Repairing Broken or Failing Guidelines

By Jim Wyatt

Cave divers are trained how to deal with broken guidelines during cave classes since repairing broken or failing lines is part of the curriculum.  However, divers can go years following their training and never encounter a problem so it may be advantageous to review the protocols. Read more »

Text and Photo © Jill Heinerth

When CCR cave divers and open circuit (OC) cave divers dive together, they are referred to as a Mixed Team. OC divers are often reticent about asking a CCR diver about how dive procedures may differ. It is incumbent on the CCR cave diver to ensure that gas management and emergency procedures are clear prior to entering the water.

1. Orientation Read more »

Complex Navigation

By Jim Wyatt, Photo by Jill Heinerth

Editor's Note: The following discussion is for review purposes only and is not a substitute for training from a qualified cave diving instructor.

Complex navigation in the cave environment is critically important. Taught at the Apprentice Cave Diver level, it is further refined at the full Cave Diver level. At the Cavern and Basic/Intro Cave Diver levels we discourage complex navigation and train divers to stay on the main line. No jumps, no circuits, and no traverses. Cave diving fatalities have occurred when team members mismanaged complex navigation and lost their reference to the direction of the exit. Read more »

No one wants to exit the cave without their buddy — or, worse, not exit the cave because you did a lost-buddy search without paying sufficient attention to your own safety and well being. In this article, Safety Coordinator Jim Wyatt reviews the right way to conduct a lost-buddy search. Read more »