No Deco Cave Diving... worth it?

[Randy g]

Welcome to the journey.:cool2:

 

[karstdvr]

Spoke to her about the discussions here... her response was oh so deco diving is when you have to do the extra stops etc when ascending... turns out what boulderjohn said was absolutely right... it's the fear instilled in us while open water diving she was just thinking about that...

she doesn't feel so about deco now and she did say it makes sense to know it rather than need it and NOT know what to do...

You've had good instruction because entering decompression you have suddenly entered an overhead similar to a cave. At this point you can't ascend to the surface because of possible injury, so at this point you need to be self sufficient and redundant.

You guys really need baby steps, which will allow a progression as you feel comfortable, Forget about deco procedures, advanced nitrox, full cave etc, think about a cavern course. Do some dives at the cavern level, and if there is a desire to do more,then your desire will be a natural progression which will reduce fear and anxiety of the unknown.

 

[phoenix31tt]

You guys really need baby steps, which will allow a progression as you feel comfortable, Forget about deco procedures, advanced nitrox, full cave etc, think about a cavern course. Do some dives at the cavern level, and if there is a desire to do more,then your desire will be a natural progression which will reduce fear and anxiety of the unknown.

i actually consider cave to be more dangerous than deco diving... while deco diving is a virtual ceiling, cave is an actual ceiling (bent beats dead). However I do not trivialize either. The reason I'm more interested in dp/an is because I have more opportunities to do those dives locally. There aren't any caves that I know of locally but there are some wrecks etc that doesn't make sense to do as no-deco dives.

So my plan is to get trained/certified in that area first (my wife wasn't going to do that training for the reasons mentioned before so she would just join up when we get to the cavern stuff). I'm interested in cave etc but haven't planned to do anything yet. Definitely will start with cavern diving before going to cave though....

 

[nimoh]

i actually consider cave to be more dangerous than deco diving... while deco diving is a virtual ceiling, cave is an actual ceiling (bent beats dead). However I do not trivialize either. The reason I'm more interested in dp/an is because I have more opportunities to do those dives locally. There aren't any caves that I know of locally but there are some wrecks etc that doesn't make sense to do as no-deco dives.

So my plan is to get trained/certified in that area first (my wife wasn't going to do that training for the reasons mentioned before so she would just join up when we get to the cavern stuff). I'm interested in cave etc but haven't planned to do anything yet. Definitely will start with cavern diving before going to cave though....

For significant technical dives (i.e. past the safety margin built into decompression algorithms and settings), a better comparison would be dead on the surface beats dead in the cave and is only really safer for the recovery team.

If you are only talking about blowing off the last few minutes of a 20' stop, I would equate that to a 50' breath hold swim out of a cave.

 

[phoenix31tt]

For significant technical dives (i.e. past the safety margin built into decompression algorithms and settings), a better comparison would be dead on the surface beats dead in the cave and is only really safer for the recovery team.

I don't think the dives here are anything so significant :O... the one technical diver that i know has being doing some wrecks between 140-160ft, 20min bt with 34% deco gas...

does that sound like the situation you describe?

 

[nimoh]

I don't think the dives here are anything so significant :O... the one technical diver that i know has being doing some wrecks between 140-160ft, 20min bt with 34% deco gas...

does that sound like the situation you describe?

yeah, that's just barely a virtual overhead...I would compare that to a cavern dive and not a cave dive

 

[wedivebc]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference? Isn't both cave and deco diving just forms of overhead diving where time, redundancy and gas management become important? What does deco training add to the mix that a full cave diver would not already understand?

 

[ucfdiver]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference? Isn't both cave and deco diving just forms of overhead diving where time, redundancy and gas management become important? What does deco training add to the mix that a full cave diver would not already understand?

Most cave classes never cover how to calculate the volume of gas you need to exit the cave safely. That's why most use 1/3rds or just a WAG for a safety margin.

 

[LiteHedded]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference? Isn't both cave and deco diving just forms of overhead diving where time, redundancy and gas management become important? What does deco training add to the mix that a full cave diver would not already understand?

deco training

 

[phoenix31tt]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference? Isn't both cave and deco diving just forms of overhead diving where time, redundancy and gas management become important? What does deco training add to the mix that a full cave diver would not already understand?

Well as far as TDI goes (who i'm intending to train with):

The major things that the DP course teaches that Intro To Caves/Full Caves don't are:

• Decompression dive planning including:
  • Decompression gas choices
  • Tables vs. personal dive computers
  • Emergency and contingency planning (equipment failure, omitted decompression, etc.)
• Decompression diving procedures
• Following a decompression schedule
• Gas switching
• SMB/lift bag deployment

• Equipment considerations, cylinder labeling, analyzing nitrox mixtures, and gas blending procedures