Getting Started with Cave Diving

[boulderjohn]

I'm not any kind of instructor but as I understood it, you had to complete all four segments (NSS-CDS anyway) within a year.

I don't believe that is true. If you get through Apprentice, say, you have to renew annually, but you can still go on and complete the training.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Cavern is a permanent certification. The 2 cave agencies have an expiration on the doubles portion for intro/basic. After 12 or 18 months 9agency dependent) the certification reverts to a single tank cert. Apprentice has 12 months. Most instructors will give some leeway or reissue a certification if a diver can't complete the coursework before the cert expires. I tell my students if I know they have been actively diving I will reissue. If not, then we spend a day diving to re-evaluate before I'll issue another cert.

 

[mathauck0814]

As it was explained to me the Apprentice portion covers the remaining skills which are not covered in Intro (jumps, circuits, etc). The whole point is to take time and go diving to practice those skills before coming back for an evaluation/refinement session (Full Cave) where you're signed off and blessed go diving. It seems that a combination Apprentice+Full is in itself a zero-to-hero approach that skips the very important process of actually gaining experience in the cave environment, no?

 

[ucfdiver]

It seems that a combination Apprentice+Full is in itself a zero-to-hero approach that skips the very important process of actually gaining experience in the cave environment, no?

Not really. Apprentice and full cave are just splitting up one course. It was one course, but because many instructors had full time jobs, they decided to split it up into two weekend long courses.

I think you can split stuff into such small pieces that the learning becomes about individual pieces and not the big picture.

 

[TSandM]

I think it makes a lot of sense to have two classes, or perhaps three. IF you put an OW skills class into the sequence, you can do two cave classes -- one gives you access to the mainline in large passage with no deco (or maybe one navigational decision, as NAUI does, which might even cover all that a lot of infrequent cave divers ever want to do). The second one gives you entry into complex navigation and smaller passage. If you don't put an OW skills class in, Cavern has to be that, given that most people coming out of the recreational diving world do not have cave-compatible diving skills to begin with. Then the sequence is Cavern, do a bunch of practice, and then Intro and into the cave, and then a last class to get the complex navigation. That would make sense to me. I actually like the NAUI progression the best of what's out there -- ASSUMING the student comes into the process with cave-quality open water skills.

 

[billgraham]

I don't believe that is true. If you get through Apprentice, say, you have to renew annually, but you can still go on and complete the training.

This was a few years ago, I'm really not sure. I just know there was some time factor.