Cyprian
Contributor
GUE Cave 1 Report - April 4-9,2014 - High Springs, Florida
Instructor: Doug Mudry
Teammate(s): Jason S and Shannon (already C1/T1) joining us as a third diver for 3 days.
Yeap, I'm back with another report on yet another awesome class. For those of you who braved the length of my GUE Fundamentals report, I'll try to keep this one a little shorter...no promises though. I can tell you, after writing the final paragraph below, that the reports from each day do get shorter.
Before I get into day one of the class, let me start by saying that a lot of prep went into this. After getting our tech upgrade in Sept 2013 we decided on the April class date around Nov. Immediately we asked, "What do we need to practice?" The answer was a resounding: Practice the fundamentals skills and let the instructor do his job and teach you Cave 1. I will admit that we practiced running the reel a little before the class, but for the most part our practice sessions were kicks, S-drills and valve drills hovering in open water. It paid off....more on that later.
Pre-Class arrival in High Springs
We did two dives in the Ginnie Ballroom and practiced, yes you guessed it, valve drills and S-drills in open water.
Class Day 1 - Extreme Exposure
Paperwork, lecture, gas planning calcs, cave etiquette, navigation, underwater communication, etc.
Lunch
Outdoor line course (aka the back workout)
Kyle already had the line course setup and Doug took us out to play. First we discussed cookies and line arrows, then we started the reel work.....we both ran the reel a few times using different tie off points each time (Primary, secondary, wraps, placements, etc).
Then comes the fun. I'm not going to go into details as one needs to experience it, but imagine a full line course no vis, touch contact....and you will realize why I called it the back workout. I'll take heavy deadlifts any day. Oh and for some reason, when you are running the line no vis.....other lines appear on your mainline. Yes, I know it is to prepare you in case someone ties in a jump and you are exiting zero vis, but it makes you really take a step back and think "where in the world am I? I don't remember this line."
Back to the classroom and we brought our gear in. Doug did a quick check to make sure he liked everything and we started discussing manifold failures. This progressed into simulated failures and problem resolution by the team based on the failure. Again, no details as this is part of the class, but I always enjoy sitting there breathing off my reg and then taking it out and watching slobber drip down all over my shirt! LOL. Sorry, I had to put that in just to keep readers awake and smiling! For those who have done this, you know what I am talking about.
Class Day 2 - Blue Grotto
I was impressed with the changes at Blue Grotto! I follow them on FB and had seen the pics, but they are making the place very nice.
Anyway, we meet with Doug and do a quick dive site overview and then return to his SUV wear we go over our dive plan (GUEEDGE) for the first few dives. Anyone want to guess what dive 1 is? GUE Fundamentals review.
Now, this is the point where I tell you that keeping current with training pays off. Jason S and I did nothing but V-drills, S-drills, kicks and a little reel work on all of our dives in Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar. Sure we did some fun dives in the middle, but we started every dive with valves drills and s-drills and we would do them at various points during the fun dives.
We drop down do one valve drill each and one S-drill. Doug then lines us up for kicks on the platform and we go through one series of kicks. He brings us up to the surface and I'm thinking "Man, already?....we messed something up." Not the case. He tells us that the skills looked good and it's time to learn to run the reel and to just follow him the first time and watch. Yes! All that work indeed paid off. Obviously, this will not be the end of valve drills and S-drills for the class as they happen often, but we didn't have to spend more time working on the fundamentals.
Out comes the reel and the rules are straightforward.....you run the reel until you hit turn pressure or you run out of line! We are now using 1/3 of 2/3rds gas rules as we are in the overhead. Let me tell you, double 130s/104s hold a lot of gas. You can run all 400' of line off of a pathfinder reel when the tanks are close to full! LOL. Running the reel is fun....looking for placements and tie-off spots, but reeling that sucker back in is not so fun when there is 400' of line looking back at you.
Nevertheless, it accomplished the mission that Doug intended. By the end of the reel work dives, you are starting to understand the basics of the reel.
So we are done right? Nope, we still have gas in our tanks and work to do. Doug runs a line course and we swim in first, then swim it eyes open in touch contact, then swim it with no mask, then swim it in touch contact with masks covered. Wow, what a learning experience. It is crazy how poorly a team can swim when they can't see and only have the line as a guide....but we got better at the end of the day!
So, after just under 5 hrs of total time underwater, we leave Blue Grotto and head to the pool for the swim test. We both passed and I must say, it was a little harder to swim after diving all day, but no complaints.
Class Day 3 - Ginnie - Devil's System
I forgot to mention that Doug had informed us that most, if not all of our cave dives would be a Ginnie since most of the other systems were blown out. There was a shot at diving Manatee later in the week, but that didn't happen after a few negative reports.
So we would learn to dive flow from the beginning of C1! Doug told us that if we pass at the end of the week, diving Ginnie, we definitely will have earned it. Disclaimer: I am not down-playing those that had the chance to dive other systems during their class. We would have certainly went to Peacock, Little River, etc, had they been open. That said, diving 5 days of cave in the flow had its advantages! It certainly provided more time in water for us to learn where to hide, where to go up or down and where to engage the full flutter and pull and glide. No, we are not experts or even intermediates at diving flow by any means, but it was cool to actually see our progression (penetration distance) change each day as we got familiar with the system.
Anyway, back to the report: First cave dive! Doug lead us in and out....no failures, just a chance to start the familiarization process. Oh how that would change starting with Dive 2. So Dive 1, entering through the Eye.....Doug said we wouldn't look very pretty. Yeah, I think I banged my tanks into the cave at least 6-8 times on this dive. Learning the buoyancy changes was a challenge as well. After many dives in OW where you primarily do not have to deal with the best places to hide from flow...lol...this was intriguing! Again, I am not going to go into detail as this is something to be experienced and I will definitely tell anyone looking for cave instruction in Florida....find an instructor that dives high to medium flow caves regularly. They provide great tips.
A quick stop to add to the above: After we passed, on our post grad dives this really hit home. There was a diver that entered the system before us.....we followed. He swam right down the middle, right into the heart of the flow and man was he kicking. We were swimming in the places that Doug took us and I kid you not, we had to stop....literally stop numerous times and wait on this diver to get through the Gallery, the Lips, the Keyhole, etc. Again, we are by no means proficient cave divers yet, but just that quality of instruction had us working much less than the poor guy in front of us.
Back to the day. The equipment started failing from Dive 2 and would continue to escalate. Light failures, post failures and problem resolution were the norm. Then the infamous no vis exit on the line.
Valve drills and S-Drills in open water...etc.
Back to EE to fill tanks and for a brief lecture in the class before going out to practice what was to come in the cave tomorrow....lost line drill. Yeah, some people have seen pictures from this drill so I am going to leave it at that! LOL.
Class Day 4 - Back to Ginnie
Shannon joined us at the 3rd diver on this day. First off, super nice guy and great diver. He was an asset to have on the dives.
Let's see...light failures, post failures and resolution and the lost line drill. Jason S did the lost line without issue other than a fouled safety spool (he switched to the backup).
Me, yeah, I was not so lucky and did not find the line in the required time on round one. But I do not give up and after a little top-water advise from Doug I was back on dive 2 to try again. I found it this time and the class proceeded further. I could not see them (blackout mask), but Shannon and Jason raised their arms in triumph when I wrapped my arm around the gold line...believe me, I was happy as well!
Back to EE for fills and lecture on the lost diver search.
Class Day 5 - Ginnie
Dive 1: No vis exit gas share.
Dive 2: All primaries fail and guess what, Shannon magically disappears! Time to implement the lost diver drill. We did the drill fairly well, except a mistake by me. We found Shannon chasing butterflies off the line and
deployed the spool to retrieve him. When we got to him, I had the spool and shouldn't positioned as diver 3.....yet I had my mind set on spooling back to the line and ended up messing up the team order! Another lesson learned.
Dive 3: Light failures and I lost both posts so I had to gas share with Shannon all the way out.
Dive 4: Light failures and low and behold, Shannon disappears again. We run our calculations and go searching for him. No hiccups this time. We put him in the middle and head out.
Jason S comments on the surface that he needs to remain as diver 2 in our team as he keeps wondering off!
A good laugh shared by all and I think Doug makes us drop back for more valve and S-drills and we head back to EE.
Class Day 6 - Ginnie
Dive 1: Lights, post failures and resolution.
Dive 2: Lights and someone lost all his lights.....
Dive 3: No failures. Wait, what? This was funny......we went in, turned and were just waiting for the inevitable. I'm diver 1 going out and I kept covering my light staring at my teammate's lights.....no way they were staying straight! Where was the quick side to side motion signaling an issue that I had grown so accustom to over the past 5 days? Finally after we made it 1/2 way back I realized that no failures would be coming, so I just went along for a nice ride to the first stop.
This was our graduation dive; however, we were not told that until we were given our cards at the end of the day. Nope, Doug brought us up.....and we had full manifold failures and unconscious diver recovery to do. Once completed, we headed back to EE for the test.
Test and evaluations, which we did as a team and Doug smiled and pulled out two Cave Diver 1 cards. Finally! A lot of blood, sweat and tears had brought me this far. Success.
Jason and I did 4 dives at Ginnie the following day with no failures, imagine that. Then we made our way to Jackson Blue for a couple dives before going home. As luck would have it, the flow was above normal at JB. We still had some great dives and what a beautiful cave! I did comment to Jason that we are not going to know how to dive when we get a chance at a no/low flow cave. We are going to hit turn pressure, turn and just stare at each other. "Hey, why am I not moving out of this cave?"
That's it!
A heartfelt thanks to all who have helped me this far into my journey and that includes some that have no clue that they helped me in the first place. I'm talking about all my diving brothers and sisters that care to share their thoughts and tips on these diving forums regardless of the agency banner that they fly. And another heartfelt thanks to Doug Mudry for all his hard work....and he had plenty of work dealing with me!
I'll see you in the caves!
(P.S. I'm sure I will edit this a couple of times as I am going to post it without proof-reading).
Instructor: Doug Mudry
Teammate(s): Jason S and Shannon (already C1/T1) joining us as a third diver for 3 days.
Yeap, I'm back with another report on yet another awesome class. For those of you who braved the length of my GUE Fundamentals report, I'll try to keep this one a little shorter...no promises though. I can tell you, after writing the final paragraph below, that the reports from each day do get shorter.
Before I get into day one of the class, let me start by saying that a lot of prep went into this. After getting our tech upgrade in Sept 2013 we decided on the April class date around Nov. Immediately we asked, "What do we need to practice?" The answer was a resounding: Practice the fundamentals skills and let the instructor do his job and teach you Cave 1. I will admit that we practiced running the reel a little before the class, but for the most part our practice sessions were kicks, S-drills and valve drills hovering in open water. It paid off....more on that later.
Pre-Class arrival in High Springs
We did two dives in the Ginnie Ballroom and practiced, yes you guessed it, valve drills and S-drills in open water.
Class Day 1 - Extreme Exposure
Paperwork, lecture, gas planning calcs, cave etiquette, navigation, underwater communication, etc.
Lunch
Outdoor line course (aka the back workout)
Kyle already had the line course setup and Doug took us out to play. First we discussed cookies and line arrows, then we started the reel work.....we both ran the reel a few times using different tie off points each time (Primary, secondary, wraps, placements, etc).
Then comes the fun. I'm not going to go into details as one needs to experience it, but imagine a full line course no vis, touch contact....and you will realize why I called it the back workout. I'll take heavy deadlifts any day. Oh and for some reason, when you are running the line no vis.....other lines appear on your mainline. Yes, I know it is to prepare you in case someone ties in a jump and you are exiting zero vis, but it makes you really take a step back and think "where in the world am I? I don't remember this line."
Back to the classroom and we brought our gear in. Doug did a quick check to make sure he liked everything and we started discussing manifold failures. This progressed into simulated failures and problem resolution by the team based on the failure. Again, no details as this is part of the class, but I always enjoy sitting there breathing off my reg and then taking it out and watching slobber drip down all over my shirt! LOL. Sorry, I had to put that in just to keep readers awake and smiling! For those who have done this, you know what I am talking about.
Class Day 2 - Blue Grotto
I was impressed with the changes at Blue Grotto! I follow them on FB and had seen the pics, but they are making the place very nice.
Anyway, we meet with Doug and do a quick dive site overview and then return to his SUV wear we go over our dive plan (GUEEDGE) for the first few dives. Anyone want to guess what dive 1 is? GUE Fundamentals review.
Now, this is the point where I tell you that keeping current with training pays off. Jason S and I did nothing but V-drills, S-drills, kicks and a little reel work on all of our dives in Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar. Sure we did some fun dives in the middle, but we started every dive with valves drills and s-drills and we would do them at various points during the fun dives.
We drop down do one valve drill each and one S-drill. Doug then lines us up for kicks on the platform and we go through one series of kicks. He brings us up to the surface and I'm thinking "Man, already?....we messed something up." Not the case. He tells us that the skills looked good and it's time to learn to run the reel and to just follow him the first time and watch. Yes! All that work indeed paid off. Obviously, this will not be the end of valve drills and S-drills for the class as they happen often, but we didn't have to spend more time working on the fundamentals.
Out comes the reel and the rules are straightforward.....you run the reel until you hit turn pressure or you run out of line! We are now using 1/3 of 2/3rds gas rules as we are in the overhead. Let me tell you, double 130s/104s hold a lot of gas. You can run all 400' of line off of a pathfinder reel when the tanks are close to full! LOL. Running the reel is fun....looking for placements and tie-off spots, but reeling that sucker back in is not so fun when there is 400' of line looking back at you.
Nevertheless, it accomplished the mission that Doug intended. By the end of the reel work dives, you are starting to understand the basics of the reel.
So we are done right? Nope, we still have gas in our tanks and work to do. Doug runs a line course and we swim in first, then swim it eyes open in touch contact, then swim it with no mask, then swim it in touch contact with masks covered. Wow, what a learning experience. It is crazy how poorly a team can swim when they can't see and only have the line as a guide....but we got better at the end of the day!
So, after just under 5 hrs of total time underwater, we leave Blue Grotto and head to the pool for the swim test. We both passed and I must say, it was a little harder to swim after diving all day, but no complaints.
Class Day 3 - Ginnie - Devil's System
I forgot to mention that Doug had informed us that most, if not all of our cave dives would be a Ginnie since most of the other systems were blown out. There was a shot at diving Manatee later in the week, but that didn't happen after a few negative reports.
So we would learn to dive flow from the beginning of C1! Doug told us that if we pass at the end of the week, diving Ginnie, we definitely will have earned it. Disclaimer: I am not down-playing those that had the chance to dive other systems during their class. We would have certainly went to Peacock, Little River, etc, had they been open. That said, diving 5 days of cave in the flow had its advantages! It certainly provided more time in water for us to learn where to hide, where to go up or down and where to engage the full flutter and pull and glide. No, we are not experts or even intermediates at diving flow by any means, but it was cool to actually see our progression (penetration distance) change each day as we got familiar with the system.
Anyway, back to the report: First cave dive! Doug lead us in and out....no failures, just a chance to start the familiarization process. Oh how that would change starting with Dive 2. So Dive 1, entering through the Eye.....Doug said we wouldn't look very pretty. Yeah, I think I banged my tanks into the cave at least 6-8 times on this dive. Learning the buoyancy changes was a challenge as well. After many dives in OW where you primarily do not have to deal with the best places to hide from flow...lol...this was intriguing! Again, I am not going to go into detail as this is something to be experienced and I will definitely tell anyone looking for cave instruction in Florida....find an instructor that dives high to medium flow caves regularly. They provide great tips.
A quick stop to add to the above: After we passed, on our post grad dives this really hit home. There was a diver that entered the system before us.....we followed. He swam right down the middle, right into the heart of the flow and man was he kicking. We were swimming in the places that Doug took us and I kid you not, we had to stop....literally stop numerous times and wait on this diver to get through the Gallery, the Lips, the Keyhole, etc. Again, we are by no means proficient cave divers yet, but just that quality of instruction had us working much less than the poor guy in front of us.
Back to the day. The equipment started failing from Dive 2 and would continue to escalate. Light failures, post failures and problem resolution were the norm. Then the infamous no vis exit on the line.
Valve drills and S-Drills in open water...etc.
Back to EE to fill tanks and for a brief lecture in the class before going out to practice what was to come in the cave tomorrow....lost line drill. Yeah, some people have seen pictures from this drill so I am going to leave it at that! LOL.
Class Day 4 - Back to Ginnie
Shannon joined us at the 3rd diver on this day. First off, super nice guy and great diver. He was an asset to have on the dives.
Let's see...light failures, post failures and resolution and the lost line drill. Jason S did the lost line without issue other than a fouled safety spool (he switched to the backup).
Me, yeah, I was not so lucky and did not find the line in the required time on round one. But I do not give up and after a little top-water advise from Doug I was back on dive 2 to try again. I found it this time and the class proceeded further. I could not see them (blackout mask), but Shannon and Jason raised their arms in triumph when I wrapped my arm around the gold line...believe me, I was happy as well!
Back to EE for fills and lecture on the lost diver search.
Class Day 5 - Ginnie
Dive 1: No vis exit gas share.
Dive 2: All primaries fail and guess what, Shannon magically disappears! Time to implement the lost diver drill. We did the drill fairly well, except a mistake by me. We found Shannon chasing butterflies off the line and
deployed the spool to retrieve him. When we got to him, I had the spool and shouldn't positioned as diver 3.....yet I had my mind set on spooling back to the line and ended up messing up the team order! Another lesson learned.
Dive 3: Light failures and I lost both posts so I had to gas share with Shannon all the way out.
Dive 4: Light failures and low and behold, Shannon disappears again. We run our calculations and go searching for him. No hiccups this time. We put him in the middle and head out.
Jason S comments on the surface that he needs to remain as diver 2 in our team as he keeps wondering off!
A good laugh shared by all and I think Doug makes us drop back for more valve and S-drills and we head back to EE.
Class Day 6 - Ginnie
Dive 1: Lights, post failures and resolution.
Dive 2: Lights and someone lost all his lights.....
Dive 3: No failures. Wait, what? This was funny......we went in, turned and were just waiting for the inevitable. I'm diver 1 going out and I kept covering my light staring at my teammate's lights.....no way they were staying straight! Where was the quick side to side motion signaling an issue that I had grown so accustom to over the past 5 days? Finally after we made it 1/2 way back I realized that no failures would be coming, so I just went along for a nice ride to the first stop.
This was our graduation dive; however, we were not told that until we were given our cards at the end of the day. Nope, Doug brought us up.....and we had full manifold failures and unconscious diver recovery to do. Once completed, we headed back to EE for the test.
Test and evaluations, which we did as a team and Doug smiled and pulled out two Cave Diver 1 cards. Finally! A lot of blood, sweat and tears had brought me this far. Success.
Jason and I did 4 dives at Ginnie the following day with no failures, imagine that. Then we made our way to Jackson Blue for a couple dives before going home. As luck would have it, the flow was above normal at JB. We still had some great dives and what a beautiful cave! I did comment to Jason that we are not going to know how to dive when we get a chance at a no/low flow cave. We are going to hit turn pressure, turn and just stare at each other. "Hey, why am I not moving out of this cave?"
That's it!
A heartfelt thanks to all who have helped me this far into my journey and that includes some that have no clue that they helped me in the first place. I'm talking about all my diving brothers and sisters that care to share their thoughts and tips on these diving forums regardless of the agency banner that they fly. And another heartfelt thanks to Doug Mudry for all his hard work....and he had plenty of work dealing with me!
I'll see you in the caves!
(P.S. I'm sure I will edit this a couple of times as I am going to post it without proof-reading).
