Finally pulled the trigger and will be in northern Florida for 10 days diving with @Trace Malinowski. Any tips to survive his course? Anyone going to be around? Will be there July 16-25th.
Finally going full cave
- Thread starter Beau640
- Start date
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@Beau640
After that, just make sure you have fun and absorb everything you can. Trace is a great guy, diver, and instructor so you'll earn every bit of training you're paying for.
@Trace Malinowski sorry not sorry for ruining some of that up top
- Slow and relaxed with good technique
- good motto to live by, but one of the best to dive by
- When the world starts spinning, don't try to catch up with the world, make the world slow down to you
- you can't keep pace with whatever snowball Trace is going to give to you if you try to solve them all at the same time. You have to stop, breathe, think, breathe, act, breathe. Solve problems one at a time. Prioritize breathing and awareness of the line. As long as you can get to the line and you and your buddy are breathing, everything else is just a nuisance and you are solving them to make your exit easier
- LISTEN!!!!
- So many divers don't listen to what's going on and you can tell so much about what's going on by listening to your buddies breathing *obviously until you are on CCR*, but you can hear them, listen to breathing patterns to anticipate things etc.
- Light and Line Etiquette
- Most new divers and unfortunately most cave divers don't have courtesy for other teams. Pay attention both on entry and exit to other lights in the cave and when you see them *ALWAYS when entering, but even when you have right of way on exit* both move your light to the floor instead of the walls and clear away from the line.
- When doing reel work make sure you have your light in the "holding" hand, vs the "reeling" hand. I was watching a cave course exit that Jill Heinerth was conducting and talked with @The Chairman about it afterwards because the student had her light in her right hand while removing the reel from the Olsen tunnel. @victorzamora and I booked it out of the Peanut Line thinking someone was in real trouble then saw it was just poor technique and general lack of situational awareness so we let it be. It's a pet peeve of most of us that unfortunately isn't enforced by most instructors. See this pretty regularly with dive teams, but was particularly frustrating to see it in a class and not have the instructor correct it immediately. Trace will rip you a new one if he catches you doing that kind of stuff though.
After that, just make sure you have fun and absorb everything you can. Trace is a great guy, diver, and instructor so you'll earn every bit of training you're paying for.
@Trace Malinowski sorry not sorry for ruining some of that up top
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He means the light and reel/spool go in one hand (usually left). While your right hand goes round and round to wind up the line. If your light is in the winding hand it goes round and round like a strobe and drives the rest of us crazy.
+1 for slowing everything down. Even OOA is not a rush, everyone can and should be able to hold their breath momentarily (~15 seconds). Don't go all spastic in a rush.
PfcAJ
Contributor
Think about what you're doing. Use yer noggin.
If your buoyancy isn't right, nothing else will be. Line work, antisilting kicks, air share stuff, etc will all be harder if you aren't neutral.
Think about what you're doing.
Go slow, be deliberate, manage your resources, be aware of your buddy, the line, your position in the cave, and your light (not necessarily in that order).
Think about what you're doing.
If your buoyancy isn't right, nothing else will be. Line work, antisilting kicks, air share stuff, etc will all be harder if you aren't neutral.
Think about what you're doing.
Go slow, be deliberate, manage your resources, be aware of your buddy, the line, your position in the cave, and your light (not necessarily in that order).
Think about what you're doing.
Lobzilla
Contributor
Having (barely) survived both apprentice and full with Trace I would add trim to that.
While you are analyzing the problem(s) he throws at you or when you do something that requires a lot of attention from a novice -like running the reel into the cave or installing a jump- make it a habit to constantly get back in trim/posture and to fine tune your buoyancy. Basically: WTF ??? - Trim, check - Buoyancy, check - [action]
(Except for places in the cave where you can't be in trim because of the wet rock)
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njdiverjoe
Contributor
What's great about going down there with Trace is that he loves to cave dive, and you should be able to get in many more dives than the requirements. Coming from wreck diving, one of the biggest surprises for me was the amount of flow there is in some of the caves. Talk him into leading a dive once in awhile and then pay close attention to where he positions himself in the flow and try your best to do the same -- you'll work way less hard and your air consumption will thank you.
Lobzilla
Contributor
Yes, trying to get him drunk as suggested in the beginning is pretty hard since he likes to dive 'after hours'. If you have the stamina and enough change to pay Wayne for fills you can dive with Trace until the cows come home.
Same take on flow. I hated Ginnie with a passion after the first dive. First you have to force your way into an open faucet while running the reel. The reward for accomplishing this is that you have the flow on your tail while reeling the line back in and trying to find a spot for (simulated) deco where you don't suddenly get up-ended like it happened to me in the Eye. Simulated deco because we sucked the tanks down before getting anywhere far or deep.
Next step was learning to understand the flow and to avoid needless struggle against it. Trace will show you how but duplicating his moves is another story. There is an invisible scooter built into his fins which will unfortunately not function anymore after you secretly swapped fins with him.
After returning to Ginne from Peacock, Jackson Blue, Madison, and Little River, I could not believe that I actually began to enjoy that cave. Sometimes, just stepping away from it for a while makes solving a problem easier. Don't fret the miles you may have to drive for a different experience.
For one of the 'after hours' dives in Ginnie I only had AL80 doubles left with gas and Trace suggested to just go for a leisurely dive in a wet suit. My reel was still in the Eye from the last class dive so we saved some time/gas there. Not trying very hard, I made it to the maple leaf via the bone room on my 50 cuft (Trace's SPG looked like it was stuck). For the hot shots here the maple leaf is as far as the door mat but for me it was like leaving lower earth orbit. Encouraged by this, I suggested to go further the next day in class with cave filled LP104s (~twice the gas) and drysuit. Didn't happen. Drag is a b!tch in flow. Once you start to force things, the gas disappears like through a leak.
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