Going Cave-Diving This Weekend!

Kampfjaeger

Kampfjaeger

Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
1,668
Yeah, I know... no knife content here (though I always have one on me whenever I dive *nothing exciting though*).

I just don't get to go very often, so I'm psyched and I thought I'd share it with your guys. Besides, pending my enlistment after this semester, it may be quite some time before I get to do it again.
 
Ahh... Great trip! I did 6 dives Saturday and 5 on Sunday! You gotta love it!

As for my destination after the end of the semester... Well, an army recruiter said he was looking into getting a waiver for my age (32) so I can go to OCS (Infantry)! If that doesn't work out, then it is RIP all the way!
 
Not a rock star yet...! But let's keep our fingers crossed. There is an OCS selection board on Nov. 16. If I cannot get to that one, I have to wait for the next quarter. Either way, I don't mind. The sergeant is talking about delaying my entry until after I get married. So that would be awfully nice.

Any advice on the selection process?

Any advice on what makes a good officer and junior officer?
 
The best advice a newly minted 2nd lieutenant can follow is: Listen to your NCOs.

The only order you need to be able to give is: "Follow me."

To get insight into the mindset of the selection board, try reading "Taking Charge" by MajGen Perry Smith. It is instructive of the way officers view their roles.

Good luck!
 
Cool, I'm a diver too...getting my instructor card soon. Don't know if I'll bother to get my cave cert though...don't really like to be enclosed like that. Plus, every time I head to the Florida Springs, I hear about another group of inexperienced divers (usually not cave certified and generally bad divers anyway) who got lost and died in the local caves. Have fun and be careful.
 
Hey Zombie... Very cool about getting your instructor cert! That'll be a lot of fun to have.

As for cave diving, yeah it is a whole different world. SCUBA really isn't one of those "Mountain Dew Sports." And cave diving isn't either as long as you do the right things. Should things get that exciting in a cave you are in a world of hurt. Plus you have to get completely different gear to do this sort of thing. It gets a bit expensive:eek:

Fortunately I put it all together over several years. I would honestly suggest taking a Cavern course or an Intro Cave course. You may be a good diver now, but after that kind of instruction, your eyes will be opened. just as an example, I've been diving for 15 years and thought I had pretty darn good bouyancy control. One dive into a cave showed me that I had a LOT of refining to do. But definitely, DO NOT GO IN A CAVE W/O PROPER INSTRUCTION AND GEAR. OR YOU WILL BE DEAD.

Otherwise, it really is a beautiful thing to experience. Imagine diving in water as clear as a swimmingpool, with a flashlight powered by a motorcycle battery, and geting to see things that the vast majority of the rest of the world never get to see. Hey, I don't do anything particularly exciting as far as serious cave diving goes. I'm not out exploring anything new (except to me.) And I love it. Check into it. The Florida cave system is some of the most beautiful in the world!
 
Kamp - One of the main things stopping me from trying it is the expense...redundant everything. Same thing goes for tech diving. I'll just try to spread it out the cost over 2-3 years. Someone else was telling me that the cave cert would take your bouyancy to new levels...sounds like fun. I'll have to look into that later.
 
Zombie,

For information on the topic, you might want to look at the Global Underwater Explorers Website:

http://gue.com

They have a comprehensive guide to what gear and configurations are needed for the safest and smoothest diving. They call it DIR (Doing It Right)!
 
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