Andy Carrol writes for Scuba Geek, a great new scuba diving blog that I’ll be visiting often. Andy recently visited High Springs, Florida, which he describes as “cave country, the headquarters of GUE, Extreme Exposure and Halcyon, [and] where DIR scuba diving began.” He visited High Springs to learn about cave diving from Tyler Moon, a long-time GUE instructor, and to get some cave diving experience. In his three part report, Andy mentions some of the techniques, signals, and gear configuration tips he learned during his five-day course. He also describes some of his dives, which included Ginnie Springs, Catfish Hotel, and Devil’s Ear.
We all know that cave diving is a different kind of diving, but I was impressed to see Andy admit that his previous diving experience left him “ill-equipped” for cave diving:
“the flow of the cave making things very difficult, and my experience of wreck diving being pretty useless compared to the complexities of scuba diving a cave.” It’s easy for divers to tell themselves they know enough to make a
dive above their level of experience. Kudos to Andy for recognizing his shortcomings…and then working to overcome them!
Finally, I’ve never heard of “Florida Finger” before – although I’ve gotten a variation of it as recently as this morning’s commute! – so I was interested in learning about that, too. All in all, this is a great report for anyone interested in learning about what’s involved in learning about cave diving.
1. I'm Tech2 and Cave2 certified and last I heard Tyler had "retired" from teaching diving. GUE instructors are known for failing students if they don't measure and GUE courses are not easy. It's a right of passage to get your Cave1 card as it's the basics, I found Cave2 to be a little easier.
....I need to get my video of Ginnie edited and the trip report done...I'm slacking.
Posted at 4:17PM on Nov 28th 2005 by Bill Reals