Cave Course

[Lake Diver]

Just got back from Florida, where I did a IANTD cave course with Phil Short [url="http://www.philshorttechnical.co.uk/main.htm"]
I was lucky enough to get on a course on a one to one basis as he was already out in Florida. One to one is great but it does mean that you don't get to watch anyone else make mistakes before it is your turn!
Anyway here is a quick overview of the course.
Met by phil at Orlando Airport (virgin atlantic flight, pretty good with 46kg baggage allowance plus 10kg in hand luggage if required and was not weighed)
I am open circuit and took everything with me apart from cylinders. I have a single wing so took my drysuit for buoyancy redundancy.
We stayed at Bill Renneckers Cave Excursions in a large trailer.
First day kit reconfiguration, believe me Phil WILL tidy your kit up! then line laying and reel skills in the trees followed by a o/w check out dive at orange
grove. Twin XL cylinders (17 litres I think) are very heavy and by the end of the week are no easier to carry than at the start, but kitting up benches are available at all the sites we visited.
With there just being the 2 of us we then had time for a dive in the cave system from orange grove, turned at 900' into the system. I was impressed how pretty the caves all were, much better in real life than the pics on web.

The next 5 days were taken up with at least 2 dives a day fitting in all the various skills like line laying, jump reels, lights out and out of gas drills all of which was great fun. Lectures in the evenings after dinner at local diner (plenty of filling food not too healthy though!)
so what might seem like a lot of money for a course (£600) is not bad when you consider I spent 13hrs underwater and atleast 12 hrs a day with an excellent instructor.

Little River was one of my favourite dives, the system has some twisty bits and is very pretty, the flow was low last week so entry and exit were easy, we did a 90 min dive and managed to reach the Florida room.

We had a day at Ginnie springs where there is more flow which is a bit of a shock after the gentle dives earlier in the week, we dived Devils Ear, through the Lips and past the Cornflakes after which it gets a bit easier. Good practice for pull and glide technique but be prepared to loose a bit of skin on your fingertips until you learn to pull with the flat of your hand. We did a circuit through the bone room where the sand is black as seems to eat up your torch light.

Madison blue springs were quite a drive north, some passages here were small and silty.

Finnished the week with circuit from Orange Grove to Challenge, Olsen and out at Peacock 1. This is my longest dive to date at about 4800 feet.
Earlier in the week we visited halcyon and I met Jarrad from GUE who was telling us about their up and coming attemt to swim through Wakula A 25-27 hr dive, Puts my little dive into perspective.
I also got to meet Tom Mount now head of IANTD which was pretty cool.

All told I had a great week and learn loads about caves, cave diving and diving in general.

definitely to be recommended

Gareth

Lake Diver

[Paul Evans]

Glad you had a good time, A m8 of mine is doing the coarse with Phil in Mexico this week.

[James The Badger]

Great course report. Interested to see what the take is on the student/instructor ratio for technical/Cave courses. Did you feel anything was lost by not being in a team of 2 or 3 without the instructor being a team member? Did it make multiple faliures easier or more difficult to replicate? How much do the agencies vary in student/instructor ratios and why?
James

[Lake Diver]

Originally Posted by James The Badger

Great course report. Interested to see what the take is on the student/instructor ratio for technical/Cave courses. Did you feel anything was lost by not being in a team of 2 or 3 without the instructor being a team member? Did it make multiple faliures easier or more difficult to replicate? How much do the agencies vary in student/instructor ratios and why?
James

Being on a course with 1 or 2 others would definitely bring other factors into the mix which would be useful especially if you were going to continue diving with the other divers on the course, but when it comes to it any course should be trying to make you make the right choices and react in the best possible way to whatever happens during the dive. A one week course can only provide a base from which to start making those choses mechanical, like with all diving without practicing the skills taught you will never make them a motor reflex.
I don't know what other agencies think about the ratio, I believe Phil takes upto 3 and would prefer more than 1 student for obvious financial reasons, and it makes the skill sessions more variable. Also the likelyhood of 2 divers wanting to listen to country and western music is very limited ( if you like Mettalica, Pink Floyd or Linkin Parc you'll be fine)

Gareth

[NotDeadYet]

Originally Posted by Lake Diver

We stayed at Bill Renneckers Cave Excursions in a large trailer.

I've stayed in Rennecker's trailer out in the backwoods. Great place, I think I found my natural level, poor trailer trash I had my first ever bend sat in the Lay-Z-Boy in that trailer! Happy memories!!!

The petrol station near there used to do great ribs!

Cheers,

Stuart

[Lake Diver]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

I've stayed in Rennecker's trailer out in the backwoods. Great place, I think I found my natural level, poor trailer trash I had my first ever bend sat in the Lay-Z-Boy in that trailer! Happy memories!!!

That layzboy is still there all though fairly beat up!
was that the first of many bends or the first and only?

Gareth