Anyone know anything about Sealsports (LA) Cave class?

[Aotus]

oops...double post.

 

[rddvet]

I'm living in New Orleans now, looking to work up to cave diving int he next year or so. I understand that I should be very selective about where I go for my training, I like the idea of staying alive and all that. So, in my search, I just found a cave class on the calendar at Sealsports.net but almost no other info: Main Website Store - Cave Diver Class The first red flag for me is that there's no specifics about the class, not intro/advanced, just "cave diver." The second flag was that the prereqs just say the padi advanced open water certification, but I'm sure I've heard that a minimum of 50 dives experience is often required by most instructors.

wondering if anyone knows anything about this place, and/or whether they have a reputable cave instructor? They're close to me and I like the idea of building a relationship with a LDS. A quick search of the forums turns up only old posts, no mention of cave classes.

Thanks for any info.

Cheers.

Here's my advice. I grew up in Nola and learned to dive in Metairie at Caribean Dive shop at 17. I had an instructor, Mickey Rayburn who was a nice guy and had some technical training. After my advanced class at Morrison, he decided to take me for a quick look into the cavern. It was definitely beyond my level of training and in retrospect I know it was a little dangerous, but I was a kid and he knew I had a special interest in diving beyond pretty fish. I lived in La until I was 25, and always thought about those dives at Morrison and how much I was enthralled by that environment.

I moved to Fl at 26 and have been here for 13 years. It wasnt until 3 years ago I finaly realized how stupid I was that I was in the cave diving capital of the US and I should pursue training. Funny thing is I did most of my training in cave country, and some in Marianna. Both of which are an easy half day's drive from New Orleans. I wasted many years thinking about cave training, but never getting off my butt and coming this way to do it. You're half way there. You're starting to think about it and do something. You're asking questions. Now go the rest of the way and find a good instructor in Fl and learn.

Louisiana has an amazing commercial diving industry, and some of the best spearfisherman in the world. It doesn't have the density of technical and cave divers that florida does, and most of the instructors in La aren't doing 1/10th of the cave dives the Fl guys are.

If I lived in New Orleans again, I would choose Marianna as my place to learn. Contact Edd at Cave Adventurers or Rob Neto. If you want to learn technical diving, a great way is to take Edd's open water sidemount class. You'll learn the skills you need to dive doubles (albeit in sidemount), and the skills associated with gas and long hose management. Then go back home and practice those skills and then add finning techniques and reel skills. Then go back and take a cavern/intro course. You can come further south towards traditional cave country in the high springs area, but why not just stop in Marianna which is closer to you, and will be a perfect choice.

I guarantee you will progress more efficiently and probably spend less money in the long run than messing around trying to find a really good instructor in La. They're there, but they're harder to find, and you have a much higher chance of getting half assed instruction.

 

[Aotus]

excellent. thanks!

I think I'll stick to my plan of getting some PADI basics in though the LA dive shop and then seek out some of the experts in FL...or maybe reach out to them now and confer about schedules and prereqs and such. Thanks for more thoughtful comments!

 

[diversteve]

Fyi - this is Rob Neto - View Profile: Dive-aholic - ScubaBoard - Scuba Diving Forum - Diving Social Network

I believe Edd posts here also occasionally. I don't know his member name. You might find this interesting also - Edd's in it: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/scuba-diving-tv-movies/481410-cave-diving-series-airing-cbs.html

 

[Aotus]

thanks for that.

I found out more about Sealsports and the cave class. The owner now is a very nice guy, Rob Kohl, who is certified to cave dive by PADI and NSS-CDS. I'll have to ask him who's actually teaching the class. I can't find anything about what's in the PADI tec-cave class and how many levels they have, nothing as thorough as some of the links offered earlier in this thread (thanks again everyone), only this....it almost seems like it's a secret!

In any case, I'm sticking with what I said before, I'll get my basic OW skills down with PADI, and develop my local LDS contacts for fun OW dives, maybe I'll get into some spear fishing. Later, I'll seek out the cave gurus for cavern and cave. Thanks for all the input!

 

[Aotus]

Update: Learned that the cave class sponsored by SealSports will be taught by Jeff Loflin.

I'm sticking to my plan, hoping to learn from Edd.