Where to get cave diving trained?

[ron_cooper]

I have only been diving for a few years and will have an chance to dive the iron ore caves in Newfoundland next year. What I'm wondering is there anyway to get certified for caves or an overhead enviroment to be able to do the dives? I live in northern Alberta and the diving here is very limited. I don't want to collect C-cards but I do want different diving types available to me.
I will be doing advanced wreck diving this fall, is it similar?
With the fact you can't swim to surface. Running lines. Redundant air sourses and buddy communication. As the importance of a defined dive plan.

 

[BabyDuck]

the best places for cave from what i can gather are north florida and mexico. yes, they are similar skill sets, cave and wreck, but different enough that i would recommend cave training for caves. will these be guided dives? if you have a cave card, will they still be guided? try http://www.cavediver.net for lots more info.

 

[eandiver]

To do cave diving you need to be certified for cave diving and that means taking a course from a certified cave instructor. If you are comfortable with your bouyancy, position, finning and other skills and can multi task in a dark, cold, overhead enviroment then take the cavern course. If it is to your liking then go on to basic cave and more. N.Florida offers many excellent instructors to choose from and more different caves than you would believe.

There are lots of similarities between wreck and cave.

 

[CBulla]

Talk to Rick at http://www.genesisdiving.com

He's also on the NACD board

 

[S. starfish]

I did my NACD Cavern course down in Tulum, Mexico with Speleotech in July. I Recommend dropping Bil a line, he runs a good operation and a gurantee you you'll get your moneys worth.
http://www.speleotech.com/ for more info.

I'm sure many of the skills will be similar, but from my experience the cave (well, cavern) and wreck environments are, despite both being overhead environments, quite different.

 

[JimC]

Just to put it out there:

- If you cant dive in caves/overhead often enough to maintain your skill set, no amount of quarry work will keep you're cave legs. Some people will stay that if you cant cave dive every months at least you shouldn't cave dive at all. I would say you are probably fine if you stick to well travelled caves and dive them conservatively.

- The Iron Mine that Steve Lewis is exploring in Newfound Land is defiantly not well travelled cave. It is not a place for someone with little cave experience. It will be cold, there will be percolation. It will likely end up very low vis and it is very deep putting crazy time pressure on you.

 

[karstdvr]

- The Iron Mine that Steve Lewis is exploring in Newfound Land is defiantly not well travelled cave. It is not a place for someone with little cave experience. It will be cold, there will be percolation. It will likely end up very low vis and it is very deep putting crazy time pressure on you.

Good advice.

Another location for training which would be closer would be Missouri. This will include deeper dives in colder water,and can include a mine.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Good advice.

Another location for training which would be closer would be Missouri. This will include deeper dives in colder water,and can include a mine.

Can training be completed in Missouri?

My understanding is that "The mine" often falls short of the vis requirements for training. Vis at the entrances is often a line drill though you can usually find beter vis further in. When I say line drill that's pretty much what I mean. Should vis be good enough, there is certainle ample oportunity for circuits and traverses though.

There aren't any circuits or traverses at Roubidoux unless you could somehow count the little line run around the staircase (the drop) as a circuit. I don't know if it meets standards but I think it would be a joke.

I Think you could do a circuit at Cannonball but no traverse.

I'm not a cave instructor and I love diving those caves but I would think there are better places to teach a cave class.

 

[loosebits]

Instructors aside, any comments on FL vs Akumal? I did all my classes in FL and recently went to Akumal for a week of fun. I feel that FL prepares you for Akumal but not necessarily the other way around.

I'm just a newbie with a whopping 20 post training full cave dives so feel free to show me what an idiot I am.

 

[Doubles]

Talk to Rick at http://www.genesisdiving.com

He's also on the NACD board

I vote for Rick too! If you can make it to Florida, you would learn a lot from him.