Cavern Diving Speciality

By admin on August 9, 2012 in Cavern Diving, Divemaster Training, Speciality Courses

I took another step in my diving education this week. I was lucky enough to be enrolled in a cavern diving course with the very talented Tom West. Juliette, Aoibheann, Lucy (other DMT’s) and I spent 3 days improving our diving skills and learning how to penetrate caverns. This course was really interesting because it forced me to take a long hard look at my diving skills. When entering overhead environments it is very important to be streamlined so that you don’t disturb the bottom. Tom is like a diving god. I was amazed at the amount of information he was able to teach us in just 3 days. I can’t even imagine how much you would learn doing tech with this guy! Going into the cavern was unreal. It feels so small when you are in an inclosed space, but also calm.

Setting up our equipment for our first cavern dive.

Entering the water for our first cavern dive at Mystery Rocks.

As luck would have it we had perfect conditions at Crystal Bay a couple of days after finishing our cavern course. What does that mean? We got to go inside the bat cave (I guess it should be called bat cavern)!!! Most of the time it is not safe to go inside because of the current and waves, but on this particular day conditions couldn’t have been better. We swam upp through a swim through that started at about 14 meters. When you get to the top you surface inside a cave that is filled with bats! Light streams in from a hole leading outside. Pure beauty!