Cavern Diver

Master the critical skills needed to safely enjoy these breathtaking environments and change the way you think as a diver! This course can be done as a stand-alone course or in a package including Intro to Cave, or Intro to Cave and Full Cave Diver. The stand-alone Cavern course is taught using back mounted doubles or sidemount.

This is the starting point and your introduction into the world of diving in an overhead environment. We take this course very seriously, as you will be developing the foundation needed for a successful cave diving career. All of our Cavern Instructors have completed a minimum 2-year internship, working under our experienced cave instructors and instructor trainers before they can teach this class. The high standards teaching we instill in our team will ensure you receive world class training for starting your journey into the overhead environment.

During this course, we spend some time in classroom to discuss various subjects that are key to being a safe cavern diver. The team plays a huge part in this discipline of diving and we will discuss ways you can become an asset to your team mates as opposed to a liability; from the psychological aspects of diving in the overhead environment to how to safely plan your dives considering the many variables that could affect your gas, team awareness, communication and potential hazards specific to this environment.

Although we are training in the cavern area, where daylight will always be present, you will learn techniques that will be used at all levels of overhead environment training. One of the most important things to consider when you enter an overhead environment is that you need a continuous guideline from the open water to the farthest point of penetration. Should an emergency occur and you must abort the dive, you will be able to follow your line safely back to the open water. In some cases you will need to use your own primary reel and connect into the mainline to ensure this continuous guideline to the surface. Considered by many as the hardest skill to master, our team has broken down the process of laying line into a fine art, ensuring all the considerations are easily digestible for students as they continuously practice this skill throughout the class.

Another core skill for cavern diving which is covered extensively in this class is how to exit a cave in zero visibility. You and your team mates will learn how to work together to survive in this potentially life-threatening situation, in a controlled and safe simulation. Ultimately by the end of the class you will be able to exit a cave in zero visibility, whilst dealing with various gas failures within the team and having to share gas all the way to the exit whilst blindfolded. With our vast experience in cave diving, and dealing with real life emergencies in the water, we are able to create realistic simulations of the type of emergencies you might encounter diving in the overhead environment, and give you the skills and mindset needed to overcome any of these problems. 

Certification for this course is offered through PSAI Mexico. This course takes a minimum of 4 days to complete and is available to all certified divers with 25 logged dives. Strong diving fundamentals are a must for this class. We would recommend an Advanced Buoyancy Control program as a primer. 

Course Content Includes:

• Fundamentals of diving in the overhead
• Equipment workshop (Sidemount or backmount)
• Team diving and awareness
• Dive planning considerations and execution
• Passive and active team communication
• Psychological aspects of diving in the overhead environment
• How to safely and efficiently run a primary reel
• Zero visibility protocol and procedure 
• Gas sharing within the team
• Understand your equipment including problem solving in gas failure situations
• General emergency procedures and considerations

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ProTec offers various certification combinations to help you reach your cave diving goals. Check out our cave diver Training Tracks to help you plan your trip.