Questions about Cavern

[skip]

Another vote for Ed Hayes, or Bob Sherwood, or Trace Malinowski. You don't need a cavern instructor; you need someone who's good at putting people into doubles, teaching basic safety drills, and optimizing buoyancy, trim, and propulsion techniques.

One would think most technical instructors would meet those criteria, but if my experience here is any indicator, you need to be pretty picky to find someone who will actually get you well sorted out.

Your experience here? where is here? what experience? how is it an indicator of the need to be picky? do tell.

by the way, I'm a tech instructor and specialize in putting people into doubles, basic safety and drills, optimizing buoyancy, trim and propulision techiques. and I don't let go once I have you. but I don't do cavern, intro, or cave. tech in open water. I think when you pass intro to tech, you've become a way better diver, including better at learning other stuff too, like cavern/cave, or deco, or trimix. It cuts your learning curve in half. I won't plug my independent instructor status any further, really just wanted you to have the info to frame your reply.

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[gsk3]

Skip,

You're in/near cave country. You hang out on CDF. I'm going to take a wild guess that her comment was not intended to apply to you.

Bungeed wings and the-more-gear-the-better attitudes are still reasonably common up here. Given that he wanted to take a cavern class, getting sorted out in advance by someone who knows cave diving, it makes sense to target a small handful of instructors who know what cave diving entails. Were you in these parts, I suspect you would be on the list (which is not intended to be comprehensive...I can think of a one or two others but I don't have personal experience with them).

Not sure what independent instructor status has to do with it, since two of the three names listed are not really shop based.

[LCF]

I'm sorry, I should have specified "here in the Puget Sound region". We have technical instructors here who neither teach nor model cave-quality buoyancy control, trim, or propulsion. We have others who are excellent, but you can't buy a pig in a poke and expect it to come out well.

Given the OP's location, I was simply passing along the names of some people I was sure would bring him up to cave standards. I'm sure they aren't the only ones, but they were people I knew.

[Mart]

Not true. NACD does allow instructors to teach in sidemount. I have taught a few NACD courses in sidemount. I do teach sidemount for other agencies and will teach sidemount for NACD in December, which is my 1 year anniversary fr my crossover making me eligible. Up to this point I just submit a waiver request to teach in sidemount on a student by student basis. I believe Paul has a medical waiver due to a shoulder injury and surgery.

I asked Larry and this seems to be the rule: in special circumstances it is possible to get a waiver for teaching in sidemount. The instructor has to be in the same configuration as the student.

[RN]

Right. When I teach cave courses in sidemount it's because my students are in sidemount.

[stdiver]

To follow up on all of the questions from the original post. I just got back from Playa last night. I completed the Cavern/Intro to Cave with Nico from CenoteXperience - great course, very challenging, lots of UW time. The whole course was done in doubles, we worked out all the kinks and by the end I feel very comfortable in doubles. We put in several very long days. The hardest course I've taken so far and well worth the time and money investment. So I would recommend it, I will continue with full cave training with him probably next year. So, my opinions (opinions of a newbie), don't take PADI cavern. Not sure if you would have to redo the course for IANTD anyway. If you want to go to full cave, get doubles experience. So if you can't get it during the cavern course or outside of the course. The confined water skills definitely will help you with getting used to doubles, take advantage of those times, do some extra skills, etc. It all pays off in the end.

[Aftertwoam]

Thanks so much to everyone who responded and/or PMed me with advice and recommendations - I was definitely inundated with information, and it was very much appreciated! I tried to get in touch w/as many recommended instructors as possible, and most were quick to respond and very forthcoming w/additional info & advice. (Etienne, Mauro, Nico, etc.) Unfortunately, due to scheduling issues w/the trip in general, I couldn't finalize my dates for the course until way too late, so most of the ppl I had contacted were already booked, but Etienne was super nice and volunteered to help me find someone w/availability on the dates I needed, which is how I actually ended up w/Jason Renoux, who had also been recommended by someone else on this thread!

In a word, Jason was awesome. Super nice & funny guy, open to any and every question I had (and I had many), he kept me on task when I needed to focus, and kept the mood light when I was feeling the stress of dealing with such a challenging course. The previous descriptions I had read definitely had it right - this course was tough and humbling, probably more so bc I am pretty inexperienced in diving still. Although Jason was definitely very thorough, he was open to suggestion and modified things as needed to fit both my diving abilities as well as my learning style through the course. He was very patient and encouraging, and I looked forward to each day of the course despite the difficulties I had.

So to sum up, Jason was totally awesome, cavern diving was incredible, and I cannot wait to get back there. If anyone has advice on how to become an American expat living/working down in the Mayan Riviera while diving at every opportunity, please feel free to PM me =)

[JamesK]

Glad you had a great time, and welcome to the addiction!!! Keep training and and never stop learning.

[CaveBuddy95]

Hi there,
glad you had fun, pleasure was mine. Looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Cheers,
Jason