Basic Cave Course

by Joe Velie

This is really a tale of redemption. A story of how I missed the first two Rochester Scuba Club meetings this year and needed a means of getting myself back into the good graces of Dave, Bob, Dan and Roger! So, I offered to write a story for the newsletter to prove my continued support of the dive club.

As many of you know I had planned on diving the USS Oriskany in February of this year but due to several people backing out the trip was washed out. Seeking an alternative experience (a.k.a. rush) I decided to check into taking the Basic Cave course from NSS-CDS. After a call to Ginnie Springs and a couple of emails to Rose who heads up class scheduling, I found an instructor that could fit me into his schedule in the middle of April. When I explained this plan to my wife she about fell off her stool. "You mean, you are going to drive all the way to High Springs Florida to take a diving class?" Of course, to take the heat off myself, I blamed having to make the trip on my cave certified dive buddies forcing me to get up to speed on my skills. This is always a sure fire method of deflecting pressure from yourself. She still didn't quite understand the importance of driving over two thousand miles for some class, but in the end she gave me the thumbs up! Man, what a wonderful wife!

I decided to drive to Florida for two reasons. I didn't want the hassle of getting dive gear on a plane, and I wanted to extend the trip and make stop over in Louisville, KY where my oldest daughter lives. My other worry was the dive trip curse that seems to rear its ugly head on every dive trip I plan. So, for this reason I decided to keep my trip plans semi-quiet in case disaster struck and I couldn't go. I planned to leave on Friday, April 13th and make the first leg of my trip to KY. True to form the little "trip curse" showed up on my door. My wife called Wednesday morning; "Honey, someone just took out the back quarter panel of the Honda Element." My heart sank, but undeterred I was willing to take the added risk and drive the 1992 Ford Taurus. I was back on cloud nine ready to make the trip until I walked out in my garage on Thursday (day before scheduled departure time) and the Ford had a flat tire. UNBELIEVABLE! I am now starting to wonder if all these things are bad omens that I should heed. If this is happening here in my garage, what is going to happen inside some cold and dark cave? I decided to push the envelope and ignore all the signs of doom and disaster. So Friday morning, the old '92 and I headed down the road! The trip to KY went without a hitch, and after spending Friday and Saturday with my daughter I headed to High Springs, Florida early Sunday morning. It took me about twelve hours to reach the luxurious and well known (in the cave diving circles) High Springs Country Inn nestled within the tall pines of High Springs, Florida. Although this motel appears to be your usual "roach motel" it was extremely clean and the proprietors were very friendly and helpful. Check this out: They didn't ask for credit card or anything and just told me to see them the day I was going to leave. They also informed me of the fact that they had high speed Internet. This didn't matter much because by the time I got into Basic Cave mode I was so tired from class I could hardly take advantage of basic cable.

I was making this trip on a shoestring budget, so I was glad to hear that there would be two other students in the class. This dropped the price of the class from $600 to $450 since I wouldn't be taking this class solo. After hearing about GUE cave course from Alex Carlson, I do believe the GUE course is much more thorough but more expensive than my already tight budget would allow. But, if price is not a problem and you are DIR/F certified, that is probably the agency to use if you are interested in cave certification.

Ginnie Springs Dive Shop

Monday morning we met at Ginnie Springs dive shop where I met my instructor Dan Patterson and my two cave diving buddies Jim and George. We finished filling out paper work and then spent most the morning and part of the afternoon in the classroom. It is no wonder that Ginnie Springs is a main hub for all cave diving and training. They have a two story building on which the lower level sits the dive shop. This dive shop has everything you could possibly need to purchase for cave diving. The upper floor has multiple classrooms, which from the sound of things get pretty well used during the spring and summer months. In the afternoon we spent about two hours learning to run lines, proper reel use and line protocols. I also managed to sun burn my face. Then it was time to go through gear configurations. I got out my dive gear and set it up on my white dive table. (You guessed it, that old table made a trip all the way to Ginnie Springs.) The instructor walked over, beckoned to Jim and George and said "I am not even going to get my gear out because this is exactly how your gear should be configured." At this point I was not getting a big head, but thanking God that I have had the opportunity to dive with guys who have guided and nurtured me through the DIR philosophy and purchasing of dive gear. This was not the last time during this class that I would be thanking the Almighty for such great dive buddies and friends! We then discussed Tuesday's dive plans and he let us go.

Dinner!

As I said before, I was trying to spend as little money as possible on this trip so each night I would retire to my motel suite and dine on delicious chicken, Triscuits and my daily vitamin routine. It really was a good meal, which didn't cost a whole lot. Anyone thinking about doing cave class on a budget now might have to cut out the diet Pepsi to compensate for the high gas prices. (smile)

Tuesday we met at the back of the dive shop so the instructor could make some minor/major adjustments to Jim's and George's gear and then we headed off to the actual Ginnie Springs. You should know that Ginnie was not the voluptuous blond that appears on the sign, but was an older black woman who used to go to the spring to wash her clothes. We spent all day in Ginnie Springs going through skill evaluations, learning to run lines and perform proper tie offs, no viz touch contact swims, and three dives in the cavern. I had heard from the other cave divers about the flow out of these caves, but I was a little surprised by its force once I had to actually perform skills and deal with it. I believe our instructor said that thirty million gallons of water a day come out of the Ginnie Spring. Oh yeah, I need to tell you a little about our instructor. He was ex-military and reminded me of John Preston both in and out of the water if that gives you an idea of his personality.

This isn't really Ginnie

I was pretty prepared for what was going to happen, but I don't think Jim and George were quite ready for the brutality that was to take place during our training. But you have to understand that these instructors are not there to make you feel good about yourself. They are there to keep you from killing yourself in cave! What would take place after each dive is that we would normally surface a little ahead of the instructor. It was during this time that we discussed what was going to happen when he surfaced. Once and awhile he would say "good dive" but often he would come out and tell Jim or George that they just "killed the team." Now don't get me wrong. I was not the perfect DIR diver on these dives, but because of some good training, I was usually sitting back, low in the water watching these guys get reamed out. Our instructor really was a great guy and an excellent instructor, and would personally recommend him to anyone taking cave courses.

Wednesday morning we met at the Devil's Eye cave system where we performed our first real cave dive. We would utilize what's known as "pull and glide" to get ourselves into past the cave entrance and then we would usually go back a little ways into the system and perform loss of lights, loss of diver, lost line, OOA shares and other skills.

Entrance to Devil's Eye

None of these skills would have been that difficult if it weren't for the nasty flow pushing you all over the place. If you managed to get broadside in the cave, well, it wasn't pretty. Please don't ask me about Devils Eye cave because I am afraid I couldn't tell you much about it other than my ten watt HID light worked really well. Otherwise, I was so focused on not doing something stupid that I can't recall much about the systems.

Entrance to Devil's Ear

Wednesday afternoon we moved over to Devil's Ear where we spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday making the dives and doing the skills which included lost diver, lost line, OOA, valve drills, laying line and much more! On our last dive into the Devils Ear cave, I forced myself to relax and take in the surroundings. It turned out to be a great dive and then to have the added bonus of having the instructor surface and tell you that you passed the course!

Once we got out of the water and filled out the paper work, we all said our good byes and I headed to my next major stop: GUE Headquarters! If you look at GUE's website and track their activities, you would think they would have some fancy office in downtown Gainesville. But no, that is not the case. When I first saw their building I about fell out of the Ford laughing.

GUE World Headquarters

Well, here take a look at the picture and tell me you wouldn't have chuckled too. Right next to GUE is Extreme Exposure Dive shop. I spent about two minutes in this shop and thought better of staying longer, because this little voice inside my head kept saying "you need one of those 18 watt lights so you can be as cool as JMM, Alex and JP." I fled with my Visa card safely secured in my back pocket. Whew, that was close.

Storage Banks at Ginne Springs

One other thing that I failed to show you are the big "hotdogs" they had at Ginnie Springs Dive Shop. They pump so much air at this place that they have purchased old submarine ballast tanks and use them for air storage.

I had a twelve-hour drive back to Louisville so I thought I better head out. I spent the next eight hours looking for a Starbucks coffee shop. I finally found one in the Cumberland Gap. I couldn't believe it! But all went well and I arrived back in Louisville around one in the morning. I enjoyed Friday and Saturday with my daughter Sherah, and then headed home early Sunday morning. Man, was that a boring drive home. But, the old Ford and I made it back safe and sound and now I have my own stories to tell about the big cave adventure! It really would be a blast if sometime we could get a large group to go down and share expenses of the trip. Those who are not certified could take their Basic Cave, and then I could try to remember a little of what I learned over this four day period. Sorry for rambling, but I am just enjoying reliving this experience again. Take care, dive often and dive safe.

Joe Velie