Cavern To Full Cave Pace

[Underwatermonk]

Hello,

I live in the Mayan Riviera, been diving for 25+ years and I've been doing the caverns that my PADI Rescue Diver certification allows me to with a friend who is a guide. I was thinking of getting deep into cave diving (no pun intended).

I talked to an instructor and he suggested I should do all the courses from Side Mount/Cavern all the way to Full Cave non stop but after reading a bunch of threads in this forum I'm pretty much set on avoiding the zero to hero route.

I searched but I couldn't find anything on what would be the recomended pacing to do the Full Cave course or at least how many dives should I do before going into the next stage:

Side Mount
Cavern
Intro
Full

Any advice and diving center suggestions, particularly near tulum would be much appreciated.

 

[Wibble]

Arguably there's a prerequisite to all of that which is "sorted core skills"; superior finning, trim and buoyancy skills. With those, everything else is easy; without, one shouldn't be underground. Core skills need a lot of time to perfect.

Sidemount; pretty straightforward, mainly configuring and tweaking kit with some simple skills.

The others are a progression with increasing skills standards.

The main thing is to have a realistic attitude. Just because you have any qualification doesn't mean you've the right experience and skills to do a very difficult 'mission'. There's a progression of developing experience.

 

[Guille G]

You live there, so you don’t have a time pressure. Schedule the sidemount course asap, go on a few cenote dives. Feel comfy? Schedule cavern, repeat. The beauty of living there for this is that you don’t really need to care about the pace, plenty of time to just figure it out as you go and advance whenever you feel ready - fast or slow, who cares. It’s not like you have to fly back home!!

I lived there for 2 years. Moved out just two months ago, already miss it - enjoy It for me and tell us how it goes!!

 

[kensuf]

Everyone progresses at their own pace, but if sidemount is the way you are going, master that before moving to the first step of the cave curriculum. I personally am a fan of completing cavern/intro, gaining some experience and mastering those skills (running a reel, cave awareness, comfort, etc) before completing full cave and stage.

 

[halocline]

I would contact Natalie Gibb at Under the jungle. She is quite an instructor, and you'll meet lots of good local divers through the shop. I would absolutely NOT suggest going through all the courses non stop and TBH I'm kind of surprised that any high quality instructor would recommend that. You need time and experience practicing the skills that you learn in each course. That practice is very important because that is where you develop the habits and muscle memory that determine your ability to deal with problems.

I agree that sidemount should come first, but there is an argument to be made that cavern in single tank might be a good first step for you because you would introducing yourself to the practices and protocols of overhead diving in a gear configuration that you are already comfortable with. Either way, if you are not currently diving BM manifolded doubles, it makes sense to go directly from single tank to SM for the Mexican caves. There are real advantages to SM in that environment. It also takes some time to develop good SM skills. I had hundreds of dives in BM doubles before I switched and it still took me 20-30 dives before I felt really comfortable and confident. With both SM and cavern completed, you could dive for a long time in the many terrific caverns down there, basically developing your SM skills in the cavern zone. Then you'll be much better prepared for the demands of Intro and Full cave. There's a LOT of task loading diving SM in caves and the only way to be really good at task loading situations is to have solid, reliable habits for all the basic skills.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

I just finished my full cave and I did SM + cavern in my first trip and intro+full cave in my second.
Now is it ideal to do zero to hero? No. In hindsight could I have still done it and felt reasonably good about my skills? Yes absolutely. It really depends on the person and how comfortable they are in the water and how quickly they learn.

In your shoes I would do a stretched out zero to hero because you actually live near Tulum which makes logistics incredibly simple for you. So do a SM course, and then spend a week diving (or whatever time it takes for you to feel comfortable and the instructor saying that "hey, you now look pretty solid in SM"), then do cavern right after and again spend a little time diving, then intro+full cave.

////

I would push back against this single tank recommendation below. IMHO, it makes sense on paper, but you are not learning quantum mechanics in cave diving. You can easily learn all the protocols and skills in new gear configuration. After all you will be in cavern and with an instructor.

I agree that sidemount should come first, but there is an argument to be made that cavern in single tank might be a good first step for you because you would introducing yourself to the practices and protocols of overhead diving in a gear configuration that you are already comfortable with.

////

I did my courses at Protec and there was a wonderful review written about them here: Full Cave Course Review - Protec Tulum
Then I wrote a smaller one as well: Review - Cavern to Full Cave Course Review

////

And regardless what advice you receive in this thread, you don't need to push yourself to keep up with a "recommended pace". Just enjoy the learning and take all the time you need. Takes you 3 weeks to get used to SM? Wonderful! Take you time, the caves won't go anywhere.

 

[tbone1004]

@Underwatermonk I will mostly echo @kensuf
You should be truly comfortable in the configuration you intend to take your cave training in prior to starting that training. That could well be doubles or sidemount and I don't have any terribly strong opinions about one or the other so long as your instructor is not having to teach you your gear configuration.

In terms of progression unfortunately no one on this forum can definitively say what your progression should be because we don't know where you are as a diver now *humans in general are notoriously bad about self-evaluation*, and we also don't know how you will react in the cave environment. Some people are truly capable of a zero-hero progression based on their previous experience both in diving and in life. I will say that the vast majority are not and oftentimes very experienced divers are the hardest to train because they have so much experience ingrained into them that has to be broken before they can safely progress.
Since you live there I would schedule the first half of training whether that be Cave 1 or Cavern/Intro *I do however have strong preference to Cave 1 type structure*, and get some dives before you schedule the second half. That second half could be after a 1 day break to rest and recover, a 1 month break to let everything sink in, a 1 year break because you need to build experience or even longer/never if you decide you don't need to go any farther. Only you and your instructor will be ready to evaluate that and only after about day 3 of training.

 

[rddvet]

I think most of us will say zero to hero is a bad idea for 99% of students. I find the most well rounded and quality cave divers are mostly those that took their time and gained skills between classes.
The people that I know that dropped out of cave diving in 3 years or less have all been zero to hero’s or people who really blew through classes in my experience.
Take a class, dive at that level, perfect those skills (ideally with a well trained mentor who can give you practical tips), then take the next class

 

[Beau Holden]

There are miles and miles and miles of main line diving to do. No need to get in a hurry after intro for sure. You can do the same 750 or 1,000 feet in a cave several times and and always find something new.

 

[Lorenzoid]

There are miles and miles and miles of main line diving to do. No need to get in a hurry after intro for sure. You can do the same 750 or 1,000 feet in a cave several times and and always find something new.

Especially if one lives in the Riviera Maya (or Florida or anywhere else that's "cave country").

I searched but I couldn't find anything on what would be the recomended pacing to do the Full Cave course or at least how many dives should I do before going into the next stage:

I don't know if there are any commonly recommended specific number of dives. GUE is the only agency I'm aware of that has such a requirement: at least 25 dives at Cave 1 level as a prerequisite for Cave 2. But someone who lives in or near cave country could easily do two or three times that many, solidifying skills, and without getting bored.

No need to take "forever" (or two years like me) but also no point in rushing through it.