Recommendation for Cave Instructor near Ginnie Springs

[K Mejean]

I believe you are correct about cavern being done at two different sites. Mine was. I agree that cavern by itself is a good thing. I did it that way because I only took cavern because I had been told it was a good prelude to wreck penetration so I figured "why not". Little did I know that as son as i did the class I would have a mad desire to see the rest of the cave. So on I went for more training and a lot more diving. Now I can't get enough of it.
BTW. Never did make the wreck penetration class. I guess one of these day I might get around to it. There are a lot of cave to see though. I could be a while.

 

[AceszHigh]

Thanks everyone for the input and good advice. Yes, I've been bitten by the diving bug and am wanting more..hence my desire to venture into cave diving after my first trip to the Ginnie ballroom and peek Devil's Ear. I'd love to take cavern/intro together but I believe that'd make for a 5-6 day class and I typically can't get that much time off work at once, so that's why I 'd do cavern first over 3 days.

 

[halocline]

I second what James said. Also interview some instructors and dont settle for what you HEAR. Your life does depend on this.

While I appreciate your sentiment, I could not disagree more about the "your life depends on your choice of cavern instructor" statement you made by implication. Your safety in cavern/cave diving, just like any other diving, depends squarely on yourself and your judgment as a diver. That might include who you choose to dive with in team situations, but do you really think there are certified cavern/cave instructors that kill students?

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

While I appreciate your sentiment, I could not disagree more about the "your life depends on your choice of cavern instructor" statement you made by implication. Your safety in cavern/cave diving, just like any other diving, depends squarely on yourself and your judgment as a diver. That might include who you choose to dive with in team situations, but do you really think there are certified cavern/cave instructors that kill students?

Well we can disagree then. I do this on a weekly basis and witness the outcome of some instructors that give people cards that didn't earn them. That directly puts the diver at risk cause they should have been told they were not ready and failed the course. Poor skills can kill you just as quick as dumb and careless errors. Some people come out of these classes looking like seasoned veterans, some look good but they have a lot of room for improvement, others should never have passed. I saw an intro diver about 2 months ago that was kicking up silt on a dive at JB and we are talking about the first few hundred feet.

 

[Dive-aholic]

I thought the class had to be taken at 2 or more sites.

It's agency dependent. Some agencies do require 2 or more sites. The wording is also different agency to agency.

 

[ucfdiver]

BTW....be sure to request that your instructor let you run the reel at Manatee's head spring

 

[TSandM]

halocline, I totally agree that your survival is up to you. But it is a major problem when you don't know what you don't know, or when an instructor has cut you too much slack, and you don't recognize it.

My Cave 1 instructor told us a story of one of his first cave dives. He and a friend were going down a steep shaft, and he hit the ceiling. It knocked one of his regulators loose, and he had a catastrophic leak. He had never been air-gunned, or asked to do a rapid valve shutdown, and as he began to try, the bubbles knocked a rock out of the ceiling which hit his light and killed it. He was now head down, in the dark, trying to execute an emergency skill he had never learned to do. This is one of the reasons he teaches the kind of class he does.

I have seen people diving in caves (who ostensibly have passed their classes) who swim with their hands, kick the ceiling when it isn't remotely necessary, have poor frog kicks and leave a silt trail, or dive badly out of trim. I have dived with people who have passed what I would consider to be very good quality classes, who did not have useful responses to team urgencies.

The student simply doesn't know the standard to which he ought to be taught -- he is dependent on the instructor to know, and not all instructors are created equal.

 

[halocline]

I will certainly agree that there are likely to be cavern/cave teachers out there who pass sub-standard students, but I would be curious to know about fatalities directly attributable to lax cavern instruction. I'm not talking about students who exceed their certification in terms of penetration or other challenge.

I think we can all agree that finding a good teacher for any technical diving (or anything dangerous, for that matter) is a really good idea, and that it's not often easy for a student to evaluate a teacher prior to taking the class. I just take issue with the statement that your life depends on choosing the right cavern instructor. If people were really dying after taking a particular instructor's courses, there would be some pretty serious liability, don't you think? Or at least some VERY negative publicity about it?

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

I will certainly agree that there are likely to be cavern/cave teachers out there who pass sub-standard students, but I would be curious to know about fatalities directly attributable to lax cavern instruction. I'm not talking about students who exceed their certification in terms of penetration or other challenge.

I think we can all agree that finding a good teacher for any technical diving (or anything dangerous, for that matter) is a really good idea, and that it's not often easy for a student to evaluate a teacher prior to taking the class. I just take issue with the statement that your life depends on choosing the right cavern instructor. If people were really dying after taking a particular instructor's courses, there would be some pretty serious liability, don't you think? Or at least some VERY negative publicity about it?

If you don't take it that serious you might not like the outcome. You just wanted to make a point that holds no merit. Argueing semantics and numbers is meaningless, makes for a good internet dive and that's it. A prospective student needs to find an instructor they click with, they have a lot to learn. The instructor will not be there when things go bad and I have done seen a couple divers who had that moment and neither of these have progressed in cave diving. If you can't be competent in following a line in zero viz I'm not sure how they ever passed cavern. As James pointed out earlier, a poorly trained diver also makes it hazardous for others there too.