Cavern courses?

[trogloxene]

I plan on taking the cavern course later this year and have bought and read the NACD Cavern/Cave Diver Workbook, The NSS/CDS Workbook -Cavern. Intro. Cave, and Basic Cave Diving - A Blueprint for Survival

These books will give you some insight on what to expect, including gear configurations, etc.

I also recommend reading Caverns Measureless to Man by Sheck Exley. This book chronicles many of the cave dives of one of the pioneers of cave diving - Sheck Exley

Good luck

Sean

 

[Dive-aholic]

I cant speak for gue or naui but nss and nacd recognizes padi certs.

GUE doesn't recognize any cavern certs. They don't even offer a cavern course. It's Cave 1 or nothing. Cave 1 is equivalent to Intro/Basic. NAUI has a cavern course and I think they would recognize any other agency's.

BTW, PADI is in the process of reviewing their standards and making a possible change. They should be allowing students to be in doubles during cavern course. I currently have a waiver from PADI that allows me to teach cavern to students in doubles.

 

[stairman]

I think you can be a Full cave diver,divemaster and everything else with thousands of dives and still have to start all over with GUE Fundamentals.They want you diving their way.I wont bash em,but I dont agree with it.They dont need me and I dont need them.

 

[rjack321]

I would recommend NAUI Intro to Tech or GUE's Fundemental's in lieu of a cavern course. Slightly more universal skill set. With those in hand you can breeze through most agency's cavern classes (NAUI or others), skip ahead to something like GUE Cave1, or go any number of directions.

Not that a cavern class from a good instructor would be time or money wasted. Just that backing up a half step and looking at a broad array of future options including tech/deco training, cavern or cave. Those 2 classes give you those choices.

 

[scubafool]

Here is my opinion, and remember that you have paid me nothing for said opinion, so don't expect it to be all that worthwhile.

Wait awhile before you take a cavern class. Try to get some of your basic skills, such as bouyancy and trim nailed down before you take Cavern. I think that you stand to get much more out of this class if you go in with your foundation skills well in hand. You don't need to have a perfect frog kick, or know how to run a reel like a long time caver, or anything like that, but if you don't have decent control of yourself in-water, it makes learning all of these things much, much harder. Your instructor will then be able to focus the class on the new, overhead specific skills, rather than on remediating basic skills.

If you want to take a class to work on these skills, a Peak Performance Bouyancy with a really good, preferably a cave instructor, or even GUE DIR Fundamentals, might be a better idea.

Otherwise, see if you can find some cave/cavern divers in your area to do some fun OW dives with. Watch them in the water, and see if you can get them to help you improve your diving. Then, after 75 or 100 dives, look into a cavern class.

Just my opinion.

 

[PerroneFord]

It's not necessarily that they want you diving "their" way. I was lucky to take a Fundamentals course with some VERY accomplished divers (cave explorers with many virgin cave explorations and maps to their credit) and every one of them struggled with basics such as hovering and performing certain skills, and the back-kicks.

If nothing else, that course taught me that EVERYONE can improve their skills.

Certainly, it's not for everyone, and that's fine.

I think you can be a Full cave diver,divemaster and everything else with thousands of dives and still have to start all over with GUE Fundamentals.They want you diving their way.I wont bash em,but I dont agree with it.They dont need me and I dont need them.

 

[m.hamner]

Thanks for everyone's opinions.
Unfortunately, my OW instructor is also GUE cave certified too. :blinking:
(I'm still not saying I agree with what he did)

This is the order of my certifications


OW--> AOW--> First Responder next --> Rescue Diver --> Cavern--> Intro to Cave

 

[TSandM]

Sounds like a good plan, although you could also talk to your OW instructor about the GUE courses and see if that's a direction you might want to go.

 

[stairman]

I would add o2 provider with the EFR if taking cave so you can fill o2 cylinder for possible deco and first aid if needed.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I would add o2 provider with the EFR if taking cave so you can fill o2 cylinder for possible deco and first aid if needed.

If he's going to need to deco, then he should take a deco class. O2 provider doesn't do anything to prepare someone for deco. And filling a deco bottle for possible deco isn't a good idea without the proper training.