PADI Cavern Cert Accepted by Others?

[Peter Guy]

Andy, I've looked at the course quite a bit. In the particular case, since he and I did our Tech 1 training together, I know his weak point is line work (the first time he ran a reel was during our training).

BUT, back to the original question, any instructor from another agency willing to state they'd accept a PADI Cavern Cert as a prereq for Intro?

 

[RJP]

BUT, back to the original question, any instructor from another agency willing to state they'd accept a PADI Cavern Cert as a prereq for Intro?

When I was looking into cavern/cave training I asked this same question of several NACD and NSS-CDS instructors. They all conveyed different variations on the same theme:

A PADI cavern card meets the pre-req...ON PAPER. But ultimately, it comes down to THE DIVER and not THE CARD. If the diver is ready to go from Cavern-level to Intro-level, then it doesn't matter what card they have. Similarly, if the diver holds an NACD or NSS-CDS cavern card...but isn't ready to go on to Intro, then those cards don't really mean anything either.

A few Cave instructors hinted that some of it might come down to whether they were comfortable with the "Cave bona-fides" of the instructor issuing the PADI cavern card. (eg: a qualified Full Cave instructor who issued a PADI card for whatever reason, or someone who is not a cave instructor but with whom they are familiar/comfortable.)

So the question for you Peter is, do you think that an NACD, NSS-CDS, or GUE cave instructor would accept a "Peter Guy-issued PADI Cavern Card" as meeting the pre-req for Intro? Similarly, would a diver holding a "Peter Guy-issued PADI Cavern Card" be qualified to go on to intro?

 

[JamesDixon]

The progression is Cavern Then Intro to cave, apprentce to cave, then full cave. Padi cavern is accepted by TDI, NSS/CDS and probably others. cave diving is Teck diving and requires different gear than sports diving. Take your time get experience at each level and stay alive. Have fun. Mexico is a great place for cave Diving. I can refer a great instructor.