June, 2016.
Public safety alert for those of you taking, recently taken, or are considering taking a cavern course.
All agencies require their cavern instructors to be in full cave gear while teaching or guiding cavern students. This means the instructor should be wearing either backmount doubles, or sidemount twin cylinder configuration. This is for YOUR SAFETY in the event that something goes pear shaped during a training dive. This is to make sure your instructor has enough air to get the student out of the overhead environment, and redundant equipment in the event of a failure.
Folks, there is an individual that is putting cavern students potentially in harms way. I do not know the name of the individual, but it was posted on the cave divers forum that he took a cavern student well into a cave system while he himself was wearing open water gear (single tank, no redundant first stage).
If you are taking a cavern class and your instructor wants to teach it in a single tank configuration, run away. That instructor does not care about you or your welfare.
When considering a cavern course, be sure to interview your potential instructor. A competent cavern instructor should have plenty of cave diving experience (minimum of 100 non-training cave dives), should have interned and assisted / apprenticed with at least three other cavern instructors, and should regularly practice these skills. Ask your potential instructor how many non-training cave dives they have done, who they apprenticed with, and how often they go cave diving.
Public safety alert for those of you taking, recently taken, or are considering taking a cavern course.
All agencies require their cavern instructors to be in full cave gear while teaching or guiding cavern students. This means the instructor should be wearing either backmount doubles, or sidemount twin cylinder configuration. This is for YOUR SAFETY in the event that something goes pear shaped during a training dive. This is to make sure your instructor has enough air to get the student out of the overhead environment, and redundant equipment in the event of a failure.
Folks, there is an individual that is putting cavern students potentially in harms way. I do not know the name of the individual, but it was posted on the cave divers forum that he took a cavern student well into a cave system while he himself was wearing open water gear (single tank, no redundant first stage).
If you are taking a cavern class and your instructor wants to teach it in a single tank configuration, run away. That instructor does not care about you or your welfare.
When considering a cavern course, be sure to interview your potential instructor. A competent cavern instructor should have plenty of cave diving experience (minimum of 100 non-training cave dives), should have interned and assisted / apprenticed with at least three other cavern instructors, and should regularly practice these skills. Ask your potential instructor how many non-training cave dives they have done, who they apprenticed with, and how often they go cave diving.
