Category — Opinions

A Broken bed, Whale Sharks, A Pregnant Doctor and Injections, The Real Dive Life!

Where do I start?  Some time in the end of June, when I sat down into bed, I broke the bed frame.  I broke it right where my lower back rests while I am sleeping.  On top of that, add the fact that we were sleeping on a very tired mattress through which I could feel the springs.  I knew that the bed was broken but I kept using it.  My thought was that I could live with it, though it was really starting to bother me.

Then my parents came to town for a whirlwind tour of the Yucatan in my 4Runner.  Their visit and the accompanies stress eliminated all exercising for about two weeks.  Then we drove around the Yucatan at break neck speeds which was followed by some competitive whale shark snorkeling and photography.  The end result was that my back was completely messed up.   I had a lot of pain in the lower back and was unable to bend over.  I stretched and took Aleeve but nothing was working, it was getting worse by the day.

Now for the kicker, I was scheduled to take my CCR Hypoxic Trimix with Steve this week. I had been looking forward to it for a couple of years.  The whole reason I got the Meg was to dive Trimix.  I emailed Steve to let him know my condition and we agreed that mixed gas diving and lower back injuries sound like a terrible combination.   We decided to postpone class.  A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BUMMER!  But, it was the only reasonable and prudent course of action.  It would be awful to take a lower back hit because I was greedy.

It is really a kind of win for both of us.  I was nervous about taking the class this week and Steve wanted to get some exploration done.  I hadn't been putting enough time in on the CCR and I was planning to put a bunch of time on it in the week between my parents and my class.   With my back out of whack, I couldn't put the time on the unit.  Plus, I think the universe was telling me I needed to slow down a little.  I have really been packing in the training and not doing enough practice.  Now I have my reprieve.

And now we are at the needles part of the story.  On Friday, my back was killing me and I couldn't find a chiropractor or a masseuse to look at it.  I had two separate appointments, which resulted in no call no shows from the masseuse.  I blew off ice cream waiting for this guy.  The best Chiropractor in town, which at least 5 people referred me to, had broken his ankle.  And the next chiro doesn't work over the weekend.  So there I was, when Sol saved the day.  He suggested I go to the clinic where he went.  I complied and we stopped in.

Acupuncture needles in my back.We were seen immediately!  We entered the office and there was a very good looking small young girl behind the desk.  She asked if we wanted to do this in English or Spanish?  Which was immediately responded to by Sol, who was wearing a huge shit eating grin, with, "Your a doctor?"  She replied, "Yes, I am a doctor and I am pregnant. I have thirty years."  I asked, "30 years practicing medicine? You look great!"  She smiled and replied, "No, I have been practicing medicine for 6 years."   The consult went well, and she told me I needed to see a specialist and she wanted to get me out of pain.  She prescribed three injections and a three day course of anti-inflammatory.  I was nervous about both, but we talked about the drugs.  The injection is B12 and something else and the anti-inflammatory is just that.  I agreed to the course of treatment under the assumption she was going to give the shot.  Well, that isn’t how it worked out.  She left the room and brought back a nurse, who was a much older and rounder Mayan lady.  I got my shot and went on my way.  She gave a great shot, it just wasn’t the girl behind the desk.  That was the first needle.

On Saturday night, I needed to get my second shot.  I was informed that the pharmacy would give me the injection if I asked.  As it turns out, they wouldn’t.  I could buy my needle and my drugs there, but had to find someone else to inject me.  The pharmacy sent me to the Red Cross.  The Red Cross charged me $5USD or 50Pesos to inject me.  I skipped right to the front of the line.  It was surreal.  I watched the Para-medic prepare the drug.  It was two glass vials that needed to be broken open and mixed in the syringe.  Sol took a picture, which I will withhold.  And the medic laughed his ass off.  Needle number two down.

On Sunday evening it was time for injection number three.  At this point, I was emboldened by our experiences.  So, we hit up the pharmacy for the supplies and we went home.  This time I mixed up the drugs and gave the needle to my wife, Allie, to inject me.  I wanted to save the $5 and risk of airborne staff that can be found at the Red Cross.  Allie had had two glasses of wine prior to being handed the needle, so she was a little nervous and so was I.  She pinned me and pumped my rump full of the drugs.  Everything went according to plan and needle number three was finished.  She did a great job!  I never expected my wife to need to inject me.  I guess that is one of the wonders of the self serve medical system here.

That brings us to Monday!  Today, I went in and had a consult with a physician, a real MD, who specialized in pain management and acupuncture.  We talked about my condition; he examined me and then prescribed a course of Ozone Therapy and acupuncture.  The Ozone is to resolve the herniated disk; the acupuncture is to relieve the muscle tension/spasms.  My homework is to read up on the Ozone treatment.  In the mean time, he stuck 12 needles in me making the count 15.  I had never done acupuncture before, so I was a little skeptical.  However, I have heard good things about it.  It didn’t hurt.  It did put me to sleep.  And it gave me a funny taste in my mouth like my body was detoxing.  I have another visit scheduled for Thursday morning.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about it, though I am willing to give it a shot.  I am going to couple it with a return to my yoga practice and some walking.

I am desperate to get active again.  I hate getting off the beam, acupuncture needles in my leg, and feeling like a slob.  I think I am going to dive this week a little, maybe 2-3 dives, nothing deep.  Though that will really depend on how my back feels.  As of tonight, it seems to be well on its way to recovering!  Hopefully, I will be in tip-top shape shortly.

Plus, Allie, Sol and I have agreed to start a training program to train up to running a half-marathon.  I don’t want them to get too far out in front of me.

Have you tried acupuncture or other holistic or eastern approaches to your pain?  How did it work for you?

Every once in a while I get nostalgic for wreck diving.  I have been trying to organize a trip to the Puerto Morelos wreck for weeks and no one wants to go with me.

I learned to technical dive by diving the wrecks off of New Jersey.   If you haven't dove the North East, by which I mean Long Island and New Jersey, you are really missing out.  Let me describe some of the finer facets of wreck diving in the North East:

• Get up at 3:30AM to drive 1.5-2 hours to the boat followed by a 1.5-2 hour boat ride to the wreck.  50% of the time I find out the trip is called at the dock, 25% of the time divert to tug or the Mohawk in 50ft of water, 25% get to the planned dive site.
• Heavy seas make me sea sick.  I am chronically sea sick.  I have been since I was a mate on my Dad's offshore boat.  One summer, I went to Gloucester, Mass to chase giant tuna.  All I was able to chase for a month was my ass to the gunnel.   Now, I take Dramamine and live with medicine head.  I have  a pretty good solution, one the night before and half of one in the morning.  Controls the sickness and the medicine head.
•  Pull on drysuit with enough under-garments for a two hour dive in 54'F water while sitting in the 90'F summer sun.  Forget to attach the pee valve correctly.  Bath in my own sweat before I get off the boat.
• Roll off the boat into a heaving sea.  Drag myself down the anchor and only realize I am on the wreck when my hand touches it.  Navigate like a blind guy in the muck for 2 hours looking for 2 lobsters I don't eat.  Bag em and give em away.
• On the ride home help Rob Infante shell a couple of dozen scallops.  Sleep for a while.  Start to plan next week's expition.
• Upon arrival, drive 2 hours in the hot traffic home.  Rise my Meg in a 33 gallon garbage pail.  Dry the gear on the lawn and in the yard.  Spend the next two days recovering.
• Calculate the cost for the weekend:  $50 Car Fuel, $125 Boat, $20 Tip, $10Food, Plus Rebreather Costs.
• Schedule it again for the next weekend.

And just for comparison, typical day of cave diving:

• Stop working at 2PM and assemble/pack Meglodon or side-mount gear.
• Dive 25-40 minutes to  dive site.
• Pay $8.00 USD to land manager.
• Pull on wet suit and pee in it.
• Dive for 2-3 hours.
• Drive to Puerto Aventarous and buy a Magna Classic ice cream bar.  They have the best chocolate shell.
• Arrive home and dump scrubber, clean loop, and deposit dive gear in the living room to dry.  It all lives in a laundry basket from Walmart.
• Calculate costs: $10USD Fuel, $8USD Entrance, $1USD Icecream, plus rebreath costs.
• Schedule it again for the next day.

Even with all the insanity of wreck diving, I still love it.  And if I lived in NJ, I would be going almost every weekend year round!  I am one of those crazy guys who goes out in Decemeber, January and February.

My favorite wreck is the USS San Diego.  I can spend hours inside that wreck.  I think my second favorite is the USS Algol and third might be the Northern Pacific.  Unfortunately, I only got on the Northern once, but it looks like it offers tons of opportunities.  I know this is a cave diving blog, however, I think most of us have a soft spot for some challenging wreck diving.  Which brings me to the reason for this post.  My friend Brandon recently got a new camera and published a very nice dive report of a dive on the Stolt Dagali.   A very cool wreck that is just a couple of miles from the USS Algol.  His photos really fired my nostalgia.   And from my recount, I am sure you can see why I misss it!

Your turn:

• Do you wreck dive?
• What is it like for you?
• What is your favorite wreck?
• What boat do you dive from?
• Know any wrecks here in the Yucatan I can go dive?  Must be something out there!

Blue Abyss, Sistema Sac Aktun – Nohoch Na Chich Section

The Blue Abyss had become a little bit of an obsession for me.  I know that the joy is in the journey, however when I went by Protech and met Ron and found out he found it on the first try, I started to get a little frustrated.  Why could he find it and not me?  Well, the first reason was he had directions and I didn’t.  The second reason was, I was looking in the wrong part of the system for it.  It ends up that the Nohoch map has NOTHING to do with the way the cave is actually laid out.  Well, maybe “nothing” is a little over the top. The cave does trend in the direction that the map illustrates, however the passages don’t junction like the map illustrates.  I knew this was true, but I couldn’t believe it was as inaccurate as we found it to be.  I shouldn’t be all that surprised.

When I inquired about the map and the survey, the following was explained to me:

• The survey data of Nohoch was collected by a multitude of teams over a number of expeditions, trips and years.
• Some of the survey teams were inexperienced and used poor technique.
• The objectives of some parts of the survey projects were driven more by the profitability of the venture then the accuracy of the venture.

The consequence of these factors is a wildly inaccurate map that adorns the walls of many shops and incorrectly informs the decisions of divers.  Now to be completely clear, none of the information about the actual survey is first hand to me, it is all second hand and I can not vouch for it.  I am just passing on what I heard.

What is first hand to me is the inaccuracy of the map.  The clearest example I can thing of is the fact that the map has the X Line terminating south of the jump to the Blue Abyss.  Which would mean, I should have made a right and headed north to the jump.  My experience is that it terminates to the north of it and you have to Jump onto the Diaz Line and make a left going south.

In any event, I am happy to report that Ross and I found the Blue Abyss with a little direction from Robbie Schmittner from Xibalba Dive Center.  We ran into Robbie on our way out to Pet Cemetery for another attempt.  In trade for a little information about how to find the Blue Abyss, I loaned him a regulator for the day.  I thought it was a worthwhile trade.  Ross and I took the Diaz Line through the King Pong restriction down to Blue Abyss.  It involved a total of three jumps and was a relatively easy dive to execute in side mount.  The passage from the Diaz Line to the Blue Abyss is tight, however it is negotiable in back mount.  When we arrived at Blue Abyss we had plenty of gas, so we took a little swim into the hole.  Let me tell you, “It is BLUE!”  I couldn’t believe it.  The color is breath taking.  Since that trip with Ross, I have been back 2 times.  One more dive with Ross, who has moved to Africa to run a dive resort and one dive there with Patrick and Katie.

In total it took me 4 dives to find Blue Abyss.  The first dive was with Allie and we were just scoping out the lines in and around Pet Cemetery, we traversed to I-Hop.  On the second dive, I was solo and I was less then 10 minutes from it.  I had swum to the end of the X Line and turned my dive believing I was somewhere other then I was.  The third dive was checking out a line off the X Line that went west, where I thought the Blue Abyss might be.  This was the dive that the guide line was cut on.  The fourth dive Ross and I found it based on Robbie’s directions.  The fifth dive, we confirmed the route via the X Line.  The sixth dive, I took Patrick and Katie to the Blue Abyss.

Here are some of my observations about cave diving to the Blue Abyss.

• The Diaz Line route is easier to negotiate in back mount, the passage is larger, the passage is more beautiful and it takes about 10 minutes longer then the X Line.
• The X Line route is a challenge to negotiate in back mount if not impossible.  I think this depends on your girth.  If you are a fat bastard, you might want to leave yourself and extra dive to confirm you can pass the restrictions.  There is more then one.  The first one is the gnarliest.  To pass it going in is easier then exiting.  Katie was the diver in back mount and she is really skinny, like 105lbs and 5’3”.  I haven’t tried passing it, however, I am going to drag the Meg out there and try it.  The route is about 10 minutes shorter in side-mount then Diaz Line.  In back mount that saving might be wiped out by a delay at the Tanks on Tanks Off restriction.
• Pet Cemetery is EXPENSIVE to dive at.  200 Pesos per diver.
• Pet Cemetary is a 15-20 minute drive into the jungle and Blue Abyss is 40 minutes from the Cenote.  If something goes wrong, you are a long way away from help.
• You must check-in and pay at Ruben’s dive shop.  It is on the right hand side at the entrance.  They need to know you are out there.

Finding the Blue Abyss in the Nohoch Na Chich section of Sac Aktun has been a lot of fun.  And I am looking forward to exploring the hole a little more.  I wonder where that line arrow jumps to?  In July, I will take my Hypoxic CCR class.  I am looking forward to some Trimix dives out there.  Thanks to all of you for tolerating my obsession and driving out into the jungle with me.

I am sorry that I haven't posted anything in 20 days.  I have been very busy with work and dive related activities.  In the last 20 days I completed the following: took a cave survey class with Steve Bogaerts, played safety diver in Bacalar for a free diving contest, dove at Temple of Doom, Nohoch Na Chich main entrance, dove at Grand Cenote Down Stream, found the Blue Abyss, dove at Xtabay, shot some cavern silohuets at Chac Mool, did some live survey work at the Pit and trained for and played in my first ever soccer tournament!  To say the least it has been busy.

So all this activity has created a bunch of material for Quiet Diver.  I will do my best to get it out there for you.

Hans

At some point, I asked Steve where I should go diving. He asked if I had been to: Casa Cenote, Temple of Doom or “the cenotes across from Xpu Ha”? At the time, I had to answer no to all three. It dawned on me how many obvious places there are to dive here. Drive down Highway 307 and stop at the places with a Cenote sign and ask to dive. If they allow it, that is a place to dive. Of course, there is risk in trying to dive without a guide. First, the adventure might be a complete diving bust. You might pay your entrance and find the location undivable or unrewarding! Second, you may not get very far at all once in the cave. The first time I went to Car Wash without a guide, I spent the entire first dive looking for the main line. Luckily, I have the opportunity to waste time driving around looking for a Cenote or swim around looking for the main line. If you are a visitor, you may not have the same luxury. Plus, I love to explore! And for me, even if there is line in the cave, every dive to a new site is exploration. How do I enter the water? Where is the entrance to the cave? Where does the line go? What is the geology?

If you are coming to Mexico and you are looking for a guide or someone to dive with, email me at: hans@quietdiver.com. I will make sure to hook you up with the right people! Having a guide will save you a ton of logistical work and will ensure you have a fulfilling trip. I know guides that specialize in rebreather cave diving, side-mount diving, exploration, dpv, extended range, deep diving, and I even know someone with an excellent boat on Cozumel. The guide will arrange tanks, transportation, food, entrances, sorb and any other special needs you might have. The same applies if you are looking for an instructor. I know it sounds like a pitch, it sorta is. I just don't like to read posts from people on CDF or The Deco Stop that didn't enjoy their trips.

When we talk about cave diving, we usually refer to diving upstream or downstream. Upstream and downstream refer to the commonly accepted direction of the flow of the fresh water in the cave system. Here in Mexico, that direction is from inland to the sea traveling perpendicular to the coast. That knowledge is so ingrained locally that the government includes it in its planning documentation. If you take a look at the image (Click it.) of the slide, you will notice red arrows pointing to the coast. The arrows represent the government's official position on the flow of water around/under Tulum. It is also important to note that there are two versions of the urban planning documents issued by the local government. One issued in 2005 and one in 2007. If you look closely at the 2007 map you will notice the government has included stick maps of the local cave systems. This is a promising sign, the government is starting to incorporate cave survey data.

The problem is there is no empirical evidence to support the current common belief. There is anecdotal evidence that would support those hypothesizes, however it seems it may be incorrect.

On Friday night, Allie and I had the opportunity to go to Akumal and watch a handful of presentations given at the Centro Ecologico Akumal. There were a number of very interesting presentations, including: one on the dry caves of the area, one on the benefits of GIS, the formation of the local caves and one on the movement of water at Car Wash.

The talk about Yucatan cave hydrology and geochemistry was given by Patricia Beddows, a Research Fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada. Patricia has been traveling to Mexico to study the caves for at least 10 years. Last year she and a team of volunteers performed a dye tracing experiment at Car Wash to determine the flow of the fresh water there. I believe the results are remarkable.

Before I go any further, she has so far performed one dye trace at this particular site Car Wash. Therefore, the results she shared can only be representative of the water flow conditions in the cave at that time. She mentioned that repeat dye tracing may show somewhat different results.

The experiment consisted of deploying two markers. She deployed one dye in the Cell Block section and at Cenote Luke’s Hope (Cenote Zacil Ha). Both sections are upstream or inland. The expected result was that both dyes would be detected at Cenote Carwash. However, what actually happened was quite startling. The dye that was deployed in the Cell Block section, just stayed there. It never really passed the restriction heading downstream towards the coast. So it would seem that at the time of the experiment, the water was not flowing from upstream to downstream as we all believe it does.

The dye that was released at Luke’s Hope also did something remarkable. It moved relatively quickly down to Cenote Carwash, this was expected. It also moved into the Room of Tears section, this was not expected.

It seems that the fresh water is not moving from upstream to downstream at Carwash. The new hypothesis is the water is entering the system from a perpendicular path from the North and then moving down stream and out of the system south. It is also blowing water into the Room of Tears section.

This is import for a couple of reasons. The first is resource planning. If the government assumes the water is moving from inland to the sea in a straight line, they will plan things like dumps and well fields accordingly. However, if the reality is the water is moving unpredictably; then there is a chance those plans will create a public hazard, such as contaminated drinking water.

The second reason it is import is, it means you and I are using the wrong terminology. There was some discussion at dinner about changing from talking about upstream and downstream to inland and coastal sides of the system. We wouldn’t want to be inaccurate when briefing our dives, right! You know how important it is to be accurate in your briefings, don’t you? So get out of the nineties and your halogen lights and into modern times, it will be Costal and Inland from now on.

Lastly, the term upstream gives the impression that the flow will be working with you to assist you in exiting. When in reality, it may be working against you as the finding suggests. For example, when exiting Room of Tears. I bet you never considered that the Room of Tears might be a siphon. A very weak siphon, but a siphon. I can think of at least one place in Nohoch where there is a strong current against you when exiting, where common knowledge would indicate there shouldn’t be water moving against you.

Naturally, you should now ask, “Why isn’t the fresh water moving the direction of the cave?” The answer is equally interesting. In the last million and a half years or so, the sea level has dropped substantially from today’s levels at least 3 times. It was during one of these low periods that the cave system was formed. No one is really sure during which low period the caves formed. Therefore, the caves were formed during a period that had significantly different geomorphic forces at work then are at work today. When the cave was formed, the water did move in the direction of the cave. It was the eroding force that formed the cave.

Today, sea levels are much higher and the caves are full of water. The movement of water beneath the ground on the Yucatan is controlled by: the tides, the macro geologic formations and hydrostatic pressure from inland. (I consider the local caves micro when compared the to entire Yucatan.) The caves we dive are just happy accidents from the ancient past that provide us with hours of enjoyment. It is my unscientific opinion that Patricia’s findings suggest the following, “where the fresh water does flow in the direction of the cave, it is a coincidence”. It is my belief that the Yucatan is too porous and large for the relatively small cave passages to have meaningful effect on the macro movement of the water.

Patricia’s presentation was a call for further research. Every year, as more caves are mapped and more research is completed, we learn more about our favorite dive sites. Sometimes new information turns our commonly accepted knowledge on its ear and forces us to consider that our world is ever more complicated and beautiful then we expect.

I recently wrote an article detailing my Advanced Side-Mount Cave Diving Class with Steve Bogaerts. In that article I made reference to feathering my valve after a regulator failed underwater. One of my favorite readers, Anna, sent me an email asking me, “What is feathering? I mean I know your valve was leaking and I'm useless at valve drills. So I guess it means you blew a burst disc and just had to let the tank run down?” I thought I should explain and I wanted to provide a brief explanation of a systematic approach to practicing valve drills as it was taught to my wife and me.

Valve Feathering
Feathering is the act of actuating, opening and closing, the valve on a scuba tank to control the flow of gas. I originally learned the skill to deal with a stuck open solenoid on my rebreather. I adapted the skill for dealing with my leaky regulator. The idea is to limit the gas loss from the leak to extend the time you can use the tank. When done correctly, I open the valve as I start to exhale and close it before I am finished; drawing the regulator empty at the end of my breath cycle. This limits the regulator to leaking just when I am drawing gas. This same skill is a prerequisite if you ever find yourself breathing off a tank valve 3000 feet back in a cave.

The specific problem I had was that my low pressure inflator hose had loosened itself from the first stage of the regulator and was leaking from the connection. I was diving brand new Apex XTX 50’s with DST first stages. I had just assembled them, and I didn’t tighten the hose enough. I was diving side-mount and practicing bottle handling skills, so I was forced to don and doff my tanks many times that day. In the course of rotating the tanks out in front and back, the hose came loose. Of course it loosened in zero visibility and I was unable to figure out the source of the leak. Therefore, I was forced to isolate the leak by shutting down the valve and going on my other side-mount tank. Once I handled the priority emergency, being entangled and cutting the wrong side of the line, and I had passed the remaining restrictions, I switched from the fully functioning system to the leaky system. At this point, I started to feather the valve to control the gas loss and maintain the air source as long as possible.

Valve Management!
“Valve” and “Management” are dirty words in the tech diving community. I know many people who have suffered with valve management, including my wife. They all had trouble with it until they learned a logical process for executing them and dedicated time in a pool or on their safety stops to practicing.

I believe there are three primary reasons people have trouble with these skills:

1. They can’t reach their valves.
2. No one ever taught them a logical process and gave them the reasons for each step.
3. People don’t practice.

The first reason is non-sense. Your rig should be configured in a way to allow you to reach your valves. If your dry suit is too tight or your valves are too low, they you have a real problem. It is a problem that may lead to your drowning. Stop diving and fix the problem. Why would you ever enter the water with a system you know if broken? It just does not make sense.

The second reason is reasonable, not everyone has an instructor that has a logical easy to remember system. My Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures class provided no methodical instruction on this issue other then, “Let me see you close your valves. It is ok to do it one at a time.” This is where your choice of instructions really makes a difference. It might save your life.

I am going to share with you the system Allie and I learned. Keep in mind this is for a person diving manifolded doubles with an isolator. It also assumes you are breathing off the right post to start:

1. Close your right post first. Breathe it empty and switch to the left regulator. Why? It is the most dynamic regulator and will be prone to fail first. You breathe it to the end to confirm you have shut off the correct regulator. Switching to a regulator that is off will come as a nasty surprise.
2. If the leak continues, turn your right post back on and turn your left post off. Breathe the left post empty and switch back to your right post.
3. If the leak continues, shut down the isolator and try and figure out which tank is leaking.
4. Turn on the left post and switch to the tank that is leaking. Breathe it empty then switch to the remaining tank.
5. Open the isolator at the end of the drill.

If you practice this in the same way each time, it will go into muscle memory. It also helps to do an audible gear matching exercise, at the start of the dive, where you call out each piece of gear and touch the post it is attached to. This helps build a reflex to turn off the correct post in the event of an easily identified leak, such as a leaky SPG. As you become more proficient, you can start to close the isolator at the same time you close the post. I would suggest the first couple of times you practice, have a buddy watch you to ensure you maintain an air source. I would also advise you to not practice this if you have mandatory deco and you don’t have a buddy. It would suck to blow off deco because you find yourself without an air source. When you are short on air, one second is forever!

The last reason I outlined, lack of practice, is just that. We all have to do three minute safety stops, it is a perfect time to practice pain in the ass skills we need to survive. For weeks I practiced my reverse frog kick and my lay throwing skills on my safety stop. Prior to that, I practiced my valve drills and buoyancy control on every safety stop I could. There is no excuse for not practicing; you have time built into every dive for it. Use the time; practice a skill that might save your life.

I can tell you from first hand experience, you may need to shut a valve down while entangled in zero visibility. It could be fishing net, monofilament, cave line or the long tail of someone’s snot that grabs a hold of you. You want to be prepared so you can maintain a calm cool collected manner. I promise, when the trouble comes, it is never alone.

Putting regulators on the tanks, carrying them to the water’s edge, and slipping them into the water is almost a meditative experience. Every time I get the opportunity, it is another awaking.

In April, I spent three days working with Steve Bogaerts on the basic side-mount class. The class included: lecture, building a custom side-mount harness, and skills & drills. He focused on gear configuration, safety procedures, tank handling and diving in side-mount configuration. I am convinced that those three days evolved my gear configuration by at least 50+ dives of tuning and experimenting. He condensed years of practical experience exploring into a well thought out task specific system. At the end of class, I was tasked with learning to reverse frog kick, improve my line laying, and diving in side-mount. We agreed to meet in a month for Advanced Side-Mount Cave Diving Class.

My Advanced Side-Mount class was scheduled for May. By this time, I had executed 29 side-mount dives, nailed the reverse frog kick and improved my line throwing skills. I felt very comfortable in side-mount; I was ready to continue.

Class started with a lecture at Steve’s place. He covered:

• Revised equipment list, tailored for diving in small passage.
• The need to be able to remove and replace every piece of kit.
• The recent fatality at Genie Springs, Steve is a local Safety Officer.
• More conservative gas planning rules.
• And discussion around knowing one’s limits, mental toughness and the things he has seen deep in the cave, such as abandoned equipment and erratically laid line. All evidence of people reaching their limit.

The revised equipment list included two new items for my Dive Rite Double Zip Pocket. He suggested that I carry a spare bungee to hang my tanks from in the event that I have to cut my normal side-mount bungee and a lanyard with a clip for no-mounting.

Steve is a hawk with regard to gas planning and management, which I suspect is why he is still alive and pushing. In previous training we talked about why the rule of thirds is not conservative enough here in Mexico. Locally, we have low flow caves that do not provide the benefit spitting you out. This was clearly demonstrated when Allie and I almost sucked my tanks dry during a drill in her full cave class. I surfaced with the gauge reading nearly zero after my safety stop.

For pushing challenging cave, the rule of thirds is not conservative. He suggests the rule of sixths or quarters. We discussed the actual usable volume in the tank, which I had never taken into account, and that we should factor that into our gas calculations. The point being, you can never finish a dive with too much gas. The conditions we will encounter include: zero visibility for extended periods, passing major restrictions in zero visibility, entanglements in zero visibility and equipment failures in zero visibility. Any one of these will delay your exit, take two and you’re going to be very glad you have plenty of gas. The extra volume will be a determining factor in your ability to stay calm, cool and collected. As you will read, I learned this lesson. We closed the lecture with an equipment workshop that lead to additional tweaks.

The first day’s diving was confined water skills at Ponderosa. I had the option to go to other sites, but Ponderosa is convenient to both of us. Be forewarned, I am not going to spoil the plot and reveal everything, just the highlights. To begin, every skill I performed I had to perform with visibility and without visibility. So, if I describe a skill, understand I did it at least twice.

The skills started off easy. I demonstrated my ability to swim with tanks on, one tank on and no tanks on. I needed to do this through restrictions. This culminated in having to pass a no-mount restriction in one direction with visibility and then pass it in reverse with no visibility. This was by far the tightest restriction I had ever negotiated. I had to breathe out to get through it. This is where the day got really interesting. I arrived at the restriction in zero visibility. I identified it and then backed up a couple of feet to prepare my gear. This included removing my right tank and butt-mounting it. As I did this, I forgot to clip the lower clip to off on the tank, so it “grabbed” the guideline. I figured this out quickly. I got the tanks into position while maintaining contact with the guideline. As I proceeded through the restriction, I was nervous because the first pass was really tight and I had to push myself through with my feet. It was a mental challenge. I made it through the restriction. I audibly celebrated and Steve heard me. My celebration was short lived.

Surprisingly, the line “came off” a large placement. I was left with ample slack line in the water. I didn’t realize there was slack line, so I started to replace my tanks. Almost immediately, I was entangled. Steve says he did nothing besides remove the placement. The entanglement was natural. As I swung my left tank back into place, I heard gas leaking. I thought, damn he is piling it on. Zero visibility, entangled and a leak.

My first stage was leaking from one of the LP hoses. This was a real equipment failure, must have been Murphy and his love of cave divers. I turned off the left tank and went on the right tank. I decided deal with one problem at a time, the entanglement. I couldn’t see working an entanglement and feathering the valve. This is where practice and a methodical approach really count.

I started to work out how I was entangled. I tried to untangle myself but it seemed hopeless. In retrospect, I should have spent another four or five minutes working the tangle and the slack line. If I were patient and removed some of my gear, I could have gotten through it. But at the time, the only option was to cut the line. When I was sure I was on the exit side with the line wrapped around my hand, I removed my Z-knife and cut the line. Ping! The other end was gone. I put a loop in the line and looked for a spot to secure it. I couldn’t find one immediately, so I move with the line and finned. Later, I found out that the fining blew the other end of the line away from me. I my search for a spot to secure the line, I realized I was on the cave side of the line. I smacked my head and grumbled to myself. Steve later told me that I had rotated through 180 degrees prior to cutting the line. I was disoriented and didn’t realize it.

Steve hovered watching with amazement. He told me that he really enjoyed watching; he couldn’t have planned it any better. It was the real deal, all natural in the course of a dive. It was a lesson I could never have planned.

I am on the cave side of the severed guideline with a leaky regulator. I thought, “This really sucks.” I collected myself, deployed my safety spool and attached it to the guide line. I started my search for the guide line, making another mistake; I neglected securing prior initiating my search. So after a minute or two, I returned and secured the line properly near the exit of the restriction. I knew approximately which direction the next tie off was from the exit of the restriction. I did a very methodical search and after 25 minutes, I found the errant end of the line. If you have spent anytime at Ponderosa, you can image how difficult this task is with the pond weed and the rocks. The restriction and the tie off are about 15 feet apart and I was looking for the loose end of a cave line in pond weed.

At one point in the drill, I briefly considered quitting. Twenty five minutes is a long time and I started to feel hopeless. However, I remembered something I had read, “Never giving up and don’t waste time scribing notes, just keep going till it is over.” I knew for a second why people surrender and are found lifeless with gas in their tanks.

With the line in hand, I had to connect my safety spool to close the gap. This is when I discovered that I had too much line on the spool for it to be useful. I was already under a lot stress, and then I had to fight with my spool to get it clipped off. Once it was clipped off, I chose to leave the spool inline, instead of making a proper repair. I wasn’t sure how long it had been or how much gas I had left. My tank was getting very light. Later I learned this was a mistake. If I had another entanglement, broken guideline or missing jump spool, I would have been without the piece of gear I needed most. Steve suggested that I make every reasonable effort to take my safety spool.

After I passed the next restriction, I switched to the leaky tank and feathered it all the way home. The drill was a HUGE success. I learned some huge lessons:

• Be on the right side of the guideline when you cut it. Seems obvious, right?
• If you can, hold onto both ends of the line.
• Have plenty of gas. You may have to do a lost line drill with only one cylinder available.
• Failures never come alone. Gotta love Murphy.
• The only option at this level is calm cool persistence. If you don’t have it, do not proceed.

The most difficult skill I had to master was to swap regulators between tanks underwater. This is a three part drill: breath from a free flowing regulator while feathering it, breath from a tank valve underwater and perform the regulator swap.

This was a very difficult set of skills for me to master. My breath holding ability is weak, less then one minute. And this decreases as the CO2 builds up. This skill took me 5 attempts over two days before I was able to get through it in zero visibility. One attempt I had to ask for a regulator from another tank. One attempt I ended up bolting to the surface because I panicked a little, which is exactly what we are trying to train out.

I have been tasked with practicing this set of skills till I have it nailed. Steve also suggested I seek some apnea training to increase my breath holding skills. We agreed 2-3 minutes is a reasonable goal and will provide ample time.

The class included two cave dives. The skill was to complete the dives. We did two dives down stream at Grand Cenote. This was a pleasure. The benefit of going downstream is you are the only team in that part of the system. There wasn’t a single hand print or fin slash. The system is in great shape. The two dives included a handful of major restrictions that required passing with a single tank and a high flow major restriction. We turned the second dive when we got to a silty no-mount restriction. We were nearing our turn pressure. I have to admit, the cave diving was a relief compared to the skills in confined water.

Steve video taped me during the dives. We reviewed the video and talked about: my strengths, my blunders and bad habits.

My homework for stage/multi-stage side-mount class next month is:

• Become more aware of my tank position. I am letting them get too high on my body.
• Work on my frog kick. I am doing half a frog kick with just my ankles. I am wasting a lot of energy.
• Work on my kick selection. I am capable of doing all the kicks, I just don’t always chose the best one. I frog kick when I shouldn’t.
• Work on my apnea skills.
• Work on my ability to breath from the tank and swap regulators.

After reflecting on class and the skills practiced, I am convinced that training at this level is as much about mental toughness and learning personal limits and capacity as it is about learning specific skills. By this time, one must possess excellent watermanship, commitment, confidence and dexterity as a prerequisite. You shouldn’t be learning these at this level; they need to be in muscle memory. The drills we executed and the dives we performed provided the grounds for me to hone my mental toughness, assess my limits, and determine my ability to function effectively as the failures pile up.

This morning there was a post on Cave Diver’s Forum asking:

When I’m swimming a stage, horizontal of course, the bottom hangs down too low to my liking. I use an aluminum 80 but the bottom doesn’t float up at all. My lower clip is wrapped around the handle strap to take up all the slack, but I still have to hold the bottle up when I’m close to the bottom. Anybody ever use a bungee to hold it in line with the body? ...

To start, I cave dive CCR back mounted, doubles and side mount. The following information focuses on carrying stages or bailout bottles in a back mounted configuration. My current approach has been heavily informed by my experience diving sidemount. I have gone through at least three major evolutions in this process and it is still evolving. This article is based on my personal experience. I have stolen or purchased ideas from a number of people I dive with here in Mexico and in New Jersey. Those people are: Steve Bogaerts, Andrew Driver, Patrick Widmann, Rob Infante, Nando and others. Sorry if I don’t credit you properly. And remember to click on the images!

I remember asking myself the very same question over and over. When I started to sling a bottle, I learned how to do it from my Deco Procedures class and the north east wreck divers. The approach was to buy/make a sling kit for the respective bottle and mount the bottle to your chest d-ring and the waist strap d-ring. Depending on the buoyancy of the bottle, the position of your waist d-ring and the length of your clip lines, this might put it sticking up at a 45 degree angle or leave it dragging in the mud. It was never streamline with my horizontal body. However, in NJ I could get away with this non-sense. I knew it wasn’t right. So I started to look for another solution. When I moved to Mexico and started to dive my CCR in the caves, the inefficiency of this system was magnified. I remember picking up the tank to pass small areas. I remember the tank swinging to and fro as I kicked. It was maddening.

The second evolution was to purchase a butt-plate. I selected the ArmadilloCCR Sidemount System. I mounted the butt-plate to the back plate on my rebreather. I decided to use a neck clip instead of the bungee. My neck clip is just a loop of bungee with a clip attached. I put the neck clip on the tank before I install the regulator. I found this easier to deal with then the bungee loops. As soon as I mounted an AL 80 to this setup, I discovered I was woefully leg heavy. The butt-plate transfers the negativity of the tank to your thighs. It was intolerable. It made cave diving frustrating, because I was fighting with my trim the whole time. I like to be able to float in mid water without making adjustments, this was impossible.

As luck would have it, I dropped my CCR head and broke it. While my unit was being repaired, I had to dive backmount which forced me to use a buddy bottle or a stage bottle. I was in sling bottle hell again. However, I started to smarten up. After a couple of dives, I put my butt-plate on my doubles back plate. That failed to live up to the promise. The door handles were in the way. I couldn’t reach my butt ring and my trim was off. However, the tanks were sitting in a much nicer position.

After some discussion with Patrick and going through training with Steve, I finally figured out the problem. The door handles are the wrong solution. They put the tanks too far back on my body and are inflexible. They can’t help but be in the way.

For evolution three I removed the door handles and installed two d-rings on the butt-plate. The d-rings move the bottle down my body just enough to balance me and put the tank in the correct position. Eureka! The mobility of the d-rings allows me access to my butt ring. Without the door handles gearing up is much easier and the d-rings are much more accessible.

The d-rings are in the correct position when the tanks are negative. However, when you breathe down the tanks to about 1500, they become buoyant and you need to move their clip position. Or suffer tanks that are bouncing off the ceiling. I use adjustable homemade d-rings on my waist strap for this job. I picked this one up from Steve.

One more thing I learned is, "Balance is key." I make an effort to always carrying two stages, one on each side. If all I need is 80cuft of gas, then I carry two Al40's. If I need more gas, then I add bottles in a sequential way. I up one bottle to an 80 and then the other bottle. I have not found a balanced and streamlined solution to carrying only 1 bottle. If all I need is a Al40, then I suffer with one bottle. An AL40 doesn't throw my balance off wildly.

My rig will continue to evolve as the diving I do demands different configurations and optimizations. I believe there are at least two ways to approach a problem like this: trial-and-error or training. The trial-and-error approach is valid and is time tested, but damn it takes a long time to figure things out and we have a finite number of dives available to experiment. I would prefer to spend my time diving and not hating my gear. If you don’t live in cave country, how will you ever have the time to get it right?

The training method takes years of experimentation and distills it down into the state-of-the-art. It has been demonstrated to me over and over, that this is the most efficient route. I could have gone out and self taught side mount, but after going through training I now know why that is stupid. I estimate that training evolved my skill and gear configuration by at least 50 dives or more.

Find an instructor who is practicing and teaching the state-of-the-art in your desired disciple and schedule a couple of days with him/her. You will be amazed how some of these fundamental issues are resolved immediately and how your diving improves dramatically.

I have had more then one person tell me to dive the cave.  At minimum, both Patrick and Steve have told me that.  Some other guidance I have received:

• I shouldn’t rely solely on the line and markers.
• I shouldn’t play tourist in the cave.
• I shouldn’t put my life in the trust of a plastic disk.

This is sage advice, because on my return leg of a dive at Pet Cemetery the line ended short.

I drove out to Pet Cemetery for a cave dive in search of Blue Abyss.  When I got in the water, I met two divers that were returning from the Blue Abyss.  One of the divers is relatively famous in the cave diving world and the other a guide from a local shop.  We talked for five or ten minutes while I strapped on my gear.  I told them my plan to head for “Tanks on. Tanks off” restriction and look for the jump to head to Blue Abyss.  They exited the water and I started my dive.

The first thing I found was that the primary line that used to end in open water was cut back.  I thought that was weird and continued.  I jumped on the cavern line.  When I arrived at a natural spot to install a jump, I went looking for the primary cave line and quickly installed a jump with an arrow.  I followed the cave line over two T’s and marked them appropriately with my personalized non-directional markers.

About 10 minutes into the dive, I came to the end of the main cave line. It was cut and hanging in mid water.  I thought, “hmm…. That is weird. Who would cut the line and just leave it hanging in mid water?  Jerks!”  I tied my spool to the end of the line and found the other end of the cave line tied off to a stalactite.  I very graciously repaired the continuous guideline and continued on.  I have to admit that I had a very uneasy feeling at this point.  For the next 80 minutes the voice in my head was chattering away.  I just never felt right.  I eventually had to turn the dive on nerves.  I just wasn’t right.  I was a little spooked.

The return swim went much faster then the penetration.  I still hadn’t found the Blue Abyss, so not only was I spooked, but I was disappointed.  When I arrived at the stalactite at which the repair was made, I found the line had been cut again.  This time one inch of my line was hanging out.  Someone had removed my repair.

I swam past the end of the line a little looking for the other end of the main cave line and it was gone.  I returned to my stub and hovered for a second.  I was at least 10 minutes or 500 feet from the Cenote which I entered at and all I had was a 1 inch stub.  I cursed whoever removed the cave line and started to develop a plan.

The next thing I noticed was a thick red line on the floor perpendicular to the original line.  I assumed it might be the cavern line, but I had never swum it and didn’t really want to experiment on it.  I considered tying in my reel for a minute and swimming in the direction of the line, but I elected not to.  As I swam around a little, I saw a light a hundred feet away.  I decided to swim over to the divers.  I was familiar with this section of cave and it was in an air dome.

When I reached the divers, I gave them thumbs up and asked them to surface.  I asked them, “What happened to the cave line?” They told me they were performing a re-lining of the cavern and they had told everyone.  Well, I didn’t know about it.  And the divers that I had spoken to earlier hadn’t said anything to me.  They said they had cut the cave line earlier and had seen it was repaired.  They thanked me for repairing it.  They told me which way to go on the cavern line and that I should exit the cave.

I was completely taken back by the whole situation.  I was in disbelief that anyone would remove a line that had 2 fresh non-direction markers on it and was freshly repaired.  Oh, and they had parked right in front of my truck.  If you had been to Pet Cemetery, you would understand there are not a lot of vehicles out there.  I am not sure what to say about the whole thing, other then it could have gone so much worse.

I was lucky that I had been in that section of cave before and knew how to get out, with or without the primary line.  I had been paying attention on my previous dives and was familiar with the route.  I had been diving the cave.

This should serve as a warning, the line you installed, may not be there when you return.   As I have said in previous posts, the lines here in Mexico change all the time and sometimes without warning.  They can change while you are diving!  Don’t trust your life to a guideline. Dive the cave and practice progressive penetration.  Learn the cave you are diving and carry a compass.  You never know when you might want to know which general direction to head.