Finally got in the water again and looking for advice. (Update from Previous Post)

[jtsfour]

Hello all,

I made a post in February about a stress related diving hiatus. (Link Below)

Looking for advice on returning to diving after stress-related hiatus.

I finally got my gear serviced and was able to make a trip with some friends to Morrison/Vortex Springs last weekend. I figured I would post an update and my new thoughts on progressing / moving forward.

We got 6 good length dives in. I used sidemount and drysuit for all of the dives. I was able to get used to the drysuit pretty quickly and didn't have many buoyancy/trim issues from the suit. I was focused on keeping track on my friends so most of my time underwater was spent swimming around and getting used to trim/buoyancy again.

I was pretty comfortable underwater again. I am comfortable enough that I am confident that I can progress from just diving more. I actually made some progress on the last dive. I was finally able to manage a back-kick.



So now I am recreating my plan for progression. Here is where I am asking for critique and advice.

I now have 2 first goals in diving I want to work toward.

AN/DP & Retaking Intro To Cave.

I want to take AN/DP because I would like to better understand how to handle deep. I would also like to increase bottom times. I also want all of the other skills/knowledge from this class.

I want to Retake Intro to Cave because diving Vortex has fully reignited my desire to work towards full-cave.


Here are the steps I am proposing to myself to progress towards those goals.

1. Find a local spot so I can dive it every week.
   1. I would like to try and get underwater at least once per week. I think there is a section of River that I can use with decent visibility. If that doesn't work I may just use some pools if I have to.
2. Keep Diving the drysuit and sidemount
   1. Work on drills with the suit
   2. Make sure trim is on point.
   3. Work on skills again until I am good at all of them.
3. Find people to dive with.
   1. Some people to dive some quarries with
   2. Some people to dive Caverns with.
4. Make some Cavern Dives to get used to OH again.
5. Then Take Classes again?

Now I have a few other questions.

AN/DP or Retaking Intro to Cave First?

Personally, I would like to better understand how narcosis affects me, before attempting complex tasks on deeper dives like we did in Intro to Cave last time. I also would like those skills. When I took Intro to Cave last time I believe both of my buddies were AN/DP. I would like to close that knowledge gap.

Do many people take AN/DP in sidemount?

Do most people take AN/DP as part of cave training in caves or is it usually taught in the ocean?

Thanks for anyone who takes the time to read this and answers any questions I have.

 

[RayfromTX]

I would suggest you go back to the previous thread and read the advice again about making diving fun again before progressing in your training. Six months to a year of doing dives that are just fun relaxing and enjoyable.

It sounds as if you took a break from diving and are now going right back to a progression of training path. Perhaps just get very comfortable with just flying your body underwater and gliding along letting your muscle memory form on simple tasks sprinkled into the dive but not focusing the dives on preparing for the next step in a process.

In my diving, I do a lot of stepping back and deciding to shoot that fish next time or go ahead and start the ascent if things aren't just right. If anything isn't feeling just right I won't add another task because that might be the time that the dive decides to add a thing or two and I need the bandwidth to process a shtf moment that might occur. There is real value in lots of experience. It makes our tasks second nature and opens up our tunnel vision so we can see a bigger picture.

 

[Marie13]

You might consider adding Helitrox to AN/DP. TDI now allows use of up to 35% helium down to 150ft. It shouldn’t add any dives to AN/DP and additional cost might only be $100 or so, besides gas costs. You’d have to do Trimix book or eLearning.

Sounds like you need to go do some fun diving before you jump back into training.

I did cavern/intro to cave at a former WI mine this last fall. Got a number of dives in over the winter. Doing AN/DP/Helitrox this summer open water in the Midwest. Full cave next winter in WI/MO caves. I’m doing it SM (knees can’t handle the weight of doubles). Drysuit is second nature to me since I got OW/drysuit certified at the same time.

 

[jtsfour]

I would suggest you go back to the previous thread and read the advice again about making diving fun again before progressing in your training. Six months to a year of doing dives that are just fun relaxing and enjoyable.

It sounds as if you took a break from diving and are now going right back to a progression of training path. Perhaps just get very comfortable with just flying your body underwater and gliding along letting your muscle memory form on simple tasks sprinkled into the dive but not focusing the dives on preparing for the next step in a process.

In my diving, I do a lot of stepping back and deciding to shoot that fish next time or go ahead and start the ascent if things aren't just right. If anything isn't feeling just right I won't add another task because that might be the time that the dive decides to add a thing or two and I need the bandwidth to process a shtf moment that might occur. There is real value in lots of experience. It makes our tasks second nature and opens up our tunnel vision so we can see a bigger picture.

Definitely will do. I plan on doing relaxed/fun dives for at least a couple of months before seriously winding up. That's part of why I will look for people to Cavern dive with. I love Cavern dives and plan on having fun dives in them before attempting to move on.

After what happened last time I have a much greater respect for burnout. I need to keep analyzing myself retrospectively to prevent myself from going too hard too quickly.

Thanks for the input!

 

[jtsfour]

You might consider adding Helitrox to AN/DP. TDI now allows use of up to 35% helium down to 150ft. It shouldn’t add any dives to AN/DP and additional cost might only be $100 or so, besides gas costs. You’d have to do Trimix book or eLearning.

Sounds like you need to go do some fun diving before you jump back into training.

I did cavern/intro to cave at a former WI mine this last fall. Got a number of dives in over the winter. Doing AN/DP/Helitrox this summer open water in the Midwest. Full cave next winter in WI/MO caves. I’m doing it SM (knees can’t handle the weight of doubles). Drysuit is second nature to me since I got OW/drysuit certified at the same time.

I will definitely consider that. My main worry with anything related to Helium is gas cost. I am assuming the cost would be quite significant. Is adding Helitrox to an AN/DP course common?

Having more fun dives seems to be the common response. I will definitely take that advice. I guess part of it is getting out of the hardcore mindset I had myself in back in 2019. I plan on continuing to learn and practice I just need to make sure that I don't go too hard.

What caves in MO are you planning on training at? I did a lot of work in MO a couple months ago and saw signs of cave everywhere.

 

[jlcnuke]

Definitely will do. I plan on doing relaxed/fun dives for at least a couple of months before seriously winding up. That's part of why I will look for people to Cavern dive with. I love Cavern dives and plan on having fun dives in them before attempting to move on.

After what happened last time I have a much greater respect for burnout. I need to keep analyzing myself retrospectively to prevent myself from going too hard too quickly.

Thanks for the input!

In my experience, finding cavern dive buddies is fairly difficult, but not impossible. I think the easiest (or all the hard ways) method to get experience at incremental levels of "tech" diving is to find a dive buddy with similar goals that you can grow with. Try to develop a community of dive buddies and see who might be interested in going down this path with you. It'll make it more enjoyable for you both/all of you I believe.

 

[jtsfour]

In my experience, finding cavern dive buddies is fairly difficult, but not impossible. I think the easiest (or all the hard ways) method to get experience at incremental levels of "tech" diving is to find a dive buddy with similar goals that you can grow with. Try to develop a community of dive buddies and see who might be interested in going down this path with you. It'll make it more enjoyable for you both/all of you I believe.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll officially reach out in a few weeks when my base skill level has recovered a bit more.

I think I will reach out on this forum and reach out through Instructors and shops to see if I can get ahold of people that have recently got into Cavern with Full Cave in mind.

It was difficult for years to try and move forward because I was younger and better than everyone else I regularly dove with. I am the only person I know that has significant interest in Full Cave and Beyond. I am assuming it will be quite difficult to find someone at a similar level of skill with similar goals.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Adding helitrox only makes sense if you have a reliable supply for helium, can afford it, and are doing dives that actually require it. I have my cert but never bothered to get the instructor rating for it because I don't have all of those items mentioned in place for students to take advantage of. And many of the dives they would be doing do not necessarily require it. I can assure you though that adding it to my course would add more than $100 to the cost because I would need to figure in the costs of extra materials and at least one extra weekend to get the additional dives in. There is enough in AN/DP to fill a student's head in the week I used to take to do the AN/DP class. Adding the helium classroom and extra dives, plus getting fills, (I need to cover the cost of my fills as the instructor as well) takes time. I base my rates on $200 a day for group and $300 for private. In my area, I'd need to make use of at least two different locations because the site I used for AN/DP doesn't do helium.

 

[Manatee Diver]

... at least one extra weekend to get the additional dives in.

Helitrox replaces DP. It should take the same amount of dives as AN/DP, you just have helium in your tanks for the deep dives. I contacted TDI and asked about it.

 

[Marie13]

I will definitely consider that. My main worry with anything related to Helium is gas cost. I am assuming the cost would be quite significant. Is adding Helitrox to an AN/DP course common?

Having more fun dives seems to be the common response. I will definitely take that advice. I guess part of it is getting out of the hardcore mindset I had myself in back in 2019. I plan on continuing to learn and practice I just need to make sure that I don't go too hard.

What caves in MO are you planning on training at? I did a lot of work in MO a couple months ago and saw signs of cave everywhere.

Adding Helitrox to AN/DP in the Great Lakes area is very common among the divers I know. If you have issues with getting narced, as I do, you should seriously consider it. Cave country is probably the cheapest place for helium in the US. I’ll be paying $4-5/cft, but it’s worth it to me (for my wreck diving).

The official way of doing Helitrox with AN/DP per TDI standards is AN/Helitrox. You don’t get the DP card. That’s covered under Helitrox. You still do the DP bookwork/elearning but don’t get a card for it, although some instructors still issue the DP cars, from what I’ve heard.

MO caves: Roubidoux and Mine LaMotte, probably. I have knee issues that will keep me from doing others that have difficult access.