I just finished an Intro to Cave diver training program with Anna from Sweden and Chelsey from Canada. Both have been traveling the world while working as dive Instructors in locations that ring a bell within me as I have been and lived there as well some time ago. Warm memories welling up when talking about Koh Tao – Thailand, Sharm el Sheikh – Egypt and Roatan – Honduras. It is indeed a very small world if you are a active diver and Instructor so when they walked into ProTec one eveing we instantly connected over shared locations, dives and experiences.
The training program started with the paperwork and theory the first day. As we arrived at Cenote Eden we went through the line drills on the surface explaining how we navigate along the guideline in zero viz, how to lay a line and how to tie it off. The openwater session that followed was fun as they both never have been diving in double tanks with different buoyancy caracteristics as well as a bunch more equipment and hoses. Buoyancy need to be much more adjusted with the wing type BCD and can not be done with your lungs as the equipment is so much more heavy than single tank equipment.
As we went on through the training days it became apparent that they both have been diving quite a bit before in open water and that helped tremendously in one way but was cause for some challenges in another. Cave diving is an assembly of strict rules that need to be followed by the letter, lessons that have been learned from accident analysis, the study of accidents and the learning what the cause was with consequently preventing the accident to happen while avoiding that same mistake need to be implemented. Experienced openwater divers may find it challenging. Anna and Chelsey decided it is a challange worth taking on and developed the cave diving skills one step at a time.
Initially Anna and Chelsey struggled a bit with the strict applying of rules but came around nicely while becoming more and more proficient in the art of safe cave diving, penetrating the cavern zones, penettrating caves, tying into the permanent guidelines and executing the various survival drills in the overhead and cave environment such as backup light exit, sharging gas with eyes open and lights on, touch contact exit with lights out and eyes closed, lost line drill with eyes closed, lost diver drill and finally sharig gas in touch contact with eyes closed.
I will remember this training program as one of the more funny courses as we had so much fun and laughing a lot before and after diving. It is enjoyable for me as their Cave Instructor to see them advancing, developing skill and succeed while overcoming challenges with commitment to learn and practice. In the end the cave diver course is a training program of an activity they wanted to learn and mistakes are to be expected in order to learn from them. It was the positive attitude of Anna and Chelsey that captured me and I am glad I could help them to get started into their cave diving career. Unfortunatly I got a bit sick at the end of the intro to cave diver course so both went on to complete their cave diver training with Patrick and I am happy to report that they are doing great …. and having fun.
Anna and Chelsey decided to live in Playa del Carmen for a while in order to enjoy the caves so much more. That just sounds like me when I got stuck here in the Riviera Maya when I fell in love with the Cenotes and caves and just wanted to dive them more, a lot more. So if you are walking through Playa del Carmen or dive in one of the Cenotes along the Riviera Maya watch out for them both as they may walk by you laughing while having fun.
Best wishes and congratulations to Anna and Chelsey for for their completion of the Intro to Cave diver training level.
Matt
