I HAVE TO AGREE WITH Superlyte. You dont know what you dont know. We can all quible on what is a cavern and is not,,, but our definitions are too often tainted by our inflated belief in our personal abilities. I have dove with Superlyte in the caves as a student. And things can and do go south fast. There are no equipment shortcuts when caving. If ever an environment existed that requires buddy skills , communication, dive planning, COMPLIANCE TO PROTOCOLS and such, it is the overhead situation. ow diving is very forgiving. you can screw up all the way through the dive and surface in good shape. You do something stupid and you normally only effect yourself. NOT TRUE FOR THE CAVES. I am not a valid source as to the details of how things should be done however i have a pretty good idea on how things should not be done. And more importantly how fast things can turn from great to potentially life threatening crap. I can not think of a single ow experience that can compare to the level of stress that an cave overhead environment can generate. I like to think i am reasonable in handling steressful situations. I believe i do hanfdle pretty well. Most people do not have my background. The most important lesson that was reinforced , is that if you have air you have time not to panic. I doubt that an ow skilled diver truly understands that. loose a light, loose a buddy, equipment malfunction can very easily initiate a quickly deteriating situation that with training would be easily resolved.
I completely understand the FEELING that caverns are safe since If you can see daylight you can always head for the light and get out. The down side to this is that you do not have problems when things go right. One can enter a winding cavern and get 50 feet or so in and a cloud block the sun and there is no more light to swim to till the cloud passes. From that point the number of problems seem to be exponential to the number of buddies you are with. It is just not worth it. There is no substitute for training in overhead environments. This is not a NO BIG DEAL like an ow going to aow land. When it comes to,, especially, cave systems you truly dont know what you dont know.