Considering moving forward with cave training in February, advice?

[Caveeagle]

Being over 5 hours away from cave country (north of Atlanta here), and working full-time (and more), plus personal obligations, doesn't really give me the option to just head down there without taking an actual vacation to do so. And honestly, if I'm going to go on vacation, I'd much rather be in Mexico's Cenotes or the reefs in the Caribbean than hanging out in the light zone of GS or BG etc. I can practice the skills from the course by myself at the local quarry though (minus buddy breathing/moving, but that isn't really that hard to do). Running lines, following them, closed eye moving, etc don't need an overhead environment or spending my vacation to keep those skills up. I'm sure doing it with someone who is full cave certified would likely get me some better advice/tips/feedback though, so maybe I'll see if someone wants to tool around with me sometime. If any cave certified divers want to practice with me running lines etc in the local quarry north of Atlanta though, PM me and I'd be happy to do so.

Sounds like there might be more to N.Fla cavern diving than you have seen. The cavern at Itchetucknee Blue Hole (aka Jug) is one of the most beautiful spots I have seen. The cavern at Orange Grove can be pretty cool when vis is good. You also have Paradise and even some cavern to see at Little River. If you are ever down this way and need a buddy, just give a shout out and a little notice.

 

[helodriver87]

Sounds like there might be more to N.Fla cavern diving than you have seen. The cavern at Itchetucknee Blue Hole (aka Jug) is one of the most beautiful spots I have seen. The cavern at Orange Grove can be pretty cool when vis is good. You also have Paradise and even some cavern to see at Little River. If you are ever down this way and need a buddy, just give a shout out and a little notice.

When Emerald is clear like it is now, it's one of the prettiest caverns I've ever seen.

 

[jlcnuke]

@jlcnuke

Is heading up to Lake Jocassee close enough for some preliminary training?

Not usually. As a general rule, I work close to 60 hours per week, and my mom is disabled so I'm over there helping my dad out with the house and her regularly. As such, any training that isn't "wake up in the Morning on a Saturday/Sunday and do the training then head back home" is a "I'll need to take vacation to do that instead" scenario for me. That pretty much means training/diving at Kraken Springs or the Aquarium are the only options when I'm not taking a vacation. If I'm taking a vacation, it's not going to be "just" for training, and it's not going to be at Jocassee when a quick airplane ride can take me to the Caribbean or Central America...

 

[jlcnuke]

Sounds like there might be more to N.Fla cavern diving than you have seen. The cavern at Itchetucknee Blue Hole (aka Jug) is one of the most beautiful spots I have seen. The cavern at Orange Grove can be pretty cool when vis is good. You also have Paradise and even some cavern to see at Little River. If you are ever down this way and need a buddy, just give a shout out and a little notice.

When Emerald is clear like it is now, it's one of the prettiest caverns I've ever seen.

I clearly haven't seen all the caverns, but there's only so much you can see within 130 ft of the surface in the light zone of "anywhere" really. Since I'm going to take a vacation to go anywhere and do any cavern/cave diving or cavern/cave dive training, I'd generally prefer to be doing it somewhere that's a little more interesting to me outside of class than North Florida. If, by some miracle, I end up with some 3-day weekends without any non-work obligations next year though, I'll see about trying out some of Florida's other offerings. I really enjoyed Paradise (it was one of the spots I did my Cavern training it), but I'd honestly be disappointed if that was all the fun on a vacation relative to waking up at a resort, getting a nice breakfast, diving the cenotes during the day, then heading out and experiencing Mexico in the late afternoon/evening and having a day or two of exploring the country when I wasn't diving during the week.

 

[rddvet]

If you've got that little time to dive or practice your skills, then you just need to sit back and enjoy some dives. Cavern diving can get boring. But you can spice it up by having fun and practicing all of your skills. After 40-50 cavern dives I was getting bored, but I wasn't moving up until I got my skills down. I personally am not a fan of the 4 part courses that do cavern/intro then apprentice. I find that intro really makles most people speed up their training because it's so limiting. For someone that will in essence be a vacation cave diver, working hard on cavern skills then doing a cave 1 class can be fulfilling and open up alot of diving for a long time, and allow your skills to improve slowly. No offense, but I read alot of "not enough time" and "want to get to the next level" in your posts. Cave diving has a very high wash out rate. I see so many people one year, then never see them again because they quit. I find it's alot of the "hurry up and get through classes" vacation cavers that are the ones disappearing the fastest.

 

[jlcnuke]

I'd be asking Natalie Gibb of Under the Jungle (https://www.underthejungle.com/en/natalie-l-gibb/) of how to best prepare, what her entry requirements/expectations are.

There's also Edd Sorenson in Florida. I've been considering Edd as the caves in Florida are similar from what I've seen on film (as I'm obviously not cave trained to see for myself) to Greece (minus the high flows).

I got in touch with Natalie, and her suggesting was to do Intro to Tech to learn doubles, then redo Cavern in doubles with TDI, then start Intro to Cave. That's a much busier week than I had planned/considered or would, quite frankly, prefer. If the better teachers, and more experienced divers, seem to think a lot more experience with doubles first would be more helpful, I think maybe I'll postpone any further work on this path until after my tec 40 and 45 (in doubles) and getting some post-training practice in that configuration. Maybe I'll just make this a nice relaxing vacation without much if any training instead.

 

[rddvet]

I clearly haven't seen all the caverns, but there's only so much you can see within 130 ft of the surface in the light zone of "anywhere" really. Since I'm going to take a vacation to go anywhere and do any cavern/cave diving or cavern/cave dive training, I'd generally prefer to be doing it somewhere that's a little more interesting to me outside of class than North Florida. If, by some miracle, I end up with some 3-day weekends without any non-work obligations next year though, I'll see about trying out some of Florida's other offerings. I really enjoyed Paradise (it was one of the spots I did my Cavern training it), but I'd honestly be disappointed if that was all the fun on a vacation relative to waking up at a resort, getting a nice breakfast, diving the cenotes during the day, then heading out and experiencing Mexico in the late afternoon/evening and having a day or two of exploring the country when I wasn't diving during the week.

Nothing wrong with training in Mx. It is pretty in the cavern zone. Just be careful of who you take courses with. There are just as many bad instructors there as here.

PS, skip the resorts in Mx. Rent an airbnb and spend time in the town meeting locals and eating crazy cheap amazing food. I did the resort thing once for my first trip, and will never do it again. Total waste of money in my opinion.

 

[jlcnuke]

If you've got that little time to dive or practice your skills, then you just need to sit back and enjoy some dives. Cavern diving can get boring. But you can spice it up by having fun and practicing all of your skills. After 40-50 cavern dives I was getting bored, but I wasn't moving up until I got my skills down. I personally am not a fan of the 4 part courses that do cavern/intro then apprentice. I find that intro really makles most people speed up their training because it's so limiting. For someone that will in essence be a vacation cave diver, working hard on cavern skills then doing a cave 1 class can be fulfilling and open up alot of diving for a long time, and allow your skills to improve slowly. No offense, but I read alot of "not enough time" and "want to get to the next level" in your posts. Cave diving has a very high wash out rate. I see so many people one year, then never see them again because they quit. I find it's alot of the "hurry up and get through classes" vacation cavers that are the ones disappearing the fastest.

Honestly, when I finished my Cavern course, my instructors let me know that I'd done everything for Intro to Cave but one or two things (lost diver and equipment config change iirc), so I kinda had figured that moving to doubles and doing the same skills over there, with the new configuration, would be relatively easy to do as a next step for limited cave penetration. It didn't seem like something that was going to require 5 full days of training to simply do it again in doubles. Of course, not having dived in doubles, I don't have the experience to say whether that's normal, extremely conservative, or somewhere in between. All I have is people reputations to consider, and the advice of those that have been there, done that, so now i'm re-evaluating my expectations of what's required to start into caves.

The way most sites seem to explain it, is Cavern is the "intro to cave light", doing almost everything from intro to cave, but in a more rec reg (not rec, but singles). Then Intro to cave adds in doubles or sidemount and redoes the exercises, adding one or two more. Mostly the same skills, in a slightly different configuration though which adds some complexity. Then Full Cave adds in new skills, jumps, etc. Seeing it explained that way seemed like a natural progression. Now it seems those explanations are either oversimplified or not as straightforward as the agencies project them to be. So, I'll look at alternative plans moving forward. I love diving, and I'm very interested in diving some caves, but not enough to go do one of the "zero to hero" cave courses out there just so I can move forward quickly.

 

[helodriver87]

Doubles aren't hard to dive. A bit of practice getting used to a different level of weighting and weight distribution should cover you. You'll probably need some harness adjustments. Some basic valve drill practice too (Intro to Tech would cover all of this). Where you run into more complexity is failure management in doubles. That'll all be covered in an intro to cave class if you have a halfway competent instructor, but retaking cavern in doubles with a cave instructor is a good way to get ahead of the curve as well as practice all the old skills again in a new configuration. I know some instructors don't accept PADI cavern certs going into intro since the quality of training can be extremely variable.

 

[kensuf]

On paper, an Intro to Tech course is about learning how to choose and configure dive gear, developing core skills like equipment handling, buoyancy/trim and situational awareness, developing a team mindset, and learning more about detailed dive planning based on your real gas consumption rate and risk management, all while doing some drills to make it all stick!

At the most basic level, this course is about:

1. Giving you a taste of what is involved in technical / cave diving.
2. Familiarizing you with the gear necessary for future cave and decompression training.
3. Developing key skills, including advanced buoyancy control, proper trim, and efficient propulsion techniques.
4. Developing a team mindset.
5. Teaching you more complex dive planning based on your individual gas consumption rate and “rock bottom” gas planning.
6. Helping you become a more aware and better buddy by developing better situational awareness.
7. Allowing you to make an honest self-assessment of your skills and preparedness for future technical diving.

It should be about 3 or 4 days long. If you've never dove doubles/sidemount before, it can be a good program to get you started.