I'm anxious, were you?

[leabre]

In 7 days time I begin a cave class in Tulum, Mexico. I've never been in an overhead environment before, I always did whatever I could to avoid them so I wouldn't get lost and die, cut my life short, make a speculators dream of my recklessness, or what-have-you. But next week is the big day. I can't quite tell at this point if I'm nervous or anxious: will I like being in a cave? Will the exhileration catch me with wings and fly me away? Will I love it and get hopelessly addicted? Or will I just be there and do that, and that is that?

How did you feel before taking your cave class? What rush of emotions over powered you?

[tstormdiver]

How the environment will affect you, is impossible to say. Everyone reacts diferently. I know an ex- special forces guy, that became extremely claustrophobic & could not finish. At last he knew his limits & knew when to call the dive rather than endangering his team. For me, I knew my instructor well before my course began. I already knew how demanding he can be (or thought I did). Sure there was some moments of aprehension before & even during the course, but I found most of them to be unrealistic, as long as proper planning was done the the rules were followed. I quickly found out, that I am not claustrophobic (which is a good thing) & that under my instructor's guidance, he would show me how to handle different enviroments & situations. He gave me the knowlege & tools to survive. For me the most overwhelming thing was having to multitask & keep all awareness at the same time,... meaning that I could not let 1 task overrule everything else when in a cave. If I did, my instructor saw to it to show me the other problems that could arise. When I started I had nearly 300 dives. I started because I felt the draw of the overhead environment & foolishly made a decision to enter one of these environments. That stupid decision nearly cost me dearly. Afterwards, my instructor told me that he would train me to safely dive in the overhead, if I promised not to do anything that stupid again. Long story short, after 2 yrs & 4 attempts, I passed my full cave last year.

[halemanō]

Before taking my NSS-CDS Intro to Cave class, I had taken the Cavern Class the weekend prior. The 4 dive Cavern class gave me a good idea of what the 4 dive Intro to Cave class would feel like.

IIRC, at that time Apprentice Cave Diver would have been another 4 dives and then Full Cave Diver would have been another 4 dives, but since I had no intentions of deco diving I was not really looking closely at classes past Intro to Cave.

After taking pictures of my training buddy in the water with the "little" 'gator at Peacock Springs, before the first Cavern Dive, anxiety about the overhead environment did not seem to be present.

[TSandM]

I did two days of cavern tours before my first cave class, just to make sure. There was no question. From the very first moment of the very first dive, I knew this was what I wanted and where I belonged.

It's almost a shame to do your very first cave experience in a class. They will likely let you swim in unmolested, and the first swim out will probably have nothing more than a backup light deployment. But there will still be the anxiety of being in a class. I think everyone should get their first taste of overhead in a situation where they can do nothing but gawk and feel awe.

[CamG]

Greetings leabre and a bit of anxious vibes can make you very focused in your training.
I was excited and a bit anxious but let it drive my focus into higher levels.
You will have moments that I thought would be difficult were not even a problem and actually quite easy.
There were other issues that needed addressed and the instructor will take care of those.
So do not over think it but know for sure caving demands greater awareness and it takes time to develop.

Be safe and trust your instructor.
If you are not having fun be honest and make the call.
Cave is not for everyone but if you are like me you will be blown away / addicted for good.
The focus, awareness, intensity, advanced dive planning makes the dives very enjoyable!

CamG Keep Diving....Keep training....Keep Learning!

[LowDrag]

Before taking my NSS-CDS Intro to Cave class, I had taken the Cavern Class the weekend prior. The 4 dive Cavern class gave me a good idea of what the 4 dive Intro to Cave class would feel like.

IIRC, at that time Apprentice Cave Diver would have been another 4 dives and then Full Cave Diver would have been another 4 dives, but since I had no intentions of deco diving I was not really looking closely at classes past Intro to Cave.

After taking pictures of my training buddy in the water with the "little" 'gator at Peacock Springs, before the first Cavern Dive, anxiety about the overhead environment did not seem to be present.

Question??? I have seen this term in a couple of places now but can not seem to figure it out so I am just going to ask. What is "deco" diving?

[Dive-aholic]

Question??? I have seen this term in a couple of places now but can not seem to figure it out so I am just going to ask. What is "deco" diving?

Decompression diving - diving beyond no decompression limits. Diving that involves mandatory stops at designated depths in order to off gas nitrogen and avoid getting decompression sickness.

[LowDrag]

Cool thanks

[Doppler]

I was excited and anxious. As a dry caver I'd been in plenty of caves and had crawled through a couple of sumps with a regulator in my mouth but a cave class was a different prospect. The course was challenging, but certainly not overwhelming. More than anything else, it opened up so many new experiences that were not on the radar beforehand. Most of all, it was very enjoyable and after a couple of days, started to be a really good time.

Best of luck, have fun, but be warned, caves are addictive... almost 20 years and several hundred cave dives later, I can positively confirm this fact!

[dl348]

I was initially excited but became a little apprehensive when I was gearing up to do my first cavern dive. I was overwhelmed with all of the new gear I was putting on, I only had about 30 dives in a BP/W before I signed up for my Cavern/Intro classes. In hindsight I wasn't quite ready for diving in an overhead environment. I had good buoyancy but wasn't proficient with frog kicks, modified flutter kicks and helicopter turns. My awareness also required some improvement. I didn't make the same mistake twice though, before I went back for my full cave class I practiced my butt off and got my trim, propulsion techniques and awareness all squared away. Once my instructor saw that I was dialed in, we could focus on actual cave diving and we had a lot of fun checking out all of the different cave systems in cave country.