Personal development of a cave diver

[theriel]

Hello,
I strongly believe that in diving, like in any other activity, sports or career, it is good to have some "waypoints", small achievements, which will tell you that you keep on developing as a diver, as opposed to forgetting your skills. Something which you can gauge your progress against.

Just to clarify - I do not mean goals which some divers should try to achieve at the risk of safety. Rather, indicators of where we are, what we should strive to do next... or, alternatively - nice things to do and see at each level .

Having spoken to a couple of instructors, they mentioned the following as good indicators of skills for cave divers who are not ready yet to progress into deep/dpv level...

(P.S. I apologize, but because they were both Floridian instructors, the examples are only from Florida...)

1)Good start
->Orange Grove - Challenge traverse on 1/3.
->Reaching the Bats in Ginnie
->Going to the Harper Tunnel without silting
->Visiting the Well in Little River.

2)Intermediate
->Reaching the Dome Room in Ginnie
->Grand Traverse in Peacock without a stage bottle

3)Advanced
->Reaching Heinkel Restriction in Ginnie (2 stages)

What other good indicators of diver's level do you know? Or, what other fun dive suggestions do you have at each level?

Best,
Theriel

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Most of those goals can be met with a good SAC rate, not necessarily improved diving skill.

All of your goals are in a very focused area of Florida. Florida's a big place, it extends past High Springs, Luraville, and Branford believe it or not.




I've not met any of those dives, so I may be a truly undeveloped diver. Worse, I don't even have much of an itch to do any of those dives...



1) Good start?
Dive alot in sizable, traveled cave. Dive cleanly, and sort out any trim, bouyancy, gear, and reel management issues. Learn to read the cave. Get comfortable, but not complacent.

2) Intermediate?
Dive less travelled and smaller cave. Dive them alot. Dive cleanly, and sort out any gear issues from diving with more gear, any navigational issues with more dynamic dive plans. Get comfortable, but not complacent.

3) Advanced?
Dive whatever you want and be able to manage the proper dive plan to carry it out safely. Well traveled, rarely traveled, never traveled; dive them alot. Work out any issues with increased gear necessities. Work out any issues with gearing down mid dive. Learn to read where the cave is going, when its not all layed out for you. Learn to survey, and how to run line for surveying, and when to run line for easy traveling. Stay comfortable, but never complacent.



I think thats the spirit of what you were getting at... without any specifics that will tear at the ego of some newb who wants to prove himself.

[theriel]

Heyah,
As I mentioned - the places are from one part of Florida mostly because of the people I have come across... hence this post, to get other views .

Thank you for your thoughts. It is great to hear what elements various people consider important at various levels and how they perceive the development of a diver. Being myself a novice, I just like to know what I should strive for - whether described in quantitative or qualitative ways.

Surely, the obvious answer is that a good diver is a safe diver, environment-friendly and never complacent... but it's nice to know what distinguishes a good beginner from a good advanced diver!

P.S. I kind of assumed that in cave diving community there are no people who are looking to boost their egos... I would expect Darwin to have taken care of them very quickly.

Best,
Theriel

[SuPrBuGmAn]

...P.S. I kind of assumed that in cave diving community there are no people who are looking to boost their egos... I would expect Darwin to have taken care of them very quickly...

OFG's gonna have to step it up a notch if you're gonna bring this kinda humor to the forum

[Rich]

Mat summed up my thoughts almost exactly....

Safe diving,

Rich

[stairman]

Except the part about not having the itch to do those dives. Sounds like Matt is a somewhat regional diver who would rather dive than drive. Im the same way which is why Ive only dove Mill Pond once but Ill be back. Also the part about diving them alot is true but hard for some, especially out of staters who have to plan a vacation to get down, often without the family. I commend those folks for their dedication.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Except the part about not having the itch to do those dives. Sounds like Matt is a somewhat regional diver who would rather dive than drive.

While its true that I dive the panhandle more often than not... Luraville is the same distance as the Mill Pond from me. Its not regional. Ginnie, Peacock, and Little River are crowded and show alot more signs of that traffic. There's alot more pristine cave out there, in those same areas.

Also the part about diving them alot is true but hard for some, especially out of staters who have to plan a vacation to get down, often without the family. I commend those folks for their dedication.

If you don't dive them alot, and don't dive them often. You'll never reach the level of comfort and propensity that someone who does will. IMO, the vacation diver will never be what I would consider advanced. There's nothing wrong with that, most locals probably aren't going to reach that level either. However, if you want to be ontop of the game, it will take commitment. Dive caves alot.

[Kelly Jessop]

1)Good start
->Orange Grove - Challenge traverse on 1/3.
->Reaching the Bats in Ginnie
->Going to the Harper Tunnel without silting
->Visiting the Well in Little River.

2)Intermediate
->Reaching the Dome Room in Ginnie
->Grand Traverse in Peacock without a stage bottle

3)Advanced
->Reaching Heinkel Restriction in Ginnie (2 stages)

Personally I am not a fan of goal oriented diving such as this to indicate skill level. People tend to treat these as check lists,and will push things inorder to "check off" that item. For Example,the desire to be "intermediate level",someone may have checked off 3 items on the "good start" list,and the last item push real hard to get this goal behind them so they can declare themselves as "intermediate".
Nothing ever good has come from this kind of diving,with incidents being documented,and damage to the cave from people not ready for this. Go diving,progressively adding to each dive,gather experience,and mentorship will allow reaching more advanced cave dives to occur naturally. From my experience of guiding at several locations,people who develop as cave divers this way versus being goal oriented,look much better in the water,and have better critical decision making.

[MORGAN]

IMO, the vacation diver will never be what I would consider advanced. There's nothing wrong with that, most locals probably aren't going to reach that level either. However, if you want to be ontop of the game, it will take commitment.

As one of those outta-state vacation divers, I agree.

Tracy and I probably do more cave diving than the average vacation diver - we do two three week trips to Florida a year and 35 - 40 cave dives. But we spend the first few days of each trip doing tune-up dives - scraping the rust off our technique. Then we do some more of our old favorite dives. Then we look for new (to us) cave. About two thirds of the way through a trip we begin to feel really comfortable and efficient, then a few days later it's time to go home. We do make progress, but it would be faster if it wasn't months between caving trips. We do cave diving skills and drills on our OW dives, but it's not the same.

I like the idea that there's always room for improvement in diving - it keeps it interesting and gives us something to which to aspire.

Mike

[MORGAN]

Personally I am not a fan of goal oriented diving such as this to indicate skill level. People tend to treat these as check lists,and will push things inorder to "check off" that item.

Agreed. In skiing and climbing, where ski area trails are graded and marked in degree of difficulty and climbing routes in popular areas are described and graded in guidebooks, I have often seen people (usually young guys suffering from testosterone poisoning) get into trouble trying to "check off" things that are way outside their level of competence.

In my ski patrol days I followed a young weekend warrior down a famously tough trail - he fell, rolled, and slid down more of it than he actually skied. That afternoon I saw him in the lodge bragging to all and sundry how he'd skied that trail - so I guess his experience on the trail met his needs!