Also posted this on the GUE Forum. Just wanted to make sure that prospective cave diving students caught this ...
Had the pleasure of experiencing C2 w/ Chris Le Maillot last week at ZG in Mexico. I'm happy to report that the entire team passed after a very long week. My teammates were Peter and Michael.
The week was full of 15+ hour days starting off at ZG at 7:30AM every morning and ending up there in the evenings after about 1-2 hours of lecture. Most nights we had some type of team homework as well. The material, while some of it fresh and relevant to C2, was mostly a review of C1 and Fundies, T1 slides. Nice refresher nonetheless.
ZG has the logistics down as well in terms of the gear/tank transportation and tank fills. It's very nice not to have to worry about logisitcs. They, as you might expect, have a full shop and supplies to cater to our equipment needs. We needed a few things here and there to get us by. You can even store your gear and DS at the shop during the evenings without having to lug it back to your hotel.
Most of the course is a blur now. We did the following cenotes in order:
Day 1 - Taj Majal. Basic navigation, jumps, T's.
Day 2 - Mayan Blue. Same as above, plus set up dive for circuit
Day 3 - Mayan Blue. Completion of circuit. Then first stage bottle dive.
Day 4 - Naharon. More stage bottles. Survey. More navigation. Final Exam in PM
Day 5 - Car Wash. Swim test. Restrictions. Review final exam. Unconscious diver tow. Final review/debrief.
As expected, during the above dives we experienced our share of:
-Work with primary reel as well as jump and safety spools.
-Valve failures (some erroneous). Many of which lead to air shares as the week progressed. Also, an air share scenario through restrictions. Even "lost" a stage bottle.
-Light failures. Some of which lead to touch contact blind exits.
-Lost buddy drill. We had a second shot at this as our first attempt was less than polished (actually, it really sucked...)
-Lost line drills, etc., etc., etc.
-We did 5 min of deco on O2 after every dive. Not because we necessarily incurred any deco obligation but rather for the exercise of dropping/picking up our bottles and gas switches.
I found the course very challenging. There was really nothing "easy" about training in Mexico caves (as many may tell you). While there may not be the flow of N. Florida caves, (our team did C1 in HS w/ MM) we found that there was some depth (up to 80' max, maybe 60 avg in some caves) in the above caves and you absolutely MUST MUST MUST have your buoyancy and finning techniques down! You WILL practice ALL of your kicks. You WILL be doing some roller coaster dives in some beautiful decorated caves so buoyancy must be nailed. You will also find that silt is your enemy in some locations. In other words - you can forget using your hands (or fingers) to propel yourself through the cave. Also, holding your position and orientation is an absolute MUST while performing many of the tasks (i.e., placing/removing/storing cookies, line markers, surveying, stage/deco bottle handling, placing/removing reels & jump spools, depolying/stowing lights, deco, valve drills, S drills, etc.).
My "mantra" for the week was that I needed to SLOW DOWN ('been hearing that all of my life) and to hold my position more accurately. As the week progressed, we all did a better job of communicating as a team and improving on our respective deficiencies. In the beginning, we also tended to "over communicate" with our primary lights. We did a much better job towards the end on our passive communication.
If interested in C2, I would suggest being highly proficient in:
-Having all kicks nailed - especially the backward kick.
-Be able to hold your position while task loading (for example, should be able to hold on the spot while taking out and writing a few sentences in your Wnotes)
-Know your valve failure procedures - especially as it pertains to when to shut the isolator. If you've done C1 or T1, you should know already this.
-Buoyancy should be +/- 1 foot (or better)! Especially while on deco and valve drills (Chris wanted to see that star formation every time).
I highly recommend taking C1 in HS and C2 in Mexico (or vice versa). This way, you are exposed to a variety of cave conditions that will set you up for your future cave diving needs. If you do take C1 in Mexico (and then C2 in HS), I would highly recommend you do a bunch of C1 dives in HS before you take C2.
Chris' last words to our team is still resonating in my head: In a cave "DON'T MESS UP".....
Thanks again to Chris and his team in Mexico for a terrific experience!
Had the pleasure of experiencing C2 w/ Chris Le Maillot last week at ZG in Mexico. I'm happy to report that the entire team passed after a very long week. My teammates were Peter and Michael.
The week was full of 15+ hour days starting off at ZG at 7:30AM every morning and ending up there in the evenings after about 1-2 hours of lecture. Most nights we had some type of team homework as well. The material, while some of it fresh and relevant to C2, was mostly a review of C1 and Fundies, T1 slides. Nice refresher nonetheless.
ZG has the logistics down as well in terms of the gear/tank transportation and tank fills. It's very nice not to have to worry about logisitcs. They, as you might expect, have a full shop and supplies to cater to our equipment needs. We needed a few things here and there to get us by. You can even store your gear and DS at the shop during the evenings without having to lug it back to your hotel.
Most of the course is a blur now. We did the following cenotes in order:
Day 1 - Taj Majal. Basic navigation, jumps, T's.
Day 2 - Mayan Blue. Same as above, plus set up dive for circuit
Day 3 - Mayan Blue. Completion of circuit. Then first stage bottle dive.
Day 4 - Naharon. More stage bottles. Survey. More navigation. Final Exam in PM
Day 5 - Car Wash. Swim test. Restrictions. Review final exam. Unconscious diver tow. Final review/debrief.
As expected, during the above dives we experienced our share of:
-Work with primary reel as well as jump and safety spools.
-Valve failures (some erroneous). Many of which lead to air shares as the week progressed. Also, an air share scenario through restrictions. Even "lost" a stage bottle.
-Light failures. Some of which lead to touch contact blind exits.
-Lost buddy drill. We had a second shot at this as our first attempt was less than polished (actually, it really sucked...)
-Lost line drills, etc., etc., etc.
-We did 5 min of deco on O2 after every dive. Not because we necessarily incurred any deco obligation but rather for the exercise of dropping/picking up our bottles and gas switches.
I found the course very challenging. There was really nothing "easy" about training in Mexico caves (as many may tell you). While there may not be the flow of N. Florida caves, (our team did C1 in HS w/ MM) we found that there was some depth (up to 80' max, maybe 60 avg in some caves) in the above caves and you absolutely MUST MUST MUST have your buoyancy and finning techniques down! You WILL practice ALL of your kicks. You WILL be doing some roller coaster dives in some beautiful decorated caves so buoyancy must be nailed. You will also find that silt is your enemy in some locations. In other words - you can forget using your hands (or fingers) to propel yourself through the cave. Also, holding your position and orientation is an absolute MUST while performing many of the tasks (i.e., placing/removing/storing cookies, line markers, surveying, stage/deco bottle handling, placing/removing reels & jump spools, depolying/stowing lights, deco, valve drills, S drills, etc.).
My "mantra" for the week was that I needed to SLOW DOWN ('been hearing that all of my life) and to hold my position more accurately. As the week progressed, we all did a better job of communicating as a team and improving on our respective deficiencies. In the beginning, we also tended to "over communicate" with our primary lights. We did a much better job towards the end on our passive communication.
If interested in C2, I would suggest being highly proficient in:
-Having all kicks nailed - especially the backward kick.
-Be able to hold your position while task loading (for example, should be able to hold on the spot while taking out and writing a few sentences in your Wnotes)
-Know your valve failure procedures - especially as it pertains to when to shut the isolator. If you've done C1 or T1, you should know already this.
-Buoyancy should be +/- 1 foot (or better)! Especially while on deco and valve drills (Chris wanted to see that star formation every time).
I highly recommend taking C1 in HS and C2 in Mexico (or vice versa). This way, you are exposed to a variety of cave conditions that will set you up for your future cave diving needs. If you do take C1 in Mexico (and then C2 in HS), I would highly recommend you do a bunch of C1 dives in HS before you take C2.
Chris' last words to our team is still resonating in my head: In a cave "DON'T MESS UP".....
Thanks again to Chris and his team in Mexico for a terrific experience!
