Question Cave Diving Courses advice

[Mohowael]

Hello, i have been looking forward to start my experience with cave diving but i didn’t know where to start, either take intro to cave and then full cave or i can combine both or what to do exactly.

Noting that i am in Egypt already so i will have to go abroad anyway and i am still lost for which cave diving instructor to go with, the destination to take the course depends on the instructor and the best location to experience cave diving only.

I am an Extended Range Diver already and have been diving on Sidemount configuration for 4 years now.

 

[grassgreen]

For ease of travel, the island of Gozo in Malta would be a good bet. Can do up to intro to cave there and gain experience at that level before maybe going further away for another trip.
Mexico offers amazing full cave diving with great training conditions and opportunity to really learn navigation as the caves here are way more complex than say Florida ...
Please PM me if you would like any more info on cave diving or training around the Tulum area of Mexico

 

[Mohowael]

For ease of travel, the island of Gozo in Malta would be a good bet. Can do up to intro to cave there and gain experience at that level before maybe going further away for another trip.
Mexico offers amazing full cave diving with great training conditions and opportunity to really learn navigation as the caves here are way more complex than say Florida ...
Please PM me if you would like any more info on cave diving or training around the Tulum area of Mexico

Actually i prefer having both courses on one trip as the cost of traveling could be multiples of the course itself even

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

If you search through the posts here in this subforum you will find this question has been asked and answered many times. Lots of advice including instructors and locations.

Mexico, Thailand, Florida are probably the most popular locations.

IMO Florida is the best choice because you have depths up to 30 meters and depths at around 15 meters. High Flow caves and no/low flow caves, small caves, HUGE caves, caves with hard rock bottoms, caves with thick silty bottoms and plenty of caves with complex navigation. These varying conditions give your instructor so many options to help make your training more well rounded.

I have consistently found that divers who train in shallow/no flow caves need retraining when they come to Florida to try and dive in high flow, deeper caves. Divers that train in high flow/deeper caves transition to shallow no flow caves seamlessly.

Look at: This Link to find instructors for the NSS-CDS.

 

[grassgreen]

Actually i prefer having both courses on one trip as the cost of traveling could be multiples of the course itself even

Yeah I get that....But Malta doesn't have the complex navigation to make a full cave course challenging and therefore loses a lot of its value.
As for doing Intro and Full Cave on the same trip, here in Mexico most of the best instructors prefer separate courses. With time in between to practice and really get comfortable before moving on to more complex skills being learnt..
This can be done by doing the Intro course, then a bit of a break from training and doing some guided intro dives. There are plenty of amazing Intro dives to be done within the limits of 1/6ths due to lots of shallow caves and dive sites with multiple dives with single guide line routes.
Then when really ready, on to the Full Cave course.

 

[kensuf]

I recommend biting the financial bullet and splitting the training up into two trips with some practice in between. Unless a person has a significant amount of tech diving experience already, going into a "zero to hero" cave training program does not leave most people with the softer ("finer") skills.

 

[grantctobin]

Actually i prefer having both courses on one trip as the cost of traveling could be multiples of the course itself even

 

[rddvet]

Split the course. Unless you're one badass diver, a zero to hero is a recipe for failure. I also think the zero to hero guys burn out and quit cave diving quickly because they didn't take time to enjoy. You have Malta, France, Thailand, US, and Mexico. I think you'll have a better selection of instructors in France, US, and Mexico. There is also cave diving in places like Sardinia, Croatia, and Italy, but I know very little about diving there or the number of instructors. I beleive theres cave diving and instruction in the Canaries as well.
Bang for your buck, I'd say Mexico if the flights aren't ridiculously expensive. You could spend a couple weeks in mexico taking the course then doing guided dives for the same or less as 7-10 days in Florida.
Florida is great, but you will get much more dive time in Mexico. I think for someone coming from so far away, extra dive time with limited deco in Mexico makes the most sense for Cave 1 (Intro/apprentice). Then some place like the US for full cave so you can throw in flow and deco. Or just stick with Mexico. Flow is something people need to experience. Cave deco=mostly sitting on a rock bored out of your mind.

 

[rddvet]

I also agree with Jim's comments about high flow kicking people's butts who've never experienced it. Sometimes it still kicks my butt and I dive here all the time. I think the benefit of splitting between the US and Mexico besides more dive time for the first course in mexico is that you also get some better experience with navigation in Mexico.

 

[Wibble]

There's the Spanish coastal caves where you can do intro and full cave.

The real challenge -- as everyone here has mentioned -- is ensuring your skills are up to the high level required (you're new here so nobody knows your diving skills). If they're not, you will struggle and possibly fail. More than that, you need time for the skills to be mastered. Hence one year do intro to cave then do Full Cave the following year when you've had time to practice.

Dive training, especially overhead diving, is not a race. It's a slow and steady progression of building up your skills and experience.