write down his cell number (DOH!), so I had to hope that he'd call me. He did, and let me know that he was going to be flying in on that next one from Philly. I let him know that I wasn't going to be going anywhere, as my bags were still in limbo and I was hoping that they'd come in on the same flight as he was going to. Vadim and my bags both arrived on the same flight, so we loaded up, and went to get the rental car. Vadim installed his GPS and we were on our way to Cave Country!
We made some small-talk on the trip to Gainsville, mostly centering on diving, DIR and GUE (a no-brainer, right). We drove up and there was EE. Vadim said "I think I saw Bob in there", we pulled in and sure enough, Bob was there. We talked for a minute and decided that since EE had all of their tanks rented for the rest of the weekend, that we would take 2 of them and go do a dive at Ginnie.
We made our way to Ginnie, and walked up to the water's edge. Words cannot describe how absolutely clear this stuff is. I instantly started to get jealous of the Floridians and how I could possibly sell a few non-vital organs so that I wouldn't have to go back to Rochester again. <VBG>
Vadim and I had a great dive with a 55 minute BT. For those who have never been to Ginnie, they have a "cavern" that is fairly large and is grated in the back to discourage untrained divers from becoming another statistic. It was quite cool just hanging there, feeling the force of the water rush through the cave and past us was quite cool. I'm definitely going to look into taking Cave I when my skills are up to par (10 years from now <VBG>).
We got to the conference hall and had missed a few of the opening speakers, but we did get to hear Dr. Buchaly and Michael Waldbrenner from the EKPP talk about some awesome cave diving they did over there, which was accompanied by some nice video. They wrapped things up; JJ got up to officially conclude the end of the first day. We then hung around, I got to finally meet Cameron Martz and listened as he, Todd Kincaid and Bob had a discussion about decompression issues.
I was standing at the back of the room with Vadim when JJ came up and shook both of our hands. It was cool to meet one of the men responsible for helping me change my diving and life in ways I never thought possible. We moved out to the hallway and began chatting when George came up and introduced himself. We then went out to dinner. It was a group of about 10-15 of us, so it was great to be able to listen and talk to so many people. Just hearing JJ, GI3 and Dr. Buchaly discuss diving was a real treat. I spent quite a few minutes talking with a few gentlemen from the Netherlands. Their conditions are not unlike ours here in the NE, so we definitely knew where each other was coming from.
I wont go into great detail about the alarm clock from hell, suffice to say that we woke up late on Saturday morning, and still had to drive the hour round-trip to EE so we could return the tanks. On our way back, we were starving, so we ate at Waffle House (a must do any time youre in the South!).
We made it back to catch the tail end of Todd Kinkaids global water resources presentation. Richard Lundgren then gave a great presentation of diving in Scandinavia. They have quite a few wrecks, and the viz sounds like it is better than were used to here. I made a mental note to myself to go dive there someday, and to pick up a translation book for Swinglish. <VBG> They did some juggling of presentations and Eric Baker went next with his Decompression Theory and Practice piece. It was interesting, but being new to diving, I wasnt able to put it in a real world perspective.
We broke for lunch, Vadim and I were joined by Cameron and another gentleman who I am unfamiliar with. I was glad to have a few minutes to chat with Cameron, as its a lot easier to do it that way than over PMs. When we came back from lunch, it was Camerons turn, and its almost impossible not to be motivated enough to run a triathlon after hearing him speak.
Dick Vann, the VP of Divers Alert Network gave a stirring speech about the effects of rhubarb and diving. Suffice to say, I will not be eating any before a dive ever again. <VBG> It was also good to hear him talk about something else very near and dear to all divers, PFO. Up to this point, I had just cursory information gleaned from posts on the internet, and it was nice to have Dick and Gene Hobbs give their thoughts on the whole situation.
The last presentation of the day was Jarrod and George recounting the history of the WKPP. This is where George became his most colorful. <G> People can say what they want to about him, I like the fact that he calls it as he sees it and lets face it, when doing dives like they were doing, things are not a democracy. At least they wouldnt be in my mind either. Many of the things we are now learning from GUE was learned at the expense of someone elses misfortune. I dont want to be one of those, so Ill go with what WKPP/GUE have proven to work many times over.
Sunday was easily my favorite of the 3 days. We started the morning off by meeting Cameron and Dawn for exercise seminars. What an eye opening! It is amazing to me that Ive been doing many things wrong for so many years, and that was what the military had taught me. It was even more informative to learn how to swim properly. Dawn and Cameron did a great job, and I wish I had the money to bring them both to Rochester to work with me for a bit. <VBG>
After that workout, we traveled over to EE for a barbecue. I had a few interesting conversations, most informative was the one with Bob Stinton. It really is cool seeing all these people, especially those who have been there, done that and are so willing to impart their knowledge and help out whenever they can. After spending some time drooling (again) over the toys at EE, we headed back to the conference center. Vadim and I decided that after Georges Gavin workshop, we were going to head out to Ginnie for some more diving. We got there, geared up, and went in. We were just yards from the Ballrooms entrance, but didnt realize it, so we went back to the spring we had dove before and revisited the cavern and grate. Another successful dive in hand, we headed back to the conference center for the closing ceremonies.
I managed to win a 40lb EVO system from Halcyon and 400gm Thinsulate suit from DUI, which really made the weekend that much sweeter (it already was a rousing success). We should have a few pictures of the NEUE group to post here shortly.
It was really great being around people with such a passion not only for the sport, but for the way GUE does things. Maybe Im an idealistic n00b who doesnt know any better yet, but this is something Im always going to take with me. I was very happy to hear JJ say that he plans on trying to make this an annual thing, but there will be those of us that can say we were there for the very first one.
My trip back to Rochester was about as successful as the one I took out of it. I almost missed a connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale, having to pay $100 extra to upgrade to 1st class after they gave away my seat in coach. I arrived in Rochester only to find out that my baggage was yet again lost. They told me itd be delivered between 6pm 12pm, so I stayed up until 1am (effectively making it a 22 hour day), but they never showed. I had to drive to the airport today to pick up my luggage at lunchtime, but it was good to know everything is there and (at least for now) unharmed.
Well, at least nobody can say that Im not dedicated to the sport and the DIR mindset!! <VBG>
Thanks for taking the time to read, and I look forward to hearing from those who attended the conference as well.
