Can a certified cave diver escort a non cave diver
- Thread starter Tigerpaw
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So your "opinion" that others should be able to dive in caves as long as they're not under legal control of others is an uneducated opinion that is conflating whether it is legal to do so with whether it is smart and acceptable in the cave diving community.
stiebs
Contributor
In specific reference to the original question:
Is it legal? As with most aspects of diving, there's not much (if anything) in any country's laws in specific reference to diving.
Is it "ok or whatever". Interpreted as, "is it responsible". Then no, it is most certainly not responsible.
I did my NACD/NSS-CDS Cavern cert and Basic Cave cert in 1988. (At that time, these agencies had only these two cave certification levels before Full Cave.) We were told at that time that the Basic Cave cert is a cert that allows you to relatively safely do "small" cave dives to determine whether cave diving is for you. Basic Cave is really restrictive (proscriptive?) with respect to type of gear allowed, type of cave allowed (even min water temperature allowed), max depth allowed, max total distance allowed from entrance, type of cave dive allowed (e.g., no circuits permitted), etc.
Have you considered getting the first, lowest level of cave certification, and then "sampling" mini cave dives?
rx7diver
OP
It's Kindda my plan, I want to see how I do with cavern first. My instructor is both Cavern and Cave certified, so if I'm comfortable and he agrees, I'd figure we can do a quick survey of a cave. The springs that I'll be diving have caves at the end of them, so I figure we could venture a few feet beyond the cavern zone that has plenty of room and no restrictions. I'm wanting to get a feel for it, so that's my sampling. Thanks for the reply.
GF99/99
Contributor
Legally I don't think there are any laws that prevent you and a friend from going cave diving, ocean diving, CCR diving, etc. that is your own personal choice to get the correct training. But... your insurance may think different. And if you friend is "guiding/working" under an agency or for a dive center and takes you full cave diving and you are not full cave certified or your not participating in a cave course while following the agency course guidelines and you have an accident your friend and the dive center could be in some trouble (especially if its in the US)
Capt Jim Wyatt
Hanging at the 10 Foot Stop
Staff member
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Scuba Instructor
To answer the OPs question in terms of standards, here goes.
A cave instructor may guide you one level up if that instructor is certified as an instructor at that level and if the diver is in the gear required for that level of diving.
A cave instructor may guide you one level up if that instructor is certified as an instructor at that level and if the diver is in the gear required for that level of diving.
Does infringing on someones rights include the rights of the recovery team members that get called and asked to drop whatever they were doing to go pull a dead person out of a cave? I've been called and asked to do that a few times, it's never a pleasant task.
I'd argue that your rights to go diving in any site at any time without adequate training end where the rights of the all volunteer recovery team begin, especially when history shows that people that lack training for that particular environment have a high fatality rate.
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