Cave Training in Cozumel
- Thread starter k-valve
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
scubashawn123
Contributor
Totally awesome.
See you guys soon.
Shawn O'Shea
See you guys soon.
Shawn O'Shea
Thank you for your reports -- Thank you for saying "Hi" to German for me.
I'm not sure about doing the Cavern-Intro-Cave in one big gulp. I'm very glad I "stair-stepped" my way into this -- First Essentials, then Fundies, then Cavern-Intro, then some cave diving in Florida (a couple of trips), next NAUI heliox and then my full cave (after doing a few more Cenote dives). I believe my "basic skills" were well ingrained by the time I started Cavern-Intro -- and by the time I did Cave (after doing heliox which included numerous failures) what was really left was the navigation. I just need to learn in small chunks I think.
I'm not sure about doing the Cavern-Intro-Cave in one big gulp. I'm very glad I "stair-stepped" my way into this -- First Essentials, then Fundies, then Cavern-Intro, then some cave diving in Florida (a couple of trips), next NAUI heliox and then my full cave (after doing a few more Cenote dives). I believe my "basic skills" were well ingrained by the time I started Cavern-Intro -- and by the time I did Cave (after doing heliox which included numerous failures) what was really left was the navigation. I just need to learn in small chunks I think.
I think that is the cool thing about the way these certs are broken up. You have your choice of bite sized morsels or the full meal deal.
One thing you've not mentioned is what gas are you guys diving?
One thing you've not mentioned is what gas are you guys diving?
Pearldiver07
Contributor
I marvelled at the cenotes. I would imagine that this would cause my life to take a left turn.
When I started diving, it has always been a new adventure. Next for me is Trimix, then on to Cavern, then Cave Intro.
I am another one who likes to do it in discreet chunks. I like to savor the individual steps and what they open up to me. The learning and doing of each progression is something I don't want to miss.
Besides, I always prefer to really get comfortable with each level before proceeding.
Anyway, I'm so envious.
When I started diving, it has always been a new adventure. Next for me is Trimix, then on to Cavern, then Cave Intro.
I am another one who likes to do it in discreet chunks. I like to savor the individual steps and what they open up to me. The learning and doing of each progression is something I don't want to miss.
Besides, I always prefer to really get comfortable with each level before proceeding.
Anyway, I'm so envious.
OP
I agree. Going through the entire course is probably not for divers without tech skills and some degree of confidence. I'm trimix certified and a TDI divemaster. Brandon is a PADI DM, has over 300 dives and has been practicing and thinking about this for some time now. In fact, he's the person who got me interested in this.
So...what I'm saying is that we already had the basic skill set required...buoyancy, finning (although my reverse fin kick still needs some fine tuning), gas planning and management, emergency procedures, etc. We also have the mindset...something I don't think you can necessarily learn through anything except diving experience.
Honestly, I think if we would have simply come down here and done Cavern and Intro Cave we would have come home disappointed. We know our limits pretty well and I'm certain we haven't surpassed them.
Air...our deepest dive to date has been 60 minutes to 60 feet. No need for anything fancy IMHO.
OP
We had a pretty uneventful night yesterday as we spent most of the evening looking for gifts for family. Nothing exciting to report except Happy Hour lasts a real long time in Cozumel. 
This morning German showed up at the hotel right at 9:00 a.m. like he said he would. Once we arrived at his place we talked about circuits. In cave diving this is following a course that is not simply out and back, but takes different tunnels that eventually come back to the entrance. The complex circuit we planned took us off the permanent line, including a couple of jumps into different caves and then eventually back to the permanent line. It's like leaving home taking one way to the grocery store and then returning home by a different route.
We also discussed gas planning in more detail, contingency gas planning and how decompression dives are planned in a cave that has varying depths. For the most part this was nothing new for us except for the way of thinking about decompression planning in a cave environment. This was very interesting...and very good information. Another day to learn a little something new!
Of course the best part of the day was the diving. Today we did two dives eventually. I say eventually 'cause Zinc forgot what he did with the wing nuts he uses to attach his wing and backplate to the tanks. Of course, German graciously drove back home and got him a couple of wing nuts. Unfortunately, after German left Zinc figured out that he was also short one o-ring in his primary reg. Those regs don't work too well without those cute little o-rings.
By this time I was in my wetsuit and floating around in the pool looking at the fishies. When German found out that Zinc still needed an o-ring before he could dive he just hopped in his Jeep Wrangler and went to get one...no problem. This is Mexico, baby...no worries, no hurries. You gotta love it. :14:
Finally, Zinc was ready and we were off to start setting up our circuit. This was the first of two dives to set it up. On the first dive you continue on the circuit until one of the team is down to the predetermined turn around back gas pressure. I'm not sure how far we went into the cave but it was the coolest dive I've ever been on.
Zinc was in charge of running the lines and I was line support. We got the primary line set and continued down the permanent line to the first jump. Zinc set the line arrow, attached the line from the jump reel and quickly found the secondary line we were to follow. It lead through some pretty narrow caves.
We set the second jump not long after the first. Several places in the new cave weren't wide enough for two people to swim through comfortably side by side. There were stalactites and stalagmites all over. Some columns were right in the middle of the cave and 2-3 feet in diameter. There were plenty of fissures above and below us and in some places the cave was maybe 6 feet in diameter.
At one point German asked Brandon to hold. Brandon passed this information on to me and we watched German swimming into the fissures looking for something, but were clueless as to what he was doing. After a while we lost sight of him. We inched up a little nervously looking for German. We were getting a little worried about him. I signaled to Zinc, asking if he saw where he went. He had not. We held as instructed...inching up just a little more. Finally, I signaled to Zinc that I was only a couple of hundred psi from the turn around point. We communicated a little more and decided to look a little further down the line for German. There the son of a gun was, right around the corner with his light off. It was another test!!! In fact, we found out later he had been right above us most of the time watching to see what we would do. He was pretty happy with our actions for the most part, but still had one or two suggestions for us.
We went just a bit further down the line before placing a cookie (the plastic, cave diver, non-edible variety) on the line to indicate how far we made it one way on the circuit today before turning the dive and heading out. We left both jump reels in place. Tomorrow we're going to head in the opposite way on the circuit and with some good planning we hope to make it to the cookie we placed on the line before we hit our 1/3s tomorrow. If we do that we'll be able to follow the circuit all the way around and back to the entrance.
Our second dive was short as we didn't have tons of gas left. We basically practiced an unconscious diver drill where we learned to swim someone unconscious out of q cave. As you might suspect, it is a very different approach than what one would use in open water. At little more difficult but very effective and well thought out. If I remember I'll try describing it to ya'll tomorrow. It's pretty cool. Right now I'm running out of time. We have to run.
Hasta manana!!
This morning German showed up at the hotel right at 9:00 a.m. like he said he would. Once we arrived at his place we talked about circuits. In cave diving this is following a course that is not simply out and back, but takes different tunnels that eventually come back to the entrance. The complex circuit we planned took us off the permanent line, including a couple of jumps into different caves and then eventually back to the permanent line. It's like leaving home taking one way to the grocery store and then returning home by a different route.
We also discussed gas planning in more detail, contingency gas planning and how decompression dives are planned in a cave that has varying depths. For the most part this was nothing new for us except for the way of thinking about decompression planning in a cave environment. This was very interesting...and very good information. Another day to learn a little something new!
Of course the best part of the day was the diving. Today we did two dives eventually. I say eventually 'cause Zinc forgot what he did with the wing nuts he uses to attach his wing and backplate to the tanks. Of course, German graciously drove back home and got him a couple of wing nuts. Unfortunately, after German left Zinc figured out that he was also short one o-ring in his primary reg. Those regs don't work too well without those cute little o-rings.
By this time I was in my wetsuit and floating around in the pool looking at the fishies.
When German found out that Zinc still needed an o-ring before he could dive he just hopped in his Jeep Wrangler and went to get one...no problem. This is Mexico, baby...no worries, no hurries. You gotta love it. :14:Finally, Zinc was ready and we were off to start setting up our circuit. This was the first of two dives to set it up. On the first dive you continue on the circuit until one of the team is down to the predetermined turn around back gas pressure. I'm not sure how far we went into the cave but it was the coolest dive I've ever been on.
Zinc was in charge of running the lines and I was line support. We got the primary line set and continued down the permanent line to the first jump. Zinc set the line arrow, attached the line from the jump reel and quickly found the secondary line we were to follow. It lead through some pretty narrow caves.
We set the second jump not long after the first. Several places in the new cave weren't wide enough for two people to swim through comfortably side by side. There were stalactites and stalagmites all over. Some columns were right in the middle of the cave and 2-3 feet in diameter. There were plenty of fissures above and below us and in some places the cave was maybe 6 feet in diameter.
At one point German asked Brandon to hold. Brandon passed this information on to me and we watched German swimming into the fissures looking for something, but were clueless as to what he was doing. After a while we lost sight of him. We inched up a little nervously looking for German. We were getting a little worried about him. I signaled to Zinc, asking if he saw where he went. He had not. We held as instructed...inching up just a little more. Finally, I signaled to Zinc that I was only a couple of hundred psi from the turn around point. We communicated a little more and decided to look a little further down the line for German. There the son of a gun was, right around the corner with his light off. It was another test!!! In fact, we found out later he had been right above us most of the time watching to see what we would do. He was pretty happy with our actions for the most part, but still had one or two suggestions for us.
We went just a bit further down the line before placing a cookie (the plastic, cave diver, non-edible variety) on the line to indicate how far we made it one way on the circuit today before turning the dive and heading out. We left both jump reels in place. Tomorrow we're going to head in the opposite way on the circuit and with some good planning we hope to make it to the cookie we placed on the line before we hit our 1/3s tomorrow. If we do that we'll be able to follow the circuit all the way around and back to the entrance.
Our second dive was short as we didn't have tons of gas left. We basically practiced an unconscious diver drill where we learned to swim someone unconscious out of q cave. As you might suspect, it is a very different approach than what one would use in open water. At little more difficult but very effective and well thought out. If I remember I'll try describing it to ya'll tomorrow. It's pretty cool. Right now I'm running out of time. We have to run.
Hasta manana!!
Last edited:
richerso
Contributor
Awesome reports k-valve ! ! !
Sounds like you and Zinc are having a really cool time! Have fun! Stay safe!
P.S. You about have me convinced to start down the cave diver path. Almost.
If for no other reason, for the technical knowledge and skills.
Sounds like you and Zinc are having a really cool time! Have fun! Stay safe!
P.S. You about have me convinced to start down the cave diver path. Almost.
If for no other reason, for the technical knowledge and skills.
Similar threads
