Cave 3

Purpose

The Cave 3 Diver course is the culmination of a series of three courses designed to establish cave diving excellence and facilitate deep, mixed gas, exploration diving in the cave environment. This training is a mastery level course developed specifically for adept cave divers who are seeking to utilize these skills in aggressive, exploration oriented cave diving. Further, emphasis here is placed on: advanced and maximum decompression theory, gas mixture and management, the control of extreme exposures to oxygen, aggressive and/or deep cave penetrations and/or cave exploration diving.

Participants must be experienced cave divers who are dedicated to mastering the art of cave diving. Participants must be physically fit, emotionally stable and highly motivated. This level of training is essential for anyone considering extreme cave diving exploration activity.

Prerequisites

• Must meet UTD General Course Prerequisites as outlined in Section 1.6.
• Must be a minimum 21 years of age.
• Must have completed both a UTD Cave 2 class and a UTD Tech 2 class. No exceptions are made for divers with other training backgrounds.
• Must have proof of at least 750 logged dives, with at least 300 dives in a double tank/cylinder DIR configuration; 200 of these must be cave dives in multiple destinations, and 100 of these must be with stage.and/or deco bottles.
• Must be able to swim at least 400 yards/365 meters in less than 12 minutes without stopping.
• Must be able to swim a distance of at least 60 feet/18 meters on a breath hold.
• UTD Trimix1 or equivalent

• Student to Instructor ratio is not to exceed 2:1 during any overhead diving activity.
• Gas consumption: maximum use of 1/3 of gas supply for cave penetration
• No training dives are to exceed an equivalent narcotic depth of 100 feet/30 meters
• Two Trimix dives must be between 60 and 100m
• Training location must be different than any previous cave training.

Course Content

The UTD Cave 3 class is normally conducted over a ten day period and involves a minimum of 40 hours of instruction.  It is divided into two separate training periods. One training period is conducted over a five day period and is skill-based; it consists of at least eight dives, at least 7 of these dives must be using multiple scooter and stage dives and four of which must be Trimix dives. The second period is oriented towards providing divers with practical, exploration-grade experience. This is accomplished by engaging them in dives with a UTD instructor and within a UTD (or affiliated organization) diving project.

Texts

Online Knowledge Base – Cave Diver
Gas Planning Worksheet
Technical Diver DVD is recommended

Academic Topics

Lecture topics will focus on the preparation and execution of extended range exploration, including methods for managing the eventualities associated with long-term immersion.

• Multiple scooter Procedures
• Long range cave diving planning
• Maximum Cave Decompression strategy
• Habitat and Electric Heating
• In Water Re-compression
• Project Basics
• Team building
• Exploration Techniques

Land Drills and Topics

Use of safety spools/reels.
Reel and guideline use in emergency procedures including touch contact and air-sharing techniques.
Lost diver procedures.
Lost guideline procedures.
Basic and Advanced navigation skills including gaps and jumps.
Visual referencing skills.

Required Dive Skills & Drills

• Pre-dive planning to include:
  • Assess and review diving limitations
  • Dive plan review
  • Equipment review
  • Equipment familiarization
• Navigation, to include:
  • Visual reference
  • Guideline use
  • Limited and simulated zero visibility
• Procedures for gas failures; including valve manipulation, air-sharing, and regulator switching as appropriate.
• Demonstrate proficiency in safe diving techniques, including pre-dive preparations, in-water activity, and post-dive assessment.
• Air-sharing scenarios to include:
  • Breath hold management
  • Out of air diver
  • Air-sharing of at least 300 feet/90 meters
  • Comfortably swim at least 200 feet/60 meters without a mask while air-sharing
• Use of various propulsion techniques.
• Use of touch contact for limited and simulated zero visibility situations.
• Use of line following techniques for limited/no visibility situations.
• Demonstrate the efficient deployment of a reserve light in less than 10 seconds.
• Demonstrate excellent buoyancy control skills.
• Perform a Lost Diver drill while remaining calm and maintaining a horizontal attitude and neutral posture.
• Perform a Lost Line drill while remaining calm and maintaining a horizontal attitude and neutral zero visibility conditions.
• Demonstrate effective valve-management by switching regulators, shutting down a valve in less than 10 seconds, and returning the valve to the open position again in less than 10 seconds.
• Demonstrate proficiency with guideline management in the following situation:
  • Simulated zero visibility line following; this would incorporate touch-contact skills
  • Efficient deployment of the guideline
  • Efficient removal of the guideline
• Problem resolution including line entanglement, navigation in restrictive regions, and multiple line management
• Demonstrate advanced navigational ability by completing at least two jumps and successfully completing a circuit and/or traverse.
• Demonstrate a calm demeanor while sharing air in simulated zero visibility for at least 300 feet/90 meters.
• Demonstrate effective and proficient use of stage cylinders for the purpose of extending penetrations
• Demonstrate facility with advanced decompression procedures by: 1) demonstrating the ability to calculate decompression “on the fly” and 2) by recalculating decompression obligations in the event of a lost decompression gas.
• Demonstrate the ability to manage failed regulators, first and second stages
• Demonstrate the ability to safely carry out all decompression obligations assuming the loss of all back gas.
• Demonstrate efficient, safe and ecological use of scooters.
• Demonstrate the ability to run a guideline while scootering.
• Demonstrate the ability to air-share while scootering through cave.
• Demonstrate the ability to tow a diver whose diver propulsion vehicle has failed.
• Demonstrate the ability to valve-breathe and hose-breathe.

Equipment Requirements

• Tanks/Cylinders: Students are required to use dual tanks/cylinders connected with a dual outlet isolator manifold, which allows for the use of two first stages. All dives must start with a minimum of 100 ft3/2882 liters of gas.  Divers must also maintain the use of at least 3 appropriately marked Stage bottles and 3 deco bottles : one Oxygen Bottle one decompression cylinder for use at 70 feet/21 meters, and one cylinder for use at 120 feet/36 meters.
• Regulators: Two first-stages, each supplying a single second stage. One of the second stages must be on a 7ft/2m hose. One of the first stages must supply a pressure gauge and provide inflation for a dry suit (where applicable).  Six first stage regulators for decompression gases, each supplying a single second stage and a pressure gauge.
• Buoyancy Compensator: Back mounted wings, mated with a harness and back plate.
• At least one depth-measuring device.
• Survey Compass and slate.
• Two timekeeping devices.
• Decompression tables.
• Mask and fins: fins must be of the non-split variety.
• At least one cutting device.
• Underwater slate or Wet Notes.
• One reel/spool, with 100 feet/30 meters of line, per diver.
• One primary reel per team, with a minimum of 300 feet/90 meters of line.
• Three lights: one primary and two secondary with appropriate burn times.
• Exposure suit appropriate for the duration of exposure.
• At least three line markers of which at least three should be directional (line arrows) and two non-directional .
• At least one diver propulsion vehicle: design conducive to the extreme nature of the dives undertaken in this course.