2014/02/02 Paradise Springs Cavern Dive
I had the opportunity to mentor a buddy I had only met online recently, but found out he loved to dive, and just got his cavern cert. He lives hours away from any spring, so we picked a weekend he could come up and dive. He didn't have any gear beyond his basic snorkel gear, so I lent him all of my OW stuff (reg set, bp/wing, air tanks, lights, etc..everything needed for a proper cavern dive).
We met in person for the first time at the the dive site and said our hello's.
Then we quickly sorted out gear and got him everything he needed and I let him put it all together.
We went over analyzing tanks, how to check for o2 content, what that meant (he had not done nitrox yet, and yes I brought him air-only tanks) and did a co2 test on each tank.
An instructor buddy decided to come along, and he offered his assistance as well to my buddy if he should want it. He gladly accepted any and all advice.
We decided to have him do the entire dive plan (we gave him the basics of the cavern layout) and had him run his air tables and plan from that. He was nervous about running the line, as he had not had much practice doing so previously. I had him run it in the parking lot and he actually did some of the tricks that I was taught and he did them correctly. Good stuff. I thought we were ready after that.
We geared up and got in the water, did a quick briefing, s drills, and we were off.
Dive 1
He seemed to adjust quickly to the BP/Wing setup and did quite well for someone with very few dives at all. He did his primary and secondary tie off's without issue and we headed to the bottom. He needed a few pointers to add a few tieoff's here and there in the LONG trip to the bottom, but he quickly figure it out after only one reminder and was good on the rest of the trip.
We got to the bottom, and the final tie off was done properly. I was impressed at his quick attention to detail and skill, especially since this was his first after-cavern dive ever.
My other buddies and I all had big-boy cave lights so we were shining them all around so he could see into all the holes, and cracks, shined it into the bottom of the cave itself (just past the sign) so he could see what was down there and showed him lots of stuff on the way back up. You could see he was totally hooked on this now and enjoying himself.
We made it back up to the top and my instructor buddy had him run the line around a bit, showed him a few various ways to do tieoffs and tested his buoyancy out with the config he was in. He needed a little more weight, but was otherwise alright. He was also kicking up a bit here and there, so my instructor buddy had him get horizontal, legs up and frog kick all around the upper cavern, which he did pretty well.
Dive 2:
We broke for lunch, my cavern buddy swapped tanks and we jumped back in the water.
I ran the line down this time and he used his Go Pro to video his dive. My other buddies and I lit up the cavern for him so he could see all around. The cavern was getting a bit less clear due to other teams being in and out of the water, but still was a good dive.
Dive 3:
My cavern buddy swapped tanks again and got back in the water and we had him run the line again. This time the vis was COMPLETELY blown out. There were some classes and other groups there by now and they had done their best to silt the entire cavern out as badly as they could.
We only stayed at the bottom for a short period of time and came back up to the top to complete our safety stop and take some pictures.
My cavern buddy had a great time and took the time to ask all the right questions and listened to all the advice we had to give him with an open mind. I told him I would dive with him anytime he wanted to make the drive to the caves and do some cavern diving with him between my own dives.
Great dives overall, and a really fun day. I was glad to help a new cavern guy gain more confidence and help make him a better diver and I had a great time doing so.
