How many cave divers are here?

[SuPrBuGmAn]

No we don't, its all flooded, with incredibly unforgiving flow and caves that only go in straight lines. Totally not worth the extra traffic

 

[LiteHedded]

lol
move along. nothing to see here.
*waves hand*
these are not the caves you're looking for

 

[Dive-aholic]

A late bloomer to the diving scene. Even though I grew up in NJ, I didn't become interested in diving until after I moved to Arizona. Got interested some time in the mid 90s, but was always involved with someone who either didn't want to dive or had a really bad latex allergy and just never pursued it myself. I also lived in a town with no dive shop for several years. Finally got OW certified in 2003. Got cavern trained in 2005 at the urging of my wife. She saw Skiles' famous Diepolder photo and wanted to go there (still does) so the quest began. The addiction hit hard during my 4th cavern course dive when I saw a couple of divers on DPVs coming out of the darkness of the Gallery in Devil's Ear. We schedule our Intro course for 6 months later. Seven months after that, in 2006, we completed our full cave course and received NSS-CDS and NACD cave cards. We had close to 300 pre full cave dives at that time. Currently, I have over 300 cave dives. The systems I have been in:

Jackson Blue
Hole in the Wall (both ways)
Twin
Gator Hole
Hidey Hole
Vortex
Bozell
Maddachalk
Maund
Devil's Hole
Bone (Hidden)
Springboard
Black Spring
Indian
Peacock I
Peacock III
Orange Grove
Lower Lower Orange Grove
Madison
Devil's Ear
Little River
Promise Sink (both ways)
Guy Revell
Cow Spring
Chan Hol
Grand Cenote
Ponderosa
Mayan Blue
Nahoch

I think there might be another system or two, but I can't remember right now.

I dive sidemount almost exclusively, except on occasion when I have to be in backmount when teaching.

I do stage dives, DPV dives, and sidemount dives (obviously to that last one) but have not taken courses in any of those. I have been fortunate enough to have found some very good mentors to help me along those paths. I did take a sidemount instructor course and am certified to teach sidemount.

Oh, by the way, I bought my house in Florida during the same trip I got cave certified and drove back and forth from Arizona to North Florida every 3-4 months until 2007 when we moved here permanently. Yes, the addiction is bad!

 

[lamont]

come on you mexico sissies.
we've got pretty caves too!

don't worry, i have a goal of 100 full cave dives in MX, FL and EU...

 

[Peter Guy]

BTW, although I have a card that says "Full Cave" and have been in a number of systems, as a dear friend says, I am NOT a "Cave Diver" since I live in Seattle.

I am happily a "Line Following Cave Tourist" but at least I've graduated from being a squirrel!

 

[tasdiver]

OW 2001
All other certs and experiece required to get Instructor rating - 7 years
Recreational Scuba Instructor 2008 (NAUI/SDI)

OW Dives logged: quit logging after more than 1,000, estimate 1,500

Intro to Cave - 11/07 - NSS/CDS - Bahamas
Apprentice - 7/09 - NACD - N. Florida
Logged Cave Dives: Apx 70
Configuration: OC, backmount double LP85's, 40cf deco, 80cf stage.

I do not have any other cave certifications (no toys). I just started stage diving under the mentorship of much more experience cave divers.

Systems:
Bahamas: Mermaids Lair, Owl Hole, Dan's Cave, Ralph's Cave
Florida: Ginnie Springs, Madison Blue, Peacock, Orange Grove, Little River, Manatee

Gotta get my full cave finished up on top of my adv nitrox/deco/helitrox class I have coming up. Gonna be a busy busy diver!!

 

[kgault]

Open Water (PADI) in 88
Full Cave (NSS-CDS & NACD) Apr 01
Cave DPV (NACD & TDI) June 05 (after >100 cave scooter dives - needed cert for Ginnie, Indian, Emerald, etc)

>400 cave dives since full cave; > 250 at Jackson Blue.

Our regular after work Tuesday night Jackson Blue dive starts by descending around 6pm for 100 - 120 min of BT, 20 - 30 min deco, back to PC by 11 pm It can be good to work with primary dive buddies.

I am mostly a multi-staging backmount diver, but off and on I have sidemounted a few dives. No Sidemount cert, but I have been watching Edd for years :> modified transpac configuration dates to 06 with a few new mods.

Keith

 

[packman]

I got OW certified in 1994 where I did very little little to no diving until 2004 when I bought my first set of gear and decided to be serious about it.

I got roughly 150 dives in before taking Cavern/Basic in 2007. We completed Apprentice/Full in 2009. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 cave dives.

Everything I've done is in Florida but Mexico and others are on my to-do list.
P1/Orange Grove
P3
Little River
Cow
Manatee/Catfish
Ginnie
Madison Blue
Jackson Blue
Hole in the Wall
Twin

No sidemount, stage, DPV certs or experience.

 

[BabyDuck]

ow jan 05. then a trip feb 05 showed me the light - a group i met through the interwebs was going to ginnie & stay in the cabin, and 3 of the guys were gonna take cavern. 1 was a cavern instructor (but not for the group) and took us ow newbs on a tour of the run & down the holes to feel the flow (nowhere near an overhead). i saw him underwater & saw my path.

so dive 100 was during cavern class feb 06, intro at the same time, and dove in florida usually with jean pretty much every other weekend for 5 months, 75ish overhead dives. all my cave dives are in nfl in the usual suspects. card with nacd.

sidelined for a baby dec 06.

back in the game sept 08, apprentice/full & adv nitrox jan 09, deco proc sept 09. same number of post-full dives as da aquamaster, in the 50 range.

backmount, no extras yet, no mix, though larry's thinking sidemount in the soonish.

 

[AZTEK DIVER]

OW 1958
TDI Cave 1999
GUE Cave 2 2003
NSS DPV 2003

I don't know the number of cave dives, but I spend 3+ months a year exploring in Mexico, I'm there now. I would guess at about 30 systems, might be more. Systems dived are doubles and many stages, RB80 rebreather, multiple scooters, and playing with some side mount stuff.