How I started and why I continue to cave dive

[UCFKnightDiver]

Resistance is futile...

Instead of the Borg Queen, she's the Borg Cupcake now.

[kathydee]

I can not deny the strong allure. I keep telling myself it will just be a recreational dive trip to check out pretty decorated caverns. But--after all the years of technical rock climbing on some pretty dramatic stone, I know different. Two choices: either stay away or get hooked. I still have that power. Decisions, decisions.

So, here I am, a newly minted cave diver looking excitedly for a place to dive.

Congrats!

Best of all, I can sleep late because I don't need to be at the dock and I don't have to be in any hurry to rinse gear - if at all.

That's a convincing enticement ;-)!

In about 34 days (not that I'm counting or anything) I'll be heading back down to take my Full Hero training ... hopefully I'm better prepared this time. ... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Good luck Bob!

[Doc Harry]

Some of use got into cave diving as a natural extension from caving:

[DA Aquamaster]

One reason I took my current job was to get closer to more and different wreck diving. I was talked inot taking Cavern and Intro to improve line and related skills that lend themselves to wreck diving prior to a trimix course. A freind of mine had referred to his Cavern/Intro experience as 4 days of chanting "I will not freak out, I will not freak out" through much of each dive. The fact that he had done wreck dives that would give me pause, gave me seriosu pause about cave diving.

The my instructor in an effort to blend me into a group of cavern class only divers coming down a day later started "cavern" class with what amounted to an intro dive (that is a whole other issue I now have strong opinions about). But in the first 5 minutes of that dive I was hooked and after completing Intro and Cave, I have very little interest in wrecks - I'd much rather dive in caves for a variety of reasons:

1. The cave does not leave the dock without you if you sleep in until 8pm.
2. You might get rained out, but it's rare to ever get blown out.
3. No need to ronse gear as the basin and cave is a big rinse tank (not counting the places you find duckweed, tanic water, and variations of slimy stuff)
4. The daily ticket at Ginnie is way cheaper than a $125 boat ride, and the state park fees are an incredible bargain.
5. No body goes after artifacts with hammers and crowbars so the conservation mindset of most cave divers appeal to me.
6. The conditions can be challenging, but they are very controlled and predicable compared to offshore wreck diving.
7. I have yet to get sea sick in N FL.
8. The rural locations of many cave systems and the people that live around them appeal to my small town country boy roots.
9. It's a small community where you know practically everyone or at least know of them. (The cave country politics is the ugly side of this, but nothing is perfect.)
10. This is the biggy - An OW diver asked me what I saw in caves and I was hard pressed to explain it. It literally defies description and the experience clearly transcends the senses. It offers continuing challenge and requires a focus that I find to be incredibly relaxing.

I think there are those who get it, those who do not and also those for whom it becomes a lifestyle and/or a means by which they define their lives. You don't find that opportunity very often or in very many places anymore.

[Cave Diver]

Instead of the Borg Queen, she's the Borg Cupcake now.

Soooo, resistance is tasty, and comes with glazed icing? Just don't swallow the plastic parts!

[speleodiver6]

Went to Chuuk the first time (from Hawai'i) and found myself in one of the cargo holds of one of the Maru's with one of the Thorfinn's guides (excellent dive guides, BTW) and there I was, with my camera in the Tussey housing, Ikelite strobe (and modeling light) and a C-light as back up. The guide had a Pelican King light.... and I was thinking that if anything happened to that guide I was toast... (it's called a "trust me dive") so upon return to the mainland we took a cave course and been hooked ever since (1997).

Dive safe,

Celia

PS Like Matt said, Vortex sux.....

[OldNSalty]

Isn't it ironic that our two posts were nearly side by side?

Ironic-perhaps. Big difference is the desire. I love the ocean and I understand the desire to exploring the unexplored but...I would rather do that with tropical fish

[Sas]

I think that's so true . . . although sometimes people don't know if they're one of us until they try it.

Yea that was me. I didn't think they sounded interesting at all and only did my Deep Cavern course because everyone said it would improve my skills and I'd find it fun enough. Anyway four months later after numerous trips interstate to dive in the caverns and sinkholes I am starting my Cave course tonight

I still haven't figured out what it is about the caves that have me hooked though. Lots of people have asked what on earth could be interesting about it but I really don't know! But I find it the most fun diving I have done so far.

[Rick404402]

I now understand...When I decided to become Cavern certified it was to become a better diver and open up some new areas to dive, with no inclination to start cave diving, no way, not me. That was two years ago and this August I start my Intro To Cave.

I am glad I took my time to get there as my skills have enhanced (I train almost every dive) and I am at ease in an overhead environment. It has nothing to do with bragging rights, competition or peer pressure. It is the fact that to pass this level of training I have to have some very good skills and a willingness to learn.

I have an instructor who, in my opinion, is one of the best but I also like to recieve words of advice from the veterans. I left for Iraq quite a few years ago a die hard surfer and now I do not own one single board, it is all dive gear!

[K Mejean]

I decided to do cavern because I was told it was a good jump for wreck penetration. I did good enough in the class that my instructor decided to take me into the cave to give me a taste what the next step would be. That was all it took. I just finished Cave 1 a couple of weeks ago. I plan on getting as many dives as possible betwen now and the end of the year so I can do Cave 2 by January. I never did take wreck penetration. Maybe one day but not for a while. I have a lot of caves to see first.