Our first vertical caving practice of the semester was extremely well attended. When I arrived, a little before it was supposed to start, there were already at least 10 people there. I had hoped to be early enough to practice a changeover without watchful eyes but I had no such luck. Mike threw the bag of harnesses at me and told me to start teaching while he finished setting up the ropes. I was under the influence of a trenta iced coffee from Starbucks and I was extremely jittery, struggling to get my caving harness on with shaking hands. I'm sure I looked very trustworthy. As I was pulling my harness on, I was explaining the various pieces of caving gear to a group of anxious novices.
Once Mike had the ropes up, he took a small group of late arrivals over to explain gear while I shuffled the rest toward the rope and performed a changeover for them. Though I can explain them conceptually, I found it difficult to narrate while I was doing it myself. It took a while but I eventually got it and then started instructing the new people on the ropes. Some of them struggled, some of them figured it out instantaneously but overall, everyone got it eventually. It was fun to try my hand at teaching and I think it really engrained the information in my head. After three hours of practice, I felt pretty satisfied as I sat on the ground and coiled up the ropes for another day.
Events occurred: September 11, 2013
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