Taking Intro/Basic Cave in September..or around there. Looking for advice.

So Once again I am posting about training advice. I appreciate everyone helping me with my other problems and I am currently waiting to get back in the water and work on my setup and get my buoyancy and trim down.

Now on to this topic. I was originally planning on taking Cavern In a few weeks but turns out that isn't going to work out so I've decided to just do cavern/Intro & Basic Cave this fall after I got more comfortable doing skills with my drysuit and such. My question mainly is what should I be doing on dives to help prepare for the class? I know It is a class and I am there to learn but I figured since I know I'm going to be doing it this fall I might as well start working on some of the skills as I dive between now and then.

So far I don't know what specifically I can do that is cave related, but I do know that I can practice these:

Valve drills, S-Drill
Buoyancy and trim
Frog Kick, Helicopter turn, Backwards kick
Laying Line, I have a friend that is Full Cave and can show me how to do it on land so I could practice this in OW or In a Pool I suppose
No mask swims with touch contact on the line (I saw this was a skill and I assume I could practice this on a line at the bottom of the pool or something similar)

If there is anything else I should be doing Just let me know, O and I might be finished with my Deco Procedures/Adv Nitrox courses by then but I don't know if that really matters when it comes to Intro/Basic Cave.

Other skills I had to do in my cavern course included mask removal/replacement and backup light deployment (both using one hand only to simulate having to maintain touch contact with the line)

If you practice all the things you mentioned (and get some help with them, so you learn to do them properly) and get them polished, you will be WAY ahead of the curve in your class.

Peter and I had tech passes from GUE's Fundamentals class when we did cavern. The instructor was kind of flummoxed -- he didn't know what to do with people who didn't need to be taught buoyancy, trim, or non-silting propulsion, and who thought no-mask swims were routine.

I would dive...dive...dive
I noticed your profile has 25 to 49 dives,which is good,but the more in water time the better.
I would talk to your instructor and ask him what he'd like you to work on. It easier for your instructor to teach you the skill he wants you to learn,versus unlearning a skill that you read/taught incorrectly and since practiced. Sometimes I am thankful I learned cave diving before there were internet forums,because I wonder how people handle the information overload,and contradictory info. Good luck.

Thanks guys, and yeah I'm trying to get down to ginnie and possibly Dive Alabama soon but school and work keep me busy unfortunately. I'm going to take it with Jim Wyatt and we originally talked about doing cavern in a few weeks but that isn't going to happen due to scheduling so I'll probably talk to him about skills to practice.

Also just out of curiosity what are the usual training sites for Intro/Basic cave? I know of Ginnie/Devil's eye/Ear but do some Instructors go over to Peacock springs or other areas?

My cavern and intro was done at Ginnie and Peacock.

Just keep in touch with Jim and let him know how you are progressing.

Cool, I heard Peacock is really awesome. I'll definitely keep him in the loop. Thanks for the advice.

sealsix14:

Thanks guys, and yeah I'm trying to get down to ginnie and possibly Dive Alabama soon but school and work keep me busy unfortunately. I'm going to take it with Jim Wyatt and we originally talked about doing cavern in a few weeks but that isn't going to happen due to scheduling so I'll probably talk to him about skills to practice.

Also just out of curiosity what are the usual training sites for Intro/Basic cave? I know of Ginnie/Devil's eye/Ear but do some Instructors go over to Peacock springs or other areas?

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I did my cave 1 (which is pretty much the same ticket at Basic, more or less) at Blue Grotto for day 1, then move on to Ginnie, Peacock+OG, Madison, and I think Little River (not in that order). The more you can get into during class the better. If your instructor plans on just one cave, I'd wait to conditions clear up a bit or find someone else, personally.

TSandM:

If you practice all the things you mentioned (and get some help with them, so you learn to do them properly) and get them polished, you will be WAY ahead of the curve in your class.

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On the other hand if you learn them improperly and practice them that way you can be way behind the curve in class.

Here's what I tell every one of my students when they ask this question - get your trim and buoyancy control down as best as you can while you are task loaded. The way to do this is to do skills you have been trained to do while focusing on keeping your horizontal trim and buoyancy. The rest of the skills will be taught in class. Trim and buoyancy should have already been taught but they are usually the main things that are lacking.

Focus on Pelham for now. Ginnie may not be open for diving for a while.

As for dive sites, ask Jim. Each instructor trains in different locations during different classes. Depending on when you schedule your class, Peacock may not even be open for diving yet.

Well, I did mention that it's a good idea to get some help, so you can learn properly. But I stand by my oft-stated belief that anything you CAN learn in open water, you SHOULD learn in open water, and that includes buoyancy, trim, non-silting propulsion, basic line skills, and drills.