Deco class prior to full cave

[loosebits]

I am planning on doing full cave next March in Florida. I am thinking of taking advanced nitrox prior to that so I can deco on O2 but would taking the often recomended deco procedures class be useful or does it mainly apply to open water decompression (middle of the ocean, with current and a lift bag - not something I see myself doing).

Also, how much deco will I be getting myself into while taking full cave in Florida assuming the cave is shallow enough for 32? Just a few minutes or 20+ minutes. I don't want to be sitting on a log in the Ear for 15 mins while my O2 breathing buddies are already eating lunch

 

[Diver0001]

If you take IANTD you'll need an extra specialty to deco on O2. Advanced nitrox gets you deco on 50%. It's a good class to sharpen up some of your skills even if you're not planning on diving in caves.

It seems to me that there will be special considerations for dive planning and deco in a cave because you don't have total control of your depth. The advanced nitrox class that I took didn't address this issue. It was focused on open ocean deco whereby you and your stages don't get separated.

R..

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I am planning on doing full cave next March in Florida. I am thinking of taking advanced nitrox prior to that so I can deco on O2 but would taking the often recomended deco procedures class be useful or does it mainly apply to open water decompression (middle of the ocean, with current and a lift bag - not something I see myself doing).

Also, how much deco will I be getting myself into while taking full cave in Florida assuming the cave is shallow enough for 32? Just a few minutes or 20+ minutes. I don't want to be sitting on a log in the Ear for 15 mins while my O2 breathing buddies are already eating lunch

I took the TDI Advanced NITROX and Deco Procedures class about a year before Full Cave. The Acvanced NITROX and Deco Procedures classes were take together, and frankly I think they should be one class and not two separate classes.

I think it is a good idea to take both of these classes before you take Full Cave, I also think that the training agencies should make the Deco classes a prerequisite to full cave. Yes much of the information in the deco classes is about doing decompression in an open water environment and not a cave, but there is much information regarding gas planning and gear management that do apply to the cave environment.

In a cave you will most likely leave the deco bottle near the entrance, but you might carry a stage bottle so learning how to do deal with extra bottles in your deco class in the open water will still apply to the cave environment.

It was nice to already have a good understanding of deco when we got to the point in full cave where we were looking at decompression dives in a cave. The instructor was able to concentrate on the skills I needed for cave diving and not need to give me a lesson on decompression.

If you dive at Ginnie as a full cave diver on thirds you can incurr a decompression obligation without too much difficulty, being able to decompress on 100% oxygen is pretty much standard, having the knowledge to do this before your full cave class has nothing but upside.

Mark Vlahos