When we arrived in High Springs, we stopped by Extreme Exposure during our tourist activities of High Springs. Dan is an instructor and employee for EE and was helping some of the WKPP team members fill tanks for the weekend’s work at Turner Sink. Having never met Dan in person, it was good to put a face to the name and chat for a few minutes. We decided that we would do our lectures at the dive site as the classrooms at EE were full with JJ’s Cave 2 class and a Fundamentals class being taught by Mark Messersmith. Dan decided that the first day would be at Ginnie Springs. We were to meet him at EE at 8:00 AM, then head to the dive site.

We arrived at EE to meet up with Dan, then headed over to Ginnie Springs. The plan for day one was to do some open water and cavern work at the Ballroom at Ginnie Springs. Once we got there, I setup my rig and we went over it. Dan also teaches and dives a Hogarthian rig, so our setup was similar. We reviewed pocket contents and briefly reviewed the benefits of standardization for team diving.

The equipment discussion went pretty quickly as expected. We then did some brief lecture where Dan talked about the differences between the NACD and NSS-CDS, the different types of caves and hydrology. The thing I learned most about this part of the lecture was how the Florida caves were formed and differed from the Mexican caves. Pretty cool stuff.

After a couple hours of lecture, we decided it was time to tie up some trees and go over land drills. Doing tie offs and wraps wasn’t anything new to me, so we spent a bit of time covering line arrows and non-directional markers (cookies). Things we covered the most were how to recognize areas where jumps can be done (i.e. with the two line arrows). At the basic cave level, performing jumps is forbidden. However, it is important to know how to recognize this. Dan covered quite a bit of information about stuff like this.

After tying up some trees and going over arrows and cookie placement, we went into some diving skills while on land. First up was air sharing while on the line. Dan gave me a few new tips that I haven’t done. Like holding on to the long hose while holding onto the line. Dan also stressed having a heightened sense of situational awareness. For example, while on the line, if you feel the line being pulled up, that means you may be getting slightly positive. You then correct it. Same thing when moving side to side. If you feel the line pulling in one direction, swim to straighten it out. I would find this out on day three.

Now it was time to get into the water. We entered the basin and discussed what we would be doing for the next three hours. Dan didn’t have the luxury to see me in the water before putting together this custom class for me. So he really had to take my word that I knew what I was talking about. He wanted to use this time at the Ballroom to make sure I just wasn’t full of shit.

Dan ran line around the perimeter of the basin. Once completed, he wanted to test me with something difficult. As we were standing in about four feet of water, he wanted me to drop down and do a valve drill while hovering, in four feet of water. This wasn’t anything new to me and I banged out the valve drill without hitting the bottom or surface. Upon completion, Dan complemented me “Yeah, you’ve got your shit together.” He noted that not many people he’s had through the course could do that.

Once my “test” was out of the way, Dan wanted to see my propulsion kicks. So I swam around the basin, following the line, while doing many different kicks. After everything went well, we did some no mask work on the line. This is where I got a taste of scraped up hands. Dan had me take my mask off and follow the line. Because it is so important not to lose touch with the line, you really need to take your time and feel around all of the wraps and placements to follow the line. After the no mask work on the line, we did air sharing on the line.

After the open water work was completed, Dan and I ran line through the Ballroom. During this time, Dan showed me the best practices for doing tie offs and placements on rocks. In my shipwreck diving experience, I’ve grown accustom to doing my tie offs and placements on man-made objects. Doing them on slippery rocks is another thing completely. This is where Dan’s knowledge about shipwreck and cave diving really helped me. He was able to show me how to make my tie offs stronger and what to look for on the rock to really hold the line.

Day one went off without a hitch and was very enjoyable. We finished up around 5:00 PM and headed back to EE for some quick video review and to fill the tanks. We decided to meet the next day at 8:00 AM at EE. The next day’s diving would all be in the overhead doing real cave dives. Stay tuned for how day two went, it certainly stretched my stress levels.

I’ve always been interested in underwater caves. The formations, geology and excitement have keep my interest level high in regards to cave diving. The problem, though, is that there are no caves in the Chicago area. So my ability to dive and get training locally is significant limited. After much thought, I decided it was time to take the plunge and start my training process to become a full cave diver.

My progress towards cave diving has been very slow. As many of you know, I am a diabetic. Overhead diving with diabetes puts people in significant risk. Not just to themselves, but to their team members who may have to provide assistance to safely exit the overhead. My decision to undertake this type of diving was one that I didn’t rush into. As a matter of fact, I thought long and hard about this for a number of years. I’ll get more into how my diabetes went during my cave training at a later date. But, suffice to say, I felt I was ready to take on this very aggressive form of diving.

The first thing I had to do was find a cave instructor. I didn’t want an instructor who would just show me how to do the skills. I wanted my brain to work in addition. I looked at all of the big name cave instructors in the industry, but I’ve had poor classes from people with great reputations in the past. So I didn’t put much stock into reputation. My friend Ed Gabe recommend that I take a look at a Dan Patterson. Dan works for Extreme Exposure and is a team diver for the WKPP. He is well versed in team diving concepts, like myself. With Dan’s extensive experience in diving with the WKPP, he is more than capable of teaching the “thinking diver”. After a few long phone calls with him, I knew that this was the type of instruction I wanted. That being, 1) difficult, 2) critical thinking focus and 3) forcing me to perform at a higher level than what I’m accustomed.

Dan put together a course for me that was centered around my strengths as a diver. Because of this, I was in a class to myself. By doing this, we just needed to focus on the cave specific skills for the class. For example, we didn’t cover buoyancy, trim and propulsion as I already have mastered those skills. This shaved off quite a bit of time of the class and allowed us to spend more time in the overhead. Oh, I should mention the specific classes I was signed up for was cavern and basic cave diver (Intro to Cave in double cylinders).

Since I was in a class by myself, I needed to get from Chicago to Florida. I thought about doing the drive solo, but the idea of driving for 18 hours alone didn’t sound like much fun. My buddies Dan and Samer volunteered to go down with me and share in the driving duties. Both Dan and Samer are already full cave certified. So they would get to do a few fun dives, while I was in my class.

Dan and Samer live in Indianapolis. Our plan was to drive, over night, leaving for Florida on a Wednesday night. We would then drive back home over night on Sunday, so Dan and Samer could get in a partial day of work.

I arrived at Dan’s house about an hour late. Traffic wasn’t the greatest and my wife didn’t let me leave until I did a few more “honey do” things. We quickly loaded up Dan’s trailer with my dive gear and hit the road. We left Indianapolis around 6:30 PM for the 14 hour drive to High Springs, FL.

We arrived in High Springs, FL around 9:00 AM on Thursday. This worked out very well for us. We were able to take in the typical diving tourist stuff, like hit the dive shops. Shortly after lunch, we headed over to Ginnie Springs for some time in the basin and Ballroom cavern. I certainly needed this time in the water as it had been about two months since I was last diving. Hey, that’s what happens when winter arrives in Chicago.

The Ballroom cavern is pretty cool. If you’ve never been to Ginnie Springs, the Ballroom is a place dedicated to open water and cavern only divers. The basin of the Ballroom is about 15 feet deep before the entrance to the cavern. The thing that really gave me the cool feeling was the visibility. Visibility was only limited to how far your lights could go. I rarely get a chance to dive in fresh water with visibility like that. Not to mention the water temps stayed a constant 73F degrees. There is a very thick line anchored across the Ballroom. This permanent line allows for cavern divers to easily find the exit. Located at the bottom of the Ballroom, with a maximum depth around 50 feet, is a welded metal grate. This prevents divers from entering the complex cave system within. The flow coming out of the cave is very strong. Strong enough to blow divers all over the cavern. It reminded me of being on a scooter.

We did two fun dives in and around the Ballroom. Logging about 120 minutes of bottom time. We did a few valve drills, modified s-drills, running line, etc. The first dive, we entered the cavern and swam to the left side. The first thing I noticed was the flow. Moving around the left side of the cavern, I didn’t find much relief from the flow. After peeking into all of the nooks and crannies, we thumbed the dive to play around in the basin.

The second fun dive we entered the cavern on the right and stayed to that side of the cavern. The flow was very minimal on that side. Exploring around the right side, we were able to get right next to the metal grate before getting into the flow. Then let the flow push us toward the exit.

Our first day in High Springs winded down with dinner and grocery shopping. Then back to the hotel to get to bed early to get plenty of rest before my class started the next day.

Enough playing around. The next day it’s time to pull the big girl panties up for class. Stay tuned to read more about each day.

So you have decided to add a primary HID/LED light to your equipment bag. There is a significant investment to purchase primary lights. They don’t come cheap. A good quality primary light can cost up to $2,000 USD, even more for high powered video lights. You need to make sure your investment will last as long as possible. One of the preventative maintenance procedures for checking the health of your primary light is to burn test the battery. Burn testing the battery is a simple procedure, but does require some time. This will give you an accurate measurement for how long your battery will hold a charge.

Before we go into the procedures about how to perform this test, let’s take a look at why you should be doing this test. The burn test will give you a pretty accurate reading for how long your light will last on a full charge. For divers who are diving in overhead or dark environments, this is critical as nothing will ruin a cave/wreck dive more than a light failure. For recreational divers, who do not venture into overhead environments, the burn test will tell you the health of your battery. If the consecutive burn test results show that the battery is holding less and less of a charge over time, then you may be purchasing a new battery soon. Batteries aren’t cheap either.

How often should you burn test your battery? That depends. If you are a recreational diver, staying out of overhead environments, performing the burn test once or twice a year is prudent. For cave and wreck divers, a highly reliable primary light is very important. These divers should burn test their batteries more frequently. I have found myself burn testing mine two to three times a year. Now that I will be doing more cave diving in the winter, I’ll probably end up burn testing mine four or five times a year.

There are some simple tools you will need in order to perform a burn test:

• Your light head and battery
• Volt meter or multimeter
• Timing device
• Bucket of water (for your light head)
• Uninterrupted free time

Burn Test Procedures

1. Place the light head into a bucket of water. HID lights specifically need a way to remove the heat buildup from the bulb so that no damage occurs to the bulb. A bucket or sink of luke warm water is sufficient enough to keep the bulb cool. Just make sure water stays in the sink or bucket.
2. Connect the battery to the light head. Leave the battery out of the canister. This will make it easier to connect the volt meter to take readings.
3. Connect your volt meter to the battery. Most volt meters have simple metal probes. Make sure that you stick the probes far enough into the Anderson connector to get an accurate reading. If your light head connects to the battery with some other form of connector, then make sure you can attach the probes to the wire. Once the probes are connected, take your reading from the volt meter and record the reading. If this reading is at 10 volts or below, your battery is most likely bad.
4. Turn on your light head. Take another reading with the battery under a load. This will be your starting voltage. Set your timing device to alarm after 10 minutes.
5. At every 10 minute interval, take another reading with your volt meter and record the reading. Stop taking readings when the battery’s volt reading is at or below 10 volts. Do not leave the battery unattended. Once the battery drops below 10 volts, it will start to drop more rapidly. You do not want the battery to drop below 10 volts.
6. The total amount of time it took to get down to 10 volts will be how long your battery will last. I record this time and the date of the burn test on a piece of duct tape on the battery. This way I know how long the battery will last so I don’t get it confused with other batteries I may have laying around.
7. Recharge the battery immediately

You don’t want your battery to drop below 10 volts or completely discharge. Doing so can damage the cells inside the battery pack. For this reason, if you do not use your light for a long period of time (like over the winter), you should place the battery on a charge occasionally.

It should also be noted that the minimum discharge voltage may differ for battery packs from different manufacturers. For example, some manufacturers for lithium ion battery packs recommend the batteries to not go below 8 volts. However, never taking a battery below 10 volts is a good guideline. See the manufacturers recommendations prior to conducting the burn test on your battery.

The burn time for your battery will vary depending on the light head used in the test. My primary light is an 18 watt light head. This light head will consume more battery power than a light head with a 10w rating. While a 10w light head may give a burn time of six hours or more, my 18w light head gives me a burn time around four hours. A light head with a higher output, will consume more battery life and give a shorter burn time.

There are devices that you can hook up to your computer that will analyze the battery. These analyzer can control the burn test process such that the battery doesn’t become complete drained and preventing damage to it. Certainly a nice tool to own. I’ve seen some of these selling for about $200. If I had more lights, this would certainly be worth the investment.

Primary light photo copyright Halcyon – http://www.halcyon.net/lights

Earlier this summer I had a situation arise that gave me cause for concern. Certainly this wasn’t the first time it has happened to me, but it was the WHO that caused me grief. One of the things that concerns me is that this type of thing may start to creep up and occur more frequently, especially considering there are more and more independent instructors cropping up out there.

I was approached by another scuba instructor in the area. This instructor said they heard good things about my classes and paid me a couple other small compliments. I knew of this person, but never had met them face to face. They asked if I would be interested in teaching an Advanced Open Water class for them. The instructor had three students for the class.

This particular instructor was charging the students $250 for the course. That didn’t include the books and certification fee. That means the instructor was getting $750 for the three students. They offered to pay me $50 per student. After paying me the $150, the profit for this person would be $500!

What bothers me is that this instructor is making a significant amount of money for doing next to nothing. Sure, they may have went out and found the students. But they never took on any of the liability, personal risk and 100% of the work. When does finding students add up to taking the majority of the money for a class? This person, obviously, didn’t know they were talking to one of the best instructors in the midwest.

I believe that my classes have a certain value. This is how I price my classes. $150 to teach an AOW class to three students is well below what I charge. When I came back and gave this person my payment requirements, they almost jumped out of their pants. They couldn’t believe what I charged. Then proceeded to complain about not making much money. Well duh!!!

This is the same model that most dive stores use for paying instructors to teach classes. When I taught for some dive stores, I got paid between $25-$35 per student for a class. This meant the dive store got to keep a significant portion of what was being charged for the class. Now the dive store does have more overhead than the independent instructor, but it is still low pay for quite a bit of work on the instructors’ part.

When an independent instructor tries to employ the same model, it is an obvious cash grab. The thing that worries me is that there may be experienced independent instructors who may prey on new or lesser experienced independent instructors.

All scuba instructors should determine what their prices should be, even if they work for a dive store. Then do not work for anything less than that. Many new scuba instructors may be tempted to take significant less money in order to gain experience. They should resist the temptation to do so. Each instructor out in the world brings something different to the classes they teach. Therefore, a flat pay rate doesn’t always fit.

I’m always willing to help out when I can. I’ve offered to teach classes to many dive stores. But I believe that what I teach has value and would be willing to work with a dive store, or other instructors, to bring my unique style to their classes. Yet, still be able to work something out that would be mutual beneficial in regards to price.

Is this really a scam? While it’s not illegal, it certainly isn’t ethical. Independent scuba instructors out there need to be aware that there are many people who will try to take your money. For you average scuba divers out there, you should be aware of what goes on as well. I’ve mentioned many times, you need to find the best instructor for you. Don’t just be assigned an instructor from a dive store or another independent instructor without properly researching that instructor.

Image copyright of the Better Business Bureau. http://www.bbb.org/us/scams

Recently, I wrote about how current methods of scuba diving are failing. I had a few people write me about the safety of scuba diving. Some of the questions evolved around the safety record that scuba diving has. I believe that that safety record isn’t a good measurement of the actual safety of scuba diving. But that doesn’t mean I feel scuba diving is unsafe.

Scuba diving does come with significant inherent risk. Obviously drowning is a big risk, but there are many pressure related injuries that must be avoided as well. Because of this, we cannot fully eliminate all risks when scuba diving. Rather, we must minimize that risk if we want to participate in scuba diving activities. The only way to completely eliminate any risk with regard to scuba diving, is to not dive at all. Well, for some of us, that just not an option.

First, let’s take a look at scuba diving’s safety record. The Diver’s Alert Network (i.e. DAN) conducts an annual workshop where diving and medical experts around the world review the fatalities that have occurred in the previous year. If you are interested in reading their findings for 2010, the can be found here.

I’m not going to discuss their findings. The report does a very good job of outlining the fatalities and their contributing factors. I’d rather take a look at the information that doesn’t get reported. While DAN doesn’t report on it, I’m sure they get quite a bit of information regarding scuba diving related injuries. However, I haven’t seen any of those reports.

The thing that leaves me concerned is what ISN’T getting reported. How many buddy separations occur? How many low on airs or rapid ascents happen? These are the things that don’t get reported. I don’t know about your area, but I see this every weekend at our local training quarry.

What it boils down to, are unsafe diving behaviors. It is widely known, that these behaviors are significant contributing factors to scuba diving accidents. Yet, we see many unsafe behaviors occurring all of the time. If you have taken a PADI open water class, you most likely signed a Statement of Safe Diving Practices. The problem I have found is that many people do not read this document. Heck, not many instructors even know what it says. Most just sign if, without reading, just like the liability form.

What are some of these safe diving behaviors that must be taught, repeated in my opinion, during scuba classes? Here is a partial list that I include in all of my classes.

• Slow, controlled ascents
• Planning and practicing management of the breathing air supply
• Buoyancy control within a five foot window of target depth
• Maintaining awareness of your buddy

When people ask me if scuba diving is safe, I always replay “It CAN be safe.” When scuba divers are trained to follow specific behaviors while underwater, scuba diving can be extremely safe and enjoyable. The problem is that unsafe diving practices are being allowed during many scuba diving training programs.

People shouldn’t be afraid of scuba diving. With the right type of training and the proper amount of time spent on that training, people can experience years of safe and fun scuba dives.