CCR Cave Training… Holy Friggin Crap.
My experience during my CCR Cave Course shaped me in many ways, some of which occurred prior to training. I found a countdown clock app which I used to display my excitement but instead (looking back on it now..) it littered my Facebook page with post after post of crazy person photos. The set date for the course was April with Randy Thornton of Dive Addicts and it was to occur in Fort White Florida. I prepared. So I thought. No amount of running and stretching would have worked… I was a little excited by the time it all came around...
Day 1 was theory, protocols, & line work, which is a must in order to ensure a proper guideline to the surface. Rule number one was already underway and I couldn’t wait to get wet. Another benefit for a CCR Course held over a week and a half was the tremendous in water time I was looking forward to. ☺
Cave training book worthy line between crotch grab...
Day 2 was the start of the realization that my buddy and I suck. We let our communication and teamwork lapse. We would need to improve our ability to work together otherwise we certainly wouldn’t be able to finish the course. The funny part of the day was well two parts. I turned around after laying line for the first time across the ballroom at Ginnie to find my buddy completely covered, literally surrounded in bright orange Dacron line! Holy #### you idiot. So I look at randy who shrugs his shoulders. At that moment I thought of my pledging experiences in college and thought. Oh right, he’s ####### with us (later to find out my buddy’s reel left out the line as he was swimming across and pulling all around him). He literally had to cut the crap off. My second thought was, what the crap, we suck. Once we got things together we got on the line and started doing drills ending in mask off, bailout, touch contact with bottle switching. I was the first to be bailed out so I led my buddy and I back to the entrance but during a bottle sharing I got us turned around. WTH. I have no idea how that happened by I was convinced we were going the right way.
Other takeaway would be that the HOG sidewinder reel my buddy was borrowing sucks big-time. My light monkey reel is AWESOME! There is a huge difference.
Feeling after this day was: We have to learn fast and we suck.
Instructors feeling on the day: These guys aren’t going to make it.
Pranked Randy with an OMS sticker on his diluent tank… not sure if we ever told him about that… :-O
Day 3 was more drills and running primary lines. We were getting better but by the end of the day I was still surprised at how challenging any amount of flow makes turning around, holding still, communicating, buoyancy, trim, everything.
Day 4, 5, & 6 were basically the mixed with some bits of improvement but a healthy respect for this new environment. My buddy and I learned quickly that the blasé communication you can get away with in the quarry or the ocean can not exist in the cave. We were learning that talking through our rebreathers or using just lights was not enough. Funny story on one of these days was when I was running the first primary line into Manatee at the Catfish hotel. I tied in well to a tree, then a rock, and then another rock. I saw my entrance and was hit by the rush and flow. I hadn’t read the cave and was working hard. That’s okay, there’s a rock right down there. And another one… wait my buddy is signaling me. I turn around to see Randy perched and relaxed just looking at me. Okay not him, so I turned further to find my buddy who was also perched without any signals so I thought. I went back to what I was doing. This went on a couple of times and I was working so hard I started to get pissed so I figured I’d stop fighting this flow and turn around. Well I just about slammed into my buddy who was pointing at the gold line ten feet above from where my head was. “Tunnel Vision.” Not good. Something I learned of myself on when I am over tasked. I need to learn to read the cave and have situational awareness. My buddy learned that a simple hand signal or pointing up to the line with his finger would have worked. The rest of the dives that day went well and things were coming along.
I started to feel more comfortable with my position in the caves and see how the water is flowing around corners to eliminate being completely in the line of the flow.
Somewhere during the trip I found out that DonSix was going to be in Cave Country so we met up at Ginnie. He had an autographed photo! Never would have guessed that in a million years. We had gone back and forth so much about Hammerhead rebreathers that I honestly thought he was meeting up with me to give me the finger. Don is a great guy and has some thought-provoking stories. We all met up at Randy’s house and had a barbecue. I mean… he has to be a great guy, we pranked his ReVo with a hammerhead sticker and then took his picture without him knowing it! He later found out and my last knowledge was that he put it on the lid of his toilet. Its not over!
Some of the other divers I met on the trip were Peter McCumber and Jonathan Pitt. It’s great meeting divers who you talk to on forums or facebook and I can’t wait to have a dive with these folks. I didn't get a chance to have any long conversations due to the course but enjoyed the introduction nonetheless.
With over 24 hours of in water time we fulfilled the needs of the course but have a healthy respect for the fact the learning has only begun. I want to thank my dive bud Chris Ferrar for learning with me through the course and for making the trip enjoyable.
Signed,
Some Crazy North Carolina Dudes
I can't believe Randy didn't see that OMS sticker.
Since he taught my original CCR course during his birthday and I pranked him with a Happy Birthday Yard Art sign I figured we should continue.
He took all of our reels while we were on Deco during the second to last dive so I guess he got even.
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....congrats on going through it!
Originally Posted by stabservo
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