Iguana Don
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After being married numerous times, I decided that I have not been punished enough in life, therefor I decided to take up cave diving.
After talking to the instructor at my dive shop for several weeks I decided he was the one for me, easy going, knowledgable, friendly and thorough. From this point on I will refer to him as Genghis Khan.
I decided to start at the begining at the Cavern/Intro to Caves, as I believe you can never get enough education, and I wanted to get the full extent of the courses.
After purchasing the required texts and doing the required homework and studying I prepared for my first confined water session. Genghis Khan said we will be taking our "open water" in Rubudoux Springs, Missouri. The water will be a nice crisp 50 deg F. he said you might want to take a drysuit course also and be prepared.
After little thought on the subject, (not being a chosen frozen) I agreed. The shop provided me with one of the rental drysuits in order to take the class. Genghis Khan said I could take it in conjunction with the Intro Class. He wants to see if I have a problem with Task Loading, "No problem I said".
This past weekend I did confined water sessions.
Here I am in my 6.5 mil drysuit, (with more weight than my truck), gear has been reconfigured.
Once I had my gear as streamlined as possible for O/W diving with only 2 hoses.
1)Primary 1st stage.
2)LP inflator hose with Air II. Used a hoseless air intergrated dive computer. (but that's another story)
Now I have:
1)A long (7') hose for the primary 1st stage.
2)A short hose for the octo.
3)SPG
4)LP inflator hose
5)A drysuit inflator.
Now I am up to 5 hoses, got 1 more port, surely I can think of something else to put there.
After instruction on the intracies of a drysuit and instruction I am finally ready to take the plunge.
Here we go:
All geared up, do a giant stride into the pool, pop to the surface like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, let the air out of my drysuit and down we go. Finally get to bottom and start to achieve neutral buoyancy with a balance of BC and Drysuit additions. Genghis Khan is flashing the OK signal to me, I'm flashing back OK.
School is in session. Now we start by swimming using the various kicks used in cave diving, passed that, no problem, now GK decides to start reel usage. We start by how to use the reel when laying lines, we string lines all over the diving end of the pool and various methods of tying off a reel, looks like the star when you play with strings in your hand. Then GK instucts me to follow the lines, no problem, then he starts jerking the line out of my hand, the method of holding a line taught in the book will not work, have to use a modified version. Passed this with no problem. Next comes following the line blindfolded,(a piece of neoprene wrapped around your mask) at first this is not a problem, then GK starts jerking the line, modified grip works well, no problem.
Tasks become multiple, so far, so good. Next comes following line blindfolded, while GK is jerking line then tying fins up in line to simulate an entanglement. Remembered my Rescue Class (stop, breath, think and react), again come through this with no problems. At this point things are no longer problems, just minor annoyances. Starting to feel real comfortable waiting on the next annoyance, what could it be?
So far I know the bottom of this pool by heart every turn and run, now GK has me following the line, this time not blindfolded, ties up one fin in the line, no problem, the pulls the other off. Ok, fin untangled I swim like a porpoise and he signals OK and gives me back my fin, back to the line. Start following the line GK nowhere around, next thing I know mask gets ripped from my face, this is what I've been waiting on (I wear contacts), after a few seconds of getting them out from under my lids and into the pool no further problems, just keep following that damned line.
Swimming along line GK comes up to me with EYES WIDE OPEN and is grabbing for my primary, no problem, take it out with my right hand and at same time bend neck down, long hose comes over head, pick up octo in teeth and had off primary to GK one single fluid motion. Went really well. GK clapped his hands and signaled OK. Next was air sharing blindfolded, followed GK with his 1st stage left hand holding onto the back of his right thigh and right hand onto the line, (This is the purpose of the long hose) we swam that way for what seemed like a long time. Got real relaxed, closed my eyes under the blindfold and almost fell asleep. Finally after 2 hours submerged we decided to call it a day. Went to surface. After review GK advised me that I had passed this part of the instruction with flying colors.
There may have been some things I left out but it was a rather lengthy day.
Am looking forward to the next class, what unexpected things could it hold for me.
Will keep you posted as class progresses.
ID
After talking to the instructor at my dive shop for several weeks I decided he was the one for me, easy going, knowledgable, friendly and thorough. From this point on I will refer to him as Genghis Khan.
I decided to start at the begining at the Cavern/Intro to Caves, as I believe you can never get enough education, and I wanted to get the full extent of the courses.
After purchasing the required texts and doing the required homework and studying I prepared for my first confined water session. Genghis Khan said we will be taking our "open water" in Rubudoux Springs, Missouri. The water will be a nice crisp 50 deg F. he said you might want to take a drysuit course also and be prepared.
After little thought on the subject, (not being a chosen frozen) I agreed. The shop provided me with one of the rental drysuits in order to take the class. Genghis Khan said I could take it in conjunction with the Intro Class. He wants to see if I have a problem with Task Loading, "No problem I said".
This past weekend I did confined water sessions.
Here I am in my 6.5 mil drysuit, (with more weight than my truck), gear has been reconfigured.
Once I had my gear as streamlined as possible for O/W diving with only 2 hoses.
1)Primary 1st stage.
2)LP inflator hose with Air II. Used a hoseless air intergrated dive computer. (but that's another story)
Now I have:
1)A long (7') hose for the primary 1st stage.
2)A short hose for the octo.
3)SPG
4)LP inflator hose
5)A drysuit inflator.
Now I am up to 5 hoses, got 1 more port, surely I can think of something else to put there.
After instruction on the intracies of a drysuit and instruction I am finally ready to take the plunge.
Here we go:
All geared up, do a giant stride into the pool, pop to the surface like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, let the air out of my drysuit and down we go. Finally get to bottom and start to achieve neutral buoyancy with a balance of BC and Drysuit additions. Genghis Khan is flashing the OK signal to me, I'm flashing back OK.
School is in session. Now we start by swimming using the various kicks used in cave diving, passed that, no problem, now GK decides to start reel usage. We start by how to use the reel when laying lines, we string lines all over the diving end of the pool and various methods of tying off a reel, looks like the star when you play with strings in your hand. Then GK instucts me to follow the lines, no problem, then he starts jerking the line out of my hand, the method of holding a line taught in the book will not work, have to use a modified version. Passed this with no problem. Next comes following the line blindfolded,(a piece of neoprene wrapped around your mask) at first this is not a problem, then GK starts jerking the line, modified grip works well, no problem.
Tasks become multiple, so far, so good. Next comes following line blindfolded, while GK is jerking line then tying fins up in line to simulate an entanglement. Remembered my Rescue Class (stop, breath, think and react), again come through this with no problems. At this point things are no longer problems, just minor annoyances. Starting to feel real comfortable waiting on the next annoyance, what could it be?
So far I know the bottom of this pool by heart every turn and run, now GK has me following the line, this time not blindfolded, ties up one fin in the line, no problem, the pulls the other off. Ok, fin untangled I swim like a porpoise and he signals OK and gives me back my fin, back to the line. Start following the line GK nowhere around, next thing I know mask gets ripped from my face, this is what I've been waiting on (I wear contacts), after a few seconds of getting them out from under my lids and into the pool no further problems, just keep following that damned line.
Swimming along line GK comes up to me with EYES WIDE OPEN and is grabbing for my primary, no problem, take it out with my right hand and at same time bend neck down, long hose comes over head, pick up octo in teeth and had off primary to GK one single fluid motion. Went really well. GK clapped his hands and signaled OK. Next was air sharing blindfolded, followed GK with his 1st stage left hand holding onto the back of his right thigh and right hand onto the line, (This is the purpose of the long hose) we swam that way for what seemed like a long time. Got real relaxed, closed my eyes under the blindfold and almost fell asleep. Finally after 2 hours submerged we decided to call it a day. Went to surface. After review GK advised me that I had passed this part of the instruction with flying colors.
There may have been some things I left out but it was a rather lengthy day.
Am looking forward to the next class, what unexpected things could it hold for me.
Will keep you posted as class progresses.
ID
