NAUI Training Course

Cave Diver Level II

OVERVIEW

This course is to provide the diver with the skills and knowledge needed to gain experience and minimise risks while conducting longer penetration cave dives with staged cylinders involving complex navigation, at depths that do not exceed 40 metres.

QUALIFICATIONS OF STUDENTS

Upon successful completion of this course, students are considered competent to plan and execute multiple navigational decisions on cave dives with staged cylinders without direct supervision, provided the diving activities and the areas dived approximate those of training.

PREREQUISITES FOR ENTERING THE COURSE

Minimum age of 18.
Minimum certification as a NAUI Decompression Techniques Diver and NAUI Cave Diver Level I or equivalent cave certification.
At least 100 logged dives.
At least 20 logged cave dives after certification as a Cave Diver Level I or equivalent cave certification.

COURSE POLICIES

Classroom hours – fifteen are estimated.
A minimum of seven dives will be conducted to include:
One open water skill development dive.
One cavern survey dive.
Five cave dive using stage cylinders.
The student must satisfactorily demonstrate equipment configuration and management during an assessment dive and complete the NAUI cave diver skills check list.
There must be a continuous guideline to open water when diving in a cave.
A minimum starting gas supply on cave dives of 6230 litres.
Any training dive must be turned and the exit initiated when the instructor has lost visual integrity with any student due to degraded visibility that cannot be restored in a reasonable amount of time or swimming distance.
Any training dive must be turned and the exit initiated when any piece of equipment fails.
Penetration into a cave is not allowed until the students have demonstrated proper buoyancy control and trim while managing their stage/decompression cylinder(s).
The maximum depth on any dive may not exceed 40 metres.
Each diver will carry one staged bottom-gas cylinder, properly rigged and labelled, during at least a portion of each cave dive.
Each diver will carry a decompression cylinder properly rigged and labelled, to an appropriate location for decompression (i.e. at least ten feet deeper than the first planned stop).
At no time will passage be allowed through a restriction that requires gear removal.

SKILL REQUIREMENTS

Land drills include: Include student demonstration of basic cave survey techniques.

Diving Skills: If EANx is used, students are to analyse their own breathing gas mixture and plan and safely execute each dive. Dive planning shall include limits for gas consumption following the rule of thirds, oxygen toxicity exposures, inert gas absorption based on depth and time within the no-decompression limits, penetration distance and diver comfort. Safety drills are to be performed at the beginning of every dive to include equipment check, dive plan and limitation review, bubble check and gas sharing, record distance travelled, gas consumption and actual dive time at the turn and upon reaching the first required stop on every cave dive. Each student will demonstrate the ability to calculate starting gas volume and time requirements to reach a predefined point in a cave based on depth, distance and swim speed. In open water each student must demonstrate the ability to control and manipulate two stage cylinders while hovering horizontally with the proper body position, rotating 360 degrees in a stationary horizontal position, backing up for 10 feet and park and attach to a line and recover a stage cylinder without the loss of buoyancy control or trim, a simulated primary regulator failure, performing isolation, shutdown and switch over procedure within 15 seconds while wearing two stage cylinders, rescue of a diver simulating oxygen toxicity, survey a cavern zone and create a map of that cavern. In the cave each student must demonstrate the ability to install a jump/gap reel or spool with the proper navigational indicators while hovering horizontal with the proper body position, park and attach a stage cylinder to a line without the loss of buoyancy control or trim, recover and attach to the harness a stage cylinder from a line without the loss of buoyancy control or trim, share gas with a simulated out-of-gas team mate and swim a distance of at least 61 metres while maintaining proper buoyancy and trim during an exit, simulate a primary light failure and proper deployment of a back up light while maintaining proper buoyancy and trim. In a simulated zero-visibility situation, with a simulated out-of-gas team mate, maintain touch-contact communications and swim a distance of 61 metres while maintaining contact with the guideline.