It’s also driven by local environment. GUE tells me I need 25+ dives for Cave 2 (which is a good idea to be honest). That works really well if you live in Florida. But my nearest dive site has no gold lines - it’s a mine, with a single incline shaft that branches into parallel tunnels at each level. There are no jumps, it’s all Ts. If you pick a deeper level, you could cross 2-3 Ts easily in the first 50 meters in the shaft. Oh and it’s a pretty strenuous carry to even get your cylinders to the dive site and the nearest compressor is half a day away - so people tend to violate the navigation rules and might bring a stage if doing two dives. Is it unsafe? Possibly. Is it less unsafe than not diving for a year or two between intro/C1 and full/C2?
With intro to cave you can do T's, this is navigation on the mainline. They call jumps 'complex' navigation. I believe TDI had in earlier days (don't know nowadays) that T's were not allowed in intro to cave.
I see it quite a lot that people do first intro to cave and then 6-12 months later come back to France and do the full cave part with no single cave dive in between. So what is the difference between doing it then in 1 week together or split it?
And is it really needed to have 25 dives between a level? I did my cave also with all courses in 1 week and hey, I am still alive. If I had to stop at intro or c1 level, I was also a person who had ignored the gasrules and/or the decompression rules on the first dive after the course. Was I stupid? No, not at all. But this was for me a reason I absolutely wanted to do cavern, intro and full cave in 1 way. And if the diver is good enough, for sure this can be done.
I have done nightdives to 24m with my open water, was this stupid? No, also not. The reason was not that I could not do it, but there was no instructor available at my club to do my 2*/aow. But I was ready for it, so decided to do it. At the end I really learned NOTHING from my aow as I had already figured out all myself by reading and by doing. So I think the faster and better way was that if there was an instructor available to not slow down me. Now people started complaigning, but nobody saw my ask or my need.
I think it is better to teach the divers who CAN the full cave curricullum at once than slow them down. Better to explain all and let them see, feel etc what can go wrong or how it works than slow down and then let them do it without course on their own. You cannot know for sure a diver will not do things outside a certification level. So look at the diver too.
Yes I know, it is sometimes difficult as instructor. You can advice, and the student or diver can decide to do different. Yes, sometimes this goes wrong. But remember with every dive, there was be a first who did it without course.
Now you have for example also bailout ccr courses. I have 2 ccr's and the reason I bought a sidemount ccr was to use it as a bailout unit too. So I figured out all myself. There was no course for this. Now someone wrote a course for it. Do I need that course? No, I already know how it works. But for the newer generation divers it will be easier to gain the knowledge.
And if 25 dives between levels are needed, remember the logbook is often a liebook.
I needed to have 25 between 42 and 60m between normoxic trimix and full trimix. So 3 months after my normoxic I signed up for my full trimix. That instructor asked me about that 25 dives because 3 months was not a lot. I told him: there is NOT written in standards how and when they must be made, but I have that 25. A lot are done on a single tank, touch and go to 50m with most before I ever started technical diving, only 2 were done on trimix after the normoxic course, rest was air. So I did not lie, I had done the REQUIRED dives according to standards, and nobody could discuss it. There was not written after or trimix needed. But also then, with the 0.4% of helium in air, you always can say you breath trimix. So then a new discussion will start. And even then, a liebook will be an option for divers.
And if I think I am ready for something, and even some will advice against it, I will find a way to do. I did this with running and finished with 3 succesfull half marathons where people said I would never be able to do that.
So even if you are instructor, you can advice, you can say no to a diver, but that diver will find a way.
And then in most cases no accidents happen happely. You only can think, I am happy I did not sign off that diver.
I have never been refused by an instructor, the only people who judged me were other divers and in most cases divers were I never dove with, or instructors who wanted me as instructor and I decided to go to another. Remember diving is a strange world with a lot talking behind backs.
I have refused students too, some came back later, others found another way. I don't mind. I have done it in the way that looked for me the best. I see that some divers really can go fast in diving and others need a lot of time or more time. Standards are most times made for averages. If you are a natural in diving you can go faster than a diver that is the opposite of a natural. Talent, but also the WILL to learn are important.
A good talented diver with a lazy willingness will be worser than a less talented diver with willingness to learn.
If you finished a course and stop practising your level will go down. Every instructor will see this and know this, agency independent. This is also human, a lot of people gained their cert and think they will stay on that level without practising. But it is not true.
And remember: even the best instructor in the world is not your best instructor if the personalities don't fit. Then you better can go to a less good instructor.
