sontek
Contributor
Did some cave training this weekend with Lamar Hires.
I'm doing the whole course in sidemount, so we got to explore the catacombs and do some basic practicing of reel skills.
I had forgot my JetFins in Pensacola so I was diving my Hollis F1 fins that I had purchased and then realized they really didn't work well for me... So on our first dive Lamar wanted to see my range so we could plan our dives better and he had me swim until we reached turning point and I had only made it about 700ft and was glad I hit turning pressures because I was dieing. He told me I was working way to hard and that he was barely moving the whole time and told me he'd bring me different fins for Sunday.
After 2 dives, Lamar had me perfectly trim in my sidemount gear and feeling like a pro with the reel. Luckily on the 2nd dive I forgot to reset my watch and so it thought I was diving 50% and put me into deco, so we got to sit in the eye and watch the sorority girls tubing the river for a few minutes
The next day we tried to hit Little River but we had heard it was closed Saturday so weren't sure what to expect, but as soon as we arrived we found a sad Jim Wyatt just sitting on the gate for the 2nd day in a row... we decided it wasn't worth the wait and headed over to Peacock Springs which was completely empty, we were the only divers in the place.
We did the range dive again, this time with me wearing his spare set of EXP fins and they worked just as good if not better than my JetFins, I ended up reaching Olsen Sink before I hit turning pressure and we just turned the dive anyways.
On our way back he had me do more line drills and I quickly realized I wasn't maintaining neutral buoyancy by putting air in my BC but because of forward progress, I never noticed, so I had to re-adjust quickly. We found a large chunk of a stalactite that had been broken off by some diver so that was kind of unfortunate.
The 2nd dive we went the other way and got to the peanut restriction and then turned, it was good to know that I can make it to both sections in a single run.
Water is low and the basin is getting an algae bloom so if there isn't rainfall soon it'll probably start getting pretty bad at peacock.
Soaking up the knowledge:
Walking to the water is so much nicer without tanks:
Overall I'm enjoying the caves. I still love my salt water and we'll continue getting out in the gulf but it'll probably be split 50/50 between that and caves now!
I'm doing the whole course in sidemount, so we got to explore the catacombs and do some basic practicing of reel skills.
I had forgot my JetFins in Pensacola so I was diving my Hollis F1 fins that I had purchased and then realized they really didn't work well for me... So on our first dive Lamar wanted to see my range so we could plan our dives better and he had me swim until we reached turning point and I had only made it about 700ft and was glad I hit turning pressures because I was dieing. He told me I was working way to hard and that he was barely moving the whole time and told me he'd bring me different fins for Sunday.
After 2 dives, Lamar had me perfectly trim in my sidemount gear and feeling like a pro with the reel. Luckily on the 2nd dive I forgot to reset my watch and so it thought I was diving 50% and put me into deco, so we got to sit in the eye and watch the sorority girls tubing the river for a few minutes
The next day we tried to hit Little River but we had heard it was closed Saturday so weren't sure what to expect, but as soon as we arrived we found a sad Jim Wyatt just sitting on the gate for the 2nd day in a row... we decided it wasn't worth the wait and headed over to Peacock Springs which was completely empty, we were the only divers in the place.
We did the range dive again, this time with me wearing his spare set of EXP fins and they worked just as good if not better than my JetFins, I ended up reaching Olsen Sink before I hit turning pressure and we just turned the dive anyways.
On our way back he had me do more line drills and I quickly realized I wasn't maintaining neutral buoyancy by putting air in my BC but because of forward progress, I never noticed, so I had to re-adjust quickly. We found a large chunk of a stalactite that had been broken off by some diver so that was kind of unfortunate.
The 2nd dive we went the other way and got to the peanut restriction and then turned, it was good to know that I can make it to both sections in a single run.
Water is low and the basin is getting an algae bloom so if there isn't rainfall soon it'll probably start getting pretty bad at peacock.
Soaking up the knowledge:
Walking to the water is so much nicer without tanks:
Overall I'm enjoying the caves. I still love my salt water and we'll continue getting out in the gulf but it'll probably be split 50/50 between that and caves now!
