Day 7: all about the T's

Location: Mexico
Date: May 10, 2012   


Day 7


can't believe that it is already day 7. I have been diving my crazy ass off and looooving it :). The fear of being in the caves is slowly disappearing making place for respect and total AWE-ness.


Today it was all about learning how to read T's, how to properly navigate around them and about the awareness in the cave. I have the biggest respect for caves. I mean in the open water, generally when something is wrong you can go up... not so much in a cave since you will be hugging the ceiling or the stalactites. Now before i go on I will post a picture that says it all:

This sign is for all those divers that are not trained, not respecting the caves and not have the proper equipment. must admit seeing the signs kind of makes you go "oh boy". However I am following this course for a reason. To become a good safe and very aware cave diver. I did admit to Frank today that during dive 2 of the day I had this spilt second of "what the F am i doing". However that quickly went away once i saw the pretty-ness of the caves and remembered everything that I had learned so far. The 2 teachers I have could not be more different but I actually think that is a good thing. I am learning so much form both of them and then translating it to my own language. How do you like your tanks, how do you like your setup, where are your markers etc etc. Off course you do not adapt any of the basic rules. The only thing you adapt is how you wear it but not what you wear. 


Anyway where was I . Oh yeah T's. A T is a just like a T section in traffic. You have a choice and you either go right or left. In cave diving you reinforce your T's by marking it with your own "cookie"or "REM". Everybody's cave divers cookies and REM's are personal and you identify them by looking at them but also by touching them. E.g my name is on my REM and I have made 3 indents in them so that with low or no vis I can feel the cookie and say.. "oh yeah this is mine". Which is like a personal note attached the the traffic sign saying I came from this way. Now you don't want to trust a piece of plastic as my instructors say. My life is worth more than $2. So you need to remember where you went and make a mental picture of the situation. Both going in and looking back ( cave has 2 faces - going in and going out!!!!!) 


After practising navigating T's on land we drove to the Cenote "temple of Doom".  The entrance to the cenote requires a ladder ( yes i hear you - interesting when carrying tanks down!!!!!) Luckily I have 2 make instructors that helped me lower 1 of my tanks down and hauling them up using ropes. I did take 1 tank down the ladder myself because in the end I need to be fully independent ( yes it includes having very bruised shoulders).


The dive plan for the first dive was navigate the first T right, 2nd left and third right. Every T you encounter you communicate with your team mate saying ok we go right here and I am placing my personalised REM here. SO everybody is aware what is going on. I think i am saying this everyday now but I have lengthened my penetration again. We went 40 minutes into the cave now. It was soo pretty that sometimes i just had to stop and look around. wow so gorgeous. Beautiful hailoclines which made you think the surface was right there ( optical illusion), gorgeous decorations, little passages etc etc. It is so difficult to write this down cuz there is just no way to describe it. On the way back we did a blind exit ( surprise surprise!!) whilst airsharing. Which is great when you are upfront and your very tall Swedish instructor is pushing you forward... I'M FLLYYYYING!now remember you now have to navigate T's blindfolded... interesting. Especially when your other instructor all of a sudden introduces new lines which were not there on the way in.......


once the dive was over we got out and changed our tanks for new tanks and had a little break ( i seriously needed to warm up).


The second dive, Kim lead in the cave. As mentioned before - he is Swedish and tall. SO here I come with my Caribbean pace and shorter legs..... bearing in mind that he already slowed down hus pace to accomodate me hahaha. At some point i was just in awe and had to stop and look around to take it all in. So beautiful. This time we took a slightly different route with smaller passages which put my sidemount diving skills to the test. Trying out the different fin kicks etc.  Once it was time to turn around I had to lead us out. off course this is when the fun started for Kim and Frank cuz all of a sudden my equipment miraculous started malfunctioning. I had a hose pop, a free flowing regulator a self inflating BCD and light failure. This is just to test your awareness - to see how quickly you react and if you actually react doing the right thing. which I did.. PFFFFFFFFFEUH!.


after the safety stop we practised some skills such as opening your reg underwater ( e.g. when some silt comes in your reg it cold lead to a free flow so important for you to know how to solve it). after 83 minutes i was cold, had a sore back but was very satisfied. I am happy with my improvements however need to improve a lot still. Something I am happy with and confident in that I will.


Back at the shop we did an accident analysis. We talked about personal experiences, accidents that happened or could happen and how you can prevent them. Which would be a blog post of its own should I go deeper into it.


Frank has been filming lots so at one point I'll grab some video's and post them as well.


Tomorrow we are jumping :) 


XOXO