Cave Training - No Nearby Caves

[jadairiii]

First off, your skill level will expand exponentially if you do even basic Cave (Cave 1). Whether you ever cave dive again or not.

I am the poster child for getting cave certified but almost never cave diving. If I am lucky I get to cave country once or twice a year. During COVID I didn’t cave dive for 18 months. But once in the water, you just take it easy, go slow, knock off the “rust”.

Regardless if you haven’t done a cave dive in a month, 6 months, or 2 years, you can still practice your skills in the ocean, monitor your gas, don’t leave your buddy, don’t silt the crap out of your dive location, have good buoyancy. Same skills whether there are rocks above your head or steel.

My learning curve is really just getting used to the dry suit, I dive wet in the ocean (and during the summer nothing but a rash guard). So undergarment and dry suit, strapping on the 104’s and walking to the hole in the ground in 98 degree Tallahassee summer is the hard part! Now mind you, I aint no rock star but by the end of the dive no one’s laughing at me (at least to my face….)

 

[Subcooled]

Hello,
Interested to see if anyone here has been in similar shoes.

I had to travel 2 hr on a coach + 4 hrs by plane + 4 hrs by car.

Is it worth it to get cave training even if far away from a nearby “cave country”

Is it worth to fulfil your dreams?
Sure it is.

If yes, why? I don’t want to spend money, time, and effort on an endeavor that I can’t partake in often unless there are other, less obvious, benefits.

Your profile says "Europe" and 4hrs to caves -> Most probable location: Finland

- there are great opportunities at ice diving using cave line (line reel or fixed line)
- there may be flooded abandoned mines at a convenient distance, too.
- many cave diving skills are useful in wreck diving (although wrecks have their own risks)

Ceiling, darkness, siltout, risk of getting lost, the use of guide line, lost line drills, need for awareness, etc... are not limited to natural caves alone.