How to play Shadows on the Wall
A GUE Cave 1 report
Jesca Zweijtzer
If it wasn't for Marike Jasper who lived in Yucatan, I might never have entered any caves at all. I had had some stressful experiences in caverns - I was young and inexperienced at that time, I followed the dive guide, and only after I had entered the cavern I realised that the whole chaotic bunch of divers had blocked my way out... Visiting the Viet Cong tunnels in Vietnam during a tour a few years later, didn't help much to overcome my fear of narrow spaces.
But Marike loved her caves, and we had to come and visit her. So we went to Mexico. And you can't NOT dive the cenotes when you're there. I told our dive guide to watch me carefully. But we were just the three of us, well organised, following a line, and I discovered that even when we didn't see daylight I could breath normally! And the caverns were ab-so-lute-ly gorgeous! From that time on I knew I wanted more...
It's not something you just do. At least not from my point of view. We were in Mexico in 2001. I needed some more diving experience. And caves are very far away from where I live and it would need some commitment to go there a few times a year. Besides, I thought by myself, I liked the regular fish and wreck dives just as much. So maybe I should forget the whole idea.
Hot chocolate team building
But then, in January 2006, I received an e-mail from my DIR-F buddy Hilde. 'Hi Jesca! Do you want to join Anne-Marie and me and team up for Cave 1 this summer?' Euhhhh, oops, ehmmm, think again, ehhhh, YES! Of course! I was very proud to be asked. And despite all the drawbacks, cave diving was still on my wish list. But not before I told my boyfriend that this would mean that we couldn't dive together all the time anymore, and he told me that I should do it because he knew I wanted to, I answered Hilde and A-M that I would join the team. Allright! Rock it, girls!
January in the Netherlands means cold water, and cold means 4 degrees C. And now we had to practise our fundamental drills seriously, which implied short dives and toes and fingers freezing off. But also lots of on-land team building with hot chocolate and soup and cookies :-) . The course we booked was in the end of August, with Chris Le Maillot (DIR-Mexico) in the south of France. Plenty of time to prepare.
And suddenly, as if I hadn't known time passes quickly when you're having fun, we were on our way to the French caves. Three girls, two cars, nine double-12 tanks, lots of gear, food and drinks, ten hours of driving ahead of us, and taut nerves. What if we hadn't practised enough, what if I find out now that caves really aren't my thing, what if…? But hey, we are going to have fun! And who doesn't want to be away from work for a week to stay in this beautiful valley of the river Lot? And anyway, my goal was this course in the first place, a 'pass' would be nice, but I decided not to look too far ahead. I wanted to improve skills, buddy awareness and communication, and become a better diver. And find out whether I liked caves.
Around the next corner
That is what I told Chris when we had installed ourselves at Moulin de Lantouy and the course was about to begin. I was stressed. The 'what ifs' were still bothering me. But our instructor knew how to handle this. He said nothing, but told me to be team captain on the second dive, after the first demonstration dive he did with us. Being the first with no other light to follow than my own, I would know soon enough whether I wanted to complete the course or not. And to my great relief I hadn't come to France just to enjoy the sun: although I called the dive pretty soon the first time, the caves attracted me, and it was my challenge to go in a bit further every time! I loved watching the structures and colours of the rocks, experiencing varieties of the size of the caves, floating along the line in a steady pace with my two buddies, seeing changes in the shadows of ourselves on the walls. I was excited to be team captain again on the very last dive of the week, and realised that I was relaxed, full of self confidence (and with confidence in our team), and eager to know what was around the next corner. Of course I was also alert. Although this dive, other than all the dives we'd had before during the week, was supposed to be without any failures imposed on us by Chris, anything could happen. We had been trained to deal with realistic problems, hadn't we? But still, this dive was our reward. It felt as if it was one of my best dives ever, and it really motivated me to go on. However tiring the week had been, and although I knew that I didn't have a 'pass'.
The game
"This course is supposed to be challengeing, right?" Chris posed halfway the week. Well, it was. For all three of us. And it should be, because there is hardly any room for making stupid mistakes in caves. And we all want to do relaxed dives, especially while in an environment that is only nice to you when you are nice in return. That means hard work, since we still had some basics to improve, and on top of that we had to get used to all the new procedures, and learn to be a good team member. The list of comments after every dive seemed to be endless. And once we had improved one thing, another went wrong. I didn't mind in the beginning, but after a few days I got annoyed with it. With myself, that is. That Anne-Marie could do things better, and that Hilde was not always in optima forma, was totally acceptable. But why did I...
I knew I was getting tired, and also that I had upgraded my personal goals. Let's say it was all part of the game. Once in a while I mentally stepped back to look at us with the eyes of ehmmm… an advanced open water diver, or anybody else who understands a bit about diving. While we were being kept busy from 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM nearly every day, were doing our own team debriefing afterwards and were still cave diving during sleeping hours, we were also still three girls learning interesting things about diving in the backyard of an old French mill, diving in murky rivers and exciting caves, and having fun with two kittens that played around the house while we were packing or unpacking gear. How many people get a chance to do this? And who said we would be too busy to really enjoy the week?
Too much for Murphy
Forteen dives we made, in three different caves: the Ressel, Cabouy and Landenouse. Except for my first as a team captain, all dives were turned on gas, which means that one of us breathed the maximum of 35 bars before we reached one of the other set limits. And we all knew that turning the dive meant that Chris' play time began. Primary light failure, team repositioning. Another primary light failure, loss of back up light, team repositioning. Valve failure. Out of gas. No visibility. Line entanglement. And in the meantime we had to stay close to each other, but not too close, communicate to all team members in a purposeful manner (passive, most of the time, and active when 'something' happened), reference the mainline all the time, keep body position and buoyancy. And enjoy the cave, of course… Wow, did we do all that? How many problems can one have during one dive? I think even Murphy would have gotten tired of it.
Overall we didn't do too bad, in my opinion. I did some stupid things nobody would ever do, like attaching a double ender to the primary tie off of a spool. Stupid. Or forgetting to inform the third person about a problem. And I got really confused when Anne-Marie had a right post failure at 30 meters depth and somehow I decided that it should be a left post failure. Anne-Marie got confused as well. We ended up exiting the cave with her on my long hose. Wrong analysis in the first place, but anyhow, we got out of the cave alive - and I will never ever make this mistake again. I also survived the lost line drill. The thought of it really stressed me out before the course, but it was already Thursday when we had to do it. In pitch dark, away from the line, and 'alone' in the cave, I was struggling to find a good place for a secondary tie off for my safety spool and I managed to cross the mainline without finding it. But I was okay in the dark, since I could breathe and I knew I had enough gas, I actually enjoyed myself, being on my own for a while :-) It was only a drill, of course.
Cave Cats to be continued
But it was good to have a team like I had. I couldn't have done it without Hilde and Anne-Marie. For obvious safety reasons and mental support, but above all good company. Not to forget the delicious dinners we cooked for each other, at 10 PM nearly every day! Chris helped us to make the course challengeing (as we were partly responsible for the challenges ourselves), but he also gave us the chance to slow down a bit where we needed it. I liked his style. And I don't really mind that I need two more days to finish Cave 1, because that gives me a good excuse to visit the fairy-like Yucatan caves in December. My first dive there will be for Marike, who sadly isn't around anymore. And all the dives after that, including the failures I still have to endure, I will dedicate to all the good and exciting things in life! Cheers to the First Dutch-Flemish DIR Female Cave Diving Team the Cave Cats! ;-)
Een Nederlandstalig verslag van deze cursus, geschreven door Anne-Marie, is te lezen op Frogkick.nl.
