Too bad about the conditions. I dove Morrison in November of last year and thought it was the nicest of the caverns I had dove.
Low Vis & Bad Experience at Florida Spring
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It's actually pretty amazing what your reptile brain does in certain circumstances.
When I took the wreck workshop, we laid line and followed it out blind. "Blind" meant with our eyes closed; the line was laid on the bottom of Cove 2 in about 20 feet of water (not overhead). On the second day, doing our exit as a three man team, I was in the middle. I kept losing my grip on the leader. I got entangled in the line bad enough that my other buddy had to free me. The exit went on and on and on, and I knew we weren't making much progress. I began to worry about gas (although I was in 20 feet of water and had begun with 170 cf). I felt my pulse rate starting to climb, and my respirations getting faster, and I felt this powerful anxiety and that "I wish I were anywhere else but here" sensation. I tried to laugh at myself, because I was in the bottom of one of our best-known local sites, in water so shallow I could quite possibly have free-dived that deep, and all I had to do to extricate myself from the situation was open my eyes. But I couldn't laugh. I learned a LOT about what being blind and dependent and confused does to your emotions on that day. And this was without any real risk!
When I took the wreck workshop, we laid line and followed it out blind. "Blind" meant with our eyes closed; the line was laid on the bottom of Cove 2 in about 20 feet of water (not overhead). On the second day, doing our exit as a three man team, I was in the middle. I kept losing my grip on the leader. I got entangled in the line bad enough that my other buddy had to free me. The exit went on and on and on, and I knew we weren't making much progress. I began to worry about gas (although I was in 20 feet of water and had begun with 170 cf). I felt my pulse rate starting to climb, and my respirations getting faster, and I felt this powerful anxiety and that "I wish I were anywhere else but here" sensation. I tried to laugh at myself, because I was in the bottom of one of our best-known local sites, in water so shallow I could quite possibly have free-dived that deep, and all I had to do to extricate myself from the situation was open my eyes. But I couldn't laugh. I learned a LOT about what being blind and dependent and confused does to your emotions on that day. And this was without any real risk!
Doesn't always work. Some cave rock formations have metals and other stuff in the rocks and your bearing outside of the cave may not be the same as inside...... could actually set you in the wrong direction.ams511:
The only ways to get out of a cave are: know it intimately, have a continuous line to OW and seeing daylight. If one or more of these fall away, the other two become dramatically more important. If all three are gone..... you are depending on luck. Luck and caves are a dangerous combination.
mikerault
Contributor
One thing, in a cavern by defninition there is no "deep" penetration, generally you may be abe to get out by putting a hand to the wall and following it, just like in a maze (unless the maz is designed to defeat this) however, if the cavern is just the vestabule to a cave this will not work. However, this is not a substitute for a proper guide line.
OP
av8er23
Contributor
Is wreck training similar to cavern or cave training?
It's gotta be similar, but with more sharp edges, eh? 
From what I've heard from people taking TDI advanced wreck (not to be confused with the PADI wreck diving specialty) cavern training is more extensive with regards to anti-siliting techniques and my guess would be line work as well. This is because there is so much more to cover in wreck diving than in cavern diving so they can't spend as much time on the fundamentals.
I've heard several instructors recommend that perspective wreck students take cavern first as it allows the instructor to focus on the peculiarities of wreck diving and not have to worry about the fundamentals of overhead penetration which a cavern class will handle quite well.
As far as more advanced classes in the cave training progression, I think that is really where wreck and the cave sequence diverge as there you are working on skills less applicable to wreck diving and generalized overhead penetration but more specialized to cave diving.
Cavern I think is one of the best classes above OW to improve your basic diving technique. A cavern diver in a Texas lake, if taught to the minimum standards, will leave the bottom on the bottom. An OW instructor may not. No where in recreational training (AFAIK) do they spend much (or any) time on anti-silting techniques.
After further thought, cavern should be renamed to "introduction to the overhead" and be a prereq for Advanced Wreck and Ice diving (not the dog-on-a-leash technique but running a reel with a redundant air source which many feel is more appropriate).
I've heard several instructors recommend that perspective wreck students take cavern first as it allows the instructor to focus on the peculiarities of wreck diving and not have to worry about the fundamentals of overhead penetration which a cavern class will handle quite well.
As far as more advanced classes in the cave training progression, I think that is really where wreck and the cave sequence diverge as there you are working on skills less applicable to wreck diving and generalized overhead penetration but more specialized to cave diving.
Cavern I think is one of the best classes above OW to improve your basic diving technique. A cavern diver in a Texas lake, if taught to the minimum standards, will leave the bottom on the bottom. An OW instructor may not. No where in recreational training (AFAIK) do they spend much (or any) time on anti-silting techniques.
After further thought, cavern should be renamed to "introduction to the overhead" and be a prereq for Advanced Wreck and Ice diving (not the dog-on-a-leash technique but running a reel with a redundant air source which many feel is more appropriate).
By definition a cavern is an overhead environment (not wreck) where you can see daylight. A cave is an overhead (not wreck) environment where you can not see daylight. It is irrelevant if this 'cavern' is attached to a full cave system. A small cavern becomes a cave at night (no day light) or when silted up properly. The thing is that the daylight can help you determine the exit and is one of your light sources. If this is gone and you are not properly trained (in all circumstances) or ARE, and are not implementing this training; any penetration is too deep. Hence the OP's post.mikerault:
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lol...I know that feeling.
wow. When you get it and cannot see your hand...that's my sign to get out. Once i went all the way to la Bufadora in Mexico and was the only one to cancel...the viz was 10 feet and I know there is some kelp there. Not sure how you would train your self outta that, what a mess. Not to mention the surge could bash your noggin into a rock.
covediver
Contributor
av8er23:
Conceptually, it is all overhead environment training. In reality the training and experience for me was quite different.
Did wrecks as part of my job and they seem a lot more complex than caves and caverns which I did for fun.
There seems to be a tribal difference from what I read in the book The Last Dive for a pretty good insight on the ethos of wreck divers versus cavers.
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