elgoog
Contributor
Hi -
I'm starting to look into getting a taste of overhead diving and have been reading the many threads about it on SB and CDF. The discussion about doing cavern on its own vs combining it with intro has happened a bunch of times and is impacted by multiple factors. I looked a little deeper into that from the point of view of the course contents only, all else being the same. Of course, I realize that not all the courses are exactly the same and instructors may approach them differently but I'm going by what I've found in the course outline and standards docs.
To me, it looks like the main additional skills in intro to cave that are not normally covered in a stand-alone cavern class are the lost line and lost diver drill. Is this a fair assessment? This is assuming both courses are done in doubles, drysuit and my skills are at GUE Fundies (rec) level in this configuration. Also, never done any kind of overhead diving at all so this would be my first experience with that.
I feel like these two skills are really essential even if I end up doing "only" cavern dives. From a practical standpoint, adding the extra 2-3 days to do the cavern+intro combo makes a lot of sense for me as well - I have to travel cross country regardless of whether I pick Mexico or Florida and the incremental cost of these 2-3 days is small compared to the cost, effort, time, etc it takes to plan a trip like this.
Thanks in advance,
elgoog
I'm starting to look into getting a taste of overhead diving and have been reading the many threads about it on SB and CDF. The discussion about doing cavern on its own vs combining it with intro has happened a bunch of times and is impacted by multiple factors. I looked a little deeper into that from the point of view of the course contents only, all else being the same. Of course, I realize that not all the courses are exactly the same and instructors may approach them differently but I'm going by what I've found in the course outline and standards docs.
To me, it looks like the main additional skills in intro to cave that are not normally covered in a stand-alone cavern class are the lost line and lost diver drill. Is this a fair assessment? This is assuming both courses are done in doubles, drysuit and my skills are at GUE Fundies (rec) level in this configuration. Also, never done any kind of overhead diving at all so this would be my first experience with that.
I feel like these two skills are really essential even if I end up doing "only" cavern dives. From a practical standpoint, adding the extra 2-3 days to do the cavern+intro combo makes a lot of sense for me as well - I have to travel cross country regardless of whether I pick Mexico or Florida and the incremental cost of these 2-3 days is small compared to the cost, effort, time, etc it takes to plan a trip like this.
Thanks in advance,
elgoog