when is a cave dive a CAVE dive

[Chocoholic]

Just for the record I did do a "cave" search and looked at a whole bunch of threads and didn't find an answer.
So when is a cave dive a CAVE dive? I did a cave dive down in Puerto Vallarta, and it was so cool. It was down at 90 feet and the opening was about 12 by 20, we spent about 6 to 8 minutes in the cave with lights and then exited out a smaller opening, so it was kinda like a swimthru but longer and turned to the right. When I was on the way back I started thinking that it was really stupid and I should've said "NO way! I'm not doing it", you know I'm embarrassed I just did a trust-me dive. When I got back to the resort I spoke to several OW divers who said Oh yeah we do cave dives all the time. And I have talked to quite a few OW or AOW divers who all say pretty much the same. So now I am not so pissed at myself but I am wondering.... OK flame away

 

[MASS-Diver]

Just for the record I did do a "cave" search and looked at a whole bunch of threads and didn't find an answer.
So when is a cave dive a CAVE dive? I did a cave dive down in Puerto Vallarta, and it was so cool. It was down at 90 feet and the opening was about 12 by 20, we spent about 6 to 8 minutes in the cave with lights and then exited out a smaller opening, so it was kinda like a swimthru but longer and turned to the right. When I was on the way back I started thinking that it was really stupid and I should've said "NO way! I'm not doing it", you know I'm embarrassed I just did a trust-me dive. When I got back to the resort I spoke to several OW divers who said Oh yeah we do cave dives all the time. And I have talked to quite a few OW or AOW divers who all say pretty much the same. So now I am not so pissed at myself but I am wondering.... OK flame away

Vacation divers do all sorts of crazy stuff. One of my buddies went down to the Turks to get his C-card (OW) and the guide took him to 80' and into a "cave." Polling resort divers what they feel is safe is not very productive.

Going into any overheard env. without training is a pretty easy way to die.

 

[underwater daphne]

a cave dive is when you can't get out of the water by just swimming straight up. edit: what i'm talking about isn't really a cave dive.

one of my previous instructors did a stupid thing once and i went along like many do, i wouldn't anymore. we were diving and there was this big rock and under it a lion fish (maybe a scorpion fish, one of those, i can't remember exactly). anyhow there wasn't much space and our instructor signalled us to do as he did. swim under the rock barely giving the poisonous fish enough space to feel safe. nothing happened, but after reading a bit more about the fish and taking diving more seriously, i wouldn't do that ever again.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

A cave dive is any time you're beyond either 130 linear feet or past the reach of natural light inside a earth-material crevice. Less than that is a 'cavern' dive which still requires specialty training.

 

[Wendy]

A cave dive is any time you're beyond either 130 linear feet or past the reach of natural light inside a earth-material crevice. Less than that is a 'cavern' dive which still requires specialty training.

and at night any caverns are considered caves, like as you mentioned, your past the reach of sunlight.

pretty much if you have no direct ascent to the surface and you are not trained for overhead, you don't need to be in there.

 

[Spectre]

Technically speaking... an overhead dive is any dive where you can't go directly up to the surface. Be that a hard ceiling due to rock or reef or wreck, or a soft ceiling via decompression obligations.

Technically speaking, cave vs. cavern depends on your cavern training organization. PADI, for example, limits cavern to 130 linear feet, and 60 ft of depth. So you can go 70 feet in to a depth of 60 feet, or 90 feet in to a depth of 40 feet. NACD and NSS I believe make those limits 200 feet linear and 100 feet of depth. So if varies.

But that limitation is subject to visability. You also can't go beyond 'the daylight zone' which is defined as the point where you can't see the light from the entrance. A simple way to understand that is to look at the basic light rule for cave diving. Cave diving [or any overhead diving] should be done with 3 lights. 1 primary light and two backup lights. With cavern diving... the 'primary light' is the light from the entrance, with -your- primary light being the 1st backup light.

 

[Chocoholic]

Vacation divers do all sorts of crazy stuff. One of my buddies went down to the Turks to get his C-card (OW) and the guide took him to 80' and into a "cave." Polling resort divers what they feel is safe is not very productive.

Going into any overheard env. without training is a pretty easy way to die.

So now I'm polling divers on the Scubaboard and hope they haven't made up their profiles. And considering a cave class, but not sure how many caves are available to dive up here in Alaska.
thanks all

 

[Mako Mark]

w2hat specter said, but apply the rule of thirds, no doubles, the five basic rules of accident analysis that will prevent your death, visibility limitations etc.

If you dont want to die there, dont go there with out the training, Im glad you made it oput chocoholic, and learned a good lesson about caves and trust me dives.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Hmm. I don't really know, but I don't think there would be too many. Oh well, then you would have a good excuse to visit Florida or Mexico and thaw out a little.

 

[Jersey Chris]

I have done some cavern diving in Mexico and we did go in pretty deep but there was a few places to surface along the way. Sometimes it would only be a small hole 6 feet in diameter. . I was explained that a cave has only one way in and when you get deep enough into the cave you follow your way back out. I was told that cavern diving has many exits along the system. Does this sound correct ?