Full Cave with CCR -- not OC?

[Wibble]

Can full cave be done on CCR easily? Have cavern & intro to cave but on OC. Would much prefer to do full cave on CCR as that's what I'd be diving with anyway, so would be good to learn the CCR / bailout gas rules.

The intention is to do some guided cave diving afterwards, mainly in Mexico, or some more simple stand-alone cave diving. Am getting a bit long in the tooth so my future cave diving career is only a couple or few years and definitely not heading into exploration nor wriggly caves. Have a couple of hundred hours on the unit down to MOD2+ depths.


Thoughts?

 

[AJ]

Yes it can, but there aren't a lot of ccr cave instructors. IANTD allows it .Maybe TDI also, don't know exactly. Thinking of going this route too.

 

[tbone1004]

Plenty of cave ccr instructors in Florida. If you already have cavern/intro on OC there should be no real objection to finishing on CCR

 

[Wibble]

Thanks.

Will continue to ask around the instructors.

 

[tbone1004]

Thanks.

Will continue to ask around the instructors.

Where are you wanting to train and on what unit? A great instructor in the UK is Martin Robson if you need a local one. Good friend and good instructor

Home - Martin Robson Diving Technical Diver Training

If you are looking for cave courses, rebreather courses or almost any other technical diver training, Martin can teach, support and guide you on your next steps.

martinrobsondiving.co.uk

 

[Wibble]

The issue in the UK is the simple lack of caves — as opposed to sumps — to dive in. Most full cave courses are done in France. The CDG do their full cave but it’s just not my kind of diving; caving with diving to get through the sump.

My intention is to do some guided cave dives in the cenotes. To do that I’ll need more training for full cave, as I see it to be self sufficient to safely exit should bad things happen.

Much prefer to use CCR as it’s so much nicer than blowing bubbles. Absolutely no intention for heroics, literally want to experience a few great caves pretty much at the end of my diving career.

Am waiting for a highly recommended Yucatan instructor to get back to me.

 

[Tracy]

The issue in the UK is the simple lack of caves — as opposed to sumps — to dive in. Most full cave courses are done in France. The CDG do their full cave but it’s just not my kind of diving; caving with diving to get through the sump.

My intention is to do some guided cave dives in the cenotes. To do that I’ll need more training for full cave, as I see it to be self sufficient to safely exit should bad things happen.

Much prefer to use CCR as it’s so much nicer than blowing bubbles. Absolutely no intention for heroics, literally want to experience a few great caves pretty much at the end of my diving career.

Am waiting for a highly recommended Yucatan instructor to get back to me.

Just one person's opinion.
My opinion isn't based on what I can do, but what I want to do. I have certs for all levels open and closed circuit.
In Mexico, I prefer to dive OC in the caves. Most of the cave systems are very shallow. It is very easy to do 3 hour cave dives on OC. Since there is basically no decompression, it is 3 hours of swimming. That is pretty much my limit on a swimming dive.
For that reason, I rarely feel the need to bring a rebreather down. OC is cheap and easy down there. In Florida, where the caves are deeper, I switch back and forth regularly depending on who I am diving with and the dive plans.

 

[Lorenzoid]

My intention is to do some guided cave dives in the cenotes. To do that I’ll need more training for full cave, as I see it to be self sufficient to safely exit should bad things happen.

There is plenty of guided cave diving that can be done at Intro-to-Cave level in the Riviera Maya, and it is every bit as spectacular as in the video you posted. I have done two weeks of that and not repeated the same dive. As for how to handle "bad things happening," we learned enough in our Intro courses to know what to do.

edit: Not sure if you meant on CCR specifically. I know nothing about that.

 

[BoltSnap]

literally want to experience a few great caves pretty much at the end of my diving career.

You're ending your dive career in the caves???

 

[Wibble]

You're ending your dive career in the caves???

No, just the reality of getting old!

Looking at it as an insurance actuary would: as one gets older, the body can't repair itself so well and the increasing chances of 'something', anything, going wrong which could scupper one's technical diving career. If not that, it's just harder to carry all the kit around!

Meaning: I might be able to "technical" dive for another 10 years. I also might catch some disease that knackers my technical diving career sooner than that.

(I caught a UTI this summer whilst doing some fantastic diving in Malin, North West Ireland. It took a couple of months to get over that and it really made me realise how fragile life is!)