Cave divers, how much training happened outside the cave in your course? UTD teaches overhead protocols course. Every one is working outside the cave first then they do everything inside it. Is that how cave training is normally done? Is that helpful?
At the time, when I took UTD's overhead protocols, OHP (2012), it was the pre-cursor class a diver took before selecting whether they wished to pursue Cave and/or Wreck training. I combined OHP with UTD Cave 1 which in theory would be similar (5-6 days) in length to GUE's Cave 1 (someone will correct me if I'm wrong here).
It was a multi-day course covering reel/line management, no vis scenarios, compounding failures to along with continued opportunity to improve one's trim and buoyancy while dealing with increasing amounts of task loading in an open water (and dry-land) environment. At one point during the class, the failures progressed to air sharing from a single regulator while maintaining the protocols necessary to dive in an overhead environment.
No certification was given, just the ability to continue on to either a UTD cave or wreck course.
Whether you agree with it or not, not everyone is interested in diving caves and there are those (not a myth) that are only interested in wrecks (disclaimer: I dive both). This class at the time (no idea now), provided an excellent opportunity for students to be challenged without some of the potential limitations (depth, temperature, seas, etc) of diving on wrecks.
Whether is was my instructor or the class, or my skills in the water at that time or a combination of three, to this day, it was one of the most beneficial courses I've taken.
