Intro to Cave Course

[H2Andy]

all you're REALLY protecting against is a massive regulator failure of some kind (e.g. a locked up first stage)

yes, i actually thought of that, belive it or not.

mostly, i am interested in the skills i'll learn and perfect
in Intro. Cave, and don't plan to do any serious cave diving
for quite a while. I am going to stick with cavern and
open water until i can afford the proper equipment, which,
alas, may not be all that soon.

 

[fgray1]

Either a Y or h valve, ut can be done with a vest style BC. The intro skills are the same as cavern with the exception of the valve drill and 1 more light. When I did my carvern with GDI (Rick) he trains you to intro standards from the get go. So when you do the intro you are well prepared for it. You will be far ahead of the basic cavern cert. When you do the intro class with him you need only perfect your skills to complete the intro because you will have already learned all the skills. If your not going to do any cave dive don't bother to take the Intro class yet. Wait till you intend to go into the caves.
Go and do as many cavern dives as possible and get your skills down. You will find there are alot of divers on the board that will go with you and refresh your skills.
Most important of all is bouyancy.
Just my opinion.
Fred

 

[OneBrightGator]

Under your circumstances I would definitely skip the H-valve, they aren't cheap and half, if not all, of it will be worthless after you go to doubles. Rent until you can afford a set of doubles and use your money on another reg, cannister light, reels/spools, backplate and wings, the list goes on

Personally, I don't think single-tank overhead diving is a good idea (obivously there are exceptions).

Do you have an LDS in Jax?

Ben

 

[GDI]

H2Andy, what you may consider to do is to purchase the H valve but have them as opposing sides. That is a right valve and a left valve with the H adapter. This way you may save some money by not purchasing the isolator and the tank bands. With doubles you will need a BP and wings set up so you would save some money there as well until you can afford it. When you are ready you could then purchase the isolator cross bar, the tank bands and the BP and wings. The H valve will allow you to dive to the intro level working on perfecting the required skills for full cave. Prior to doing the full cave class you would then buy the iso bar and the Bp and wings and practise in the open water getting your trim down and working the skills you have learned up to that point in time. This will save you some money and should you opt not to dive the tanks as doubles then you could separate them and replace the H adapter and dive a open water environment. The only major change in equipment config would be the cylinders as your regs would be set up the same for either config. This is also the reason for H valve and single tank use in the cave training programs. teaching you limits and perfecting techniques

 

[MikeFerrara]

thus, all you're REALLY protecting against is a massive regulator failure of some kind (e.g. a locked up first stage)

Which are by far the most common failures. Burst discs can be dealt with and I've never seen or even heard of a tank o-ring go although I guess it could.

Even a manifold has potential failures that you can't isolate.

Andy,

You can use a jacket but you run into configuration problems like finding a place for a primary light and, for that matter, your backups.

I wouldn't want to do it.

 

[H2Andy]

thank you everyone... lots to mull over here

 

[joebrown]

and no, NSS-CDS doesn't allow double-tanks on the intro to cave stage.

They do if you state your intention to continue on to full cave. The only problem is you will not obtain an intro card, but a temporary card until you are full cave.

Just to clarify the NSS-CDS standards around this based on my experience, my buddy (DutchFin) and I just did our Intro course, I in an H-valved single, he in doubles.

We both received a (permanent) Intro cert. In addition, though, my buddy in doubles was also issued a "discretionary apprentice" cert, which is time-limited (his is for 90 days but can be renewed at the instructor's discretion). This allows him to do Intro-level cave dives in doubles, although he is limited to using 1/6 of his total gas for penetration.

Hope that helps.

Joe

 

[Mako Mark]

Hi Andy,

I believe the nss-cds standard (for single tanks) is in place to limit the extent of penetration of the intro to cave divers.

CDS found that intro to cave divers were among the highest risk among the cavern/cave diving community as "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing", my advice is stay in the cavern, or go full cave.

I know this doesnt directly answer your initial question, but it applies to equipment as well, either you commit to having full cave gear, or stay out of the cave zone, this is not really something you can do gradually. (in parachuting it would be like saying, "I am only doing static line jumps, so I need no reserve")

I dont go anywhere near the cave or cavern without a set of doubles, but that is just my opinion.

 

[joebrown]

my advice is stay in the cavern, or go full cave...I dont go anywhere near the cave or cavern without a set of doubles, but that is just my opinion.

Sounds sound, And that's where I'm headed from my current Intro level. Doubles first, in open water, and apprentice/full as soon as reasonable.

While I'm glad to have recently completed the cavern and intro training (with the excellent Reggie Ross at Ginnie) , I don't plan on spending any more time in overheads without two bottles on my back, and that includes the closer-to-home wrecks that I've dove with singles before. That, among other things, is a realization I came to as a result of the cavern/intro training.

Joe

 

[H2Andy]

ok... my thought was to do the intro cert but stay out of the cave zone (just continue
doing caverns) until such time as i take the next cave class.

my option is to continue doing cavern dives with only a cavern cert, and i figured at
least i could further my instruction AND play it safe by not going into the cave.