cave vs open water dpv

[Underwater Tourist]

Is there any point in taking a dpv course in the open water (assuming solid instructor etc etc) to prepare for a cave dpv course?

Or are they completely different?

Basically looking to double check that I wont end up in a situation where I learn how to handle a dpv in the open water context only to find out that all the open water techniques are completely useless in the cave

 

[Manatee Diver]

Is there any point in taking a dpv course in the open water (assuming solid instructor etc etc) to prepare for a cave dpv course?

Or are they completely different?

If you do it with a cave DPV instructor, yes. A lot of my initial struggle in cave DPV boiled down to lack of control of my DPV. After a couple of dives getting a feel for how to configure and ride it properly things were a lot easier. After that you have handling the DPV and stages.

 

[boulderjohn]

When you are cave diving in any way, you can get into serious trouble. Cave diving with a DPV can get you into trouble much faster.

I think you should be pretty adept at handling a DPV before you take the cave DPV course.

 

[Lanny]

Time on the trigger is very valuable before taking a scooter in the cave, and learning the mechanics of scooter failures, communications, tows etc before a cave class is a very good idea. My (rather than agency) prerequisites for a Cave DPV class are a Tech DPV cert (or equivalent OW DPV experience), plus stage cave certification/experience. Some agency standards for Cave DPV can be pretty minimal - no stage required and 3 dives/90 minutes which is a little on the low side, to say the least. The last Cave DPV class I taught was over 1200 minutes, but that did include a stage diving shakedown day, and was a multistage, rather than a single stage programme.

 

[Manatee Diver]

My (rather than agency) prerequisites for a Cave DPV class are a Tech DPV cert (or equivalent OW DPV experience), plus stage cave certification/experience.

I am curious which agency is that? The only one I can think of is GUE.

 

[Lanny]

I am curious which agency is that? The only one I can think of is GUE.

Not agency standards, but something I insist on for my classes. I am in the fortunate position to own the dive shop I work at, so can prioritise safety and quality training. One of my other red lines is no more than 3 students per instructor, regardless of course. Last year we had an OW course for a family of 4 taught by 2 cave instructors. It was awesome!

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

When I took my DPV cave class I had never touched a DPV beforehand. I failed the cave DPV class because I could not adequately control the DPV.

I *think* that if I took the cave DPV class and already had experience riding the DPV I would have passed the class on the first try.

 

[kensuf]

The first time I took a scooter into Ginnie (back in 1995), I made it to the Park Bench and thought to myself "that was a $1500 mistake." This wasn't some modern super fast scooter either, it was an oceanic mako.

I'd say gaining experience in OW is valuable to help with comfort and managing the scooter. Work out towing drills in OW beforehand too.

 

[Pavao]

Yeah, OW practice will go a long way.
When I started using DPV I knew it eventually would end up in a cave (I wasn't cave certified yet), so I'd do the best I could to mimic scootering in a cave and see where I was in handling skill wise.

I'd scooter as close to the bottom as possible and do turns, "dounuts" and look back to see if I was lifting out silt, the siltier the bottom the better, ocean floor not really that good in many places but best I could do.

Here we have a ton of artificial reefs, wrecks cleaned up for sinking, many have easy hallways I could scooter through and see if I'd be hitting anything or again lifting up silt, scootering through it very slowly, to the point where the scooter power wouldn't correct my buoyancy if it was off.
Stopping inside a wreck also was a good practice to see what happens and how well I'd maintain buoyancy and control.

Set a gopro somewhere, rock/wreck and do multiple flybys in front of it to see your form. If scooter is riding pointing up or down a bit, it's a good indication your buoyancy is off and is being compensated with the scooter.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

Thank you everyone
The consensus is clearly to get some OW trigger practice