Finally!!

[Cave Ranger]

Congrat. Care to say who your instructor was ? (CDF banned ruled #6 if I remember)

Thanks everybody. Again I am truly humbled to be able to join your ranks and I do consider this an opportunity to continue learning.

I guess it's okay to at least give my instructors initials. They are R.D.......Ah. What the hell. Ralph DiPanfilo. There I said it! Release the hounds!!

[Wizard]

There must be an unspoken instructor rule, "the worse the student looks, the more unyielding crushing force applied."
The worst is when you know you screwed up and you know the instructor saw you. The self damning feeling is enough to make you scream.
Could your instructor scream through his reg? I got ate out a few times before we surfaced.

Congrats dude, you are a "Full" blown card carrying member of the community.[/b]

[Jim Wyatt]

Congratulations!! And by the way IMO it IS a Big Deal!!!

[Cave Ranger]

"Could your instructor scream through his reg?"

Yes. Yes he could.
It is also amazing how intimidating an extended middle finger can be when it is right in front of your mask.

[MengTze]

..
The worst is when you know you screwed up and you know the instructor saw you. The self damning feeling is enough to make you scream.

Yeah, guess what.... I still have that feeling when I dive with my instructor as a buddy.... Luckily he doesn't curse me out under the water anymore.... but I do feel his eyes piercing, watching.... or is it my imagination?


Congrats Cave Ranger, glad you made it.

[Ed Jackson]

Ralph reserves the lost line drill at Sue Sink for students who can handle it. I doubt many people could. Good job.

[tomhauburn]

Congratulations

Sue sink would be an interesting place to do that lost line drill considering the two ways of going down. I think doing it there would be interesting. Ed might have a good point.

Tom

[stairman]

congrats to ya.I stayed at Cathys for my full cave stay and slept quite well till the Brits in the ajoining room came staggaring in at 3:00 in the morning.Then I couldnt go back to sleep for nothing.I stared at every cave book I owned till Paul came knockin at 7:00am.Mine went good considering.Sure feels good to get it dont it.Rescue diver this weekend,be glad when thats done too.Randy...

[Dan Thoms]

Congrats!!!

[rico867]

Not that it's that big of a deal to most of you old timers but I've been working towards this moment for the last 5 years.
In spite of my instructors best efforts to drown me and stress my last nerve I got my NSS-CDS "Full Cave" certification over the weekend.
I am truly humbled by this experience and I look at this as a license to continue learning and becoming a better diver and maybe better person.
Things didn't go all that smoothly after the first day. I went back to my room at the HSCI and obsessed over every time my tanks clanged the ceiling, my total failure at the lost line drill, and everything else I thought I had already gotten proficient at during Intro and Apprentice. My instructor really gave me the business over these deficiencies and I lost sleep feeling about as low as a pregnant caterpillar's belly. I guess staring at a ceiling fan at 3:00 A.M. in the morning can be inspirational.
Day two went smoother but was actually more challenging. My slave driving facist instructor had me run a reel up the headspring of Manatee. The flow is down but it's still no picnic. This time the lost line drill at Sue Sink was successful.
On the way out the flow of the headspring dislodged one of my fins and ran the spring heel strap up to my knee. I guess there really isn't a graceful way to do a slow ascent with that sort of outflow. Just hang on to rocks and reel the slack in a little at a time. Well any way in spite of it all, I'm "Full Cave" and I appreciate my instructor's thoroughness and attention to detail. I cetainly wouldn't have had it any other way.
I am looking forward to my next trip up to NoFla.

Congrats!!!