Interested in becoming cavern certified

[mselenaous]

TracyN, welcome to Scubaboard. Sounds like you've been bitten by the dive bug.
+1, all great advise given.

Here is a review I wrote of the cavern class I took in the springtime. It might help you get an idea of some cavern classes are structured.
Cavern Class with Capt. Jim Wyatt
I'm considering going back in October for more training.

Good luck!

[TracyN]

Thanks! I will read the review. Yes I definitely have been bitten by the dive bug. :-) The underwater world is so beautiful

[scububa]

You can't get better advice than what you've recieved here, already.
So, +1 on "welcome to the under(water)world" :-)

[Crush]

I recently received my AOW certification and most of my non training dives have been in caverns.

...

The instructors at the dive shop where I got certified are not big on overhead environments so they strongly discouraged me from persuing this certification. Is cavern diving really that dangerous?

Welcome to diving and SB!

Did your former instructors strongly discourage diving in overhead environments, or your diving in overhead environments without appropriate training?

I took Cavern (NACD) with Johnny Richards (Johnny@CaveDiving.com, Cave Diving Website) and loved it. I expect that taking GUE Fundamentals then progressing through their cave diving certifications would be very challenging and rewarding.

I hope to hear more from you on SB. To that end, don't poke around too much in caverns unless you know what you are doing!

[TracyN]

Crush,

My instructors are not fans of overhead environments at all regardless of whether or not you have training. As much as I want to start my cavern training I need to work on my buoyancy skills first. I found this out firsthand when I went on a wreck dive last Saturday. We swam through a decent sized opening in the ship but my tank scraped as I went through. Did pretty good not silting the place up though.

[TSandM]

Tracy, when I wrote my prior response, I hadn't read through your other threads. Having done so now, I would highly recommend you wait a while before pursuing cavern training. You are still having a lot of new diver issues and I think you would benefit from quite a bit more open water experience, to develop good, methodical diving habits before considering entering the overhead.

If you are interested in getting a leg up on better skills and a solid "platform" that will serve you well in the caves, consider taking a GUE Fundamentals class. Although not in Tampa proper, there are quite a few GUE instructors in Florida, and it should not be difficult to get into a class. Even Primer would be a good first step.

The bar for skills in caves is extremely different from the standard for open water diving. It's a pretty big jump for a lot of people. Taking an intermediate step in open water can both improve your open water diving, and prepare you much better for overhead training.

[TracyN]

Well, I found a good instructor and I will be starting my cavern training in October. :-) I think it will be a good experience for me and make me a better all around diver. I seem to have solved many of my buoyancy issues by dropping some weight. I am pleased that my instructor is going to challenge me and not just give me a c card. I actually told him not to pass me if I was having difficulty because what good is a certification if I don't have the skills to back it up. I certainly don't want to kill myself or someone else. :-) If for some reason I don't pass he is also willing to work with me until he and I both feel comfortable with my skills. I can't wait to start exploring.

[covediver]

I did my cavren cert at Vortex and Morrison in NW Florida back in 1996. I was good training that made me a more competent diver for using reel and other techniques. Definitely worth the time it took to get certified.

[katepnatl]

Congratulations on moving forward with your diving! U/w is a magical place and I've found the caves to be even more so in my very limited experience.

Not to pick at nits, but you shouldn't have to tell an instructor its ok to fail you. When you are talking about overhead environments, it's my opinion, that an instructor should be crystal clear up front that you won't pass unless you meet the standards. If it takes longer than the standard course time, how you get to the point of passing (or not) is another topic, but the instructor needs to lay that foundation. Maybe I misread your post?

[K Mejean]

Congratulations on moving forward with your diving! U/w is a magical place and I've found the caves to be even more so in my very limited experience.

Not to pick at nits, but you shouldn't have to tell an instructor its ok to fail you. When you are talking about overhead environments, it's my opinion, that an instructor should be crystal clear up front that you won't pass unless you meet the standards. If it takes longer than the standard course time, how you get to the point of passing (or not) is another topic, but the instructor needs to lay that foundation. Maybe I misread your post?

I'm the instructor and I did. She is aware that I have certain expectations from my students and that if she doesn't meet those she won't pass. She also knows that I will work with her until she reaches her goal. I can assure you that she did not need to tell me it was OK to fail her.