Newbie's intro to cave

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You do have access to the e-learning after your course. I did my SDI OW four years ago and I still have access to it. Apparently SDi/TDI is now making PDFs of the e-learning available so you can use it without internet access. Check to see if that’s an option for cavern/intro to cave.

The TDI Diving In Overhead Environments student manual is available as a PDF download when you're taking their overhead diving course(s).
 
The TDI Diving In Overhead Environments student manual is available as a PDF download when you're taking their overhead diving course(s).

That’s good to know. But that’s just for eLearning students, correct?
 
That’s good to know. But that’s just for eLearning students, correct?

I'd assume so. I did my stuff through elearning. If you're not doing elearning I'd guess you'd just get the hard copy of the book, but I could be wrong there.
 
So, first day of diving done

The day started by kitting up, driving to the pond, and breaking the ice to gain access into the cave.

I got the honour of handling the reel on our first entry. The reel handling went okay, but need some more focus on keeping the line tight. It was truly annoying the handle the reel on first entry, as the cave looked truly marvelous, and I had to focus on reeling

After tying into the mainline, and placing cookies, exited and reeled in, to let another participant on the course handle the reel.

I can tell by air-consumption that I was breathing quite a lot more than normally!
Runtime first dive, 49 minutes - and getting some hear back in the hands, toes and body was well appreciated!

We did rhe second dive after ~2 hours surface interval, including food and hot drinks - inside.
On the second dive the third participant handled the reel and for my first time I had to NOT agree on a tie-in, which was quickly solved after giving negative answer.

We then proceeded on the mainline, and got ~70 meters penetration until we had to shut of primary lights, deploy backup light and follow the primary line back to our tie in. The biggest problem here (that I know off!) was shutting off the primary light, but ended up getting it turned off using the tip of the linecutter. The poor instructor did say back at the surface he really wondered what I was fumbling with! (Found and rectified the reason after the dive)

Following that, we went back in the cave, before doing a (single person) blackout follow the line drill. The calmness felt when it was all pitch black, following the line back to our reel was really surprising!

When the three of us was back at our reel, we turned the dive, and exited without "incidents".
Runtime 48 minutes - which was again appreciated due too temperature.

I sas a bit surprised that we would only do two dives/day prior to the course, but 3°C water makes me appreciate that.
Instructor says a third dive is reserved only for ****ups - so guess I'll know if I do ****up!

I'm taking rhe course with two other people, none of which I know.
One have been diving for a long time, but with a double-rig for the last two years, where the other one is a military diver, which surprisingly to me uses split-fins, and handles back-kicks just fine in them
 
Thanks for the report. I’m surprised the split fins were allowed!
 
Second dive-day finished, an once again I'm surprisingly tired after only two dives:p

Girst dive of the day, I got to handle the reel again, which felt way better than first atttempt:)

After some penetration on the main line, lost dove drill was conducted with safety-spools, and clipping of backup-light to the line. Once our instructor was happy, we carried out touch-contact exit until reaching our reel.
52 minutes runtime.

Second dive of the day was with the longest penetration so far, reaching 110 meters. From there we got the blackout masks on, and touch-contact back to our reel, myself as third person on the team, in front during Touch-contact exit.
We exited using double the time spent for entry, which we're told is quite good for beginners.
Runtime 45 minutes.

The second dive of today was recorded on video, which was very interesting to review!
 
Hi.
I dont have the video available (we lookd through it as part of class), but I've given my go that they can use it for advertisement, so I'll post a link if I get one:)
 
Seems I failed at giving daily updates as I intended to do, Sauna and new Years celebration got the priority yesterday:)

The final days of the course contained a few humbling experiences, especially lost line drill with blackout masks.

In short all three of us have gained the intro ro cave certificate and I'm really happy to have a few more days to dive here before real-life starts again:)
 
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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