Friend wants to be a cave diver

[jdobbertien]

This past weekend i took a friend of mine who is OW to ginnie cavern to show her what this whole "cave diving" thing is all about. Needless to say she got hooked and was asking when and where to start. I'm sort of at a loss for words to tell her. Is there anything you would tell people wanting to get into cave diving? (besides get ready to spend everything)

[lord1234]

Have good trim and bouyancy down before you take your cave class. It will make your life MUCH better/easier

[moody]

Even though I'm not a GUE diver, if I had to do it all over again I would have taken fundies and then gone off to take cave training, even if the training is with another agency.

[H2Ocaver]

First thing to do is READ, then read some more. Get every cavern/cave related text or book and read them all. Then find a mentor. Then get in a pool and get the basic skills and gear rigging worked out. Then sign up for a cavern class. That's my opinion.

[BigTex1836]

When I started, I did a bit of research in to the organizations, instructors and requirements then talked to a few instructors ahead of time to get a sense of them and assess my own readiness based on the dialogue we had. Also discussed any short comings I felt I had and what they would suggest ahead of time or to wait until the class. Jim has a good listing of questions on Scubaboard, not sure if it's around here somewhere.

Once I determined the instructor I wanted to take and the course progression (i knew i wanted sidemount too, so i took it first with cavern) I broke down the progression in to manageable chunks with plenty of dives in between. I also directed more of my investment in to training than in to buying all my gear at once. This let me try out a few regs and lights before deciding as well as letting me spread out all my expenses instead of racking up credit card debt. Not to mention all the trips to FL I was making to get the dives as well as the training.....it adds up fast for sure. But damn it was worth it.

[Scubaru]

I'm wondering if you're the couple my dive buddy and I dove with on Saturday... only one of you on nitrox? We also hit Ginnie, and the Devils. Had a blast. I'm currently about to start my journey to cave. This weekend was an intro to intro if you will. -A cavern environment with varying levels of flow to work on frog kicks, light use (in Ginnie), trim, bouyancy, taking on and off my BC under water, out of air simulation, flooding mask, swapping mask for my back up, following the line in Ginnie without a mask, etc. We had a good time but made sure to use it as an opportunity to work on things more than just play. I say all this as it's my recommendation of what to have down SOLID before even considering the Cavern class.

Also worth mentioning: stopped at 4 different dive shops, browsed some literature, picked some brains, priced gear, watched cave divers for over an hour at Devil's focusing on their gear and technique, and then researched the black market for what a good kidney goes for...

[patpicos]

if only OW, then AOW, Intro to tech or Fundies, then cave curriculum by your agency of choice. The goal is to be very comfortable in the water and put in the time.

Everyone has their own pace, but for reference i did
Intro to tech/Cavern/DPV @ dive 96-117
Cave I @ Dive 191-210
Cave II /Deco/Adv Nitrox@ Dive 251-259

I typically do 120-150 dives per year, of which 30-45 are cave dives (im not local to Cave areas). Will be hitting @ 500 in MX next week.

[patpicos]

First thing to do is READ, then read some more. Get every cavern/cave related text or book and read them all.

Although some disagree, im with you. I guess im a bit of a nerd when it comes to learning on my own..but I probably own most of the tech/cave diving books out there, ask a lot of question, and absorbs as much as possible from various online sources (critically reviewing). Going into my cave and tech courses, it was about the diving and dealing with the situations and not have to focus on the theoretical stuff.


Picking an instructor is also very important. Find someone that is aligned with your style and your schedule. I've tried to schedule stuff with one instructor and things never happened, so i went elsewhere. Some like the military style teaching, some dont. Some enjoy laid back, but make you pay on your mistakes. Ive had a bit of both. The laid back style worked well because i was allowed to make my own mistakes instead of prescribed exercises and i learnt the hard way. I also like having fun while diving during courses instead of drill drill drill.

[JCGoodwin]

Good advice so far I would encourage you to get involved with a group of local cave divers.
Networking will allow you access to many good deals on used gear etc.
I found the mentoring nature of a small group of friends to be very helpful.
Keep your chin up take all comments constructively you are going to struggle we all did.
The point of training is to identify your weaknesses and then improve.

Good luck with your training.
Enjoy

JCG

[mdax]

I think it'd be hard to go wrong with taking fundies, then taking cavern and spending some time enjoying the caverns around here. She'd get fundies/gue skills and introduction while cavern would show her the tdi/iantd/nss path and some really cool locations.