GUE - Cave I - April 08

[David]

cool :-)

[GLOC]

Well done Di for having the grit and determination to get where you are. A credit.

Hopefully see you Monday for a natter (if the weather gods are playing).

[purple vonny]

Hey Di, I'm in awe of you. You are a star.

Did truck envy get the better of you? Or did you resist?

[jorawley]

Superb report Di and very well done to you.

I sense a teaming up with Claire coming along - are you sure the caves are ready for it??

[nickb]

You're now the official Team Hollywood line-layer for Scapa

[David Wallace]

I have to add a little to Di’s report, as she’s not very good at blowing her own trumpet! As well as agreeing to make up a team with complete strangers she agreed with them to do the whole course using PSI instead of BAR which at first glance may not seem like a issue but when you start getting into gas planning the math starts to get interesting. It’s supposed to be easier once you get your head around it but I was completely lost after the first couple of steps when at each step you either rounded up or down or introduced a fudge factor (sorry I mean rule) For me math is quite precise and my brain sort of fell out all over the floor during the lectures. It was about this point Liisa Jay and I became team Metric and respect for Di grew.
Both the teams had a few more names during the week (most of which will thankfully remain forever private) But I will confess to being at times team boring and team grumpy all in one go.

I wrote up my logbook of the training and diving every day because I knew that I would never remember what went on during each a week later. Looking at the lob book now, I’m not sure that I can make sense of it at all. I agree with Di that the whole thing was a blur, each dive got progressively harder as core skills were built on and our ability was stretched and tested. I think that the way we were trained was the complete opposite of the Dudes experience in Mexico. Although we were all physically knackered each day (as we became team boring in the evening) and went to bed at 9:30 we were treated with respect and never pushed to far outside our comfort zone…….. We sometimes just didn’t know where that zone was!
It was a real shame that

A few highlights of the trip;

• Meeting up when the whole team finally all got to High Springs on the Friday night.
• Dinner on the Friday night where we needed a torch to read the menu and the waitress actually had one ready for us to use
• Doing our first dive after the course (with no instructor) ant “Hole in the Wall” a cave that Clare has since told me is her favourite in Florida.
• Liisa, Jay and I learning that we had actually passed!
• Finding out that Di had passed her re-evaluation

Would I do it again?

• Caving? – yes, I have the bug – I want to go now!!!!!
• Cave 2 ?- yes but only after 50 or so cave dives to get everything I have learned fully bedded in
• GUE training ?– Yes Tech 1 with Richard Walker in October
• Organising a group for training? – don’t know, I would think long and hard about trying to get more than one team together. One of my original motivations for a group of 6 was to get the teams interacting and to benefit from the 2 different teaching styles and experiences of Jarrod and David. The problem was that after day one the instructors had us working on separate timetables and sometimes in different locations and we ended up as 2 teams rather than one group. I discussed this with Jarrod and David at the end of day 2. And it was explained to me that the teams had different strengths and weaknesses and would need to develop at different paces.

A few lowlights:

• All the team getting an ear infection which has developed into a good old fashioned cold.
• Being given the extra 7 yards for the underwater swim followed by an extra 200 yards for the timed surface swim.
• Thinking we were going for a pleasure dive on the last day of the course only to find the between the team we had 3 primary light failures, lost 6 backup lights, right post failure, left post failure, out of gas, and came out the cave in total darkness, in touch contact, donating gas. I think this must have been a highlight for Di’s team as they witnessed this exit as they were coming in.
• Missing the other team some evenings. Team Metric focussed on leaving tanks to be filled, getting away at the end of the day, eating and getting to bed early, whilst Team Talk very Slowly, were by far the more sociable team, liked to be more sociable all through the day and get away for dinner later.
• Finally realising that at 44 I am getting old, I think I gave up trying to follow team Talk very Slowly banter after the first 48 hours – I was struggling with the 21 year old enthusiasm from Dima and the energy for talking divers Cr@p about just about everything that he, Di and Karim seemed to have. They made a great bubbly and I will enjoy the opportunity to dive with all of them in the future if they can put up with me.

So thanks to Jarrod and David, All the team at EE, Team Talk very Slowly - Di, Dima and Karim and Team Metric - Jay and Liisa for a fantastic week

regards

[Al_Star]

Nice write Di and Dave - glad you all had fun. The florida/EE experience is very cool and probably my favourite place to go cave diving.

Hole in the wall is quite a treat Dave - did you see the blind cave salamanders? I think that its the only place they've been found in the world.

Cheers
Al

[David Wallace]

Originally Posted by Al_Star

Nice write Di and Dave - glad you all had fun. The florida/EE experience is very cool and probably my favourite place to go cave diving.

Hole in the wall is quite a treat Dave - did you see the blind cave salamanders? I think that its the only place they've been found in the world.

Cheers
Al

Cheers Al, we saw one! very cool! even the white / translucent crayfish were cool!
Great cave - we only go to 500 in both the upstream and downstream but thought that was good for our first dives.

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report Dave, however i just cannot believe this statement mate

Originally Posted by Dave Wallace

But I will confess to being at times team boring and team grumpy all in one go

[David Wallace]

Originally Posted by Paul Oliver

Nice report Dave, however i just cannot believe this statement mate

I know, it's not like me but it was a stressful course and I do need my sleep