 5 Regiment Army Air Corps complete Cave Diver Training in Florida
In January 2010 a team of 6 Army Divers, mainly
from 5 Regiment Army Air Corps travelled to Florida for cave diver
training. The team were accommodated at the Dive Outpost and training
was run by DeepTech.
The trip was organised by Capt James Wooldridge who having started
his technical diver training clearly wanted to give cave diving
a try! James managed to convince 5 other members of the military
that this was a great idea and then set about pulling the trip
together. In an attempt to avoid the cold of the UK Florida
was selected and accommodation was booked with Cathy at the Dive
Outpost.
The air temperature was surprisingly cold and some mornings dive
suits froze when out of the water. The plus side was that the water,
as expected, was a steady 22°C (72°F) which often made
it warmer in the water than out! The other complication was that
there had been some heavy rain the previous month and the Suwannee
River was high. This caused the river to “back up” into
some of the caves and precluded diving some sights such as “Little
River Springs”.
When the diving started it was apparent that the students were
of varying standards. Some just had the minimum number of dives
to conduct cave training, some were PADI Instructors and others
had completed GUE “fundies”. As a result groups were
divided by ability with some spending more time working on skills
in open water than others. By the end of the first week though
all were of a high standard and Cavern and Intro cave training
had been successfully completed by everyone with dives at Blue
Grotto, Ginnie Springs, Orange Grove and Peacock Springs.
In the second week two of students went on to complete Full Cave
while the others conducted their own dives sticking to the Intro
Cave requirements. Both of the Full Cave Students were of a high
standard and some great traverses and circuits were completed.
The Olson Circuit via the Peanut Restriction in Peacock and the
Maple Leaf Circuit in Ginnie Springs as well as the traverse from
Orange Grove to Challenge Sink were all dived. In addition there
was a great day diving at Marianna. The team rented boats and dived
the famous Jackson Blue site as well as Twin Caves.
With Cave Training finished there was time for Guy Wallis, Dave
Taylor and Steve Kirkman, all from Deep Tech to enjoy some stage
cave diving. In order to extend the time and distance within the
cave the guys took additional cylinders which they clipped off
after a third of the gas had been used. This culminated in them
diving the Travers from Orange Grove Sink to Peacock Springs, a
distance of just over 1.2Km.
The style taught throughout the 2 weeks was “Floridian” or
back-mounted set ups, this is ideal for locations such as France,
Florida and Mexico as well as wreck and mine diving back in UK.
Anyone interested in conducting training either in the UK or abroad
or for those already qualified guided dives in the UK sites please
look on the Deep Tech web
site for information or contact
Guy directly.
by Guy Wallis
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