Geography Challenges

[chrpai]

In another thread (When did you consider yourself a cave diver?) I saw the following post:

I'll never be a cave diver. I am a line-following cave tourist, and that's all I'll ever be. I live 3000 miles from caves to dive, and I will never have the experience and constant practice that makes some of my friends into the cave divers they are. Keeping that perspective keeps me respectful and safe.

This resonates with me. While I live 60 miles from Jacobs Well and have friends who dive there as part of a team, I live just over 800 miles from the nearest cave training opportunities. I'm about as prepared as I can be to begin this journey but I struggle deciding to take the first steps due to the distances involved.


For those of you who dealt with this, what's your take?

[moody]

I live in Toronto Canada, it's about 16hrs to drive to the caves in Missouri and 20-22hrs to the caves in North Florida. Needless to say I don't get to indulge in my passion every weekend like some people do. It does make it challenging. You are constantly up against skill fade and building consistency not just with your individual skills but with your team work as you don't get to make friends and dive with the same people as often and easily as you would if you were local. I used to take week long vacations 3-4 times a year and just cave dive the entire time. The trouble with that was I found that it would take me a few days to knock the rust off and then another couple of days to start feeling like I was back to where my skills used to be and then my vacation was over. Not much progress was being made but at least skills were being maintained. I decided if I wanted to make some real progress I would have to make some changes. Starting this year I am now taking a month to two months off every winter just to cave dive. This year I rented a house and a car in Playa del Carmen and this should let me get enough diving in that I will see some improvement. I will still do my week long cave trips every few months to stay on top of things. There really is nothing else I'd rather be doing and am constantly working on ideas and ways that will allow me to either get more time off and/or move closer to a cave diving locale. If this is something you are passionate about then the 800 miles can be overcome, of course this advice comes from someone who works freelance, has no wife or kids, and so has a bit more flexibility with it.

p.s. With regards to "never being a cave diver", I will never use the word never in that way. I refuse to close my mind to the possibilities of what may lay around the corner. Even if I am diving a so called "tourist cave" it is an exploration for me. I'm seeing things for the first time and going places I've never been and am in awe and mentally preparing myself for the unknown risks and possibilities ahead. I don't believe tourists belong in caves. It's a serious business with serious consequences and if you don't feel like you are a cave diver then maybe you shouldn't be in there. When did I feel like a cave diver? The first time I had an emergency and there was an awful lot of limestone above my head that prevented me from making a hasty departure to the surface. Just my take and no offence intended to others who feel differently about it.

[Michael.guerrero]

I'm currently 4 hrs from the nearest cave (Roubidoux in Missouri). I'm intro certified, but am underwhelmed by it. I will likely never be a cave explorer, laying new line in passages that haven't been navigated previously. But I guess I'm a cave diver.

You may want to look at Mexico to keep your proficiency up, as that should be closer than North Florida.

[RN]

Distance does make a difference. I started and completed my cave training while I was living in Arizona. And even though I came to Florida 3-4 times a year while living there I still didn't feel like I had the experience to even be a cavern instructor. After I moved to Florida I spent the first year just diving. That's when the difference between a tourist cave diver and a resident cave diver was apparent to me. And when I finally felt competent enough to begin my cave instructor internships.

[lord1234]

Chris, you live near LOTS of caves...you just haven't found them yet...

[chilldive]

Just about every skill I can think of, that is needed in a cave environment, can be practiced in any body of water. Not near as fun, but if done, you'll be more prepared when you do take a vacation to dive some caves.

A decompression dive is also an overhead environment. Practice swimming 6 inches over a silty bottom, doing helicopter turns 6" over the silt, etc. Run line, silt up the place and follow the line back. Practice picking up stages, switching stages, dropping stages. Lots of OOA drills and follow line you've run. On and on. Don't let yourself think for a minute that you can just rise to the surface - simulate the cave. Do night dives, run a line, turn the lights out and find your way out. Doing lost line drills probably isn't practical for open water. Be creative, learn and prepare for the real thing.

Skill proficiency is the same whether there's a ceiling or not.

[SLIM]

Every dive you do should always be treated as a cave dive. As CHILL said, even in COZ on a reef, you can still cave dive just not in a cave. All skills are still being used.

[mwenner]

Good points, everyone. I agree that keeping tuned is a major challenge, unless you're allocating major time to whatever it is. I just returned from 10 days of open water ocean dives, (which is rare for me) and found that there are other diving skill sets equally difficult to master. Deco without a Jon line, for one. My key is to take on what I'm able to do, and not what I think I should be able to. There are many divers out there, diving over everyone's head, so it's really about you, and what you can really do.