Hi all

I have been caving for about 7 years now and did my first try dive last night with the hope of getting the courses done to let me try some cave diving

Any help of advice would be amazing

I am based in Derbyshire

Yours
Ewan

Contact the Cave Diving Group (Derbyshire Section). This is perhaps best done once you know how to dive but there's no reason you couldn't sit in on a meeting or two in the meantime just to get a feel for what it's all about.
Do lots of swimming and (if possible) snorkelling.
Learn basic diving skills at a sensible pace and don't miss anything out. (Be sure to learn each individual skill properly before moving on to the next.)
Do as much open water diving as possible - there is no substitute for hours in the water.
Examine your motives for diving in caves very carefully - this will help inform which direction you go in further down the line.
Don't try and progress too fast; sooner or later something will bite and you need to be able to deal with any issues (multiple issues?) confidently. Remember, the surface is not an option.
Read as much as possible about diving generally and also cave diving specifically.
Cave diving is not really something to dabble in - if you're going to do it then give it 100%. This makes it a lot safer.

Oh, and start saving up . . .

Diving's so awesomely complicated, even in open water, once you start extending bottoms times and confining the spaces and solo diving even more so.

I used to wreck dive a lot, not caves though, but I'm getting back into it currently. Next time you get yourself out on a Thursday (evening) ask me and I'll put you in contact with a proper club.

Thanks lads !


What's the best diving line to go down BSAC ? Or PADI

Both have pros and cons.

I'm not involved with either and what follows may be slightly unfair (as it's not based on great experience of either) but many people would concur that PADI is quick (which may suit busy people) but won't necessarily give you great experience.

BSAC tends to be slow (as you often attend pool sessions / lecture weekly, in a club situation) but arguably provides more experience - not to mention the social side of joining a club.

Word of advice - don't mention you're learning to dive in order to be a cave diver; there are still some clubs out there who may find it hard to come to terms with this motive. Also, try and give something back to the club in some way (i.e. don't just "take") and you'll probably find this oils the wheels of efficiency re making progress.

You may find that open water diving is a thoroughly absorbing and enjoyable end in itself, even to the extent of abandoning your original idea of cave diving! There's nothing wrong with that of course. Just take care . . .

Hi Ewan,

I can't off any real advice, and i'm pretty sure that Pitlamp's contribution is infallible.

However, if you wanted to talk to someone face-to-face, then you could try OCC member Simon Brooks.

Also, if you haven't read The Great Caving Adventure by Martyn Farr, then I thoroughly recommend it. There are many great (and some sobering) accounts of cave diving, and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down! I can lend it to you if you want (open to Ash too). You may find it in the OCC library too.

Phil.

That would be ace Phil

Just to chime in with Pitlamp:-
I learnt to dive in 09/10 with a BSAC club, after 6 yrs caving. The CDG was always in the back of my mind, but I agree with Pitlamp & keep your own counsel & just learn to dive with the open water club at first. You might not even like diving, or find you have physiological issues that make clearing your ears difficult + painful without surgery.

BSAC is perhaps slow, but usually the clubs run on a yearly training cycle, starting in the Autumn with pool sessions + theory lectures over the winter, followed by the open water lessons in spring ready for the summer dive season. So you sort of enter at one end & you'll be whisked along. And cheaper, as you're not paying the instructors. As the clubs are run by volunteers they are extremely variable in activity and quality of the teaching.

Sea / wreck diving is surprisingly expensive - boats are massive holes in the ocean into which money is poured. It's great fun but not massively relevant to UK cave diving, except for an easy way to get deep-ish experience & hone your buoyancy skills doing deco.

However, shore diving I find is extremely similar to UK sump diving, and cheap as a result of the relatively low gas consumption (small bottles, no need for nitrox, wetsuit acceptable) + lack of having to pay for a boat.

There's nothing I'd disagree with in Jarv's post above; he knows what he's on about. If you ultimately decide to apply to the Derbyshire Section you'll soon meet him.

Ewan - look out for a PM from me with a bit more information.

Just to chip with some advice, the CDG only need an Open water qualification for you to get started, but you need to do enough open water diving to get comfortable in the water, a cave dive is not the venue to polish your diving, my advice would be to do plenty of open water diving before venturing into a cave dive.

This is the advantage of joining a BSAC Club as it will give you plenty of in water time, PADI is quicker but you will be qualified in 5 pool sessions and 4 open water dives, leaving you to sort out further experience.

So for Cave diving join BSAC - this is despite me build a PADI Instructor 

Dale - I'm glad that you (as an open water instructor) agree with what I said above about BSAC.

There is of course NO SUBSTITUTE for hours in the water in varied conditions, locations, temperatures, depths, visibilities, etc, etc.

The BSAC gets berated by some divers but I'm not convinced that's fair. I count myself as a fairly experienced diver (thousands of dives logged) but a while ago circumstances led me to join the BSAC. (All to do with a lady friend you see.) So I never let on I was already a diver and I just did whatever they asked me to and went to the lectures, purely to see what it was like. I found the club's members were very friendly, the standard of their lectures was very good - and the training sessions in baths and in open water were very safe. If that's representative of BSAC generally I'd have no hesitation in encouraging you to do it that way. I really enjoyed it, even though I knew everything they were "teaching" me, as they were a great bunch.

PADI is also very good - especially if you have limited time to get your ticket - and you're disciplined enough to ensure you take responsibility for gaining A LOT OF experience subsequently. But don't underestimate the social side of becoming a BSAC member - and the fun you'll have in the process of gaining experience.

Pitlamp - There are pros and cons on both BSAC and  PADI (I have qualifications in both as well as others), I personally don't get on well with clubs as I tend to be a little too independent

The important thing to consider for Cave diving, in my opinion at least, is that the dive training and the consolidation of that training should not be done in a overhead environment.

I tend to find that following the initial Open Water Course, then BSAC produces better divers, but as you progress in your diver training then PADI trained divers tend catch up and overtake.

PADI's downside is the consolidation tends to be done without instructor presence. BSAC's is that due to lesser regulation (club rather than a business) that the training standards and your instructors interest in that training vary from club to club.

But all in all the final result is very similar

So either find a good BSAC club or if you go the PADI route you either need experienced friends to dive with after training or you need to do further training beyond open water (your Advanced Open Water Course at least), but most of all before undertaking cave dive training you need to comfortable in the water.

BSAC - Did my try dive and my mate is the instructor at my local club and he is going to guide me in my diving

I am off to Corsica for 2 weeks this month and have found a PADI open water & Advanced course I can do when there then I plan to get back involved with the BSAC club on getting home to do further training & dive trips then spend a good year or so just getting into some fun diving with my club

Hi lads sorry but after some PADI info

I am off to Corsica next week and was planning to do my open water and poss my advanced if I have time

If I do my online learning courses here is they all I need to do ?

Do I need a medical or anything like that ? 

EwanCameron said:

Hi lads sorry but after some PADI info

I am off to Corsica next week and was planning to do my open water and poss my advanced if I have time

If I do my online learning courses here is they all I need to do ?

Click to expand...

as i understand it, if you've read the theory, it saves doing the classroom stuff out there, you just need to do the in water skills and the dives.

Do I need a medical or anything like that ?

Click to expand...

medicals are self certify if you don't have any medical problems - https://www.padi.com/padi/elearning/medical.aspx - download the form and ensure that you don't need to answer YES to any of the medical questions. If you do, then it's worth seeing a doctor (some GPs can do dive medicals) and getting a medical done to cover your YES's to ensure you are fit enough to dive.

Thanks buddy

You can also do pool sessions here if you like just leaving the open water dives to do  abroad, if this interests you give me a call 01298402020 Dale Gray

Update - the feedback on here has been amazing

I broke my piggy bank and I have just done my open water in Corsica when on Holliday and got myself some used dive kit from a lady selling all her kit due to poor health it's all in test and looks like it will all fit me

Putting cave diving to rest in the back on my mind for now off to see what UK diving has to offer for a year or two first and look into doing more courses to get me trained up

Advice on courses would be ace as well

Advanced open water

Cavern diver

Are courses I was planning on doing any others that are worth doing

Martyn Farr also runs cave diving courses:

http://www.farrworld.co.uk/