Thanks, guys! I had very little trouble with the skills. My biggest problems all had to do with external-to-me stuff:
1) I had all new gear, so I struggled with it while getting it configured in the best way for me. I did the course in sidemount, and my bungies were too tight for part of the time, and I simply could not easily clip the tanks the way my instructor wanted me to do. On my last dive I just did it my own way and it worked better. I also wanted my inflator hose routed differently, and I needed a narrower crotch strap for comfort, but once all that got sorted out, it was fine.
2) I was cold. I kept putting more and more rubber on until I ended up with 14 mm of neoprene from a variety of garments, including a 1 mm dive skin (to make putting the rest on easier), a 3 mm core warmer, a 3 mm hooded vest, and a 7 mm full suit. My hands weren't cold, though.
3) I got three very sore fingers from pull and glide against a substantial flow in Devil's Ear from having worn my skin down to what I think must be the last few layers before actually reaching raw flesh. No blood, but sort of pink, sort of puffy, and shiny with no fingerprints. I'm going to stop at the drug store and try to find some liquid skin or something.
All in all, I'm pleased with the result and happy that my dive skills didn't suck so I only really needed to concentrate on learning new technical skills specific to caves, which was just enough task loading to make it interesting/challenging rather than frustrating.
