Full Cave ... Finally

[graepaep]

When I first got into diving over a decade ago I knew I wanted to dive caves. For years I never had the extra money for equipment and training. Eventually I got to start piecing together equipment and found some extra money for training. So on weekends without homework or pending exams I started training. I worked my way through adv nox/deco/trimix/adv trimix to cavern. I was ready for cave when I graduated college, got a really good job and moved to Arizona.

Fast forward four years and I'm back in the southeast, getting back into diving and I bump into my old instructor. I got the thought back into my head, made a quick trip to Vortex and Morrison and I was bitten by the bug again. After a little bit of gathering equipment and research I was ready to proceed. After few weekends of diving (ok several) I FINALLY finished full cave.

I would like to thank my instructors, Jim Charles and Edd Sorenson, for their time, dedication, ability to work with my schedule and willingness to allow me to train in sidemount. It was an awesome experience (oh and I will never go back to backmount ).

[JCDdiver]

Congratulations!

[diveconjeff]

Nor will you ever have extra $$$ money again. It's already all spoken for, and you don't even know it yet !!

Welcome to the other side.

[csmarsh188]

Congrats

[saxplayer1004]

It works, but I still prefer to be in backmount with my open water students, it's easier to run in and out of the water, and in the keys it's easier for single tanks...
Sidemount rocks though, congrats again

[Sludge]

It works, but I still prefer to be in backmount with my open water students,

Wouldn't it be breaking standards to be in ANY configuration other than a single backmounted cylinder when you are teaching open water?

[shoot2retrieve]

Congrats, that's awesome!!!!

[Attchoum]

Really good! Now your extra money can be use to come and dive in Mexico

[saxplayer1004]

NAUI allows us to be in doubles. Our university has a waiver for that, we don't have to have snorkels either and we are allowed to have the instructors/ai's in full face masks so we can communicate with the students better. Granted every time we actually try to use them we get ticked and put them away, but still.
The AI's can be in any configuration they want so long as it's open circuit. We have an instructor who can't carry backmount so he's in sidemount the whole time.
The DSO here has had an interesting bout with the agencies that allows him the leniency in teaching open water comparable to that of a full cave instructor, which he is. Even the stuff we make the students do at OWT is frowned upon by NAUI, but they know they can't/won't stop him from doing it. So we have fun meetings with the regional directors every year. I'm certainly not complaining about it, it allows me to be much more comfortable in the water in doubles rather than singles. I'll double check the NAUI books to see what they actually say, it's been a while since I've had to care... I'm far more concerned with irritating my boss than NAUI though... He's scary

[K Mejean]

Congrats!!!!