Time Spent and Dives Completed During Cave Training

[Bob Cree]

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

Good one Forrest...lol

27 years and 80-90 cave dives...had a bit of a break in there

[timle]

Feb 07 - PADI Cavern
A handful of Cavern divers
Oct 07 - IANTD Caver and Intro
50+ Cave Dives
Plan to take full cave in 2010

[AB8CD]

I remember the Army Corps of Engineers had piled up HUGE blocks of limestone to secure the breakwall (pier) into Lake Michigan. I spent hours squeezing through the stones… then as a teenager traveling down to Northern Indiana to climb down a shaft into a crawlspace in 6 inches of water and spending hours exploring private caves.

Then open water certification fairly quickly led me to working in low/zero visability conditions on the shores of Lake Michigan and inland lakes under large commercial vessels and in golf course ponds… to lifting crane booms (twice now) off the bottom of leech infested lakes in paid dive jobs.

I was introduced to Cavern Diving in 2004 and was drawn back every year until I was able to take 14 days this February to devote to full cave certification. The ‘one on one’ from 8AM til I drug my butt back to the housing complex after dark (taking a collectevo from the dive site) was pure heaven. I finished my requirements in 9 days and then followed with 5 days of “guided” dives which were always continuing education.

I returned in April for more “guided” dives, then again in October, and have purchased tickets for January. In every case, I was pushed and critiqued to constantly improve. I do the same when I dive in the states alone.

So… short answer, 9 days. But that does not take into account the aptitude and experiences that effect how a person deals with problems underwater, in the dark, wedged into earth or steel… whether you turn inside yourself or outside (if you know what I mean).

[MichaelAngelo]

Did cavern with Tyler Moon and intro with Rose Meadows in Jan of '98 I think
did Apprentise with Rose in 2001, on her very ngood advice took the full year diving at that level. In the mean time took all my secompression and trimix training. Got to dive the USS Monitor as expedition artist in 2002. Had rack up over 100 dives in cavern - cave zones while never breaking my lelvel of certification. got my Full caveforst week of Jan in 2003. So five years or so

[atedeschi]

Still trying to pass the tricky full cave stuff.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Took a year for me to go from Cavern to Full, with 120+ overhead dives between them all - over 60 at the Intro Level.

Not once have I ever felt cheated by doing it the long way. Infact, I think starting small has allowed me to appreciate caves much more this way, I'm never in a big hurry to get to back of anything. Credit for that is given to spending so much time appreciating progressively getting further into each cave and learning whats available in the beginnings.

[Herbie]

only took me 24 hours on the CDF , drove to Peacock springs, broke into a car , ripped off someones CDS full cave card off the dashboard, ate their granola bars and the rest is ....

[Sharky1948]

only took me 24 hours on the CDF , drove to Peacock springs, broke into a car , ripped off someones CDS full cave card off the dashboard, ate their granola bars and the rest is ....

Hey, I want my granola bars back!!! Must have been someone else's full cave card...still working on mine.

[Aussieguy]

Cavern and intro 2008
Apprentice June 09
Diving one weekend a month...4 dives in a weekend... spending time with my dive Buddy's Priceless!!!!!!!!
Looking at taking full cave sometime in the new year.
Drew

[BabyDuck]

did dive 100 in cavern/intro class feb '06 (ow for 13 months), did about 100 intro dives over 6 months, took a year & a half off for jameson, finished full jan '09 & have about 30 at full.