Cavern Course with Johnny Richards

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Nice!

I had a great course with him a few weeks back. He is unflappable. I asked him if I could bring my split-fins and spare air, and he just smiled.
 
Training Begins:

A lack of sleep would be an omen to anyone else, but the Siren's call was there just beyond the trees. Whether the cause was the anticipation or the coffee, I was not sure. One way or another, morning could not come quick enough. In hindsight, coffee before bed whilst full of excitement for the upcoming day was not wise one way or the other.

Apollos had not yet girded his horse when I sprang from the bed and was glad to be alive. I greeted the new day with a chest for my meal, which needed ice, the book of First Thessalonians, a few pull ups and a few push ups.

After the gear was loaded the last thing to do was to eat on my way back to Ginnie. Two Nature Valley bars later and I was the third person in front of the store. As early as I got there, I will need to be earlier if I want to beat everyone else there.

Two fresh OW students there for their first OW dives got to hear about nonequivalent tank pressures and what all I see at the bottom of my local lakes. They loved hearing about the fact that I had no divable springs in my area.

Once the doors to the lodge opened like the doors to Jurassic Park, I walked in and found my instructor standing there like one of my past college professors. I walked up and shook the hand of my adoptive patriarch of this sport. Walking beside him I could almost see glimpses of the cave in his eyes.

The other two students arrived and after the ferryman was paid, we were taken around back to learn how to live to tell another tale. The question was posed: "Do you need a line to penetrate a cave?" After a moment... "No, but you may need one to get out." Similar wisdom flowed from this man for hours as we, the students, learned line drills and communication techniques.

Lunch was gone before we could enjoy it. Time was flying and the song was growing louder.

The classroom was not difficult, but it was informative. Even though the book briefly gave us information, Johnny expounded upon it. Wit and wisdom are two words I will use to describe our professor's teaching style and before we knew it, the time had come for us to get our feet wet...
 
Dude, this anticipation is murder. Glad you're having fun, though!

Peace,
Greg
 
My First Cavern Dive:

The water was like looking through glass. The only suspended particulate matter was at the base of each of the twenty to thirty OW divers in the basin and cavern. After suiting up amongst hundreds of teenagers lusting for the bottle and each other, the heat and the gear, the cool relief offered by the water swept over my skin like a gentle breeze over a field of amber waves of grain.

Maintaining trim in a high-flow cave was harder than I thought it was going to be. Being my first time back in double LP85s in about two months, I had to remember to arc my back more than I need to with my single HP120. After weaving my way through the OW students in the basin, I entered the Ballroom on the right side of the large stone. The path down into the cavern was like floating into another world. It was darker than I thought it would be.

Staying on the far right side I avoided the flow until I exited the eddy right in front of the grate. I really had to frog-kick!

I left the grate and made my way up the other side of the cavern and took in the beauty of it all. The air on the ceiling looked like mercury snaking about.

After being kicked in the face a few times by OW divers, I left on the far left side facing the cavern entrance pausing only for my three minutes of safety.

I decided to try my hand at line placement and found a great out-of-the-way nook and took my line into the cave again on cave right. I found another good tie off and then made my first placement, turned around reeling the line in, and exited.

I came up near a diver kicking vertically with a lot of force and went to check it out on the surface. A diver was OOA and trying to orally inflate his BC. I was proud of him for not panicking, but found no buddy nearby. I helped as best I could and made sure he was calm before we both walked up the steps.

My tanks were filled in preparation for the morning's excursion, so I went to the lodge's back door for my fill. The strength of the airman's equipment won and I left with full tanks.

The home-cooked meal I expected from the eatery nearest my temporary residence, closed at 1400 hours. I was mildly disappointed but settled for Hardee's.

Now, sleep comes quickly...
 
What a fun read! But, no mishaps, no tangles, no light failures, nothing?
 
The Second Day Starts Early:

A long day yesterday meant easy sleep. A long day today meant enough anticipation to be up 20 minutes earlier today.

Clouds are wispy and playful, but today, also a little foreboding. The air is thicker and the smell of fresh thick life is hinted in the slow breeze. Rain. It is on its way. For the sake of my class, my hope is that it holds off until after our morning dives. This will make drying of easier and more pleasurable.

Our first training dive will be a line course with four passes through. The fist is unchallenged. The second pass is without a mask. The third and forth passes will be blind and one of our team mates OOA. With no foreknowledge of the dives following this one, my mind swirls with the possibilities...
 
lynne, johnny has groups do a 'homework' dive after the first day of lecture, so no failures. yet... :wink:
 
Ah, thanks, Marci!

FIMB, the creativity of good instructors is truly malignant :) If you handle the simple stuff, they hand you combinations of problems where there may be NO "right" answer; what they look for is not as much what you eventually do, as the reasoning you use to get there.
 
What comes to mind when you think of a gas station attendant? The stingy teenager who does not want to be there? The stereotypical "Apu?" Not in Florida's cave country. After the myriad of attendants I have come across today as I seek directions (no GPS), I am sure that they are talking about the crazy young man confused by Florida road maps on their own Quicky-mart forums.

Not sure how much a GPS helps, at least at first. My Garmin with its newly loaded maps and updated software is totally baffled by Florida in general and the High Springs area in particular. As you get close to Ginnie Springs, it tries to put you on roads that don't exist and thinks you are off-roading when you drive the existing roads. Punch in the address for a place like Amigos Dive Center and it will take you to the exact wrong end of that road. What I learned to do is input in the exact location of a place once I was there and save it in the favorites so that I would be able to find it again the next time I tried.
 
I remember my first trip to EE ... after walking along the back wall admiring all the cool Halcyon stuff I noticed, hanging along the front wall, several mask/fin/snorkel sets ... one set was even pink ... :rofl3:

Kinda busts the stereotype ...

...and they also own a PADI shop in Gainesville which they want to make a PADI instructor development center.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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