Time Spent and Dives Completed During Cave Training

[battles2a5]

Did Cavern/ Intro in January 2008, did about 20 dives, then Apprentice/ Full in July 2008.

[LCF]

Cavern and Intro in October of 2007. 19 cave dives later, I took GUE Cave 1 in May of 2008. 89 Cave 1 level dives later, in August of 2009, I took GUE Cave 2 and didn't pass it. Three months and two intervening cave dives later, I took NACD Full Cave and passed it. I think I have about a dozen dives since I finished the class a little over a week ago.

[RN]

13 months. Took cavern to help improve skills for wreck diving and fell in love with the caves. Did a bunch of cavern dives (can't remember how many). Spent the next several months in Arizona lakes working on skills and getting used to diving doubles, which we bought within a couple of weeks of finishing cavern. Came back 7 months later to do Intro and Advanced Nitrox/Deco, did several more dives before heading back. Spent the next 6 months working on skills in Arizona lakes again. Came back and spent some more time diving at Intro level. I think we did close to 2 dozen Intro level dives before completing cave. Bought our house in Florida during the cave class trip and came back another 3 times over the following 15 months when we finally moved here. Then the real learning began. A very obvious transition occurred when we went from being tourist cave divers to resident cave divers.

Still learning.

[nelsoned]

18 months (10/04 to 4/06) 76 dives cavern to Cave.
Started after 40 yrs I(1000 dives) of open water adv. Nitrox (200) dives on doubles.
After Cavern with Ben Cook in Grand Bahama. I started Intro with Karen Buchel in Akumal. Instead of finishing the Intro. I decided to do more guided dives, more guided dives, Karen Became with child and hung up cave diving. I finished my Intro with Marko Warner in Tulum.
My cave instructorS were Steve Bogaertes, "Captain Bligh" as I Jovialy referred to him, and Harry Gust. I was pleased that I would not be Cave until I was competent. All of my instrutors were excellent. The joy of finally being comfortable air sharing in the dark feeling your way all the way out to the light.

One mistake I made was to try to make my open water TransPak work in the cave environment. My body and the Transpak were an unstable duo.

Backplate and Wings, Oh Joy !

I did Trimix to 250 FSW in 2009.

I currently have 1300 dives, 200 cave, 26 Trimix.

I am a "Tri-Cert" NSS/CDS, IANTD, NACD. ......(LOL)

All the best to all.

Happy to share.

[rotor60driver]

2 years total from Cavern to Full Cave. 40 or so cavern dives then 20+ dives at Intro, 20+ dives at Apprentice then finished up Cave almost exactly 24 months from Cavern. Enjoyed myself at each level and learned from diving with lots of mentors who were above my level and did dives at my level with me.

[Rich]

Took Cavern/Intro/App in 1994, still trying to figure it all out.....

Safe diving,

Rich

[jbdvr]

did cavern and intro-to-cave with lloyd Bailey in Nov-96, dove all of 1998 at intro level-about 30 or 40 dives, then full cave with steve berman in sept99 with hurrican floyd in flordia

[skip]

months from cavern to full cave: 33m, 33m, 12m, 18m, 24m, 24m, 7d, 27y, 5y, 5y, 12m, 3y, 2y, and 13m. some posters did not give time and some not full yet. Mean = 29.08months (excluded 27y and 7d as outliers), and SD = 16.6. 68% of divers between 12.48 and 45.68 months from cavern to full cave.

Number of dives: 97, 97, 30, 100, 40, 40, 0, 90, 100, 120, 100, 100. not all posters provided number of dives. Mean = 83.09 (excluded 0 as outlier), and SD = 30.78. 68% of divers between 52.31 and 113.87 dives from cavern to full cave.

I'm not doctor bill, and I did not stay at a holiday inn express, but I am skip!

-skip

[netmage]

months from cavern to full cave: 33m, 33m, 12m, 18m, 24m, 24m, 7d, 27y, 5y, 5y, 12m, 3y, 2y, and 13m. some posters did not give time and some not full yet. Mean = 29.08months (excluded 27y and 7d as outliers), and SD = 16.6. 68% of divers between 12.48 and 45.68 months from cavern to full cave.

Number of dives: 97, 97, 30, 100, 40, 40, 0, 90, 100, 120, 100, 100. not all posters provided number of dives. Mean = 83.09 (excluded 0 as outlier), and SD = 30.78. 68% of divers between 52.31 and 113.87 dives from cavern to full cave.

I'm not doctor bill, and I did not stay at a holiday inn express, but I am skip!

-skip

So where are all the zero to hero's.....? Surely not a myth....? Or are we finding that they just don't intersect w/ people obsessed w/ technology and finger pointing on the internet...?

[stickydeco]

I'm not doctor bill, and I did not stay at a holiday inn express, but I am skip!

Skip: YOU are the Numbers Crunchin MAN! Thank you very much. Plus that Bill is a Commie Slacker anyway. He told me once that he is working hard to "spread that wealth around." I said, we could start with eliminating all his taxpayer paid UWF junkets....LOL

The responses show that a bunch of folks took their time during their training years...more time (and dives) than I had thought. And I also agree with Forrest...the training REALLY STARTS after Full Cave! If we get more responses, please keep a crunchin!

And for those Full Cave Critters who did not provide the time range, throw that in if you can. It's simply the number of months and the number of dives from the start of Cavern through Full Cave.

Crazy Jack