One type of technical diving is cave diving. The thought of cave diving has never really appealed to me. I got into technical diving to dive wrecks. Yes, I know wrecks are more dangerous than caves, but psychologically being in a hole in the ground several hundred or thousand feet from the entrance just didn't sit right in my brain.
Then I took the Cavern Diver Specialty course. Cavern diving is similar to cave diving, but you need to be within sight of the opening and within 200 feet of the surface. Even with that restriction, you can experience quite a lot. You can do cavern dives with basic recreational gear, but I did the course in my tec rig, more for the practice diving in the tec rig than any other reason.
So I made the long drive to Florida just after Christmas to join Steve and Kelly Oborn on their annual winter dive trip to Florida. There were several classes going on during the week including some Open Water certifications and an Advanced Open Water class. The Cavern class consisted of me, Dave Brown (who got his OW certification the same weekend as my wife), Joe Tumeo from the shop, and Ed and Darcy Smith who got their OW certifications on this trip last year. Having five people was a little awkward, but it gave us the opportunity to practice working in teams of more than two.
We started the dive week at Devil's Den near Williston, Florida. The first dive was mainly an acclimation dive for most of the divers (although it was a training dive for the Open Water students). I dove in my rec gear the first day because doubles would have been way to bulky for the entrance to the sinkhole. During subsequent dives we practiced running lines and then following them out with our eyes closed. It was a relatively easy day. The real work started on day two.
The second day of the trip was spent at Blue Grotto, also near Williston. Blue Grotto is more of a cavern dive. We did more line drills including following the line out with mask off and eyes closed. This was probably the most disconcerting dive experience I've ever had, although I never felt uncomfortable. I knew I wasn't in any real danger, since in a worst case scenario I could just open my eyes and swim out and up, so I there was no anxiety, but I felt like I had somehow managed to get turned around or that I was sliding backwards down the line. In the end I made it out of the cavern area with no problems. It was a very good training exercise.
Our third and final day of cavern training was done at Ginnie Springs near High Springs, Florida. The first dive was to a cavern called The Ballroom. The entrance lies in about 10 - 15 feet of water. You pass through the upper chamber and a narrow opening down to The Ballroom. We practiced running a line from the entrance down to the back of the cavern even though there is a huge line permanently run there already.
Sitting (floating) in the Ballroom was incredible. Facing the back of the chamber our flashlights lit up some of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen while diving. It was incredible. Facing the front of the chamber you can look all the way up to the surface of the spring and the light filtering in reminded me of my first dive experience in the kelp forests off of Catalina Island in California.
When we came up from the first dive I turned to Doc and said "I'm hooked". The rest of the dives in Devil's Eye, Devil's Ear, and Little Devil only served to set the hook.
So now I'm going to start looking into getting full cave certified. I want to get some more tec experience first, but cave diving, once on my "never in my life" list is now on my short list.
