Caveeagle
Contributor
Couple thoughts on this...
Every diver is different and has different goals and limitations.
I don’t want to see the cavern cert go away completely. I see a lot of OW/AOW divers that say “I will never cave dive”, that go straight to the back of the Ginnie Ball Room, or the bottom of Blue Grotto as if it were no big deal. Over the years we have seen fatalities where OW divers venture past the daylight zone and get disoriented or lost. There IS a place for a recreational level cert to improve the safety of divers who are going to be in or near the overhead, but NOT necessarily destined for additional cave training. The existing cavern training fits this model well. It’s not too intimidating as to scare off a typical AOW diver and is a great tool to make them a better overall diver.
Now, for that diver that’s already got “the bug”, and wants to be a cave diver.... I have some additional thoughts.
Gaining experience at the cavern level, is still a pretty good model, but might not be best for all divers. For example someone who is already an experienced technical diver, and has solid buoyancy and trim already figured out. (Yes, I have seen divers like this).
I will also add divers that have the time and commitment level to be diving a lot in this environment. For these folks, I think the current Intro rules (6ths w no jumps) is way to limiting for most to really gain experience, and be satisfied for any extended period.
The Intro limits of 1/6ths and NO nav / jumps (& no deco), seems to lead to one of two eventualities:
1) they jump to apprentice/full cave way too soon, just so they can avoid the limits of basic/Intro. For example: getting checked in at Ginnie Springs. You don’t get the discounted entry fee, and have to check in with a buddy present when you don’t possess a full cave cert. Even just that ~$10/day break on the entry fee can add up if you dive a lot. And let’s face it, nobody likes wearing the wrist band with “Intro” written on it.
Or
2) They just become rule breakers. And before you bring out the tar & feathers, I can tell you that I see far more rule breakers, than most want to admit. Whether it’s diving 1/6ths (plus a little), because you are diving with a full cave buddy, and feel ashamed to turn the dive.. or decide to dive past the Triangle at Little River (yes, that’s a nav decision). I won’t go on beyond that, but I can tell you there is actually a fair amount of peer pressure for an active “Intro” diver to break rules.
If I was starting over (from AOW), I think. The first step of cavern should remain, and is a good chance for self evaluation as well as a way for Instructors to gauge readiness to move ahead.
Once you are committed to diving past the “Sign”, I want to be trained to dive to 1/3rs with at least one Nav decision and (very) limited deco. I would add a penetration limit to 1/3s as well as emphasis that 1/3rds is a max for high flow, and further conservatism is often warranted. *you can get pretty darn far into Peacock with 1/3s of double 108s going into the peanut tunnel.
Every diver is different and has different goals and limitations.
I don’t want to see the cavern cert go away completely. I see a lot of OW/AOW divers that say “I will never cave dive”, that go straight to the back of the Ginnie Ball Room, or the bottom of Blue Grotto as if it were no big deal. Over the years we have seen fatalities where OW divers venture past the daylight zone and get disoriented or lost. There IS a place for a recreational level cert to improve the safety of divers who are going to be in or near the overhead, but NOT necessarily destined for additional cave training. The existing cavern training fits this model well. It’s not too intimidating as to scare off a typical AOW diver and is a great tool to make them a better overall diver.
Now, for that diver that’s already got “the bug”, and wants to be a cave diver.... I have some additional thoughts.
Gaining experience at the cavern level, is still a pretty good model, but might not be best for all divers. For example someone who is already an experienced technical diver, and has solid buoyancy and trim already figured out. (Yes, I have seen divers like this).
I will also add divers that have the time and commitment level to be diving a lot in this environment. For these folks, I think the current Intro rules (6ths w no jumps) is way to limiting for most to really gain experience, and be satisfied for any extended period.
The Intro limits of 1/6ths and NO nav / jumps (& no deco), seems to lead to one of two eventualities:
1) they jump to apprentice/full cave way too soon, just so they can avoid the limits of basic/Intro. For example: getting checked in at Ginnie Springs. You don’t get the discounted entry fee, and have to check in with a buddy present when you don’t possess a full cave cert. Even just that ~$10/day break on the entry fee can add up if you dive a lot. And let’s face it, nobody likes wearing the wrist band with “Intro” written on it.
Or
2) They just become rule breakers. And before you bring out the tar & feathers, I can tell you that I see far more rule breakers, than most want to admit. Whether it’s diving 1/6ths (plus a little), because you are diving with a full cave buddy, and feel ashamed to turn the dive.. or decide to dive past the Triangle at Little River (yes, that’s a nav decision). I won’t go on beyond that, but I can tell you there is actually a fair amount of peer pressure for an active “Intro” diver to break rules.
If I was starting over (from AOW), I think. The first step of cavern should remain, and is a good chance for self evaluation as well as a way for Instructors to gauge readiness to move ahead.
Once you are committed to diving past the “Sign”, I want to be trained to dive to 1/3rs with at least one Nav decision and (very) limited deco. I would add a penetration limit to 1/3s as well as emphasis that 1/3rds is a max for high flow, and further conservatism is often warranted. *you can get pretty darn far into Peacock with 1/3s of double 108s going into the peanut tunnel.
