I wanna do it all

[Pullnglide]

I think a lot of us were the same way starting out. I remember being on the boat for my ow checkouts and there were tec divers on the boat. For some reason it stuck in my head that was what I wanted to do. I went diving all I could for 3 years and finally went into tec diving. It can be done in a lot less time but it took me that long to gain the experience and be able to afford the proper equipment and training I needed. That same equipment has taken me through every single tec/cave course I have done. It's nice to go deep but for me there has to be something worthy to see to gear up, imo there is really no sense in going deep just for the hell of it other than telling your friends about it. I eventually went into cavern and cave and those courses were the most challenging and rewarding courses imaginable. They changed my entire outlook as a diver, changed my life as a diver. I am probably around $23k in gear and training but certainly can be done for less or more, much more!! Luckily I have worked for dive shops most of my diving career and now I own one so equipment is a lot easier to come by both new and used. There is nothing at all wrong with used gear as long as it is serviced properly before use. I still love the fact of people talking about the "random" agency class and bashing it cause it may not be necessarily the "cool" agency to be certified as a tec/cavern diver. My tec inst is PADI and cave inst is NSS/CDS, IANTD and both of them are amazing! I will probably never use anyone else besides those 2 guys. I have also used SSI for a cert and that guy was great as well! As many of us have stated a million times, IT'S NOT THE AGENCY, IT'S THE INSTRUCTOR THAT MATTERS. Talk to your instructor you may want to use, ask for his credentials, ask other students of theirs. Accumulate your gear as time goes on and keep it serviced and it will all be ready for you when the time comes. Best of luck to you!

 

[TSandM]

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to do it all . . . I fell in love with cave diving when I first saw the photos of people doing it, and at that point, I was still a truly bumbling OW diver who couldn't hold a shallow stop to save her soul. It's good to have aspirations, because they are motivating. And the even better news is that the path to enough competence to do the diving the OP yearns to do involves doing a lot of diving, and the work required gives him a reason to do that diving.

Now, if you can't up your game from 10 dives a year, you are simply not ever going to do the long, deep dives . . . but perhaps the drive to do those dives will result in more than 10 dives a year! As AJ has already pointed out, the equipment changes needed to do "big dives" can be made incrementally and, with some diligence and patience, often quite inexpensively as well.

I know the OP is in an area where winter diving is challenging, but he has an ice diving cert -- so I say, go ice diving! Come Spring, go river diving. Find a community of people who are doing the types of dive that inspire you, and hang out with them. Get mentored. Go diving, and practice. Hone skills. Go diving . . . and with enough time and enough dives, you will be ready to take the training that fits one for the types of dives you envision.

It's okay not to know what is involved in those dives, if you haven't done them and don't know anyone who has. You've gotten a lot of information here that hopefully has rounded out your understanding of what you will have to do to reach your goals. Equipment changes can be managed. Training can be arranged. The big variable is diving experience, and only you can fix that.

 

[Pullnglide]

As TSandM stated and something I also forgot to mention, experience is also a necessity! Do the type of dives you know, enjoy and hone your skills and you will have the confidence to go into tec courses where your buoyancy/trim and gas management is extremely important and those things come with experience! If you don't have many ice diving buddies or just dive buddies in general then search the forums, it's usually fairly easy to find someone to dive with. I do not have a single cave or tec buddy so I have to rely on the forums to be able to do those dives and I have met some really great people!

 

[Omisson]

There's a reason for those things. The equipment requirements for what you're describing is a different ballgame than regular OW gear.

And if you want to learn from the deep/long cave guys, GUE is really where its at.

Except of course the fact the NACD and NSSCDS have been doing it longer. Basically set the standards. And generally are the cert agencies found in both Florida and Mexicos caves more often.

this is the hubris that turns so many people off of DIR/GUE and occasionally other agencies that play the "we're the greatst bestest training by far" trumpet.

Ill take Jim Wyatt or Edd Sorrenson over just about any other instructor teaching Cave- and guess what neither are GUE. There are also other great instructors like Reggie Ross, TJ Johnson, Johnny Richards... The list goes on and on that are NOT instructors for GUE but among the best Cave instructors your gonna find.

gue is solid training. It is not by any measure "where it's at".

---------- Post added January 13th, 2015 at 11:53 AM ----------

AL tanks? No, not if I can help it. I own 2 steel 120s

Your bailout is a 40... In OC your deco bottle may be a 40.... It's part of the "what you don't know yet" about Tec and Cave diving. Talking to an instructor can be useful in figuring out gear requirements....

 

[PfcAJ]

Funny, I don't see either of those guys doing the exposures that the gue crew is doing.

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Omisson]

Funny, I don't see either of those guys doing the exposures that the gue crew is doing.

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Yea the NSSCDS and NACD ... No one in cave diving ever heard of them.....they only founded US cave diving... Set the training standards and had folks like Exley and Skiles as members....

Of course those guys are not nearly as famous as GUE folks like.... Like..... Like.....

---------- Post added January 13th, 2015 at 05:44 PM ----------

Funny, I don't see either of those guys doing the exposures that the gue crew is doing.

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Edd Sorrenson only defines cave rescue... No big deal there....

 

[Superlyte27]

Omg I can't wait to respond to this when I get to a computer.

 

[PfcAJ]

OP asked about deep and long cave diving. Many gue instructors have extensive experience with that.

 

[RJP]

When I say "Deep", I mean well over 200 feet. Cave, I mean, those really long caves.

I do not have the money available to replace my current gear.

You'll need to abandon one of those two lines of thinking... they are not compatible.

 

[PfcAJ]

Also whoever "founded" something doesn't really matter. I don't have Thomas Edison light bulbs in my house for a reason...