Cave diving course in California?

[Wilderness Medic]

Not sure if anyone watched the video I posted last night. I did a little cave exploring by myself 2 days ago. It wasn't crazy deep but it was fascinating to me. When I got to the back the waves hitting the entrance created some crazy pulsing pressures that made it almost impossible to draw air from my regulator from.

It got me interested in cave diving. Where in Ca could I go for this? So far everything I have is PADI. As much as I can't stand PADI I guess staying with it would be good since I can't move on to DM until I get my "specialties." Although if something other than PADI was far more in depth/better/safer i'd opt for that.

If someone can fill me in on a place in Ca, or even just give me the basic run downs in safety for caves that would be great. Understand the silting out, disorientation, and getting lost. Never heard about the pressure messing with reg. Thanks.

 

[Pullnglide]

Basic run down for safety in caves is take a cave course I can't speak to caves in CA but can speak about PADI. PADI only offers a cavern class (considered a specialty) and there are some good PADI Cavern instructors out there (not so good ones also as with any other agency). Why can't you move to DM without "specialties"? There are none required for DM. Going past the cavern level requires another agency besides PADI i.e. NSS/CDS, IANTD, TDI etc... Do some research into those agencies if you are wanting to get into cave diving and doing it safely.

 

[KevinNM]

Don't screw around, lots of decent (but untrained in caves) divers get killed in caves. Get formal training from somone who knows what they are doing. Basic caves diving: a blueprint for survival is a good starting point for reading (but it doesn't replace hands on training). It was written 40 years ago when someone got tired of recovering bodies out of caves and decided to figure out why they died and how to stop it.

 

[boulderjohn]

PADI does have a cave diving course, but it is offered by only a few select instructors, and none of them are in California. Those select instructors also offer certifications in other agencies. You will really need to leave California to get a good cave instruction course.

As some have said already, you don't need any specialties to be a DM.

If you hate PADI, then you should not go on to be a PADI DM. Before you decide whether or not you hate an entire agency, you might want to learn something about it.

 

[Sevenrider860]

...So far everything I have is PADI. As much as I can't stand PADI I guess staying with it would be good since I can't move on to DM until I get my "specialties."

What specialities have you been told you need for Divemaster?

 

[rongoodman]

Travel to Mexico.

 

[rjack321]

There are no training caves in Cali to take a course in. Go to FL or Mexico and research your instructor thoroughly, there are a whole bunch of terrible ones out there.

 

[Imbodie]

SO... technically he was never in an over head environment... though that could change based on tide (and if it did he would have still be in the cavern zone)... Nice video... A cavern class wouldn't hurt as long as he kept to the rules of the certification.... I would be more worried about gear failure when diving SOLO (again not in an over head environment).... if you do a lot of solo diving maybe an Independent Diver class would be more appropriate.

 

[Imbodie]

Why can't you move to DM without "specialties"? There are none required for DM. Going past the cavern level requires another agency besides PADI i.e. NSS/CDS, IANTD, TDI etc... Do some research into those agencies if you are wanting to get into cave diving and doing it safely.

Some instructors require "DEEP" speciality for their DM candidates.... not a PADI requirement, an instructor requirement. Starting to wonder if it's not a good idea, we just had a DM in Arkansas get disoriented/narc'd and started swimming for the bottom of the lake and died.... a more stringent requirement for DEEP might have made the difference...

You left out NAUI for the cave certs......

I say it's not a PADI requirement, but I also have not looked up any changes for this year since I haven't been teaching this year so I could be wrong.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Travel to Mexico.

Florida is no further from California than the Yucatan. But yeah, that's basically the choice for cave training for North Americans: Florida or Mexico (Yucatan).