January in Marianna -- Brrrr

[Jax]

Tuesday, January 15

I eagerly anticipated my trip to Florida to attend Edd Sorenson’s award ceremony, and the diving I tacked on it, as well as my first leisurely trip out of town for the first time in what seems forever! The day started a little off, when my car reported 12°F . . . Wait, what? SE Arizona does NOT do -teens!!!! Dismayingly, the temp sank to 10° before I got to Tucson.

Fortunately, I was wearing my long underwear and my boat coat, so transferring from the parking lot to the terminal wasn’t so bad. Bad was being told my flight was canceled, because it was snowing in Dallas . . . Seriously? Were the Mayans off a bit? The coup de grace was when American Airlines booked me onto Delta. I got into Pensacola only an hour and a half later than expected.

Quite wonderfully, it was nearing 80° in Marianna. I got into Cave Adventurers, rented my tanks for the week, and was ready for the next morning’s dive with OC Diver.

Wednesday, January 16.
We met up at Cave Adventurers this morning, and I was thrilled to meet Steve Lewis. Both Steve and OC Diver were diving rebreathers that gave me a fascinating look at a different way of diving. I casually mentioned that I knew little of them, except for the myriad of questions I asked “when I saw a Poseidon rebreather class” . . . LOL, you should have heard the wisecracks fly! It was almost as bad as backmount versus sidemount . . . . or Ford versus Chevy. *snicker* These very intelligent and witty gentlemen had us all laughing!

Jackson Blue Springs was the prescription of the day, and a beautiful morning for it. Since OC likes to run a line and leave it in JB, he ran the primary – moving fluidly as if one with the water, and knowing well all the places to place the line – I was quite bemused. OC has the coolest markers attached to a clip that announce he is in the cave; everyone that dives JB seems to know him and his line. Also, while I knew my air consumption would be quite high – my first cave dive in three months and boy-oh-boy-oh-boy, I was diving with OC Diver! I was still chagrined to find I was turning the dive at the bottom of the chimney . . . Damnme! I asked for and quite kindly received very helpful feedback, thank you very much! I am immensely grateful for the number of highly skilled and experienced divers that take the time to dive with we Intro-to-Cave divers.

We had a bit of a surface interval where the gathering clouds and breeze made it uncomfortably cold; I was quite happy to head back into the water! We did our checks and headed to the entrance for our bubble check. There, I executed a helicopter turn and observed OC hovering, looking at his light. He finally backed up to stand up – his brand new HID light would not light! He was quite disappointed . . . but had “some spares” in his truck! Wow . . . his toy box is to die for! Back under we went, and soon were smoothing heading down the cavern.

This time, I paid attention to my breathing, and . . . well, honestly, quit fighting my lack of trim. For some reason, I was foot heavy even though I moved my bands down. However, I wasn’t going to let it frustrate me or blow off a lot of gas trying to get it completely flat. My 1/6th limit allowed only 500psi per tank, and I wasn’t going to squander the meager amount. I watched OC’s fin strokes, and tried to mirror his timing. This time, we reached the bottom of the chimney, and I was able to signal I had 300psi left . . . we made it to the first breakdown – whoo-hoo!

One action I took which was quite rightfully pointed out as “not a good idea” was diving under the gold line at the bottom of the chimney so I could turn around and watch OC drift down. He looked totally effortless, didn’t brush a single rock . . . however, I was taking a risk of entanglement and was properly admonished.

In this afternoon, I was fortunate to meet HammerheadFerrari, hereafter referred to as HF . . . I was told by my delightful host to expect him to come into the area. My first thought was, “what a cute young man!” However, a few comments on his grandchildren made me rethink. HF is a lovely diver who dives back-mount. My back began sympathy pains just watching him lug those big tanks! Very, very funny – the incredibly helpful young men at CA dragged their feet at pulling them out for HF . . . knowing he would do so, and they wanted nothing to do with that load!

Sol and Petel announced 70F in JB, with very light flow. On Tuesday, it began to get cold, as the temperature dropped into the upper 50’s with cloud cover and a brisk, COLD wind. It was not so nice out of the water. I was more than happy to get out of my gear and into some warm fresh layers after a shower!

[diverklondike]

Jax,

Great meeting you.... Ted and I have been at Edd's this time of year when there is a thin film of ice on the fill tank when you get there...

Mark

[Jax]

Rhino, TracyN, and HammerheadFerrari



This morning, HF said he hadn’t dived JB, so was wanting to find a buddy. Our very kind OC Diver agreed to “a full cave diver” accompanying us in the cave. As it turns out, OC had dived with HF at some time or another in the Ginnie area, so he was a known quantity. I mentioned, before we went in, that I hadn’t had much practice relaying light signals, so I appreciated the change to be in the middle and practice that. OC gave me plenty of opportunities, and while I had a couple of false starts, I did pass on every one of them. We got to the first breakdown before I turned the dive. Coming back, something caught my eye so I swung my light to the left. . . . There’s someone training with Edd in lights out Ack! I had just blinded them – DOH! I felt so bad . . . Funny, though, I had listened to Edd’s dive brief before we went in, and he said, “When I do this (wave palm with closed fingers in front of face), it means lights out.” Edd signaled that and I almost turned out my light!

We returned back through the top of the break down – JB was so beautiful with the light streaming into the cavern and the literally hundreds of blue gill there. We did our safety and came out of the cavern – I love the way everyone checks with everyone that it’s okay to go up . . . funny how some don’t do that – and into the basin. We stood up, and Whoop! The wind was blowing and it was COLD! I could not believe how cold it was. 55F, but JB was holding at 70.

After a few minutes chatting, I could feel the shivers starting – not good. If I start shivering, I usually don’t stop and I am a waste for the rest of the day. I still had a dive with Rhino this afternoon.

I was looking forward to the warmer water of the cave . . . but when we went down, the shivers continued . . . I grabbed HF’s fin and indicated that I was thumbing for cold. He answered with okay, and informed OC. I wasn’t happy at all.

I jumped out of my gear exceedingly fast – pretty much threw everything into the car and headed to Cave Adventurers. I put on everything I had, but it was STILL super cold and damp. NOT liking Marianna weather this day! TracyN was there, and while waiting on my fills, Rhino shows up! So nice to finally meet him. OC and HF showed up . . somehow, the afternoon dive turned into Rhino, TracyN,HF, and me. After agreeing to meet back at JB at 4, my mention of a KFC run for a chicken pot pie made HF’s ears prick up, so he accompanied me over to pick up lunch. We ate in the warmth of our host’s home – thank God! I was almost human again by the time the next dive rolled around.

Four pm, back at JB, and the wind has blown all of the floating grass fronds into the normal gear-up area of JB. Except for the actual spring boil, the area is covered in fronds! This will be an interesting exit.

The buddy teams became Rhino and me, and TracyN and HF. We were to go as far as my sixth lasted, then turn around and make a leisurely exit. We used OC Diver’s primary line, placing cookies as he had requested. I was in the lead, as I was the gas-limited person.

The first thing I noticed was the importance of good light discipline. Someone kept sweeping their light around and I would immediately give them my attention – but I couldn’t tell who it was. The second thing I learned is that one can become ‘immune’ from the poor light discipline . . . kind of like the “boy who called wolf” story. I began to filter out the various flashes of light.

We came to the top of the first breakdown, and I saw a most interesting column on the left. I drifted over to it to take a look – and that somehow made me miss chicken-head rock! Doh! Somewhere about this time, Rhino tried to get my attention . . . I did not recognize that there was an attention signal. Hmmm. Mind you, Rhino said it was an attention signal, not an emergency signal . . . What does one do in these cases? I don’t like it that I missed a signal. At any rate, we turned the dive at the white rock right next to the gold line, about 550’p.

I did a little more ‘exploration’ on the way out, checking out the line on the left and a few nooks and crannies. We made a nice, slow ascent through the chimney, were I noticed the flow for the first time. I hadn’t been kicking, and hadn’t noticed! Once above the chimney, I put my fins perpendicular to the flow and let it push me on out. The problem with that was that I rapidly chilled. Ugh, my thermostat is sprung! After our safety stop, we headed out – three of us remembered the surface cover; one came up in the middle of it! I held up the swimming buoy line so everyone could go under, and “defoliated” him or her as they swam.


Quite a lovely day, all in all!

[Jax]

Jax,

Great meeting you.... Ted and I have been at Edd's this time of year when there is a thin film of ice on the fill tank when you get there...

Mark

Oh, now, there I was thinking you two had more than your fair share of common sense, and you go and say that!

[bpcfire1]

Jax,
Was nice to meet you up at Edds also, and think you for holding down my tailgate....lol...Hope to see you around sometime...

[Jax]

I was really excited about diving with Edd Sorenson! Stacy gave me the duty of “keep him occupied as long as you can, so I can get stuff done!” Somehow I didn’t think that would be a problem, because I was having a terrible time keeping trim – I thought I had it all figured out, but now I’m diving with rental tanks and I seem stuck into a 30 degree head up. Damn it.

Through the week, as HammerheadFerrari was fighting with his huge doubles, everyone around Edd’s shop and Mike and Kevin were beating him up about ‘trying sidemount’. Finally, as I promised to support him *from* buying anything (after all, he could always order later! J ), he agreed to help me keep Edd occupied.

We chatted a bit in the shop, and after a bit of (me) frustrated trying to summarize the problem I wanted solved, the mission was: “I want to come away with understanding why I cannot trim out my own $%^&ing tanks, and with a list of things to work on to fine-tune my skills.” HF’s job was to try out sidemount. Edd looked at my gear, made a couple of suggestions for finessing it, discussed a bit on breathing and such, and then we were on our way to JB!

One there – and loving the sunshine day! Whoot! – We put ourselves together and once again, I expressed chagrin that we would probably would not even get to the breakdown, due to self-induced pressure. I was kindly chastised for ‘worrying about it, but telling you not to worry won’t do anything, anyway’ . . . yep . . . The acknowledgement was very helpful, though, and I could feel a little tension slipping. Mostly, Edd helped HF gear up and – for those who don’t know Edd, he has a myriad of stories to tell and in every one of them, a lesson. He began to talk about “handling” an out-of-air diver. . . Edd told us about how a person out-of-air is no longer George or John, but are now a panicked diver. They don’t think, they are at a base instinct level and YOU are between them and breathing. He showed us how to take our opposite hand to the diver’s arm, and turn Panicked Diver away from us even as we thrust the reg into his or her mouth. Training will make the Diver take the reg, but instinct will keep them flailing - being turned away will keep you out of harm’s way. The demonstration and walk-through was very helpful, and I picked up one more tidbit: “If you have the gas, don’t go anywhere. Panicked divers, no matter how many times they give you the “OK” are still Panicked or a hairsbreadth form going there again. Expect a good five minutes of just hovering before you go anywhere.”

We hit the water, and asked to lead through my equipment check for practice, and like everyone else, Edd was quite agreeable. He checked out the positioning of everything, and mentioned, “yeah, you don’t have much room there”. Everything was in the triangle, though, and we were good to go. Our initial job was to kick around the basin so Edd could muck with our gear. HF went under and immediately look beautiful. I can now confess that I hated you at that moment, HF! (Envy is an ugly thing!)

I hadn’t gotten very far when Edd signaled me to come back. He attempted to adjust something, but like those who worked with me before, found that you cannot jerk a strap loose or pull something tight because my little lightweight butt follows right along. He led me over to the ground and put a knee in my back . . . I was so LOL, because everyone eventually does that. I tried control it, thought – that was my precious gas I was dumping!!! Edd also showed us a very graceful move to stand up in the water! That alone was worth the price of admission!

A few more swim-arounds, a few more tweaks, then back to swim-arounds and kick demos; then Edd signaled us to go into the cave. I could tell, though, that he wasn’t entirely pleased because I didn’t adjust out. Now, I must confess to a base feeling of relief. I had been feeling really inadequate because I could not balance my own gear, so if Edd wasn’t happy, then it was not just me. Whew!

We went into the cavern and did a few swim arounds and reverse kicks, turns, etc. I mostly did okay except I kept going head down so I could park the air at my tail. Somehow, we’d done a good hour by the time we thumbed.

Surface interval was SO much nicer when the sun is shining! Everyone got comfortable with a snack in their hand and then Edd came to look at my Nomad XT. Basically, since Edd reduced the taco effect at the tail, the air kept traveling to the shoulders and it doesn’t take much to knock this little lightweight out of balance. Unzipping the Nomad to check out the bladder, the thing was huge! Basically, it’s installed folded over to fit in the zippered area. After some hemming and hawing, and HF’s helpful comment of a need to restrict the expansion of the top of the bladder, my bladder was bungied to a smaller confined tube. Basically, with the wing tied tighter to me, there was less space for air at the tail and it was all gathering in all that space at the back of my neck. I was anxious to give it a try!

Ahhh, trimful bliss! I was happier than a pig in a mudhole! Everything was “right” once again. This time, we were to go in and I would be tasked with a few things for evaluation. We were to head out to my sixths, which were once again was around the 550’ mark. On the way in, I thought for a minute we’d lost Edd, but when I twisted back around, he was right there. I was a bit annoyed with myself not understanding how that could happen. I called the turn and we headed back. As I floated off the breakdown, once again, I couldn’t find Edd! This time, I made sure I wasn’t nuts, signaled HF, then once he turned, I covered my light to see if I could spot Edd’s. Edd turned his light on about 15’ away . . . HF had no idea, and I felt a bit stupid as I indicated OK, let’s go . . . .

As we cruised back to the chimney, I discover a benefit of being a lightweight in trim: I turned my fins to the flow, and I didn’t kick a bit to keep up with HF in the lead! I was hard-put to stop giggling. It should have been no surprise, but as we passed the cave sign, there was frantic flashing . . . I execute one heck of a u-turn, pulled my reg out of my mouth as I swam to the signaler. I was completely cognizant that I needed to grab his arm and turn him away from me. So WTF do I do, but miss my mouth with my backup reg?!?!? Really?!?!? I got one side of the mouth piece in, and was trying to get the whole thing in as I presented the long hose . . . I’m such a mess! But I DID get it in and the arm grabbed and ducked the flailing arms . . . graceless, but attentive and prepared. Sigh.

Back out in the gorgeous afternoon, we un-kitted and debriefed. The sun glowed a little warmer and the birds broke out in song as Edd complemented me on my attentiveness. I asked if he had also turned his light out at the top of the chimney – yes, so I was not imagining things! He also mentioned I needed to be a little quicker in controlling the panicked diver. I’m sure I was red as I confessed, “yeah, well, I missed my mouth with my bungeed reg.” He got that little sparkle in his eyes and quirky grin as he returned, “I saw that.” I came away with knowing I needed to practice more on ‘doing things’ in the one-foot window – which I recognized myself – and that I was exactly where I should be in my training given the dives I’ve done. I could have done a happy-dance!

HF chatted him up a bit more, about the applications of sidemount and comparing it to a Razor system he used in Mexico. All in all, we kept Edd occupied for a fair amount of the day.

Back at the Casa de Edd, I had to poke a little fun at the guys – everyone had been complaining this week about the fills, because the cold weather robbed us of 2-3 hundred psi overnight . . . I told Frank and John that they really needed to do a better job of taking care of their boss, because Edd’s light kept going out and he ran out of air! Frank rejoined with a cheeky grin, “Yeah, Edd’s a poor diver like that!” Edd barked with laughter!!! What a fabulicious day!

[LiteHedded]

jax you should try backmount. it's pretty sweet

[jj1987]

Just curious Jax-- I've read posts, seen pool videos, etc of you fighting side mount for like the past 2-3 years. Since you're not doing any dives beyond mainline tourist caves, why do you keep doing this to yourself?

I'm all for using SM when it's needed (I do that myself), but from reading your posts, you're wasting a ton of vacation time playing with gear instead of enjoying diving.

[PsychDiver]

Thursday was a cold day -- did not want to come out of the cave -- nice and warm in there, cold and windy on the shore. I had very mixed feelings about having to drive back to Tampa Thu eve and not joining the 4 o'clock dive -- made the noon dive with TracyN was the last for that trip, but it was nice and warm in the car. Was nice to meet you, someone else who has to travel from Southern AZ to dive cave. Going up to Lake Pleasant Monday just to get the gear wet (and work on my trim); won't be back in FL until mid-March.

[Jax]

jax you should try backmount. it's pretty sweet

Just curious Jax-- I've read posts, seen pool videos, etc of you fighting side mount for like the past 2-3 years. Since you're not doing any dives beyond mainline tourist caves, why do you keep doing this to yourself?

I'm all for using SM when it's needed (I do that myself), but from reading your posts, you're wasting a ton of vacation time playing with gear instead of enjoying diving.

Backmount would ruin an already mucked up back.

I cannot fault the flow of my training. An adjustment on one thing affects something else. Something else has to be adjusted. Unfortunately, I need the eye of another to see what is going on. I have the major adjustments in, I needed a bit of fine tuning. And - Sigh - I need a lot more practice. Wish I lived closer to water.

Still - I have only 33 cave dives since training last year, and that in just three one-week trips. Not so bad for a beginner!