kafkaland
Contributor
I recently took up cave diving and did my Intro Cave course in sidemount. While diving at that level is fun, it's also a bit limiting and I'm now thinking about Full Cave. My cave instructor suggested that it's a good idea to do AN / DP first, although it's not absolutely required.
Now, I'm wondering whether I should try to do the deco course in sidemount as well, or learn how to dive backmounted doubles. I have heard that taking additional deco gases in sidemount is a pain, especially in open water where you can't just leave them at the cave entrance. On the other hand, learning to dive doubles is also a bit of a barrier fir me, as I don't intend to dive doubles in caves. I'm not sure if I would dive doubles in open water (mostly the Great Lakes), as deep dives don't really interest me, at least not for now. A final consideration is that it seems harder to find a good instructor locally (Michigan and nearby) to teach AN / DP in sidemount, rather than doubles.
So I'm curious what people here suggest: bite the bullet and learn how to dive doubles first, or find an instructor for AN / DP in sidemount, or simply forget about it for now and just go for Full Cave without a deco course first?
Now, I'm wondering whether I should try to do the deco course in sidemount as well, or learn how to dive backmounted doubles. I have heard that taking additional deco gases in sidemount is a pain, especially in open water where you can't just leave them at the cave entrance. On the other hand, learning to dive doubles is also a bit of a barrier fir me, as I don't intend to dive doubles in caves. I'm not sure if I would dive doubles in open water (mostly the Great Lakes), as deep dives don't really interest me, at least not for now. A final consideration is that it seems harder to find a good instructor locally (Michigan and nearby) to teach AN / DP in sidemount, rather than doubles.
So I'm curious what people here suggest: bite the bullet and learn how to dive doubles first, or find an instructor for AN / DP in sidemount, or simply forget about it for now and just go for Full Cave without a deco course first?