Cave Diving Certification Question~~!!

[craborn]

My wife and I are headed to Orlando Florida for a vacation. She wants to do a Cave dive. She is now an Advanced Diver. I am an instructor but I have never done cave diving. Does anyone have any suggestions? Not looking for dangerous or crazy just wants to have a great dive and experience cave diving. It is something she has always wanted to do! Thanks for any suggestions.! Clay

 

[Dive-aholic]

You need to have the proper training to cave dive. It isn't something you can just do, even with a guide. Training iis a minimum of 16 dives over 8 days. It's usually broken down into modules - cavern diver, intro/basic cave diver, apprentice cave diver, and cave diver - each 2 days long. Cave diving also requires specialized equipment. I'm not sure what you mean by her being an advanced diver. If you're referring to AOW, that's nowhere near the skill level required for cave diving. And as for being an instructor, many open water instructors have died in czves because they weren't trained cave divers. Please watch the videos linked in my sig line before your trip.

 

[tstormdiver]

What Rob has said is VERY true. It is not a 1 or 2 day course. It requires a lot of time & equipment investment. It is a very unforgiving environment, even to someone who is experienced, let alone to someone who is not. When things go wrong in a cave,... it is typically very violent & happens quickly. It is nothing to be trifled with. As an assistant instructor, a couple of years ago, I made a very stupid & careless decision to enter a cave. That decision nearly cost me my life, but also taught me the seriousness of such undertakings & the respect I should have had to begin with. As Rob mentioned,... please get the proper training, if you really want to pursue that activity.

 

[Doppler]

Not looking for dangerous or crazy...

Clay, for the record, there is NOTHING about technical diving -- which cave diving certainly is -- that is "crazy". Dangerous, certainly more dangerous than most other forms of diving, but risk identification, assessment and management is what specialized training and experience is all about. Cave diving is way cool, but demands gear and planning WELL beyond anything your experience as an instructor or your wife's as an advanced diver affords you both.

Be safe. Sign up for a course...

 

[CamG]

Greetings craborn I agree very much with all that has been said and I want to encourage you to not give up on this.
Being a instructor you know how important training is and that one must be prepared to deal with the environment you wish to dive.
Their are instructors who would love to work with you to provide you both with a super enjoyable time and work on your Cavern certification.
What you will find is that the springs are magical and you will fall in love with them!
I took my family down and we spring hopped the whole week and it was awesome!

Depending on where you are heading in N. FL you will easily be able to find a great instructor who will help you.
The board is a great place to locate said instructor as you can check references easily.
Good luck and have fun.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[rongoodman]

If you want to do guided cavern dives as open water divers in some beautiful settings, a trip to Mexico might be in order. Many of the shops in and around Playa del Carmen offer tours in the cavern zones of the cenotes, with a good safety record. The guides are trained to full cave, dive in standard cave gear, and limit group sizes. Be warned, though, that a couple of dives in the cenotes can give you the cave bug for life, and then you will be doing all the extensive training mentioned above.

 

[Doc Harry]

I recommend at least 30-50 dives with doubles before the course, make sure she is comfortable managing the weight and a manifold. Probably should have mastered the modified frog kick, helicopter turn and back kick before taking the cave course. She should also have 30-50 dives in a dry suit if she has not used a dry suit before, and will need a dry suit for the class. My guess is that it will tough to rent a backplate, wing and regulators, so she'll need to get those per the specs of the instructor.

 

[mselenaous]

+1 on what most above said.

Clay,
I would recommend doing a "discover" cavern dive guided by a cave instructor at Ginnie Springs (the ballroom is considered open-water safe because of it's size, though not my personal opinion). Ginnie Springs is a couple hours north of Orlando. I recommend that you contact Capt Jim Wyatt or Rich Courtney both excellent cave instructors in that area (and there are others too). They will start by assessing your skill level and readiness for the overhead environment in open water.
View Profile: Capt Jim Wyatt - ScubaBoard
View Profile: Rich Courtney - ScubaBoard

Cavern (light zone) training and intro to cave training can be done in singles rigs/rec gear...but most will recommend moving into tech gear early during these classes before tackling basic cave. Talk to a few cave instructors, find one that will mentor you through the process.

Once you try it, you'll get the "bug" and come back for more (starting with proper training and equipment).

 

[rx7diver]

I recommend at least 30-50 dives with doubles before the course, make sure she is comfortable managing the weight and a manifold. Probably should have mastered the modified frog kick, helicopter turn and back kick before taking the cave course. She should also have 30-50 dives in a dry suit if she has not used a dry suit before, and will need a dry suit for the class. My guess is that it will tough to rent a backplate, wing and regulators, so she'll need to get those per the specs of the instructor.

Doc Harry et al,

I did my NSS-CDS cavern and basic cave training at Ginnie Springs in 1988 when I was open-water trained for about 2.5 years. The gear I used (full 1/4-inch farmer John and long-sleeved shorty wetsuit, SP Stab Jacket BC, SP Jet Fins, and SP Mk 10/Balanced Adjustable reg and gauges) for these two courses was *basically* what I used for fresh water diving in Missouri and Arkansas, except modified in some simple, but important, ways, including the following: SP AIR II was replaced by a SP power inflator, standard-length regulator hose was replaced by a 5-foot regulator hose, an additional regulator (Mk 10/G250) was purchased, an additional dive knife (a small knife) was purchased, etc. These modifications were "suggested" by my instructor during long-distance telephone conversations.

When I arrived on-site at Ginnie Springs with my gear modified as above, my instructor showed me additional modifications I would need to make: remove snorkel, remove dive knife from leg and affix to SSJ, purchase steel/brass O-rings to suspend from my SSJ's waist strap, purchase cave and safety reels and line arrows, reverse and tape fin straps, configure main (handheld lantern grip-type) light and backup lights (Ikelike Mini-C's) properly, properly set up regulators on Y-valve on the single (rented) cylinder and properly route hoses (we were expressly forbidden to use double back cylinders for these courses and for some time after completing these courses), etc.

It was *not* expected that I was to have mastered any kind of specialized kicking technique before I arrived on-site. This kind of thing was taught during the courses. (BTW, we were never taught, nor expected to learn the helicopter kick or the back kick!)

It was explained/emphasized at that time, that this level of training (cavern/basic cave) was merely to introduce interested/curious people to cave diving, to teach these people the fundamental skills they needed to *safely* dive caves under extremely limited conditions (high-outflow caves having permanent lines installed, specified depth+distance limit, no decompression, no restrictions whatsoever, no circuits, no jumps, no exploration, no "goal-setting", Florida ground water temps only, etc.). Once divers had completed this training, it was recommended that they acquire a lot of experience diving caves with respect to these conditions. If these divers subsequently confirmed their interest in cave diving, they were to return for more advanced formal cave diving training.


Okay. Do training agencies no longer use this approach for cave diving training? (Your comments above suggest to me something quite different.) IMHO, this is the type of training the OP and his wife "need" as they investigate their budding interest in diving underwater caves. The salient features of this approach to training are (1) there is no huge investment in specialized equipment early on, (2) divers are taught necessary skills and the conditions under which they can *safely* dive caves using the skills they were taught, (3) divers are *not* expected to know any specialized skills before they arrive on-site for their cavern/basic cave course.


Safe Diving,

Ronald

P.S. BTW, I personally never developed the "bug"--either for diving caves or penetrating wrecks. My cavern/basic cave training helped me *safely* explore whether I might, though.

 

[Cave Diver]

Not much left to say after the first several posts except DITTO!