willembad
11-04-2008, 07:54 PM
My wife and I along with two other friends of ours just finished our NAUI Cavern course with Mike Edmonston of Technical Scuba Training Center. Mike is local to us (Sebring, FL) and I've actually done quite a bit of diving with him, but this was my first course with him and I couldn't be more pleased.
It started three weekends ago with an all Saturday classroom session including land drills for line/reel work as well as lost line and buddy drills. Then weekend before last we did 2 dives in the ballroom at Ginnie on Saturday and 2 dives in Peacock on Sunday. I was thoroughly humbled right of the bat but with some encouragement and guidance ended the weekend feeling OK about the whole thing. My wife on the other hand was close to giving up. Mike kept her head in it though and she agreed to keep trying.
Last weekend we did 2 dives at Peacock on Saturday and ended the weekend at Ginnie diving the Ear 3 times. All I can say is WOW! It all finally came together on the second and third dives of the day and I realized that our little look into what all the cave diving fuss was about was only the beginning of a long road ahead. I'm sure it will be a great experience. I could sum the whole thing up with my wife's wet-notes from her last dive of the weekend. After a thumbs up she scribbled "Do we really have to go" with a sad face on her notes. We'll be back many more times.
If anyone is considering Cavern or Cave training I would wholeheartedly recommend Mike. We had a great time and never felt any undue pressure but I feel that we really had to earn our certs which makes it that much more rewarding. We'll both be back for Cave 1 as soon as we've got a few more cavern dives under the belt - not to mention the gear collection that will be going on!
I now get what this is all about and I'm hooked for life.
Later,
Willem
It started three weekends ago with an all Saturday classroom session including land drills for line/reel work as well as lost line and buddy drills. Then weekend before last we did 2 dives in the ballroom at Ginnie on Saturday and 2 dives in Peacock on Sunday. I was thoroughly humbled right of the bat but with some encouragement and guidance ended the weekend feeling OK about the whole thing. My wife on the other hand was close to giving up. Mike kept her head in it though and she agreed to keep trying.
Last weekend we did 2 dives at Peacock on Saturday and ended the weekend at Ginnie diving the Ear 3 times. All I can say is WOW! It all finally came together on the second and third dives of the day and I realized that our little look into what all the cave diving fuss was about was only the beginning of a long road ahead. I'm sure it will be a great experience. I could sum the whole thing up with my wife's wet-notes from her last dive of the weekend. After a thumbs up she scribbled "Do we really have to go" with a sad face on her notes. We'll be back many more times.
If anyone is considering Cavern or Cave training I would wholeheartedly recommend Mike. We had a great time and never felt any undue pressure but I feel that we really had to earn our certs which makes it that much more rewarding. We'll both be back for Cave 1 as soon as we've got a few more cavern dives under the belt - not to mention the gear collection that will be going on!
I now get what this is all about and I'm hooked for life.
Later,
Willem