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It's very important to come into class with thorough familiarity with a redundant gas setup. I don't care whether it's backmount or sidemount, but comfort with your gear is essential - that way, the student can focus on learning to cave dive, rather than simultaneously learning a new...

Would it be fair to say that you haven't seen it historically? Which is different than it didn't happen. Please don't get me wrong. I've given entire presentations on the challenges that this area faces. That's just not really one of them.

Calm down. That happens every time it rains for a few weeks. Takes about a week to clear when the rain stops.

I have seen 2L O2 bottles run dry (it will happen somewhat predictably in a certain set of scenarios... predictably enough that I can say the most common response from random people who have never even met eachother, after I have said, "your oxygen bottle is going to run dry" and they insist...

Mods, if you want to move this, by all means... this seemed the most logical place to me. As someone who runs a cave diving destination we get a good number of people who travel to us with can lights. Which is getting harder. We have recently been hearing complaints and even recently had a...

Apply the rule of thirds to all consumables. Your penetration is limited by whichever is shortest. Oxygen. Scrubber. Diluent. Light burn time. Scooter burn time. Whatever it is that requires being refilled or recharged... divide it by three and you're only allowed to go as far as you will...

I am definitely not one of those instructors. If a diver who is not actively exploring is routinely encountering visibility so limited that absolute fluency with zero-vis procedures for longer than a few body lengths... that diver needs to seriously re-evaluate their buoyancy. If you don't...

Great questions. Lost Line Drill. I hate that drill. It takes up way too much time for something that, in reality, the lesson is, "DON'T LOSE THE LINE!!!!!!!!" Dive in a way that your line awareness is never in question. I recalculate gas needs a LOT and do very "branchy" cave dives. I can...

I've got to make the disclaimer that I make my living as a guide and instructor in this area. So take whatever I've got to say with whatever amount of salt you feel your blood pressure can tolerate. I'm also compelled to say that I do not believe in the idea of mandatory guiding. I am, in...

My response to people who rely on notes (whether they be detailed as hell or simply navigational directions): What if you drop your wetnotes? Now you're lost in a cave. What if visibility is compromised? Now you're lost in a cave. If you can't remember exactly where you are you are too far...

Do not - under any circumstances, or for any reason whatsoever - EVER tug on a guideline. You risk breaking either the guideline or whatever the guideline may be tied off to. Either of those things are bad. In zero visibility the things that can practically and effectively be communicated via...

I was, at first, tempted to crack wise about how this is a Ford vs. Chevy argument. But it isn't. It's Ferrari vs. Lamborghini. Everyone who has the one is going to say theirs is way better than the other. They're great lights. Buy one of them and you will be very happy.

I can't say that I am a huge fan of what can be construed as "get a load of this crummy diver!" photos. But by the same token, how will people know what kind of baffling bundles of bumf to stay the hell away from when they encounter it in the wild. Instructors, one would hope, would know...

Any instructor that accepts this as a useable configuration for technical diving should never have been certified as a technical instructor.

You've heard of the necklace reg? It's best to put a spare air on that necklace. You can find videos about how to make that simple necklace out of bungee online and two primary ways of making one. There are also commercially available silicone ones you can purchase. What you do is you stick...

Active mexican cave diving instructor plus giant crybaby about thermal discomfort here. What I wear for my ~500 dives/year here: All Fourth Element xerotherm socks xerotherm bottom drybase top xerotherm top that fuzzy vest I can't remember the name of That translates to probably 150g give or...

I use a single transmitter on my regs that are AI. No backup SPG. I do suggest that people learn to calculate how much gas they use in a given time frame at given depths so that by the time you look at your pressure gauge you should simply be confirming information that you already know. That...

OC vs CCR --- I'd argue strongly on the side of OC first. I went back and forth on this for more than a decade until I heard a CCR manufacturer say, at a conference about this very issue, "If your rebreather breaks you're on open circuit; you better be real good on open circuit." Learn the...

Horizontal ascent because it makes buoyancy and trim easier with a wide surface area presented to water resistence as you inhale and exhale, making movement in the water column minimal during the breathing cycle, so that one can retain absolute control for any event, from a team failure to...

Pencil mustache. Think John Waters. That's how I've been rolling for years now. And if I let the five o-clock shadow build in the not pencil-y portion of my upper lip too much... drip, drip, drip.