When to make the transition

[pollywogg]

Hello all,
I have wanted to get into cave diving since I started diving. I am still a fairly new diver, having about 100 dives under my belt. My plan to make the transition into cave has been thus:
NAUI OW and AOW, then the NAUI Tech progression into full cave.
I have been looking around, and it seems that cave training basically puts you back at square one, and you must learn all of your skills in the framework of cave diving. With this in mind, I have been considering finding a good instructor and making the switch to NSS or NACD, and progressing through there.
With all that being said, how do you suggest going about cave certification? When should the transition be made into cave training? Are there any non-caving related classes you suggest before going down the cave path?
Please excuse me if this has already been asked. I searched and didn't find anything fitting. Thank you in advance for the input.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Just trek on up to cave country... chat with several of the cave instructors dotting the landscape and pick one to work with. Then do what they say.
If I had to recommend someone specific for you from afar, I recommend Larry Green. But there are plenty of excellent choices not far from you.

Rick

 

[boulderjohn]

IMO, you will be well served by doing some introductory general tech work first. It will be helpful to be comfortable in a dry suit and doubles. If you have a good frog, etc., it will be a big help. For the more advanced classes, it will be good if you already know how to handle a deco bottle.

One of the things that helps with having other forms of tech training ahead of time is that you get used to dealing with the stress of the emergencies your instructor throws at you. In a couple of cases, I had to do some OOA drills with buddies who immediately rose to the cave ceiling as soon as they took a breath from the reg I gave them. It is helpful to be able to handle those situations before you have to do them in a cave.

 

[Dive-aholic]

You have a couple of options right now. You can enroll in a cavern course with a few minor modifications to your current gear so you can learn what you don't know or you can transition into backmount or sidemount double cylinders and become comfortable in that configuration before pursuing a cavern course. Either way works well. If you take a cavern course in your current rig, then my suggestion is to switch. to your double cylinder rig of choice soon after and while continuing to dive the caverns in a single cylinder, also do several OW dives in the double cylinder rig to get comfortable in it. There are also courses such as Twinset Diver or Sidemount Diver course that can help you in your transition to a double cylinder rig and rather than have it take 3-4 dozen dives to get comfortable, it should take about a dozen dives.

Finally, don't limit yourself to agency. Look for an instructor who has a philosophy you agree with and trains in a way that works with your personality. Get some background on potential instructors. Make sure the one you choose doesn't only teach, but also does the dives. Make sure the instructor has the time to teach you and isn't just pushing out students. Most of us teach for multiple agencies. I can attest that most cave instructors for IANTD, NACD, and NSS-CDS have gone through a pretty rigorous process to get their instructor ratings. Some other agencies may have similar processes, I'm just not familiar with all of them or have come across instructors that bring to question the process they had to go through.

So start interviewing instructors and choose one. That instructor should be able to guide you through your journey into the caves.

 

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

It sounds like this is your dream from either before or from soon after initial certification. Go for it now before you develop too many bad habits by virtue of not knowing. Not having to unlearn stuff can put you ahead of the learning curve. After getting a little experience (OW) I personally think that a person can transition fine if this (cave) is what they really want to do. I have met a few divers along the way that certified so they could become cave divers as that was their passion. Their skills were as good as any others I have seen. Go for it. Rob is a very good guy who can take you through your training. I have dived with him and know he is very patient. I would get with him and see what he has to offer.

 

[boulderjohn]

There are a lot of places where you can find recommendations for instructors. SB has some, as does The Deco Stop. One thing that was important to me was to get a sense of the manner in which the instructor deals with the mistakes you will inevitably make under water. I looked carefully for clues on that as I did my research.

Some instructors put a lot of stress on you by verbally berating you when you err, sometimes very aggressively. I know one who says he does this quite intentionally because he believes that it teaches the diver how to handle high levels of stress and thus be better prepared for emergency situations. Many students like this and believe it is beneficial.

Some do just the opposite on the theory that adding unneeded stress at such times interferes with the diver's ability to learn specific skills. Divers who are afraid of being scolded become distracted by this fear and learn ineffectively. I am of this school of thought, and I carefully chose an instructor who teaches this way.

On one dive I had a lot of trouble with a particular skill, and I knew my performance was not acceptable. As we exited the water I suspect the fact that I was beating myself up was pretty evident. My instructor said nary a word. We moved back to the picnic table area to reload our gear and get some lunch. I still felt terrible. Finally he said something like, "It wasn't that bad. You can do it. Let's get it on the next dive."

If he had chewed me out, especially under water while I was struggling with the skill in the first place, it would have been thoroughly demoralizing. I am hard enough on myself when I am messing up--getting outraged external validation does me much more harm than good. When I had to do the skill again on the next dive, I went into it with confidence and did just fine.

So, decide what school you are in as a student and select the instructor who is right for you.

 

[TSandM]

I am of the school of thought that one should learn everything that one CAN learn in open water, before going into the cave environment. (It's a little different for you, because the caves are closer, but they are still not immediatey at hand.) I would highly suggest getting into doubles and taking an introductory technical class, either one of the Intro to Tech classes or GUE fundamentals. These will introduce the concepts of pinpoint buoyancy and horizontal trip, and maintaining those under task loading. They will also teach you the non-silting propulsion techniques you will use in a cave. You can then do some open water diving in that gear and using that new knowledge, before heading into a cave. It will make your cavern/Intro class MUCH less stressful, if your gear is familiar and it's only the cave specific things, like line running and drills, that are new.

Like you, I developed the obsession with cave diving very early in my diving career, but I took two careful years of open water training before I did my first cavern tours, and I had almost 500 dives before I did my cave class.

 

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

It sounds like this is your dream from either before or from soon after initial certification. Go for it now before you develop too many bad habits by virtue of not knowing. Not having to unlearn stuff can put you ahead of the learning curve. After getting a little experience (OW) I personally think that a person can transition fine if this (cave) is what they really want to do. I have met a few divers along the way that certified so they could become cave divers as that was their passion. Their skills were as good as any others I have seen. Go for it. Rob is a very good guy who can take you through your training. I have dived with him and know he is very patient. I would get with him and see what he has to offer.

To clarify; I am not saying zero to hero class. But Cavern teaches the skills you need to learn and if you haven't developed habits you need to unlearn, this can benefit you substantially. From cavern, you move forward as you are ready. I have never felt that "normal run of the mill open water diving" has made for good preparation to tech stuff. Mostly it is practicing bad habits til they are second nature. There are exceptions, but they are few.

Somewhere a person has to make the transition whether gue tech, cavern, or whatever. I just think a person who knows this is where they want to be, should start preparing with that sooner then later. A good cavern class will make a better diver out of anyone even if they never intend to go into an overhead. The OP stated the intent to dive caves. The OP doesn't seem to be a brand new inexperienced diver. Not a ton of dives, but not brand new. Again, I say, go for it.

 

[pollywogg]

Thank you all for the helpful input. I feel the caves calling, and I'm eager to get into cave diving. I think I will focus on progressing in my Open Water skills before fully making the switch. However, even with that in mind, I would like to find a cavern instructor and do an intro course, in order to, as Dive-aholic said, learn what I don't know.
Now for a silly question: How does one go about finding a suitable instructor? Is there anything to look for, or should I just start looking around online and calling instructors, and picking their brains?
Thanks again for the tips and info.

 

[ianr33]

When I did my cave courses I was already deco certified. Being used to doubles and drysuits and frogkicking and not being able to make a direct ascent to the surface helped me immensely. Even so I found a hard overhead pretty intimidating at first.

My suggestion would be to do a cavern course first. Gear changes/requirements are minimal and it will give you a good taste of the addiction! After that get used to doubles in OW, then finally do cave classes.