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No Nonsense Cave Diving Tips
from: Maxx Adventure TravelCave diving is a breathtaking adventure. Along the beautiful scenery and unbelievable ambiance, cave diving provides some very challenging underwater maneuvers. Can you imagine diving beneath rock formations with nothing keep you alive except your common sense and equipment.
Cave diving is different from open water diving because there's a better chance to survive if something should go wrong. Safe cave diving requires the practitioner to be fit in both mind and body. The following tips will make your cave diving experience safer.
1. Use the Proper Equipment. Cave diving and open water diving use different types of equipment. Obtain your equipment from a reputable cave diving shop.
2. Multiple Lighting Devices. Cave diving is in a world of total darkness. If you don't have sufficient light support, you could easily get lost in the underwater caverns, even if there are guidelines. You should therefore bring along multiple reserved sources of light -- 3 - 4 pieces of lighting equipment is a good idea.
3. Presence of Mind. Before getting into the underground water, visualize the passages underneath the cave. Anticipating the directions is sure to save both energy and air.
4. Mind Your Guideline. Always try to avoid getting tangled on your safety guideline since this is your main indicator for direction. If it should snap, there's a good chance you could lose your bearings and you'll be underwater for a longer period of time.
5. Keep Dangling Items Away. When you're swimming through a narrow and sharp underwater passageway, anything dangling from your body could get you stuck in a tight underwater chamber. So be careful of hanging trinkets because they could get you into serious trouble as well as restrict your movement.
6. Check Your Air Constantly. When open water diving, it's easy to surface out of the water if you should run out of oxygen. However, with cave diving, it's simply impossible, so make absulute sure you have enough air -- the rule says at least two thirds -- so you have enought to find your way out.
7. Never Panic. The rules are clear, when dealing with difficult or emergency situations, maintain control of yourself and never panick. It's easy to get disoriented and the situation can go from bad to worst if you're overwhelmed by fear.
8. Good Training and Preparation. Cave diving is a unique activity and definitely needs formal training to make sure you're safe. Take some classes from a reputable and certified cave diving school. It's never wise to gamble with your life by trying to break the limits of what you've learned.
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