I have been diving a lot, but also it’s been a whirlwind of training the past 4 years. Much of my desire to get more training has to do with being confident to take on bigger dives, utilizing more gear, and wanting to see new things. Also the way that most GUE classes are structured, is that most of… Read more »
You may have seen some cave divers wearing fingerless gloves and wondered what the purpose of them is. Do they protect our hands from the sharp rocks or do we do it just to look cool? Someone actually asked me why I wear gloves while I was at peacock not too long ago, and I had to stop and… Read more »
I woke up much more refreshed after getting to bed early and having a reasonably good night’s sleep. It was Sunday September 30th 2018, the last day of DPV Cave with Dan Patterson. We were to meet him at 7:30 in front of Manatee Springs State park, which is located about 40 minutes Southwest of High Springs, near the town… Read more »
NSS-CDS Cave DPV class with Dan Patterson was scheduled on Friday September 28th through Sunday the 30th. The week prior to class went by fast, because both of Tina and I were very busy at work. One thing that I hadn’t really taken into consideration when buying scooters, was how to get them, and all the other gear into the… Read more »
I took GUE DPV 1 May 2018, which certified me to use a scooter in open water but not in an overhead environment. That being said, I have less interest in scootering in open water than I have in caves for now. So the real goal even back in May, was to get cave DPV certified in the near future…. Read more »
Technical and cave diving has always seemed to be such a distant goal for us. I can remember the feeling I had when starting to discover Global Underwater Explorers back in 2013 while living in Houston. I was in awe of the divers that I would watch in videos. They just made it look so easy and fun. They had… Read more »
It’s been just about 6 months since Cave 2 and we have been busy diving as much as we can. Tina and I have spent a fair amount of time exploring a little bit of Madison, a lot of Peacock, and a lot of Ginnie springs. We pretty much try a different dive or try to see something new every… Read more »
Cave 2 has been a different class compared to other GUE classes we have taken. The challenges were there, the struggle with new skills were there, but the learning was different. Mark and Mer gave us the tools to make good decisions underwater; in a positive and controlled way. Of course there are a number of ways to deal with… Read more »
It’s the 4th day of Cave 2 training. We are sore and tired. Our fingers are chewed up more than normal. I suppose it’s because of trying to mess with gear in the cold and dragging extra equipment that we aren’t used to in the caves. So far class is going ok. It’s certainly challenging and fun. But at the… Read more »
December 28, 2017 It’s day 3 and we finally got some sleep last night. However the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating with us. It was really cold this morning, and analyzing tanks with cold fingers was not fun. Now have even more tanks to analyze, ( 4 sets of doubles, 2 AL40 deco bottles and 2 AL 80’s) it… Read more »
December 27, 2017. Both of us slept poorly again last night, and this morning Tina was feeling worse than yesterday. She had a lot of congestion, and was up coughing all night. However, we managed to get moving fairly early. The morning started with the usual gear prep and breakfast. We analyzed gas, and I did some fixing of any… Read more »
With the anticipation of GUE Cave 2 training starting bright and early the following morning (December 26, 2017), Tina and I went to bed at our normal time-ish (10pm). Unfortunately neither of us slept very well. I ended up sleeping on the couch because we were tossing and turning keeping each other up. I suppose we were just anxious about… Read more »
It’s almost bedtime on Christmas day 2017 and Tina and I are about to start our Cave 2 class in the morning. We are staying at a house near Fort White, just a stones throw away from High Springs. The class will be roughly 8 hours of field and in water drills for 5 days. This is the pretty standard… Read more »
We’ve been really busy cave diving, averaging about 10 cave dives per month, since completing our GUE Cave 1 class almost exactly a year ago. We have learned a lot this year, and are lucky to have such beautiful dive sites in our back yard. Now we are on the cusp of taking GUE Cave 2, and we are… Read more »
Tina and I have been wanting to get some professional pictures taken of us in the water for quite some time. We always seem to be taking pictures or video of each other, and never have any of both she and I in the shot. So I contacted Lauren and Jon Kieren to see if they would be interested in… Read more »
Tina and I had been working hard all week and Mer was gracious to give us an open ended schedule. We pretty much agreed that it would take what it took to do the class and at this point we were just happy to be learning and growing as divers. As with fundies, we grew so much in just a short amount… Read more »
It was day 6 and we arrived at the front office of Ginnie Springs just before 8am. We waited a few minutes for the staff to open up but we were the only ones in the parking lot. We quickly checked in and everyone there was very nice. They gave us our “Cave 1” arm bands and we headed over the the… Read more »
The week was flying by. It was the morning of December 22nd and our plan was to meet Mer at Peacock again at around 8 am. We got up a little early and we were making good time. So we stopped at this really cool breakfast place called The Great Southern Biscuit Company in Mayo Fl. Tina was wearing her santi… Read more »
After actually getting some sleep and waking up at a reasonable hour to prep gear, Tina and I hopped into the truck and drove towards Wes Skiles Peacock Springs. It was cold and rainy but eventually it was supposed to clear up (we hoped). We met Mer at the gate around 8am and she showed us to the parking lot… Read more »
We had trouble falling asleep from just being wired and anxious, and on top of that, we woke up cold in the middle of the night. The temperature outside had dropped to the mid 40s and the thermostat was set for the low 60’s. I couldn’t figure out how to reset it in my half-a-sleep stupor, so I just tried… Read more »