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Cave Diving Beginners Guide
As with all aspects of advanced diving, the right training is essential. Here is our scubadex overview of the cave diving courses available:
Overhead Environment/Cavern
This course is designed to develop the minimum skills and knowledge for cavern and overhead environment diving within the limits of light penetration; in addition outlines specific hazards associated with cave diving. The cavern course is not intended to provide instruction for cave diving environments.
Introductory Cave
A typical beginner’s cave diving course develops basic cave diving skills with limited penetrations of the cave environment and is the second level of progression to the full cave diver certificate directly building upon the cavern course. It is a recreational cave diving course. The course develops and establishes minimum skills, knowledge, dive planning and preparation, problem solving procedures, swimming techniques, emergency procedures and the basic abilities necessary to safely cave dive within limited penetrations, using single tanks. Mastering buoyancy control, working with a reel, a light, and awareness in the cave is necessary to safely enjoy another dimension in cave diving. (Double cylinders are not to be used unless the student is planning to enroll in the Apprentice/Full Cave Diver training program).
Cave
This course is the third stage of training in the series of TDI’s cave diver development program. Advanced cave dive planning the practical execution of different types of cave systems and scenarios divers encounter are presented.
Equipment
Cave diving, like wreck diving, is a more complex and dangerous discipline than standard open water diving. As well as paying for an accredited course you will find that the equipment needed gets pretty complex and expensive. Below is a list of the equipment that you would typically need to embark on an Introduction to Cave Diving course.
- Mask & Fins with straps taped
- Tank (minimum of 71.2 cu.ft or greater
- Dual Orifice (Y) Valve
- Two first stages and two second stage regulators.
- 7' Octopus hose
- Double cylinders with dual valve manifold are OK if approved in advance
- 3 line arrows per diver
- Exposure Suit (wet or dry)
- (3) battery powered diving lights, one with at least 30-50 watt power
- Safety reel with min. of 75' of line
- Watch (bottom timer), depth gauge
- Slate & pencil
- Submersible dive tables
- One primary cave diving reel with approximately 350' line
Mandatory Text: Usually the NSS/CDS Cavern Diving Manual
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