Two things: 1) Replace safety / jump reels with spools - they are the right tool for the job
2) Your skills will never suck more they do in a cave diving class. Whether it is stress, task loading, a prying instructor's eye causing stage fright, etc. Don't get too down.
2) Your skills will never suck more they do in a cave diving class. Whether it is stress, task loading, a prying instructor's eye causing stage fright, etc. Don't get too down.
~Frank F, Wreck Valley Divers
Today is a cow butts day…. I am about to be blindsided with it as there are no cows out to view but it is definitely a cow butts day.
We are diving at Peacock Springs and I stop at the Dive Outpost and pick up my light, cannot thank Forrest and Fred enough for getting me back in my own gear.I also pick up an elbow and 12inch corrugated hose……I never changed the pull dump on the new wing and it was time…..many thanks to the staff at dive Outpost for getting that changed out for me.
I head on to the park and meet up with Lee and Jim and proceed to put on my dry suit, still wet on the inside from yesterdays dunking.
Our interpretation of an S-Drill is still giving Jim nightmares and we move on down to the cave opening and tie in.
My buoyancy is suffering even more today as I feel the legs of my dry suit filling with air and fight to keep from launching myself places I shouldn’t be.
As we make our turn to exit the cave I am have a communication /buoyancy gaff and find ourselves off the line and on the ceiling. I shine my light down and the line is not there. It is several seconds before we locate it……not a good thing. I am leading and have not gone far when I turn a corner and note that 2 lights are not following me. I see the ends of their light beams flashing in the dark corner and wait…. As I go back to look there is a look as apparently “my buddy was out of air” and I did not get back in a timely fashion to provide some. In real life I would be diving solo at this moment, but in class I get to now provide him with air and as we head on out our lights mysteriously go out and we continue on with a lights out touch contact exit. And we both lived to tell.
Right before the beginning of the gold line, where the cave floor is mostly rock and harder to silt we are stopped and asked “Where’s the line?” Well, dang, its right there I point ……uh uh….. black out mask in place and spun around I am now in search mode. Last time here and performing a lost line drill I doubled back on myself and found my own reel line and then proceeded to foul it so I needed to carry it out in a ball. This time I am happy to report that I found the line, much quicker than I expected and….. my rewound reel was intact and hanging from my D-ring at drills end. Much improvement from last time.
If only my special control would improve also.
As hard as it may be to believe my next dive is worse. My left secondary light pulls from its security band in the low flat tunnel at the beginning of the dive and I place it in my dry suit pocket without clipping it off as I am losing my place in the water column trying to find a place for it on the pockets bungee line.
I spend time plastered on the ceiling and just inches from the silty floor. At one point I am floating up just so out of whack that Jim comes to ask me if I am OK. I bang heavily at the ceiling and am most downhearted that it is getting worse.
I roll left and right, to and fro as I try to move air from my dry suit legs to my valve and from my wing top to my dump valve….. two different areas, tow different motions and I am sure I look like I am having a seizure but the best is yet to come.
As we turn to exit I look at my hand and see the clip has fallen off the light, luckily not a gear emergency…. Maybe.
We haven’t gone far when Jim turns to me and indicates OOA. I immediately try to stick my regulator in his mouth and he shakes his head and points me towards my “airless” buddy….. hey, an honest mistake.
As we exit again our lights go out …..we continue on and I pull my backup light from my pocket and juggle my backup light, holding the hose, touch contact with my buddy and managing my unlit light head I cannot clip off.Jim has a sense of humor. He ends our air share on backup lights exit and asks………”Where’s your buddy?” He’s right…..the little sneaker has his light covered…… and so begins a major misadventure.
I cover my light and do not see my buddies, I swim to and fro and the son of a gun is lost….. Oh my! Look over there, a side tunnel. I should look there. And so I tie off my safety reel, never letting go of my light head and begin to float up. I struggle to stay near the line as I dig in my pocket for a line arrow to mark my spot and place it on the line and now the bungee from my pocket is tangled on the line. I am floating up and attached to the gold line and fighting to stay level and trying to see how my leg pocket has gotten itself entangled. I pull line arrows and a spool, secondary light and some trauma shears and am still stuck. And I still cant let go of the lighthead. The only thing to do is cut the bungee before I am hanging upside down from the gold line by my pocket. But before I do Jim comes over and “unclips me. I wasn’t tangled; he had sneaked over and clipped me to the line.
I check my air and honestly ….. if I don’t find my buddy soon I am leaving him here…. But I make one run out to that side cave to have a look. The drill is called and I reel back in….. safely…. And we continue on. Again at the tie in I am struggling to dump all I can and not float away…..
I am struggling with my fins, soaking wet and have killed off my buddy several times today….. it’s a cow butt day….. dammed cows.