Intro Cave Suggestions

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Match your exit speed to your penetration speed (or slightly faster if diving in flow).

This is the spirit in which the gas rules were formulated.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Go do the Catacombs at Ginnie, you'll need a 400' reel and it'll give you some good reel running practice!

Wouldn't that be a jump?

 

[oya]

Nothing in the rules says you have to END a dive with 3 lights, you just have to start a dive with 3 lights. So if you have a primary light failure within 10 minutes of the start of the dive, whatever.

Sounds dumb, doesn't it?

That's probably because it is.

 

[kierentec]

Wouldn't that be a jump?

No, you can run a 400’ primary from open water pretty much all through the catacombs. Lots of fun, great practice. There are definitely some areas small enough where 2 divers can’t really pass side by side, so you have to pay attention to stay within intro limits.

 

[Manatee Diver]

No, you can run a 400’ primary from open water pretty much all through the catacombs. Lots of fun, great practice. There are definitely some areas small enough where 2 divers can’t really pass side by side, so you have to pay attention to stay within intro limits.

Yeah there were some areas where I couldn't fit without going vertical. I don't remember it being fun, but I was mostly blind folded trying to not lose donated the reg that was in my mouth. I might have to go back and actually see it.

 

[benjammin17]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

As for practicing some of the skills mentioned, I think if you have performed the skill in class and are within the limits of the cert you can practice it. You did get certified you can do it after all. I also think you should use common sense though when practicing certain skills. Some might warrant a 3rd team member to assist if necessary and to provide feedback. The last thing you would want to do is turn a practice into an emergency.

 

[benjammin17]

Go do the Catacombs at Ginnie, you'll need a 400' reel and it'll give you some good reel running practice!

Sounds great. Thanks for the suggestion. I have been to ginnie once, but it was a weekend last summer and not in the cave systems. I never knew you could fit that many people into a swimming area, it was a madhouse.

I definitely want a lot of practice running line. When I bought my reels I decided to go with the standard dive rite reels. I thought they would be better to learn on than a sidewinder style reel.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Expounding a little further on what I said about having the ability to poke around on exit a little bit,
There is certainly value in keeping speeds consistent, it is incredibly important to be confident that you always have more than enough gas to exit in an emergency, and the rule of thirds is not conservative enough.

And it's important to not spend too long poking around at max penetration. Less risky to spend time the closer you get the entrance.

You guys ever recalculate 6ths without surfacing as you pass through the Peacock cavern? That's technically a no no because we didn't calculate from the surface, but in practice it's probably never caused a fatality and hopefully never will.

So you dive to hill400 and turn around? Poke around between the Keyhole and the Lips, or in the gallery. Save the poking around between Parkbench and the Keyhole for when you get to the Rollercoaster or so. More or less, that's the gist of it.

There is so much to see in the front half of Ginnie, but you do need to make some jumps, so even at full cave, don't discount those first map dives. You'll never ever run out of cave to enjoy.

I would not do a real lights out air share without an instructor, or a heck of an experienced buddy with me. But lights out drills with a backup deployed? I think that's a great idea.

 

[benjammin17]

I definitely wouldn't push exploring around at the distance I reached turn pressure. I would save the poking around for closer to the entrance.

I agree with you, lights out air sharing is something that has a lot of risk to just practice without supervision.

 

[CptTightPants21]

@kierentec I don't disagree, but it seems that so many divers take less time to come out than they do on the way in and that's a shame. If you took a sixth to get in and use a third or half to get out, you are still reserving 2x of your penetration gas and that is more than enough and I would be floored if someone took 4x the time to get out than they did to get in. Most people don't have that patience.

On lights out I think you just need to use good judgement on that. If you're doing it in rocky/sandy areas or say in P1 cavern/green room or in the first couple hundred feet of OG, the entirety of JB that an intro diver can dive, same with Ginnie, then you aren't going to do anything to the cave IMO. We'll have to disagree about an instructor being there or not though. You can practice lights out without actually turning the lights out, especially if you are doing it with your buddy paying attention. When I do those drills we do it with a third team member not participating to babysit and more importantly provide feedback

It may not sound like it, but these suggestions sound a little advanced for some intro student--Depends on the instructor, depends on the student, but these are not things I would suggest unsolicited to the cookie cutter intro diver. I understand your thoughts on taking your time to exit, but it sounds a lot like gas recalculations (even though it technically isn't). It just sounds like a lot. I would rather emphasize a 'relax, take your time going in take and you time going out' approach.

I hate sixths; I like NAUI or GUE's approach to gas rules. I would rather keep it simple and have an intro student diving straight 1/3rds in and out then do what was suggested above. You call it 'patience', I think you are projecting full cave diver 'life experience' onto an intro student.

As for the drills--mask off and lost line, etc. I agree with the others that said instructor is the safest bet. I could maybe get behind it if it was a team of 3 and the third diver had eyes open as a look out. The 3rd diver would have considerable more experience and the drills were VERY close to exit and in safer places--thinking Park Bench or closer. But man, so many ifs and buts, it is easier just to say don't do it until you are full cave.