Atlanta Aspiring Recreational Cave Tourist

[CaveSloth]

I am a 45 year old man in Atlanta. I learned to dive in Tulum, MX in 2017. I have 68 dives now. My main buddy is an older dude who has been diving in the springs of Florida since the 60s and has thousands of dives. My girlfriend has about 15 dives and she loves it and is a natural at buoyancy and trim. We only dive recreationally in the safe(st) systems. I dive manifolded back double steel LP85s with a wetsuit. Dual bladder wing and I carry an SMB just in case. Other than that, my rig is mostly compliant with the Hogarthian / DIR approach. I am certified at the Cavern level and working on TDI Intro to Tech and will move to some Intro / Cave 1 after that. Religiously follow the 5 rules. At this point I can't see myself ever going beyond short dives following the permanent line in the most popular systems, minimal deco without having to carry any alternate gases etc... I doubt I will ever get a rebreather. Maybe a scooter but not sure about that lol. I still want to learn it all but as far as my diving I want to keep it simple! I get seasick easily and hate boats and salt water stinging my eyes so I pretty much stick to the springs and cenotes. I am open to making new friends and dive buddies who also love short dives in the major springs in Florida and the Yucatan and also take safety seriously.

 

[tbone1004]

@The Chairman is coming off of the IR about now. Worth asking him if he's available.
Cavern is a really tough restriction in this country unfortunately if you're following the full rules. Natural light doesn't get far into most of these "caverns" so once you get through Intro to cave it opens up a lot more in Florida.

Keep in mind the definition of "short" too. "Short" doesn't need to mean short in terms of time. I HATE doing "short" dives because of the effort required to gear up and break down. Anything under an hour is really not worth my time to get in the water. BUT that doesn't mean that you can't do 1/6 penetration, and then use 1/2 of the tank to get back out because you're going really slow and exploring everything in each of the areas of the cave you're in. A dive to sixths on 85's in Peacock is about 40cf or about 30-45 minutes depending on where you're going. 30-45mins can be up to 3000ft of penetration at 60-70fpm, or 1500ft of penetration at 30fpm. You see a LOT in 1500ft in those caves because they're so diverse and because of those limits, you can go straight back until your limit of gas, then bounce around at essentially half speed on the way out and see a ton of cool stuff

 

[CaveSloth]

@The Chairman is coming off of the IR about now.

IR?

 

[CaveSloth]

And yep, looking forward to completing Intro and getting to go in a bit further at some of these beautiful sites!

 

[tbone1004]

IR?

Injured Reserve

 

[CaveSloth]

Ah yes I believe I read some posts about him being injured. Well, @The Chairman, congrats on healing and welcome back to diving! If you are in ATL would enjoy meeting up sometime.

 

[The Chairman]

I am off IR...

 

[CaveSloth]

Let's hang man

 

[The Chairman]

A manatee and a sloth... good stuff.

 

[tbone1004]

Ah yes I believe I read some posts about him being injured. Well, @The Chairman, congrats on healing and welcome back to diving! If you are in ATL would enjoy meeting up sometime.

He lives in cave country, kind of halfway between Little River and Ginnie right being Ichetucknee