Prep for Cavern/Intro

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Whenever I get cavern/cave students the two things that can easily & sometimes become show stoppers are:

• Incorrect equipment choices & configuration
• Inability to have proper buoyancy and posture control

Call your instructor and tell him what gear you intend to show up with and make the changes he suggests
Practice neutral buoyancy with a slight head down, knees bent, feet up position.

Watch This Video of my most recent cavern/cave diver student. This video was made on day one / dive one and the guy did very well in the course after he was able to better refine his skills.

 

[rddvet]

I’ve booked my Cavern and Intro to Cave courses and would love to hear recommendations on how best to prepare over the next few months to have the best chance of success. For context I am AN/DP/Tec SM/SM Essentials, and typically only dive SM. Thanks in advance!

Get in the water and do nothing. Literally. Master your buoyancy control. You should be able to pick a rock or other object and hover motionless over it for minutes on end. Video yourself to make sure you’re not finning to stay steady. Do that until it’s mastered then start doing it while manipulating objects in your hands.
Do not try to teach yourself cave skills. Best thing you can do for your instructor is to have peak buoyancy, no learned bad habits from teaching yourself and an open mind to learn

 

[AJ]

Get in the water and do nothing. Literally. Master your buoyancy control. You should be able to pick a rock or other object and hover motionless over it for minutes on end.

My advice is: get in the water and do everything. Hovering motionless is easy, hovering while doing things is hard. It doesn't matter what you do, using a reel, deploying an smb, laying down and picking up stages but do something. That's the skill you will need most. Being able to perform tasks whiling keeping trim and buoyancy steady.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A post advocating unsafe diving practices and thus contrary to the ScubaBoard Terms of Service was deleted, as were all replies referencing back to that post. Per the ToS:

ScubaBoard Moderators may at their discretion, remove any post which advocates unsafe diving practices as defined by the major certification agencies of the scuba diving world. While ScubaBoard does not take an official position on these matters, ScubaBoard does encourage users to maintain safe diving practices. You and you alone are responsible for your diving safety.

Cave diving is serious business. If you don't have cave training, please confine your advice to matters within your training.

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[ofg-1]

Well, if you are going to Ginnie you should:

Practice removing your wallet from your pocket with both left and right hands, even if its not DIR.
If going on a weekend, get a good Redneck to English dictionary.
Remember, if they look like they are about to bazooka barf, they probably will.
If you see a college kid passed out on a picnic table, leave them, (see above).
Find a good place to hide your valuables.

Have a good class!

 

[kensuf]

#1 skill: Being able to listen to what your instructor is telling you to correct and then following his directions. Work on that skill and you should be fine.

 

[Manatee Diver]

#1 skill: Being able to listen to what your instructor is telling you to correct and then following his directions. Work on that skill and you should be fine.

Literally saw a dude arguing with an instructor, something about not seeing signals and buddy separation. Granted this was during a day when the Gallery felt like a rave so it wasn't doing him any favors but, arguing is stupid. Learn your lesson and move forward.

 

[Thunder Struck]

I did my three day intro to cave at Ginnie with Bill “Bird” Oestreich back in January. The biggest thing I found to help me was to listen to what you are being told and do it that way. Regardless of what your buddy or some video told or showed you for some superfly technique or shortcut, do it as your instructor teaches. Unless he gives you some videos outside the normal curriculum to preload, the less you think you know going in, the better. From a non scuba instruction background I can tell you it's much easier to teach to a clean slate than to fix a bunch of bad habits.

Be good at getting neutral and in trim. Keeping feet up and not dropping them down over time. The rest of the needed techniques your instructor will teach you.

As for equipment, talk to your instructor about what he expects you to have. He may have equipment he prefers to use and can let you use it so you needn’t run out to buy a whole bunch of stuff.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes since often one can learn much more from mistakes than when everything goes without a hitch. Those “teachable moments” I refer to them as . As one of my trainers and now good friend at work told me many years ago, “The only mistake you can’t learn from is the one that kills you.”

If something doesn’t feel right, speak up or ask about it. It’s probably something that can be addressed and fixed or remedied in some way. Better to alleviate any confusion before it snowballs.

 

[mr_v]

And, for the sake of your classmates and other divers in the cave, leave your camera at home. The world has seen enough "look, I am entering a cave" videos.

 

[Thunder Struck]

And, for the sake of your classmates and other divers in the cave, leave your camera at home. The world has seen enough "look, I am entering a cave" videos.

^ This ^

You'll have enough going on. You don't need to add camera manipulation to it. Wait until after you are done with your cave classes and competent in the environment before introducing a camera.

 

[rddvet]

My advice is: get in the water and do everything. Hovering motionless is easy, hovering while doing things is hard. It doesn't matter what you do, using a reel, deploying an smb, laying down and picking up stages but do something. That's the skill you will need most. Being able to perform tasks whiling keeping trim and buoyancy steady.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A post advocating unsafe diving practices and thus contrary to the ScubaBoard Terms of Service was deleted, as were all replies referencing back to that post. Per the ToS:



Cave diving is serious business. If you don't have cave training, please confine your advice to matters within your training.

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Might wanna read my post again. I am recommending initially getting in the water and doing nothing until theyve accomplished hanging motionless. Most people going into cavern still can’t. Then once mastered, start doing stuff. We’re saying the same thing other than I’m, making the assumption that most people going into cavern don’t truly have hovering down perfectly. That’s based on what ai have observed in fl and mx