When is a cave a cave?

[UCFKnightDiver]

to add to what ucf diver said about entering into over head enviroment w/o training:

IUCRR - Accident Analysis

 

[DCBC]

DCBC are you cavern or cave trained? I did not see it in your profile.

I'm a cavern instructor and a cave diver (although I have no cave diving certification). I received my cave training from Dr. George Benjamin, a member of the Underwater Club of Canada in Toronto where I was first certified and first became an Instructor.

I was recruited by George (like others like Tom Mount, past CEO IANTD, Dick Williams who came before me) to extensively dive the Blue Holes of Andros with George and his son Peter in 1972 (this was the year after George guided the Cousteau team there on Calypso). George is recognized as an early cave diving pioneer, who developed the Benjamin crossover manifold, or "Benjamin Rig" as we referred to it back then (admittedly not a very technical term). This was the first tank manifold that allowed the attachment of a second first stage, which was quickly adopted by cave divers world-wide.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I would wholeheartedly agree that, as long as the divers retain sight of the surface, there's little risk in swimming into a cavern.

...

I'm sorry, but it's simply irresponsible to tell untrained divers that it's just fine if they swim in "a little way".

Any chance you could tell us how you now feel about the cavern dive(s) that got you interested in cave diving?

 

[TSandM]

I still have no problem with the cavern tours that got me interested in cave diving. I do not think they are for novice divers (and I have said that here) but I had about 500 dives and some advanced training before I did them, and they were both enjoyable and served their purpose, which was to tell me whether it was worth investing in a cave class. Which it was.

Cavern tours, led by qualified pros into carefully vetted places, are VERY different from untrained divers swimming into an unknown overhead space.