"finished" my training

Well, I just got back from Florida where I got my ticket to learn. I stayed at Dive Outpost and dove Peacock pothole and peanut, Olsen, Cow, Ginnie Springs Devil's eye and Devil's ear system, and perhaps another one. My instructor was good, tough, did a lot of extra drills and skills, and was pointed with his critisism, which made the praise feel sincere and a lot more valuable. He is an ex Army special forces Sergeant with time overseas, whose name appears on the surveryor lists on some of the Peacock system caves. I would recommend him to others; his name is Michael O'leary. He's not DIR, but he has thousands of dives, and must know a bit about cave diving. He was flexible about some things, like which hose you breath, but not flexible about others, like safety issues and reel work. Of course, there were times where I did OK and a couple of times where I not only felt like the biggest yutz in the world, I really was a big yutz. I feel I improved in my skills quite a bit, and in my knowledge quite a bit. I learned a few things from the non-DIR point of view, dived for the first time with some folks that stuffed their long hose instead of breathed it; and met some interesting and nice people from this board and others. Altogether, it was a very tough and challenging week; and I feel that I am a better caver than I was, with a lot of room for growth in the future.

Sounds like you had a good time. Congratulations on your completion of the course. Maybe you could write up a tech trip report about all of the dives and the training. It would be a great read.


As for the stuffing og the hose, did you talk to the people about it? I am wondering what their reasoning was behind this. Also, where did they have it stuffed? I rarely see anyone down there who stuffs the hose. Of course, I really don't pay attention to others either! lol

it is either stuffed alongside the right tank or back and forth over the manifold. It comes off the left post. Yes, I talked to them about it; their reasoning is logical. They claim that it is quicker to yank the hose out of some bungee to fully deploy it than it is to duck the head and get it out from under the canister. I guess we need to have a hose deployment contest to see who is quicker. The reasoning behind taking it off the left post is that if you have a rolloff, you'll know (your air will stop). When I had to be the "out of air" guy, I had trouble. I was always a little concerned with finding her "octo", hoped that it would be in it's little octo holder; and in the dark, I had to hold the reg in my mouth as hard as I could, it just didn't feel right. Turned out to be fouled in her manifold. This made for a very interesting exit, one hand on the line, one hand on her reg in my mouth, and using elbows to ooch my way out of cow spring. Luckily, the walls were close enough together to do that. We should have stopped to try to figure out why the hose was so short, but being unfamiliar with the configuration, I wasn't confident that I could figure out what was wrong in the dark. I didn't like it. I much prefer "our" method.

Wow! Judging by what you said, their method does not seem to be quicker in anyway shape or form. Plus, that whole left post thing. Yikes. You should have invited them onto this board and we could all have discussed gear configuration together. Atleast it would have livened up the place! lol.

One more thing, I read your report on the other board, and I noticed you said your buddy was nearly 18. How could they have been certified for cave diving?

Congrats on the cert...

And yes, it does sound like you have a lot to learn, still. Mike's a great guy, I took Cavern with him. My only complaint is that he's a little TOO lenient sometimes.

- Warren

Originally posted by JamesK
One more thing, I read your report on the other board, and I noticed you said your buddy was nearly 18. How could they have been certified for cave diving?

Click to expand...

She'll be 18 in a few days and will get her card after that. These were all training dives and she can't be fully certified until 18, as I understand it. Mike said he's never done it before but Em had exceptional skills and judgement.

Dave

Congratulations Campana,

I also took my full cave cert from Mike, and you are right. He may not be a DIR guy, but he has a lot of experience and I feel that I got very good instruction. It wasnt until after I became certified that I started hearing about the DIR guys and doing some research on my own and even tho I wasn't trained that way, I still think the training that Mike provided me was very solid and I would recommend him to anyone thinking of getting training, but again this is just MY opinion.

I think one of the most rewarding things that Mike told me happened on our last day of diving. Our final dives where just to 'play' as all of the required skills were out of the way. He chose Orange Grove for us to dive and when we came out he said to me that he knows he did his job as an instructor well since I completed our dive without silting out that cave at all.

I took a private class from him, so I had his undivided attention the whole time, and I think it is some of the best money I ever spent.

Congrats again.

Dive often, but dive safe

John

Originally posted by Campana


She'll be 18 in a few days and will get her card after that. These were all training dives and she can't be fully certified until 18, as I understand it. Mike said he's never done it before but Em had exceptional skills and judgement.

Dave

Click to expand...

OK. I was under the impression that you could not even get an Intro card until 18, and it sounds like she was doing full. I am all for it if the skills and mentality is right.

Dave,

Congrats on finishing up. It was nice to have met you up there. We ended up making it home to spend the rainy days here and then met up with edivers for a night dive on Sat. Not Cave diving but oh well.

As I mentioned before about the stuffing the long hose. I went through my cavern course with a 9' hose stuffed on the side of my tank. However my instructor breathed the long hose.

How did this happen?

I went down to my local shop(Key largo area) and was looking for a couple of reels for my cavern class. The guy behind the counter was really nice and even helped me out by suggesting I get all the gear and show up ready. He was nice enough to show me how to stuff the long hose and get the appropiate bungee for the neclase. There I was with a 9' hose stuffed on the side of my Al80. When I met up with my buddy before class, I showed him how I was tought to set up the hose for cavern. We didn't know better so we set up both the same. except he got a 7' hose. Our instructor didn't say anything against it and let us complete the course that way. We did all our s-drills and then helped each other stuff our hoses. Atleast we were a good team. When I went back to south florida I was able to switch the 9' hose to a 7' hose.

I still stuffed it and used it like that for all my diving until, I actually had to share air from 90' to the safety stop. While my buddy was not out of air he was very low 400 psi. And I figured share air now and not later. out went the hose and up we went.

My buddy went back to his own tank for the safety stop and there i was with this long hose and my regular buddy wasn't there to stuff it...oh oh....no what. I wrapped it around my head twice and figured there had to be a better method.

That was the last time I stuffed my hose.

While I have been diving since with other that still stuff it. I make sure to always pull it all the way out of the bungees and then hand it back to them. I've had 2 people change over after that but others just asked me to stuff it back for them and didn't get it.

I try to avoid those type of diving styles.