Just curious too "see"....

[Aquabot]

As I find myself starting to head down the path to become cave certified I was curious, what information did you yourself find the most usefull/valuable OR wish you had known before becoming cave certified?

 

[j2s]

" Don't worry, be happy " ;P !!!!!!......

 

[Superlyte27]

Bah, I had 3 paragraphs written and they got deleted without posting.

LOL, that blows.

The short of it...
Get the best instructor in the world. If he's not available, get his recommendation on who to teach you
Read everything. NSS-CDS has good books on the subject. Blueprint for Survival is a must
Get recommendations for gear from your instructor and be proficient in it before you arrive to class
Get an idea of how much you intend to budget for Cave Training and ultimately Cave Diving.... then triple it.

email me anytime...
I don't intend on adding any more classes this year, but I welcome any questions/discussion

peter@ultimatecavediving.com

 

[TSandM]

What I found most useful was to do EVERYTHING I could in open water, before getting into the caves. By the time I started my cave training, I had horizontal trim, non-silting propulsion, no-mask swimming, valve drills, S-drills, and scenario responses pretty much down. What I had to learn was really specifically cave related, like maintaining my buoyancy in a blackout (which, in retrospect, I could have practiced more in OW), doing nice tie-offs and reel work, and maintaining my situational awareness.

In my opinion, there is no reason to learn in a cave what you can learn in open water. The GUE Fundamentals class is very good for this, because you can even take it in a single tank setup, and begin polishing cave-type skills from that point.

 

[boulderjohn]

I agree with TSandM fully. You want your cave instructor to teach you the ins and outs of cave diving. You don't want that instructor to teach you the basics of diving in good trim. That's a waste. If I were you, I would not even think of going through cave instruction until I had excellent buoyancy in horizontal trim, could do the critical kicks (frog, modified frog, back, modified flutter, helicopter turn) pretty well. Make sure your buoyancy is dialed in. You want to have those down before you start working on actual cave skills.

And if you think you are going to be using a dry suit in the caves, make sure you are good with that, too.

 

[Superlyte27]

Yup, what they both said.
It's not a popular opinion, but it's my opinion that we're here to teach you to cave dive, not to scuba dive. Part of scuba diving is proper buoyancy, trim, propulsion and you should have all of that mastered before you get to us. If all we have to do as cave instructors is to teach you have to cave dive, then your class is a whole lot more fun and you get to do more.

 

[Aquabot]

Thanks a lot of good points mentioned. I was referred to Mr. Rich Courtney in High Springs and he was spoken highly of. I'm not quit ready yet to start training (have to stuff the piggy bank lol) but I plan to before the end of the year. There was another article posted by another member about her journey into tech, which got me wondering about other folks here.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[ucfdiver]

Thanks a lot of good points mentioned. I was referred to Mr. Rich Courtney in High Springs and he was spoken highly of. I'm not quit ready yet to start training (have to stuff the piggy bank lol) but I plan to before the end of the year. There was another article posted by another member about her journey into tech, which got me wondering about other folks here.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

I didn't take this course, but I've seen those progress who did, and myself. They had a much easier time. I recommend anyone who's starting cave/tech training to take it, even if you're going to another agency for the rest of your training.
GUE Fundamentals | Global Underwater Explorers

 

[billgraham]

I agree, the less time you spend trying to get your bouyancy and trim right, the more time you'll spend learning how to cave dive.

 

[DCBC]

...what information did you yourself find the most usefull/valuable OR wish you had known before becoming cave certified?

Obviously you'll need the minimum requirements of the Agency that's offering the program. Like others have said, perfect your openwater skills before moving forward. Things like buoyancy, night/poor visibility experience, navigation, using extended capacity gas systems (doubles or CCR), lighting systems/reel operation, blackout/S-drills, etc. will help prepare you for the program. You will want to maximize your training experience and not be concerned with having to adjust to things you could have prepared for in-advance.