Doing cave training in flordia and Mexico?

[Marie13]

Would you get on a plane to go to Florida?

Haha. Nope. Drive. Two days each way. I’ve done long drives like that multiple times before. My motto is, if I can’t drive, I don’t dive. Plus with the amount of gear and tanks, driving is the only way.

 

[KevinNM]

Haha. Nope. Drive. Two days each way. I’ve done long drives like that multiple times before. My motto is, if I can’t drive, I don’t dive. Plus with the amount of gear and tanks, driving is the only way.

Tech gear rental is easy and fairly cheap in cave country. Not saying it isn’t nice to have your own gear, but you don’t need to.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Tech gear rental is easy and fairly cheap in cave country. Not saying it isn’t nice to have your own gear, but you don’t need to.

True for a week-long visit, but for a month or more of frequent diving I'd bring my own tanks if I could.

 

[Marie13]

Tech gear rental is easy and fairly cheap in cave country. Not saying it isn’t nice to have your own gear, but you don’t need to.

I don’t fly.

 

[tbone1004]

True for a week-long visit, but for a month or more of frequent diving I'd bring my own tanks if I could.

most people that do that have made the right friends and leave a set of tanks and what not at friends places in cave country...

 

[halocline]

What are peoples thoughts on doing cavern and intro to cave in Florida. Then spending some time practicing and diving there. Then going to Mexico to do full cave? I like the idea of get a variety of flordia and Mexico caves. I want to dive both. Would people do it the other way around sense flordia has the deeper and higher flow caves. Which sound more challenging but I know Mexico caves will have there own challenges. Especially sense I think it would be easier to silt up a lower flow cave.

I think you'll be happy training in either Mexico or Florida. The bigger issue is the teacher you're working with, so you might start focusing on who that's going to be. You'll get lots of recommendations.

In general, it's best to learn complex skills in a forgiving environment first, and then move on to more challenging environments. That way you can focus on developing the best possible foundation habits with the least amount of frustration. Mexican caves are generally thought to be a more forgiving environment. They're certainly warmer, and there are some excellent cavern zones. But there are definitely other factors; one thing that I would consider is where do you think you will be spending the majority of your time diving? You'll want to establish relationships and familiarity there.

One other issue (to me at least) is the cost involved, which is considerable. Mexico is more expensive to get to (usually) but also less expensive to stay and eat (generally).

If you don't currently dive sidemount or backmount doubles, I would at least consider the idea of taking a sidemount class first. If you are going to dive in Mexican caves, eventually you will want to be in sidemount. It's just more suited to the caves there. If you are already experienced and comfortable in backmount doubles, you could use that for your cave training and then learn sidemount at some point, but if you are strictly a single tank diver now and you need to learn either BM or sidemount anyways, go with sidemount. It'll save you time and money down the road.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is something that has not been mentioned. It is not a game changer, but it might well be added to the list of things to consider.

I did all my training in Florida, including my cave certification and later sidemount and DPV. Pretty much every dive was at about th4e 100 foot level. People have mentioned that because of the impact on dive time, but there is another impact. On dive after dive, while doing skills, I felt I was often embarrassingly stupid, even more so than normal. I would have trouble remembering the dive plan, even though it only had a few things to remember. I was talking about that with another cave diver who had felt the same thing, and she suggested we were both suffering from some degree of narcosis.

 

[Marie13]

Here is something that has not been mentioned. It is not a game changer, but it might well be added to the list of things to consider.

I did all my training in Florida, including my cave certification and later sidemount and DPV. Pretty much every dive was at about th4e 100 foot level. People have mentioned that because of the impact on dive time, but there is another impact. On dive after dive, while doing skills, I felt I was often embarrassingly stupid, even more so than normal. I would have trouble remembering the dive plan, even though it only had a few things to remember. I was talking about that with another cave diver who had felt the same thing, and she suggested we were both suffering from some degree of narcosis.

That’s exactly why I decided to have AN/DP/Helitrox under my belt before full cave so I could have access to be a bit of helium if I chose to use it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Here is something that has not been mentioned. It is not a game changer, but it might well be added to the list of things to consider.

I did all my training in Florida, including my cave certification and later sidemount and DPV. Pretty much every dive was at about th4e 100 foot level. People have mentioned that because of the impact on dive time, but there is another impact. On dive after dive, while doing skills, I felt I was often embarrassingly stupid, even more so than normal. I would have trouble remembering the dive plan, even though it only had a few things to remember. I was talking about that with another cave diver who had felt the same thing, and she suggested we were both suffering from some degree of narcosis.

Kind of like TDI's Helitrox option with AN/DP, GUE offered the option of Triox (30/30) in Cave 1. We used it only on the deeper dives, at the end of the course when skills got piled on. I figured I was paying a lot of money for this reputedly top-notch education, and the last thing I wanted was to not get every bit out of the course that I could cram into my brain. If it was part sales pitch for helium, I am sold.

 

[Scuba Client]

pros and cons to each. Mexico the more complex navigation, but learning to dive in the cold, with deco, and in the flow is an a$$ kicker and there is nothing in Mexico that can prepare you for that. If you do it in Florida, I would make sure that you take it with someone who does most of the intro level in Peacock if at all possible to maximize dive time as Marianna and Ginnie are not conducive to intro level dives given the depth.

Mexico is a great starting point for novice cave divers before working your way up.