Cavern course question

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Park Ridge, NJ
I'm planning on taking the cavern (but not intro to cave) course down at Ginnie Springs this January. However I'm now having second thought as to whether I really ready. I only have 20 or so dives of which 6 were in the last 6 months, last May, wreck diving in NC. To be honest my buoyancy control is needs some work, its not horrible but it is far from perfect. My original intent was to spend a week down there working on buoyancy and then take the course at the end of the week. I may be able to take the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course while I'm there. My questions are. Has any one taken the buoyancy course, and did they think it was worth it? For those who have taken the cavern course, with what I've told you should I forget about the cavern course for now and just spend my time there working on skills or should I still go for the course.
 
If you do not have good bouyancy skills, I would recommend holding off on the class until you do. That is just my opinion though.
 
I took the PADI class last summer and thought that it was well worth it. I picked up some good pointers, shed a few pounds of lead, and (I think most importantly) did a number of dives where I was forced to concentrate on bouyancy control. The more you practice it, the more it becomes second nature.
 
The course will give you exellent skills that will be useful in all types of diving but perhaps become a little more comfortable first?I took my cavern course when I had 300 dives so I was very comfortable in the water PERHAPS the best advice would be to contact a prospective instructor and be candid in your experience-They will know best whether you are ready yet.Dive safe
 
I took the cavern coarse in Ginnie last Feb and it is a humbling experience. If your bouyancy is not second nature, then I would suggest you wait and get some more experience. It's hard enough trying to fight a the current coming out of the cavern while holding a light and laying a line to be worring about your bouyancy as well. If you have never been in the Ginnie caverns, there is a very strong current coming out of some of them. I have heard it described as swimming up a fire hose, not sure it's that bad but it is quite strong.
My suggestion would be to do AOW, PPB and Rescue before you consider cavern. Cavern is a very good class and well worth taking, but maybe not just yet

By the way, where are you located, in NC?
 
Actually I'm in NJ, I was diving in NC last May with Olympus. Thanks for the input. I spoke to the owner of my LDS and we are going to do some bouncy work at his next pool session. He's affiliated with NAUI and they don't have a separate course on buoyancy. He said the value of the PADI course came down to how good the instructor is. I'm not looking for another card anyway, just want to improve my buoyancy. I still haven't made a decision on the course, I'll wait until after the pool session. But I'll most likely go down to Gennie regardless of the course.
 
If you have to travel far to take the course, then you might want to get comfortable with your bouyancy first.

If you don't have to travel far [or you don't care about taking a while] then go for it. Just make sure you find yourself an excellent instructor.

Ask the instructor if they do open water checks, and if they do, how many. Formulate the question subtly to see if they tell you that you'll be doing OW until the instructor feels your bouyancy and finning techniques are good enough to enter a cavern.

[A tip: run a section of line with your reel, make an ok sign around that line. Close your eyes. See if you can keep your ok around the line without pulling on it...If you can, then you're probably better than you give yourself credit]
 
If you are taking the course with Josh, he also teaches a peak performance buoyancy course. He's a good instructor.
Also, waiting may not be the thing to do. Few individuals know how to fix buoyancy problems and practicing less than acceptable methods will only make them that much harder to break.
If you have access to a pool, jump in and burn a few bottles. You can take a hoola hoop and anchor it down. Practice swimming through it SLOWLY to learn basic buoyancy skills. When you never touch the hoop, put two in and continue until you are tired of "swimming through hoops".

Cheers and good luck in your course.
Sherpa
 
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