Getting Started In Cavern and Cave Diving
Each of us may have different goals when it comes to cavern and cave diving (not the least of which is just staying out of them altogether). Assuming you are somewhat interested in overhead environment diving, the question is really what do you want to do?
- Would you just like to get a taste of what it is like to dive in a natural overhead environment?
- Would you like to learn some of the fundamental skills of cave diving — without having to make the financial commitment required to become a fully certified cave diver (a commitment that includes a substantial investment in equipment)?
- Are you ready to invest the time, money and effort required to get your Cave Diver card?
Which of these questions you answer Yes to will determine your best course of action.
But First, What Not to Do…
We really shouldn’t have to say this, but the one thing you do not want to do is go cave diving without the proper training and equipment. Cave diving is dangerous. Really, really dangerous.
In the years before access to popular cave diving sites was better controlled, as many as two dozen recreational divers would perish in underwater caves every year. Fortunately, the need for proper training and equipment is widely recognized now. Additionally, most caves are on private land or state or county parks, where the management enforces rules designed to prevent unqualified divers from taking lights with them into the water. No lights, no going in underwater caves — and no dead divers as a result.
With the exception of the sites mentioned next, should you find yourself in or around and underwater cavern or cave, don’t take a light. Then there will be no temptation to do something foolish.
Getting a Taste — Safely
If you simply want to get a taste of what it is like to dive in an underwater cave — without spending money on training and equipment, or taking your life in your hands — there is an alternative. It’s to visit one of the many freshwater dive sites in north Florida that provide the opportunity to make a fairly safe cavern dive without the need for special training. These sites include
What you will generally find at these sites is a large, open and relatively silt-free cavern area (a cavern is that portion of the cave where you can see the entrance clearly), with no connection to a maze-like series of cave passages where divers can easily become lost. Divers who follow the rules are allowed to take lights with them into the cavern. This is unlike Florida’s state parks, where light use is prohibited unless you are a certified Cavern or Cave Diver.
If you are traveling to Cancun or Cozumel, yet another alternative is to take part in one of the many guided cenote (say-noh-tay) tours offered by dive operators throughout the region. Check your guide’s credentials. He or she should be a certified cave diver, a certified Instructor or Divemaster, and certified by the watersports operators association to conduct guided cenote tours.
Learn the Fundamentals
Let’s say you want to do more than just look around one of the “tourist” caverns mentioned above. Or, say you want to acquire some of the specialized buoyancy control and propulsion skills that are common to cave divers, and which can enhance your overall diving abilities. Or perhaps you want to get a head start on learning some of the guideline and reel use skills that are integral to Wreck Diver training.
The place to do so is in a two-day Cavern Diver course. This specialty diver certification is readily available through nearly all the open-water, technical and cave diver training agencies. It is a recreational-level course and requires little in the way of specialized equipment other than primary and backup dive lights, and a personal safety reel or spool.
Divers may participate in Cavern Diver training for a variety of reasons.
- They may simply be interested in improving their overall diving knowledge and skills.
- They may do so as means of determining whether or not to continue with additional cave or technical diver courses.
- They may take the Cavern Diver course as a first step that can lead to eventual certification as a Cave Diver.
Divers who know, going in, that their goal is full certification as a Cave Diver frequently participate in Cavern Diver training, not as a course in and of itself, but rather as a component in a more comprehensive, multi-day Cave Diver training program.
Make the Commitment
Let’s say, going in, that your goal is to become a fully certified Cave Diver. If so, odds are you already have some level of technical diver training and certification. That’s good, because if you do, you most likely possess some of the prerequisite knowledge, skills and experience (such as exceptional buoyancy control), as well as much of the specialized equipment needed.
Cave Diver training and certification is available through the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD), the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS), as well as through technical diver training organizations such as IANTD, TDI and GUE. NAUI and PADI both offer Cave Diver certification as well.
Although curriculums are similar, specific certification levels and requirements vary somewhat from one agency to another. The new PADI/DSAT program is typical of the trend toward requiring entry-level technical diver certification as a prerequisite for Caver Diver training.
- To enter the program, students must already possess a PADI/DSAT Tec 50 Diver certification, or an equivalent certification from another agency.
- Past this, the course requires roughly eight days, 16 dives and over 600 minutes (that’s ten hours) of bottom time.
- Skills run the gamut from basic buoyancy control, guideline/reel and propulsion skills to emergency procedures that deal for lost visibility, lost lines, lost buddies and lost ga supplies.
Because of the intensity of the training, most instructors recommend or require that students break it up into two- or four-day segments. Students may have the opportunity to make additional dives between segments to gain further experience and polish skills.
Obviously, becoming a certified Cave Diver requires a substantial investment of time, money and effort. (Instant gratification is not a term that comes readily to mind when discussing Cave Diver training.) Nevertheless, the rewards of making such an investment are equally substantial.
- Cave divers are widely recognized as being among diving’s most elite.
- They get to experience a world of almost unimaginable beauty.
- Their unique abilities enhance nearly every aspect of their diving, wether in or out of a cave.
Regardless of whether your goal is to become a fully certified Cave Diver, learn some of the fundamental skills or just have the opportunity to experience the overhead environment, there is an avenue that will allow you to do so safely and enjoyably. Just don’t be one of those people who think the rules apply to others. They don’t tend to last very long. See why.
Organizations That Offer Cave Diver Training
Harry Averill has been cave diving for the past 35 years and teaching cave diving for the past 20. He serves on the Board of Directors and Training Committee of the NSS-CDS, and has developed training materials for a variety of organizations. Visit his website at CaveDiverHarry.com.
Special thanks go out to photographer Walt Stearns, whohas generously made his images available over the years to promote safer cave diving.