Cave Diving

[JohnF]

Aquamaniac once bubbled...

Your instructor let you dive doubles and a (Pro 14) for the first time ever in your Cavern class??????

He's a friend of mine and we've dived together in the caverns before. I asked if I could do it that way, on the understanding that if I messed up too badly he'd withhold the cert. Buoyancy was a bit tricky in the beginning. The trickiest part was getting that damned bubble to stay on the right side. The canister weighed about 7# I believe. It pays to have friends who are cave instructors. 8)

John F

 

[FreeFloat]

divedude once bubbled...
... I didn't have as much problem as I put in my "humous" post, but I did find cave diving boring. ...

I think it would be interesting.

If only for the curiosity - "what's around the next corner?" "oh, it goes UP here. Let's see, now..." etc.

I am a creature affected by curiosity. And after diving the same wreck about two dozen times, I've learned that I CAN also get bored..... challenges could be a good thing...... (uh-oh. Boy am I askin' fer it now)

 

[amobeus]

Hi

If your serious about becoming a cave diver or at least getting the best training for your buck, I recommend you get in touch with John Orlowski down in Gainsville Florida at AQUASPELEO, he will train you from Cavern to full cave if time permits. Time frame should be spread out over two years so you gain experience, remember there no dam PADI in caves.

Good luck and be safe.

Amobeus

 

[diver gadget]

Just got back from our week long course. It was great! My fingers are still all cut up and stuff. A little sore typing right now. Larry Green was amazing. A great teacher and highly recomend him if anyone is thinking of going south to take the course.

Now I just have to figure out how to get down there more often. THe caves are a lot of rocks. From going down small passages that open up into big rooms. It's pretty amazing to have all of these caves going everywhere. It may not be for everyone but the skills you learn can help anyone in an open water setting.

 

[amobeus]

Was this the first time you ever went cave diving and if so, that means you just took your cavern course, as Larry wouldn't let you near a cave system until you were at least ready for your cave entry program.

Confused

Amobeus

 

[MikeFerrara]

amobeus once bubbled...
Was this the first time you ever went cave diving and if so, that means you just took your cavern course, as Larry wouldn't let you near a cave system until you were at least ready for your cave entry program.

Confused

Amobeus

Sounds like they did the whole full cave thing in a week. It's done all the time.

 

[amobeus]

You could be right, what ever happened to the days when the instructor sent you away to gain at least some cavern and buoyancy experience befor you moved up into full cave. Times are changing I guess.

Congrats on your cave course.

Amobeus

 

[DeepScuba]

Divedude.....you kill me!!!

I was suprised to hear, last week while in Coz, that our Cave Diver/Guide...Tony, from ScubaTony said that you can get your Full Cave in a week!

I though about it for a while, and concluded that, although I'm not a real big fan of the idea, especially if you're real new, never used doubles, reels etc etc, that it might just be too much, I guess the thinking is, it gives you a licence to continue learning and building your knowledge on your own. (With an experienced buddy for instance.)

By the way, I highly recommend scubatony for your Cavern guide while in Coz. Tony is a real professional, and all around nice guy. Plus his "after-dive" plans, if you wish, would possibly be the most memorable time of your trip (Above water).

Regards

 

[diver gadget]

We took the whole course. From Cavern to Cave. It was a crazy busy week. As far as being able to practice we live in Ontario. Not many caves around to practice in. We had already been diving doubles for a few years and our gear was already pretty squared away.

If I lived in florida and could get practice dives in between the courses I would have done it that way. As for anyone without the ability to dive a cave in your backyard I would recomend the one week course. It is a lot of work and may not be for everyone but we had fun.

 

[MikeFerrara]

As I see it there are a few things going on.

One thing is that years ago you likely wouldn't get into cave diving unless you lived in or already frequented cave country and you knew some one to get you started. The major cave training agencies have always had a policy of NOT promoting cave diving. Their charter was to offer training to those who were determined to cave dive. You might dive with your instructor and/or mentor for a long time before you got a card. The card didn't matter because you were cave diving every weekend anyway. Shortly before this BTW there was no formal training at all. Also many who got into cave diving went right from their initial scuba training streight to cave diving. I know one guy who learned to specifically to cave dive. He went right from an OW class to cave training and right from there to Kentucky sumps (among the nastiest kind of cave). He probably doesn't have 2 dozen OW dives all total. He only dives to lay line.

Cave diving and technical diving is getting more popular, more people know about it and seek it out. Along with these changes it's getting to be big business and is being promoted.

Fo me living in Indiana it's unlikely that I would have a regular buddy/mentor to guid me through my cave diving education. As already mentioned I could go take a cavern course and then go home but there wouldn't be any cavern diving til I went back.

I did a one week cave course. I also had 600 or 700 dives before I started, a couple hundred of those being in doubles and I already had some technical training and experience. While the cave course was a busy schedule, I didn't find it difficult at all. Right after my cave training I went to diving Missouri caves. It was spring and the natural caves were blown out so we were diving flooded mines in 45 ged F water and Zero vis near the entrances. We did take it kind of slow as far as dive distance and complexity but there wasn't any one to hold our hand. When the caves cleared we started diving them. Nice caves but they're deep. We do still dive with our former cave instructor once in a while but he hps all over the worls and it's hard to match schedules.

I think that depending on the person it can be done either way. However, we do see those face prints in the silt in the popular caves. So the question becomes, with the increase in popularity are instructors lowering the bar in order to make more money and taking divers into and turning them loose into caves before they are ready? Are divers being allowed to begin cave training without having the requisite skills? Certainly if you're struggling with the basics you shouldn't be in a cave (for the sake of the cave).

IMO, the slop were seeing in cave and technical diving is nothing more than the slop we see in recreationsal diving spreading out. The poorly trained and skilled recreational divers are becomming poorly skilled instructors, cave divers and technical divers.