When are you ready for cavern training?

[PfcAJ]

Mer is good.

 

[rambaldi]

Thanks, and I agree. I'm going to take AOW in a few weeks with Marissa. I'll see how I do with that, and then I'll likely take a GUE Primer course, nail down the skills before I move on to cavern. Neither Meredith nor Doug teach the primer course; does anybody know anyone who does?

---------- Post added September 9th, 2013 at 09:36 PM ----------

ps. Sorry for all the questions, and I appreciate the help.

Having just taken Fundies, if you go in realistic with your expectations and willing to put the work in there is no need to take Primer first. That said, if you do take it first and then take Fundies you will learn more and still get value for your money. With the GUE system of teaching, the instructors learn to push the students. If you go in with thousands of dives, having instructed for other agencies etc. the instructor will push you. If you go in (like I did) with less experience, they won't add all the extra complicating factors, but you will still learn the techniques and still be taught to the high quality standards that GUE demand. You will certainly be amazed by the improvement you can see in the video, from those first dives in the pool to dive 6.

Just be aware that on paper once you have done Fundies, you get nothing extra from AOW. Both allow you to dive to 30m, Fundies with the added benefit of Nitrox. If Marissa is a great instructor, you will still improve your general diving technique and learn from the course, and as I said before if you go into Fundies knowing more you can get more out but you also don't need to go in having spent months training and trying to perfect yourself (and in the process having learnt bad habits).

 

[ucfdiver]

I think the max depth of fundies is 20m, not 30.

 

[rambaldi]

I think the max depth of fundies is 20m, not 30.

Are you sure? Looking at the standards I can't find anything, although I am almost certain I have read the 30m thing there in the past but that may be me making things up. The only limit I see is:

4. Maximum depth 60 feet/18 meters

Which in context I read as the limit for conducting the course rather than the qualification limit. I infer the 30m limit as being the limit for the use of 32% in standard gasses.

I have found a separate reference to 30m from the guys that I did my course with: Essential Courses - Tech Dive NZ - Technical Diving & Technical Dive Training in New Zealand (great people, if you think it is worth flying all this way for Fundies ) but perhaps that is either specific to NZ or outdated.

I can also see your side though, in that the training dives should be conducted in similar conditions to the qualification limits.

 

[corvettejoe]

A lot of the springs have decent sized basins that are perfect for working on all the skills you describe. Just grab a buddy and go muck about.

Local springs are where I got most of my experience from.

There's a few you can safely dive solo in too if you just want to get a lot of time in practicing those skills (Alexander Spring was my favorite when I first started out).
I spent MANY MANY hours in that spring. It has a decent basin, little mini cavern you can tuck into, max depth is only 20ft in the main spring area.
The rest of the basin/pool area is mostly 5-10ft deep (its a big swimming hole, but lots of divers come here too).

If you can swim a lap around the Alexander basin, in 5ft of water, without surfacing or hitting the bottom, and without stirring up the algae on the bottom... then you may be ready for cavern . Get those feet up, frog kick down perfectly, learn to helicopter, backup, etc. Just think of that 5ft depth as a "hard limit" as if you were in a cave. You can't touch the bottom (pretend its a cave) and you can't surface (pretend it's a cave) and you must have perfect buoyancy, or you will silt everything out (pretend it's a cave). The nice thing is if you run into problems, just stand up. If you silt things out, the flow of the spring will clear the area out quickly enough.

It's a great place to train on your own or with a buddy. It's only a few bucks to dive there (National Forrest service owns it). Bring the non-diving friends/family too and make it a day. Come early, in the summer it's packed. In the winter you will have the ENTIRE place to yourself and can come and go whenever.

 

[Karen18]

Corvettejoe-- Great, that sounds perfect. I predict I'll be spending a lot of alone time in that spring, pretending I'm in a cave.

 

[TracyN]

Paradise Springs is a very pretty cavern especially if you get there before the gaggle of OW students silt the place out. They do a lot of OW training there and it is considered an "OW Safe" cavern even though technically is no such thing as an "OW Safe" cavern since OW standards state no overhead environments. "OW sanitized" caverns maybe but there are still dangers present in these caverns that aren't present in OW especially if someone panics. Like I said in PM let me know when you want to dive. I dive somewhere every week, mostly caves but I can be coaxed out to the ocean every now and again.

As far as training you will be very happy with Marissa. She is a good diver and a good instructor and will go out of her way to ensure that you have a good time and that you learn all you need to learn.

 

[Karen18]

Tracy -- I've been to Paradise, it was a nice dive. I teach during the week, but I'm ready to go out diving any weekend (and school holiday). I've done all spring/cavern dives since being in Florida (six weeks) but I wouldn't mind getting back onto a boat. What's your schedule like? .

 

[Bentley Hamm]

Oh dear lord, your getting mixed up with Marissa Lasso & TracyN...your DOOMED!

They're both great people, but your still doomed.

 

[chrpai]

My only concern against a Fundies course at this point is that you might not be ready for it. AFAIK if you can't motionless hover without sculling, you'll be struggling the whole class and not really getting enough time learning new skills. The primer might be enough to get you introduced to the concepts and then you'll just have to put a lot of time in diving diving diving.

I dove for 5 years and then took 6 years off due to family medical issues. I did a GUE tweak dive last summer to get some pointers and mentoring and while I wasn't horrible I wasn't rock solid and I don't think I was really ready for the class. 16 months and 150 dives later and I finally have rock solid static trim. Other then a back kick that still needs improvement, I think I'm finally ready to take the class and get the most out of it.