what steps should one take...

You may want to practice insulting people. Make sure to include folks from england,new jersey and drunks as they respond well and will give you better experience.

The cave diving world is full of drama, it will take a lot of your mental skills to keep the alliances and current hates mapped out. You can start with venn or line diagrams to keep it all straight. When you hear stories be sure to keep in mind which bubble of the hate/alliance diagram is doing the speaking as you'd be amazed at how different each side ends up.

Each group is somewhat like high school cliques, they have a leader and hurl rocks at other groups while standing in glass houses. When the caves get blown out or conditions are poor the cliques start bouncing against the walls and attack each other. Each group is convinced they are much cooler, mature, good looking, environmentally conscience and less "good ol boys" than the others. Pick your clique carefully.

Read every cave diving book/manual you can get your hands on. Start with Shecks blue book from the nss.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../photo36-1.jpg
Definitely read "fear and loathing on the net" GI3 was a true master of the internet and many of us eagerly wait for his return.

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Originally Posted by rddvet

Step 1: Save lots of money
Step 2: Save more money
Step 3: Dive and work on buoyancy, esp while doing tasks
Step 4: Save a little more money
Step 5: Take advanced open water or a buoyancy course, or both
Step 6: Work on buoyancy and trim
Step 7: Start spending all of that money you've been saving
Step 8: Take Cavern or Cavern/Intro
Step 9: Ponder how you ever were able to save money before, and also how you have more gear than you ever thought a diver could own
Step 10: Dive and work on your buoyancy more because you realize your trim wasn't as good in your cavern class as you thought it was before class
Step 11: Spend your last $30 to stay in a run down hotel that hasn't been upgraded since the last murder in what you once thought was a podunk town but is now you're favorite place to be, and be happy about it because you get one more day of diving in
Step 12: Post a thread on the forum asking if there's another 12 step program to help you kick your cave diving habit because you're wife and dog complain that they never see you and your addiction keeps you broker than if you had a cocaine addiction (no pun pertainining to any certifying agencies intended)

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+1 ... so true

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Originally Posted by offroadr1

I appreciate the advice, but this is a place where like minded individuals gather to meet, discuss, and anything else that involves cave diving... The frog kick advice was just what I was looking for. ...

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I have to agree with OFG-1. While you can probably practice buoyancy control on your own, the other "advise" you are getting is pretty suspect. It is very difficult, if not impossible to learn trim, and the frog kick without observation from someone that knows how to teach. CaveMD said your buddy is good, and he may well know that, but if you practice something the wrong way, you will have to first un-learn the bad habits, then learn the right way.

The best advice I have seen here is take cavern first. Edd is a great instructor, and will get you started on the right path. Don't be embarrassed for not knowing how to be a perfect diver before class. Nobody else was :-)

FWIW, I started 5 years before OFG-1, and was a cave diving training director.

yeah, Hunter knows her.

So take cavern itself without intro? And use that to build a foundation and take intro at a later date? Just making sure I am clear here.

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Originally Posted by offroadr1

yeah, Hunter knows her.

So take cavern itself without intro? And use that to build a foundation and take intro at a later date? Just making sure I am clear here.

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Exactly! That way you will know what you need to practice for intro. You may never want/need advanced nitrox, or tirmix, but you won't know until you actually get into a cave and see if you really like it.

Cavern and Intro are two different classes, Not that the way I did it is the right way, but I took it one level at a time, dove until I got bored then took the next class. I spent a year diving almost every weekend before I got to full cave, But, I'm only a two hour drive away.

Makes sense. When I first heard about cave diving, I thought it was absolutely insane. But I have done some reading and asked questions and that helped. Then. I did a dive at morrison springs. Just in the basin and around the cavern entrance. Looked at eels and flounder. I had a light so i could see for a fairly good distance into the cavern. It was pretty amazing and thats really what cinched the deal in my mind that i wanted to dive caves.

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Originally Posted by offroadr1

yeah, Hunter knows her.

So take cavern itself without intro? And use that to build a foundation and take intro at a later date? Just making sure I am clear here.

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If you are a relatively new diver, that makes the most sense.

For an experienced technical diver moving from wrecks to cave, cavern and intro probably makes more sense as the basics are already mastered and they will (probably) be very solid in cavern skills after the first two days and will be ready to move into Intro on day 3.

That's about as close to zero to hero as I can agree with as I think there is a great deal of value in diving at the Intro level long enough to fully develop and integrate those skills before moving on to Cave.

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Originally Posted by jj1987

Could always take cavern before an/dp and I'm sure nearly every instructor would accept that.

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It would depend on the agency and their familiarity/comfort with cave diving. NACD and NSS-CDS are exceptions here, probably because they don't have a dog in the AOW fight, but most other agencies either require or recommend AOW first, probably as a revenue generator because they do have a dog in the AOW fight.

Again, I don't agree with it as I regard AOW the way it's usually taught as something of a joke for a technical oriented diver, but a non-NACD, non NSS-CDS instructor worried about agency standards may expect the AOW card or want to sell you the class while working up to AN/DP.

I took AOW prior to Tri-mix, AOW was what I had been certified to years ago anyway by the YMCA. AOW is a joke pure and simple, but then OW water Cert is a joke too.