Syllabus for TDI cavern and intro cave?

[Jules]

I have the opportunity to take the TDI cavern and intro cave courses when i go to sipadan in feb (well after Galapagos, I did hold out a month before booking my next holiday but it was killing me! I think Gary and Kathy cracked before I did!)

What I am looking for is some information about what you learn on each of these courses and what any pre-requisite skills might be (ie what do I need to practice for hours in Dosthill while phil is getting some hours in on his box?)

Anyone got any info or links that might be of use?

Anyone done these courses with SMART in sipadan / Mabul?

Jules

[chrisch]

The TDI courses centre on valve shutdowns OOG exercises and line laying following a line and use of lines for lost diver drills. I've got a couple of PDFs somewhere but they are not that much helpful to be honest.
The only thing I would practice in Dosthill is valve drills and passing the long hose to an OOG buddy, maybe frog kick as well if you need to practice it.

Pre-req is rescue diver or something like that I think.

I've found it hard, but then I haven't much liked being stuck down a hole all that much. I hope to finish mine off in the spring in France but Sipadan sounds much better

Chris

[devilgas]

practice all of your basic skills.
practice swimming horizontally rather than with a slight heads up legs down attitude.
practice reg hand offs.
read diving into darkness (martyn farr).
consider a pair of natures wing fins as the water is forced backwards rather than up and down as with jet fins, thus reducing silt kick up.
practice finning techniques.
practice and perfect your buoyancy. you only want to hit the deck when you intend to.

the rest - equip config, line laying etc you'll cover on the course. in theory, you could practice line laying beforehand but you may pick up / generate bad habits.

[malcolm smith]

I did a cavern tdi course in Menorca with Martin, on a single cylinder and pony. Line laying and frog kicks were the main thing from what I can remember-------plus the chance to talk to someone who had done loads of interesting stuff :-)

Air sharing etc, Martin used his manifolded twin set up, while my wife and I used our standard UK club stab jacket type set up which was my 1st intro to the wonders of a long hose :-)

Have a look at this link, and enjoy :-)

Cheers, Malcolm


Cave Diver Training with EAU2

[NotDeadYet]

Do a lot of night diving. The more comfortable night diving you are then the more comfortable you'll be in a cave.

Go somewhere silty and swim as close to the bottom as you can without touching it. Practice it until you can move along without disturbing anything.

Read the NSS-CDS Cavern Diving Manual, very basic and quite old but still the best book on cave and cavern diving you can get. There are some other good books but I still think that little booklet is the best one around.

Get comfortable without a mask.

Get into the habit of looking behind you without turning round i.e. tilt your head forward and look at the view between your feet. Coming out a cave looks very different from the view going in and it really helps to have the odd backwards look now and again. If nothing else, look back at the entrance.

Originally Posted by devilgas

you could practice line laying beforehand but you may pick up / generate bad habits.

I'd agree, line laying is a surprisingly complicated skill which is easy when you have the freedom of three dimensions and light but much harder when you only have two dimensions of movement and no light.

On the other hand, simply handling a reel, paying out and winding in line, making tie offs, etc., is good practice.

[weazelz]

http://www.e-aquanauts.co.uk/downloa...2004-ICAVE.pdf

[Jules]

Thanks all, I have signed up for it so I'll let you know how it goes

Jules

[RogerViking]

visit farrworld website and get a copy of martyns book diving in darkness.
all you need.

roger

[Trogladite]

I was diving with Guy Wallis at the weekend and he worked with Larry Green (Training Director for NACD) when he was living in Florida. Larry had been brought in by TDI to sort out the cave diving side of things. You will find that the TDI courses pretty much mirror those of the NACD now. There is a good lay down of the courses and prerequisits at DeepTech