Full cave course?

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I have a friend interested in a full cave class. He recently completed a cavern class at Ginnie.

In 1975 I completed an NACD ITC with Scheck Exley -- I#28 -- but have been out of touch with cavers for a while since I am in the Keys.

Any instructors doing a full cave course in the near future please let me know.

 

[Wendy]

Is your friend planning on doing intro, apprentice, and full cave all in one shot? There are some instructors that will do this, but I am a believer in taking one course, becoming proficient in what I've learned, and then going on to the next level.

If he did his cavern training at Ginnie he could check with thisinstructor there or Ginnie may even have a class schedule up on their website. Cave courses go on just about every weekend in cave country, so its really just a matter of figuring out what instructor he wants to go with and then picking the weekend he wants to do it.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Wendy: Thanks for your reply. I also assumed there were a lots of cave courses going on up in cave country too. I am not sure why this guy is having a tough time finding one. He just finished cavern.

When we started cave training in the 70's we took people from AOW straight to full cave...it often took many weeks to go thru it all.

I agree with you that a slow and methodical progression into cave or any more difficult type diving is the best approach.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Capt Jim Wyatt once bubbled...
I have a friend interested in a full cave class. He recently completed a cavern class at Ginnie.

In 1975 I completed an NACD ITC with Scheck Exley -- I#28 -- but have been out of touch with cavers for a while since I am in the Keys.

Any instructors doing a full cave course in the near future please let me know.

I would like to hear about your class with Sheck Exley. I have freinds that were lucky enought to be able to do their trimix training with him. They have some good stories.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I did this class in 1975 -- Tom Mount was training director for NACD & Scheck was an instructor trainer. We did the classwork at the Womens' Club in Branford.

The ITC was more of an evaluation than anything else & to ensure we understood training standards etc.

The dive that stands out was the 3rd dive of the day..at Thunderhole. Depth, as I recall was about 140ffw...we made a long dive (for 1975 standards) and had decompression stops beginning at 40 or 50 feet.

The cave is a spring / syphon & we dived the syphon side. It was a spooky dive for me -- and I never wanted to dive that site again & never did.

We stayed at the Steamboat motel in Brabford & the the most prominent grafitti on the mens' room wall in the restaurant read "Scheck has a death wish" .

 

[TheDarknessLord]

if you can go to mexico, maybe is the best place to cave diving

 

[Wendy]

TheDarknessLord once bubbled...
if you can go to mexico, maybe is the best place to cave diving

The caves in Mexico are different from the caves here in Florida. I think you shuld choose your dive training location on where you are going to be doing the majority of your cave diving.

 

[TheDarknessLord]

I didn't want hurt you Wendy.
Mexico is one of the must famous and best place in the world! No because me, because you can find this info in thousands of magazines...
Anyway, if you want to learn and dive all the time in the same place that you live, is good idea.
Mexican caves are very easy to dive, and is a great place to start...

 

[andibk]

List,
I just got back from my full cave diving course yesterday that I took in Mexico. Had a excellent instructor that had us do plenty of drills. We did a total of 18 dives in the 7 days I was there. Total dive time was 1036 minutes in about 10 different cave systems. After the course we did a penetration dive of 4225 ft with a dive time of 2 hours 15 minutes. The visability was excellent and some of the best scenary you could imagine. Hopefully there are plenty enough caves in Thailand to keep up with my skills.

Bruce