6/14/11
I’m still in Florida, and today was the first day of my cavern course! Steve Dunn, one of the Cambrian Foundation Interns was also taking the class, making a grand total of two students. It was actually really nice to just have two people in the class, it made it feel more like a friendly discussion the whole time. Steve is much more advanced in his diving career. He is already a PADI Open Water Instructor. But, I held my own, and we had a lot of fun. We started the day off by going over lecture material on both cavern and nitrox diving material (I am getting dual certifications). We took notes, worked problems, and did other class-roomy type tasks. At one point we moved outside because it was so nice, and there was a random chocolate chip cookie break, that everyone felt was much deserved…it’s the little things in life. š
After we finished the lecture portion of the class we learned how to set-up all of our gear so that it was SUPER streamlined.Ā I think I will actually keep my gear this way, regardless of where I go diving, because it is just so much nicer to have NOTHING dangling and in your way. Once we finished that portion, we went out to a few trees with a reel and practiced our tie-offs, line placements, and most importantly, our communication skills. The communication skills that we learned are used in both cavern and cave diving, and consist of touch signals, hand signals, and light signals. Once you practice them a few times, they are pretty easy to understand. This part of our class got cut short due to a large thunderstorm, so we ended up retreating back inside. Then we did a quick review of the day, watched a few videos so we could actually see some of the kick techniques, set-up our time and place for the morning, and called it a day. Iām psyched for tomorrow when we get to actually use our skills and go cavern diving! š