CCR Cave course trip report

hirudin

Congrats on your new cert and thanks for the great report...

I am planning to do my cave cert in 2006 and have felt a little lost as to where to start... your article helped cleared the way a little Thanks for sharing your experience!

Best,

-Jesse-

dive2dive2000

Mexico caves are beautiful, but I would recommend FL for a CCR cave course. The simpler and more accessible systems in Mexico are very shallow and have a spiked profile.
I am assuming you are new to ccr cave diving. If you are just interested in cave diving and dont mind OC Mexico caves are fantastic

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Safe Diving,
Martin

"but what's the fun of getting what you need, instead of what you want?"

MikeH

Upstream has 2 entrances...one is very much sidemount, the other is easily backmount/Rebreather passable. The main trunk of the cave, all the way to the end of the line, is backmount. Several of the offshoots are sidemount only.

I have entered upstream backmount(I'm not a small guy - 6' tall and 220lbs) with a single stage, and sidemount with two stages. Never did I have to remove them when going in the "normal"(backmount) entrance. I know of several people that have been in there with Rebreather's.

It's a beautiful cave, especially considering the amount of people that dive there.

Mike

divetheworld

Lucky tw@t!!!!

Very inspiring, saying good on ya, now I'm off to see your pictures.


The B man.

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martinjrobson

Mike,

Thanks for taking the time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and send a trip report about our exploits in sunny Florida. It is a nice write up (I like the way you underplay the closeness of the trees and the out of control vehicle on the way home from Eagle's Nest. (I rather enjoyed that part of the drive home)

To other Rebreather World readers......Mike suggested to me that there might be some of you here who would be interested in a similar trip, with diving a little of the beaten track and some deeper dives.

So, if anyone would like to join me, it would be great to have a rebreather only cave trip, whether for ccr divers who have yet to get cave certified or for certified ccr cave divers who are looking for something a bit different. A Rebreather World Cave trip?...Florida......or Brazil?

Thanks

martin robson

http://www.eau2.com

Drmike

Thanks Martin,

Im certainly down for a trip like that.

BTW Im off to do that 120m cave we talked about next week (plus a couple of virgins, [caves] hopefully) - thanks again for your training.

I forgot to copy your pics so if you get the chance to email them to me that would be great and I can add them to my site.


Cheers
Mike

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Get a girlfriend you sad twat - a Rebreather is an unfaithful mistress - dont blind yourself to her faults just because she goes down on you

mikedive

Hey Martin,

I'm sorry tell you that but Brazilian caves still close for the regular public for another year or maybe two years.
I'm Brazilian but now I live and teach in Mexico because the Brazilian government close our caves around 7 years ago destroying my business down there. One thing I can assure you; the Brazilian caves are amazing for Rebreather dive but the access are not so easy like in Mexico.
If you now the right caves down here in Mexico you can have very nice dives on Rebreather's.

Cheers,

Mike - www.protecdiving.com

Drmike

if all goes well　next week maybe we can make it in thailand then!

i know thai girls are not as cute as them north florida girls but im sure we can manage

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Get a girlfriend you sad twat - a Rebreather is an unfaithful mistress - dont blind yourself to her faults just because she goes down on you

martinjrobson

I have some friends over there who dive regularly and help out with accommodation etc. A colleague of mine goes over from US about once a year and so far hasn't reported any problems.

Martin

CaveStainz

Hiya Mike,

I've gotta say, I think you're in the wrong job! Having pretty much been alongside you for the best part of two weeks - I didn't even know you knew how to use a pencil! Where were you taking down all those secret notes!?

I'll take a little credit for recording the depths, times, locations and dive numbers but beyond that i'm absolutely over the moon that you could record so accurately the mood of the trip and those tiny little details that get lost over years to come. I'll certainly be sure to read back through the article when I've forgotten the funnier bits, just to reminisce.

It was a pleasure to be on the trip with you, and I originally thought that finding someone else who wanted to do a CCR Trimix Cave class was gonna be difficult. I already knew Martin as one of the finest instructors in the business, but I really wanted a buddy to enjoy it with me who wanted to do it at that time of year. Reading through your article I can see a couple of points where you were more generous in your descriptions than you needed to be, there were some dives where I think we both learnt a lot about each other's limits and expectations, and for that I am more than grateful.

Having said that, the trip did have its scarier moments, and recalling 'vividly' the moments at Eagle's Nest just after Martin's Colin McRae style sand skid (threatening all of us with having to wear a large tree for the rest of our lives) I will always remember your comment....

'We've just done the craziest cave dive of our lives and you're trying to kill us on the way home' did seem like a rather obvious comment, but utterly accurate.

Well, I know for sure that you have gone on to do one of the most amazing graduation dives that i'm aware of for someone who did his cave class the week before, but hey - I went to bed and slept whilst you dived virgin cave in Thailand... I think i'll hang my coat up right now ;-)

Oh, and finally Mike, no matter how much you beg me.. 'I ain't gonna stick it in ur head'. But you sure do have a perty mouth.

Take care all,

~S

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Steve Walker