Cave Diving Course in Florida

"The Darkness Beckons" (to steal a title from Martin Farr)

By Steve Pearson

"We thought you must be dead" the first words uttered to me by Paul Neilsen the morning of my IANTD 'full cave' course. It transpired that my message the night before, that I would be travelling up that morning, rather than the previous evening, had not been passed on. This had however turned out to be a rather smart move as the local accommodation left something to be desired. Actually the 'trailer' was pretty comfortable, the problem was 2 beds, 5 guys. My extra night in 5 star luxury had seemed considerably better than a night on the floor of the trailer. Anyway we'd come to Florida for world class cave diving, not to be pampered

I was busily assembling my equipment mulling over the effort that would be required to lug the twin 19L steel cylinders, that were now receiving 9,120 litres of EANx36 (yes they fill them to 240bar) from the filling whip, when I casually walked over to the van we'd hired to have a look round. Damn!....my so called friends all had either twin 15's or 17's. The rotters had left me the 19's (or 12 litres as they're known there) the only set available. At least we all had the same deco cylinders steel 12L jobs filled with pure oxygen. None of that mamby pamby EANx80 stuff here obviously..!! serious kit, for serious diving...

Our first dive was in Peacock Spring which was conveniently located a mile from Bill Rennaker's filling station, our base for the week. Peacock is a huge cave system off the Suwannee river (the one they wrote the song about) although you'd be hard pushed to tell from the surface. All that was evident was a few sumps (cave word for pool of water in the middle of a forest!). We got our gear on and sprinted for the water (OK we didn't sprint, more like staggered) and then sat down at the edge of the sump to put our fins etc. on. It was then that Rick discovered he couldn't get back up so proceeded to fall (very ungracefully) into the sump. This was quietly observed by Tom Mount CEO of IANTD (we're not worthy, we're not worthy) our instructor.

The water in the sump made Hong Kong vis look decidedly good and I was beginning to feel like this could have been a hell of a lot of effort for another low vis dive when I broke clear of the "dark water" (another cave term) into gin clear fresh water and followed Tom down through a fissure in the rock, into the cave proper. We swam passed the "Stop! You will die if you go past this point" sign and on into the realms of cave diving proper.....amazing.

We swim on to 'Olsen' another sump about 1000 feet away at a more or less constant depth of 20m. We had the opportunity to try laying line and 'jumps' on route. One of the students also did a magnificent job of demonstrating how to tangle the main line around a manifold causing Paul to be given an impressive underwater bollocking by Tom for trying to help the guy out. I think Tom was saying "excuse me, Paul, am I correct in thinking I'm teaching this course not you?" or something like that..... Anyway we all made it to 'Olsen' in one piece. We had a chat on the surface of Olsen then retraced our steps through the clouds of silt we'd kicked up.....oops..!!

That evening Paul and myself set off for a beer.....no such luck..!! the wretched is dry..!! I was gutted. Half way round the world to go diving in a location that doesn't serve beer. No problem says Paul, we'll go to the Brown Lantern, a pub in the next county the gang had been to the night before. "OK show me the way" and an hour of driving down straight roads at 70mph later and we were there…."it's convenient then" I commented to Paul. (There then followed 2 hours of drinking and ogling the rather well built bar staff, the details of which will remain out of print) We then decided to get a good American steak on the way home. Far from it, all we could find was a diner that had an "all you can eat Catfish special" on. We declined the Catfish special and ordered 2 of the worst steaks I have ever seen.... at least the diving is good.

The next day we were diving "Little River Springs" this was deeper than Peacock being an average of about 30m but the main difference was that this cave system had 'flow', it really was an underground river. Little river was very spectacular and has the dubious distinction of having the only permanent 'T' on the main line of a cave system in Florida. We swam into the flow for about 1200 feet until Rick was at his 'thirds' then turned round and came out on considerably less gas. On the way out Tom made things interesting by having us do all sorts of fun things like lights out drills, out of air drills, lights out and out of air drills and other interesting ways to smack into limestone in total darkness....

After this dive we sat about comparing the state of our hands. In 'high flow' caves you pull as much as swim your way into the current. Gloves are a no no due to the ability to handle line tangles so it can be compared to rubbing your fingertips with sandpaper for 2 hours. We decided Andy had won the "carved up hands award" for the day. We then re configured our gear as everyone had decided that they could improve things and more than one of us carried another primary cave light, as burn time became a major issue on the last dives of the day.

After a day of diving "Little River" we headed home to collapse on the floor for a good night's rest (it's amazing how well you can sleep on a floor when you're completely knackered) The next day was going to be a good one..... "The Devils Ear" at Ginnie Springs.....

We all get out of bed (off the floor) at an ungodly hour as we are diving Ginnie Springs today. I was intending this to be a case of "being temporally awake" while moving myself from the floor, to the van, however I hadn't bargained on Bill's driving. Bill, Alias Mr Schumacher, proceeded to thrash the van at unfeasibly high speed (given the half ton of gear and 5 bodies) down the dead straight roads. This may have been OK if he'd stayed on the road but every time we took to the grass (at 100mph) it woke me up..!!

Anyway 50miles later and we arrive at Ginnie Springs to dive the "Devils eye". Ginnie Springs reminded me a bit of the good old days of Stoney Cove in that it had a shop, a small café serving good greasy diver type breakfasts, and a 'system'. Every good inland site seems to need a 'system'. This one consisted of registering at a desk, paying, and in return being given a bracelet that said "Cave", "Cavern" or "SCUBA" on it. The idea being that they could make sure everyone dived within their qualifications. The one flaw in the system was that everyone put their suit on OVER the bracelet rendering it useless. No one dared take it off until the end of the day however..!!

The Devils Eye is a fissure in the bottom of a largish spring lake. The entrance is fairly small and as such has a substantial flow through it. We were advised that "style don't count for sh** getting in", basically fin like **** and pull your way in. No need to worry about silt, their isn't any when there's 4 knots of permanent flow..!! Once inside, the flow drops to a reasonable level after the cave opens up. The cave system is huge and our longest dives of the week only scratched the surface. About 400 feet in is a restriction called "the lips" where the current picks up again and proved to be a favourite spot for some kind of critical equipment failure as determined by Tom.

Depth in this cave is around 30m and after a reasonable time spent exploring, we were well into deco even though we were breathing EANx36. The deco was carried out on Oxygen from 12L stages that we dropped near the entrance to the cave out of reach of any thieving scubydoo divers. Getting out of the entrance with the direction of flow from behind pushing you towards the surface, and a serious amount of deco penalty, certainly focuses the mind. The management had thoughtfully placed 2 large tree trunks across the fissure to make this easier. We then sort of 'hung on' comparing the various computers deco requirements.
Out of the 6 of us diving there were 4 different computers. I had my VR3, there was 2 Nitek 3's, a Cochran, and an Aladdin Pro Nitrox, which belonged to Paul (we'll see you back on the surface in 30mins) Neilsen. Paul did a good job of trying to convince us that the extra deco due to the Aladdin only being a single mix computer was an advantage because it was safer. We new better, he just couldn't lay his hands on a dual mix computer that's all..!!

Post dive was the usual daily debate about the chances (not usually good) of getting a beer that evening, before the high speed trip back home. Well, that was until the Wednesday evening when a car behind decided to light up the back of the van with a blue flashing light, yes Mr Schumacher has been pulled by the county sheriff. Laugh I nearly cried..!! After the usual get out, spread your legs, 9mm automatic pointed at the back of your neck routine Bill got his Hong Kong licence out.....That sort of stumped them and they let him off with a major b*!@*ing (I've managed a similar trick in the UK several times I must admit) we then continued home at a steady 70mph although Bill still kept me awake by driving on the grass from time to time.

The rest of the week was a similar routine of diving, driving, and not drinking much beer. I went on the cave course with the intension of getting top class instruction from Tom Mount thinking I'd be able to use it to improve my wreck diving, my primary intention was not a desire to see the caves. I must admit however that I'm now a convert. The caves themselves are extremely spectacular and I'd definitely go back to dive them again. I'd highly recommend the course, it's probably the most stressful diving you'll ever do, but also some of the most rewarding. It's not for the faint hearted however, and also not for people unless they are totally comfortable diving large twins, using ERD type diving techniques. I've purposely avoided talking about some of the more 'interesting' things that happened as I figure I'm still in a beer deficit following my 10 days "in the land of no beer". So.....for the price of a beer or two on a Thursday night I'll tell you some more.....

Steve Pearson

BSAC Regional Coach-Hong Kong

South China Dive Club
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