Thanks for the responses. To clarify a few things, we do realize that cave diving is a form of tech diving; however, there seems to be a distinction between tech deep diving and cave diving. That's what we are referring to in the original posting.
We have dived both wrecks and caverns and want to advance in both areas. We're planning on completing full cave cert and tecdeep/trimix within the next couple of years. We just want to know if taking one before the other would be more beneficial to us, especially in the one we take second.
We are in Arizona. San Diego's wreck alley is about 6 hours away. We also dive the Sea of Cortez (also about 6 hours away), which we've heard has u/w caverns along the coast (we still have to find them, though). We also travel to New Jersey and Florida at least once a year (family both locations), so we have more wrecks and caves to dive.
In response to CD, we do view both disciplines as similar. That's why we posed this question. We would like to know if having the knowledge, training and experience in one will help us with the other. It does appear from the postings that the general concensus is leaning towards cave diving first, then tech deep diving, even though the poll supports tech diving first. If a diver were to take both from you one after the other and left it up to you to decide the order, which would you choose?
Also, what about equipment concerns? Will the same equipment be good for both? And is there and particular type or brand that's recommended for both?
Thanks for the information already provided. Looking forward to more posts!