Consider a Cavern Diving Course

Certainly as one learns about the crystal clear water associated with blue holes and freshwater springs, the curiosity to dive these locations can be overwhelming. The lure is the prospect of virtually unlimited visibility with solid rock above, below and to the side of the diver in the form of large, often elaborately decorated rooms, archways, and canyons.
As normally sane, rational divers, our only desire is to "sneak a peak" into this underground world. We have no intention of making the extensive explorations planned by expert cave divers, and therefore feel that we have no need for any of their specialized training, or for all the extra tanks, lights, reels, helmets, and other assorted hardware that these people carry. After all, we're only going "just inside the entrance" - not some alien planet.

If this seems like a completely reasonable statement to you, then you are at least half right. But you could also be dead wrong! The plain facts are that if you do not have at least some of the cave diver's equipment and training, then you fit the profile of typical victims of cave diving accidents.

Fortunately, you don't have to take a full-blown cave diving class or invest in twin diving cylinders and a lot of other fancy, expensive gear in order to make enjoyable, safe penetrations in this environment. In fact, as an open-water diver you probably already have most of the equipment necessary for cavern diving: an octopus or safe second-stage regulator, and a buoyancy compensator with power-assisted inflator. You may already even have one of the two battery-powered lights required for cavern diving, so that all you may need to obtain is an extra light and a small cavern diving reel with suitable guideline.

A Cavern Diving Course, lasting only a single weekend, will teach you the fundamentals of guideline use, air planning, and anti-silt swimming techniques. Hansel and Gretel, as the story goes, used bread crumbs to try to find their way out of the forest. This method was not successful for them, and improper use of a guideline (or using no guideline at all) may be even less successful for you.

Typical guideline for cavern diving (dives limited to that portion of a cave illuminated by natural daylight) is made of white nylon approximately 1/8" in diameter, and is your only guaranteed method of finding your way back to the cavern entrance. The guideline is tied off outside the cavern entrance and is never more than an arm's length away throughout the dive. For easy, safe management, the line is played out from, and retrieved onto the cavern diving reel.

Air planning is another aspect of cavern diving. Because the cavern ceiling prevents you from making a direct ascent to the surface, as you would in open water, you must reserve extra air for the exit from the cavern. Sounds simple doesn't it? Yet, failure to follow this simple rule is the second most common reason that accidents occur in underwater caves. The course will teach you how to figure the minimum amount of air to keep as a safe reserve, and how to handle other problems and emergencies associated with exploring caverns.

Special modified swimming techniques will help you to move efficiently through the cavern without stirring up the sand and silt that lie along the floors and ledges of caverns so that you will be able to enjoy beautiful, gin-clear water throughout the dive. Improper swimming techniques can very quickly reduce 100-foot visibility to near zero, so this is an important aspect of cavern diving not only from the esthetic standpoint, but from the safety standpoint as well. In addition, the course will teach you how to recognize other potential hazards before they become real hazards.

The Cavern Diving Course will also enable you to understand the differences between cavern diving and cave diving, and to appreciate how the limitations that have been set for the "cavern" zone help insure your safety. As part of the course you will do initial training exercises on dry land and in open water, and will then make three cavern dives in at least two different caverns. Taking a Cavern Diving Course will not make you a cave diver, but if you abide by the rules and limitations explained in your training, you will never again exactly match the profile of the typical cave diving accident victim.

In the meantime, if you insist upon making a cavern dive before taking the course, consider using this safety technique: don't take any artificial lights with you or any member of your dive team. If neither you or your buddies carry lights, the cavern will get very dark very fast This will tend to limit your penetration to a safe distance. This way, until you can arrange to take a Cavern Diving Course, you can truly "sneak a peak" without putting yourself or your buddies in danger. Enjoy our planet's beautiful caves, but please do so safely.