Scuba Diving Article

Cavern and Cave Scuba Diving

One of the most fascinating specialty dives next to Wreck Diving is Cavern and Cave Diving. The underwater world is filled with 100's of caves, caverns and geological formations that form what divers call "overhangs" that are beckoning to be explored. To a diver an "overhang" is described as any formation that does not allow direct access to the surface, that is what makes these dives exciting but also challenging and treacherous - no diver should penetrate even the smallest cave or cavern without being properly trained in cave or cavern diving.

The most critical difference in Cave or Cavern diving from open water diving is that in open water diving, in the event of an emergency the scuba diver always has the option of a rapid emergency accent to the surface, in a cave or cavern this is not the case, so extra precautions need to be taken as far as dive safety. While both caves and caverns have this no direct access to the surface challenge, there are differences between cave and cavern diving. Primarily a cavern diver will always have the cavern entrance in sight; a cavern dive cannot be more the 200 linear feet from the surface and cannot be any deeper then 100 feet. A Cave Dive on the other hand will often penetrate deep within an underwater cave, 1000's of feet from daylight. Theoretically on a cavern dive the diver may be able to make an emergency accent since the cavern entrance is kept in sight, but there is no possibility of such an escape from a cave. As such the scuba equipment used in cavern diving is not that different from open water scuba equipment, while the cave diver will use some unique and specialized equipment. For this reason Cavern Diver is a specialty that can be obtained by a recreational scuba diver from PADI or NAUI - but Cave Diver is considered a Technical Diving Specialty. But because of the unique environment even of caverns additional training is required to avoid tragedy. The simple fact is that most diving accidents do occur in caves and caverns, and it is primarily because the diver did not receive the specialty training required to know how to set and follow a guideline, or carry extra emergency air.

While PADI and NAUI do offer a Cavern Certification, if you intend to do any serious cavern diving on a regular basis, and really want to ensure that you get enough of the right kind of training it is best to train with the two organizations that specialize in cavern and cave divine, The National Speleological Society - Cave Diving Section, or National Association for Cave Diving. But if you have little interest in cavern diving regularly many scuba divers choose to just take the two-day Cavern Diver certification course with PADI or NAUI. Cavern and Cave divers will often elect to use DPV's, Dive Propulsion Units to help them penetrate into caves and caverns with minimal effort and to conserve air, therefore DPV training is often included with or added on to a cave and cavern course.

Caves and caverns remain one of the most beautiful and exotic locations for scuba divers to explore, they also represent one of the most challenging and risky, but with proper training the can give any diver a "hole" new perspective on the undersea world.