0 to Full Cave in 150 dives?
- Thread starter SMcC
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PADI seems to think that you can train someone else to dive at 100, I don't see why you couldn't be a full cave diver with 150 dives total. It depends on what your background is. Do you come from a university program or something like GUE Rec1 you are in an infinitely better position.
Our baby open water divers only know how to frog kick, already know how to back kick and do helicopter turns, know how to do compass nav, know how to do proper gas planning, are set up for primary donate, etc. They can pass full cave easily with 150 dives.
Practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect. The sooner that you can get unf*cked, the easier it is for instructors to fix you. I'd rather take someone who is committed and wants to be a full cave diver when they have 5 dives than when they have 500 because it's less work to break those habits.
Our baby open water divers only know how to frog kick, already know how to back kick and do helicopter turns, know how to do compass nav, know how to do proper gas planning, are set up for primary donate, etc. They can pass full cave easily with 150 dives.
Practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect. The sooner that you can get unf*cked, the easier it is for instructors to fix you. I'd rather take someone who is committed and wants to be a full cave diver when they have 5 dives than when they have 500 because it's less work to break those habits.
I dont see anything wrong with it. When I started cave I only had around 100 dives. We spent months training in pools, drilling in between trips and getting dialed in. It's the hours that I think are more important. Since then I have only racked up another 150 dives, but most average 2-3 hours, so is that still only 150 dives or should we count the 300-450 hours I've amassed?
PfcAJ
Contributor
Dive count matters less than experience.
if all your dives are the same, then you’re not developing.
if all your dives are the same, then you’re not developing.
The traditional path for a tech diver is to be an open water diver racking up tons of dives, and then at some point going tech. But today you have a people who get into the sport for tech diving, or soon after starting getting the tech bug and move toward that goal pretty quickly. I didn't get into diving to go tech, but thanks to an early taste on a cenote tour, and a general interest in WW2 history, I pretty quickly oriented myself toward cave and tech diving.
My general timeline across about 2 years of diving:
Cavern - about dive 50
App Cave - Around dive 125
AN/Helitrox - Around dive 150
Full cave - Around dive 170
Stage cave - around dive 200
I took a little bit of a slower path from App Cave to Full cave than the person that was the reason you started this thread for. But I moved quickly from open water to cave, documented in a thread within the tech forum. Do I think I would've had an easier time if I had a few more dives. Definitely I think I could used at least another dozen or so dives figuring out my sidemount kit before starting cave or having a drysuit so I wouldn't have been fighting the cold as well as what I needed to learn.
But I'm not sure what another trip to Cozumel, the Keys, or South Florida would've added. To me it seems like there is only limited crossover between open water and tech diving. For me the only things that seem to crossover is a general comfort in the water, and buoyancy control.
My general timeline across about 2 years of diving:
Cavern - about dive 50
App Cave - Around dive 125
AN/Helitrox - Around dive 150
Full cave - Around dive 170
Stage cave - around dive 200
I took a little bit of a slower path from App Cave to Full cave than the person that was the reason you started this thread for. But I moved quickly from open water to cave, documented in a thread within the tech forum. Do I think I would've had an easier time if I had a few more dives. Definitely I think I could used at least another dozen or so dives figuring out my sidemount kit before starting cave or having a drysuit so I wouldn't have been fighting the cold as well as what I needed to learn.
But I'm not sure what another trip to Cozumel, the Keys, or South Florida would've added. To me it seems like there is only limited crossover between open water and tech diving. For me the only things that seem to crossover is a general comfort in the water, and buoyancy control.
Nirvana
Contributor
I don’t see a problem with that dive count. As others said above, skill and dive count do not progress equally. Good instruction, dedication to developing one’s skills and variety of environment experienced contribute much more to becoming a better diver than just doing the same simple dive many times over.
Die? No you can be reasonably safe as a 150 dive full cave diver.
But I can say that every single diver I know that has "trained" like this has quit shortly after getting the card they lusted after to zip along through 150 dives to get. So its a sign of some messed up goals and priorities to me.
But I can say that every single diver I know that has "trained" like this has quit shortly after getting the card they lusted after to zip along through 150 dives to get. So its a sign of some messed up goals and priorities to me.
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I did full cave, 0-hero, with less than 150 dives. That was over a decade ago and have well more than that, so now you can say you've met 1
You are just electrons and quarks though, unless this you minus the fins Tbone?
Is this a result of the FB post today?
Edit: nevermind. It is.
Edit: nevermind. It is.
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