Rec to Cave: Training and Equipment

[Lorenzoid]

One thought to add on the drysuit--and keep in mind I'm feeling a little cocky here since I just placed the order for mine this morning--is that during training we spend a lot of time in the water. Much of the time, we are not moving a whole lot, so we are not generating a lot of heat. We might spend time floating on the surface preparing for the dive or debriefing after the dive. Even in 72 F water, I found that can take its toll over the course of a day. And the days can be long. By the end of the day, I was chilly. My mind was not as sharp, and I was not absorbing as much as I should have. I looked forward to getting out of the water. If you're young and resilient, which I am not, you may be able to handle it better than I did. In any case, you can readily do the first course or two in a wetsuit, especially your 7 mm semi-dry, but you will probably want a drysuit sooner than you think if you're planning to train in N. FL. It's not just for longer dives after you're certified. Also, a drysuit serves as backup buoyancy when diving heavy steel tanks. As it's been explained to me, to move into steel doubles I needed a drysuit.

Again, great thread. There are always people in our position, and we all have the same issues. And sooner or later, we will be looking for intro-level dive buddies to practice with, so it's good to keep up with who is where on the training ladder.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Merica, perhaps if you post where you are located some local cave divers can help you work on some basics

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[halocline]

If you're in north FL, caveadventurers can be a great resource, although be warned that the owner (Edd) is a sidemount advocate to the point of dismissing backmount almost totally, which put me off a bit as a backmount diver. At least that was my impression.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to try some OW dives in doubles; if you like it you can get or put together a set of AL80s at a reasonable price. The tanks are cheap, and there are lots of used bands/manifolds floating around, at least in part to the side mount craze. Then you can practice doing local dives in doubles. Likewise, try sidemount and do the same if you prefer it; put together a simple set up and do lots of easy local dives. I gained quite a bit of experience in BM doubles by using a set to assist with OW check out dives in 20 feet of water at a local spring. This gave me good opportunities to practice hovering in very shallow water (often 10 ft or less) while students were practicing their skills.

Anyhow, the point is, you can really get some good practice in on your own for managing the buoyancy and propulsion in doubles, SM, and also with a drysuit. These skills tend to take way more practice and require maintenance more than other skills IMO. You can always get better at fine tuning your buoyancy, trim, and propulsion. I also think a cave diver needs to adopt an early attitude of self reliance that meshes well with training. The classes are of course essential, but with any complex skill set, they are only the beginning of developing the layers of habits and skills that result in expert diving in a potentially very dangerous setting. A good teacher will give you the insight to practice the right things, but you have to understand from the beginning that skills are only acquired through repetitive practice.

If you have easy access to living in cave country, count yourself very very lucky in terms of doing this. I'm still trying to figure out a way I can convince my wife to spend a month per year in the yucatan, without much luck!

 

[TSandM]

Some will say that backmount diving is disappearing in the cave diving circles,but this is not true

Thank you, karstdvr! It sometimes seems to me that every sidemount diver in the world is on line, and those of us diving backmount have given up

 

[uncfnp]

Hi Merica. Like many other posters, I recently had to make similar decisions that you are struggling with now and I agree that deciding back or sidemount is the first and most important decision you will need to make.

I don't know how you plan to group the classes. I recommend going slow and taking your time. You have lots of options.

I did cavern in single tank, modified recreational gear and wetsuit. It gave me a chance to get an introduction into cave without the worry of learning doubles at the same time. After the course I decided to continue in SM for a number of reasons. And I think which configuration you choose will affect the choice of instructor. Since I planed SM, Edd was the obvious choice for me.

My advice is that if you do SM, do it with your cave instructor as part of your cavern or intro course. But absolutely get your kicks and buoyancy fundamentals down before class, through a mentor or class. I also did drysuit at the same time as SM and Intro. I did not find learning drysuit particularly difficult but it was a compressed neoprene drysuit though which I understand has a shorter learning curve then the trilam suits.

While not necessary before beginning cave, you will want to take an advanced nitrox/deco course at some point.

Final bit of advice, talk to several instructors. When you've made your choice, discuss with them what they want you to do before starting cave and what training they want to do themselves.

 

[Subcooled]

Furthermore, will the classes teach me how to use doubles or will i need to take an intro to tech course to be able to use them.

No. You need to know your equipment in advance.

Reason:
I went on a cave diving course, where I dived together with an unknown buddy. Unfortuntely, as became apparent in the cave, he was not familiar with his tanks and harness and weights (although he claimed to be). What resulted was not pretty. The new equipment configuration, with related efficiency- and buoyancy issues, caused him increasing levels of stress. The first sign of trouble was a trashed reel and a distress signal from a seemingly neutrally buoyant diver in perfect trim and with lots of gas and no equipment issues and no entanglement. There was no direct access to his brain so there was nothing I could and then he soon panicked and escaped, which of course failed miserably. The diver wrapped himself in guide line, floated feet first into ceiling, and lost consciousness - thirty feet from safety. Lesson learned: learn to use your equipment in open water first. Diving in a cave with unfamiliar equipment is an extremely stupid thing to do. Choose your equipment setup (bm doubles or sidemount) and then dive a lot with it (dozens of dives at minimum) before attending an intro cave class.

I am also aware that a drysuit will most likely be needed and will an instructor feel comfortable taking me on a student with no previous drysuit experience

You need dozens of drysuit dives to master drysuit diving.

 

[karstdvr]

Thank you, karstdvr! It sometimes seems to me that every sidemount diver in the world is on line, and those of us diving backmount have given up

Backmount is not dead and is a very important tool for a cave diver to use. There are some cave passages that backmount will work better in like a fissure, where you want a narrow profile. Sidemount reminds me of nitrox when it became mainstream around 1996. Nitrox was banned from DEMA prior to that, and was felt that it had no place in the recreational dive industry. But one thing is the diving industry is always looking for is a way to get established divers with equipment and certifications already to open their wallets and buy more. Nitrox became that "new thing", and all of a sudden DEMA embraced it and then you had instruction, instruction materials, different levels of certification, nitrox regs, tshirts etc etc. Doesn't sidemount seem like the same?

 

[tursiops]

Backmount is not dead and is a very important tool for a cave diver to use. There are some cave passages that backmount will work better in like a fissure, where you want a narrow profile. Sidemount reminds me of nitrox when it became mainstream around 1996. Nitrox was banned from DEMA prior to that, and was felt that it had no place in the recreational dive industry. But one thing is the diving industry is always looking for is a way to get established divers with equipment and certifications already to open their wallets and buy more. Nitrox became that "new thing", and all of a sudden DEMA embraced it and then you had instruction, instruction materials, different levels of certification, nitrox regs, tshirts etc etc. Doesn't sidemount seem like the same?

LOL. This dark history kind of forgets that for many dives, Nitrox is superior, just as for many dives sidemount is superior. It is not all about an industry that wants to make money, rather it is about divers who want to optimize their gear and are willing to pay for it.

 

[karstdvr]

LOL. This dark history kind of forgets that for many dives, Nitrox is superior, just as for many dives sidemount is superior. It is not all about an industry that wants to make money, rather it is about divers who want to optimize their gear and are willing to pay for it.

I agree with your comment "for many dives", but there are those that feel for all dives.

When Nitrox first hit the market it was sold as all the positive things, including make you feel better,and sidemount has many of the same similarities. I am not antisidemount, heck I was diving sidemount when you had to make our own rig,but what I am saying is that backmount is not dead as some would have you think.

 

[tursiops]

Actually, I'm sorry the " feeling better" aspect of Nitrox has not been verified, because I do feel better when using it on repetitive dives on multiple days.

I agree, back mount is not dead, but it is for me; I just sold my last set of doubles.

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