First Dive Trip Without Instructor - Need to Rent Gear & Help Planning

[CavernFrog]

FYI I have a mentor who is my dive buddy and he has 2000 total dives over 50 years and 80 cave dives. I also have my instructors who I respect and am seeking additional training and practice.

 

[MichaelMc]

What agency and level is your mentor's Cave certification?

Is this the buddy that you said recently got their Cavern Diver certification with you? If they were with you on your cave penetration, it's concerning. They have not been very helpful in keeping you within your, or their, level of training.

You got a strong reaction here for going in that cave. Consider how this community might view the guidance of someone that was there with you. And your considering them a mentor to follow.

Not that a mentor need be cave certified. But if they are not, and have 80 cave dives, and took you in a cave, they are on very shaky mentoring grounds.

 

[CavernFrog]

Yep, I get it. Hence why I am seeking other mentors who are approved of by this community.

 

[CavernFrog]

Also, I do not enter into any situation or blindly follow anyone, no matter their status, into any situation in which I do not feel I am capable of surviving independently.

 

[MichaelMc]

But a primary concern is that your feelings of capability let you go apparently well into the cave zone despite education of where that zone was. Unless you are an amazingly natural cave diver, and you have not shown the restraint side of that requirement, your feelings of capability lead you astray. Was there an underwater grim reaper sign you had to pass to do that? The cave community created bright lines in the sand to protect confident new divers, from death. In terms of signs for the uninformed, and limits that you were educated on in your cavern class.

I really think you need to stay out of the *cavern* zone for awhile. Like license revoked. And if your buddy is pushing to get back in that 'safe' cave, look for an OW or AOW student that wants to do simple dives with you and build skills and experience. Look toward rec fundies. Really. Stay out of caverns, and keep any new buddies within their training limits. Please.

 

[tbone1004]

Was there an underwater grim reaper sign you had to pass to do that?

I really think you need to stay out of the *cavern* zone for awhile. Like license revoked. /QUOTE]
there is a nice big one roughly 300ft prior to their turnaround point and ~200ft into the cave *ish, can't remember exactly how far it is, but it is barely within sight of daylight and is obviously beyond the "cavern limitations" but not unreasonably so and a turnaround point that I'm OK with in that cave*.

On the cavern zone, I'm OK with divers like this going into "innocuous caverns" like the one in JB because it's a good place to actually get some dive time. It's pretty big, not a lot of sediment on the bottom, warm/clear water, etc. fairly similar to the ballroom at Ginnie which is cleared for open water divers. I'd try to stay out of caverns like Peacock where you can cause a real sh!tuation if you aren't careful and get a lot of cave divers quite mad at you for ruining the vis in there.

 

[CavernFrog]

I did not cross a grim reaper sign. The route we took in the initial cavern somehow bypassed the sign location.

I did not know we were out of the light zone until we turned around and covered our lights to see how dark it was.

After I complete fundies and intro and get a ton more experience I hope to look back and see this act with the same ire as many in this forum.

 

[CavernFrog]

I'm OK with divers like this going into "innocuous caverns" like the one in JB because it's a good place to actually get some dive time. It's pretty big, not a lot of sediment on the bottom, warm/clear water, etc. fairly similar to the ballroom at Ginnie which is cleared for open water divers.

In line with this, is there a list of good "Beginner Caverns" or even "Beginner Caves" (once I am certified) where the chance of a silt out for example is very, very low or where there are no restrictions or side tunnels, etc...?

 

[CavernFrog]

I can prove I didn't pass a grim reaper sign because I have video of the entire entrance, laying line. We went down and to the left. We found the gold line, I assume, well past any sign.

We were told the end of the cavern zone was signified by a knot in the gold line which we didn't see until we watched the video.

I didn't realize the "chimney" we were supposed to not go down was the same structure we went through. It didn't seem tight enough to me to be a "chimney".

We turned around when I hit 1/3 air consumed and then covered our lights and realized we were beyond the light zone.

 

[tbone1004]

@CavernFrog you missed it, may not have seen it or seen it on the video, but you went right by it. It is right in the middle of the cavern, right before you tied into the gold line

on the beginner caves, you will be trained to not silt them out and will be taken to a variety of caves so it will be a non-issue for you.