Time Spent and Dives Completed During Cave Training

[stickydeco]

I'm sure this subject has been discussed before, but I couldn’t find anything recent in several searches so here goes. After reading all this "Zero to Hero" stuff vs. the need to "go slow" during training, I am really curious to know how many months and how many dives in the overhead people had from the first day that they walked into a Cavern class to the day they finished Full Cave. There are many valid reasons why a diver may have moved thru their training in a short period or took their time, so please...no need to pontificate (which is hard for me) as to whether shorter or longer is better. I just think it would be interesting to see what our Forum sample might be. We could even have Dr. Bill do a statistical report!

For example...Jack and Jackie: 33 months and 97 dives.

Cheers

Jack

[Wizard]

I did about 50-60 dives in full cave gear in lakes and quarries and took cavern/intro in same.
Note to others-4 hours in double 104's makes cavern a little tougher than it has to be.
Then one year later took apprentice/full in same setup plus dry suit after 30ish cave dives.

Would not recommend all four courses in two week time frame.

[Bobby]

My better half spent a year preparing for cavern and intro. 18 months later she has over 100 cave dives and is preparing to take apprentice between X-mas and NY's. She is considering possibly doing full at the same time but has not committed yet.

Bobby

[sandy]

Sandy and John - 24 months and 40+ dives

December 2005 – took Cavern and Intro with a single 95/h-valve, basic lights, and a wetsuit with the intention of not pursuing additional cave training. As we told our wives, we are just curious and want some more training. Worse thing that happened to us were Intro checkout dives at JB and PSSP . John and I knew we were hooked after those dives. Within a year, we had eased into doubles, can lights, drysuit, etc and were making plans for Apprentice.

March 2007 – took Apprentice. We had intended on taking Cave but my stomach really messed with me on our first Cave dive and that blew it for us. That was fine as it gave us a chance to make more dives and further refine our skills and techniques.

December 2007 – Completed Cave

[w ripley]

7 days.

[Reddiver]

Started cave diving in 2000 and still learning

[J_glenn06]

I took cavern almost two years ago in a single al 80 and a Cheap VERY cheap UK light. Now i have made over 60 cavern dives and some adv. nitrox and decopression dives in my double 95's. I am just now taking intro between christmas and new years(hopefully).

[UCFKnightDiver]

Cavern in August 2008 did 50 or so dives at the cavern level did Intro in March of 2009 and currently have 50-60 intro dives thinking about apprentice but meh not in a real big hurry, need to get comfortable in my drysuit and hit up a few more different sites that I havent hit yet as an intro diver.

[netmage]

Never took cavern... About a year, trying to get to N Florida monthly at NAUI cave 1 level mostly diving w/ team from class and instructor for fun dives. Then did NACD Apprentice\Full...

[FW]

This is not an official answer from either the Cave Diver's Forum, or the NSS-CDS (i.e. disclaimer)

I have dived with a *lot* of other divers over the years. In my observations, I see a much larger percentage of zero to hero divers that probably wouldn't pass apprentice, much less full cave now. However, I know several that are fine divers today. I think more can be said for continuing to dive, than how quickly the training took place. Divers that learned while on vacation, and *only* dive once a year while (or so) on vacation, are much less likely to be good divers than someone who learned in FL for a week, but comes back several times a year.