I'd like to get some more cave dives in before my Full Cave class next month, but my normal buddy is busy this month (currently App.+, so 1/3rds, 1,500ft, 2 jumps, light deco). Anyone looking for someone to dive with next weekend?
Thinking of heading down to cave country this weekend, anyone?
- Thread starter jlcnuke
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OP
I'll be headed down again the week before Christmas. Hit me up if anyone wants to meet up and do some dives.
PM sent.
OP
Guess I could have posted updates. I did find people to dive with for both these trips. Latest trip I dove with a friend from near me on Saturday and Sunday. That weekend I also met up with some other students of my cave instructor. Monday I dove with one of them, an individual I met through Facebook, and one of his friends. Tuesday and Wednesday was with the other students of my instructor. Thursday I unfortunately had a stuffed up head and had to call the dives, or else I would have got to dive with @tmassey as well as 1 of my buddies from Wednesday. Those two did get to go enjoy some diving Thursday however.
So far, I've only had two issues with divers I've met through online. One had an issue with their drysuit and needing to work on that, but was otherwise good. One diver had a number of issues (on this past Monday's dive) and made me recognize why some people won't dive with people they don't know themselves. I'm still open to diving with new divers, but I may decide to plan for "easier" cave dives for the first dive or two with people I don't know in the future.
So far, I've only had two issues with divers I've met through online. One had an issue with their drysuit and needing to work on that, but was otherwise good. One diver had a number of issues (on this past Monday's dive) and made me recognize why some people won't dive with people they don't know themselves. I'm still open to diving with new divers, but I may decide to plan for "easier" cave dives for the first dive or two with people I don't know in the future.
you’ll learn to only do simple mainline dives with people at first. For a long time I would only solo dive if my regular buddies weren’t around due to issues with “instabuddies”. My wife did a dive with a friend recently who brought along another full cave diver who was supposed to be proficient. My wife mistakenly led the dive off the mainline to a smaller tunnel. The friend of a friend apparently had no skills and completely blew out the tunnel, then both the friend and friend of a friend exited the silt out without confirming my wife was behind the, with bump and go, so my wife had to exit the jump solo in zero vis. She couldn’t see how bad the friend of a friend was because she was the first diver and he was last
Back in 1995 I learned this lesson. I have a friend (really I do!) that I knew through the Georgia Tech scuba program. He was one of the instructors there and because I was one of the very few YMCA and NAUI instructors, they used to pick me up on their way down to the keys to help with check-out dives.
Although we knew each other through recreational check-out dives in the keys, we had never done a cave dive together but my friend had completed full cave with one of the biggest named instructors of the 90s (a name everyone here has heard of) a year before me, so I figured he was probably ok. For our first cave dive I figured the double lines area of Ginnie would be perfect -- after all, I knew his diving credentials from doing checkout dives with him in the keys, and his instructor was one of the best in the world.
My friend met me at Ginnie and we went for the dive. He had brought his 12 year old son, who hung out on the surface while we were diving.
Well... For those of you that are familiar with the area as it looks today, understand that back in 1995 it looked a bit different - the mud and clay in areas was higher. The minute we hit the bedding plane it turned into a complete mud wall and we spent fifteen minutes or so looking for each other; the whole time I kept thinking "I don't want to have to tell this guys 12 year old son his dad is lost in the cave."
Thankfully, it all worked out and everyone was fine. He and I are still friends, and we still joke about me trying to kill him on our first cave dive to this day.
First time you're diving with someone in a cave, keep it simple. Mainline of Ginnie or Peacock 1 tunnel is good (I'd probably skip OG due to potential for silt). If you want to go for a jump, keep it simple as well - Hill 400 or Bone Line is great, wormhole or cisteen maybe not so great.
Although we knew each other through recreational check-out dives in the keys, we had never done a cave dive together but my friend had completed full cave with one of the biggest named instructors of the 90s (a name everyone here has heard of) a year before me, so I figured he was probably ok. For our first cave dive I figured the double lines area of Ginnie would be perfect -- after all, I knew his diving credentials from doing checkout dives with him in the keys, and his instructor was one of the best in the world.
My friend met me at Ginnie and we went for the dive. He had brought his 12 year old son, who hung out on the surface while we were diving.
Well... For those of you that are familiar with the area as it looks today, understand that back in 1995 it looked a bit different - the mud and clay in areas was higher. The minute we hit the bedding plane it turned into a complete mud wall and we spent fifteen minutes or so looking for each other; the whole time I kept thinking "I don't want to have to tell this guys 12 year old son his dad is lost in the cave."
Thankfully, it all worked out and everyone was fine. He and I are still friends, and we still joke about me trying to kill him on our first cave dive to this day.
First time you're diving with someone in a cave, keep it simple. Mainline of Ginnie or Peacock 1 tunnel is good (I'd probably skip OG due to potential for silt). If you want to go for a jump, keep it simple as well - Hill 400 or Bone Line is great, wormhole or cisteen maybe not so great.
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