cavern and intro all at once?

[JamesK]

My attitdue to this day for every class I take is that I go in knowing full well that I'll quit when it's not fun anymore. It's "my" class and I'll do what I want! I may lose the money I paid, and obviously not get a c-card, but at least I will know whether I like it or not.

skip

I love this outlook on things!

[LCF]

I started diving doubles, running lines and doing diffident drills for about a year before I took my cavern and intro.

My goodness; my drills were diffident at first, but it didn't take me a year to get a bit more confidence . . .

[DA Aquamaster]

My goodness; my drills were diffident at first, but it didn't take me a year to get a bit more confidence . . .

I think it will vary a lot depending on the diver, their ability levels and past experiences as they relate to the basic bouyancy, fin technique and configuration related skills.

I spent some warm up dives in a local quarry running lines and doing things that were different from wreck diving before doing Cavern and Intro - but only a few dives over a couple weekends. But what made Cavern and Intro a non challenge for me was past commercial dive, zero visibility experience. Several hundred hours in various environments with absolutely no viz at all atunes you to a variety of subtle indicators of body position, buoyancy, etc. Aloing with that was several hundred previous technical dives in silty conditions with doubles and drysuit that solidified the fin technique and configuration related skills.

Consequently in the Cavern and Intro courses I was able to give 100% of the cognitive bandwidth to the new cave related skills as the underlying fundamental dive skills were second nature by that point.

It's the potential to be over whelmed with a variety of new demands, such as getting familiar with doubles, new configuration, fin techniques, perfecting buoyancy etc that make Cavern and Intro difficult, not so much the cave specific skills themselves. But if adiver shows up lacking solid buoyancy control, lacking good fin technique, or in the middle of trying to master a new configuration, they are going to experience a lot more task loading and stress than if they master those basics first.

[Skorpiov]

Many times its just a matter of finances and vacation time to get there. I've been "practicing" 3 years and plan to start cavern and Basic in May.

1st year changed jobs, no time off, used my fun money up between jobs.
2nd year I broke my back. Yeah lots of fun therapy, but its better than it was when I was 35.
Last year I had a big fight with the IRS. I lost, they took me to the cleaners.

So in the mean time, I got a sidemount rig, got trained and certified, nearly wore out a set of reels, changed my fins to something better, spent many hours wriggling around the quarry and in and out of the boats and busses, and pvc obstacle courses.

Doesn't mean at all that I'm daft or remedial. (that may still be the case, but one doesnt imply the other)

[LCF]

I think it will vary a lot depending on the diver, their ability levels and past experiences as they relate to the basic bouyancy, fin technique and configuration related skills . . . But if adiver shows up lacking solid buoyancy control, lacking good fin technique, or in the middle of trying to master a new configuration, they are going to experience a lot more task loading and stress than if they master those basics first.

Larry, read more carefully; you completely missed my joke

[CaveMD]

If you have access to local diving -- even a pool -- you can work on developing the ability to sit still in the water and maintain that stillness while doing the basic skills -- mask flood and clear, mask remove and replace, regulator exchange, and simulated regulator donation. If you can go into cavern able to do those things comfortably, you will be way ahead of the game, and combining cavern and Intro will not be a big stretch. If you go into cavern with significant deficiencies in your basics, moving on to Intro may be a bit of a stretch.

This is probably the single best piece of advice in this whole thread. I'm lucky enough to have a 150' mudhole within 5 miles of my house. Were it not for the ability to dive with multiple stages to 100'+ pretty much every weekend I would not have advanced anywhere near as quickly as I have.

[Jax]

Larry, read more carefully; you completely missed my joke

I thought it was auto-correct!!!

[DA Aquamaster]

I thought it was auto-correct!!!

Me too - my iPhone often likes to decide what I am thinking a few seconds after I type it. I don't always catch them all in the proof read.