Overhead Training: What's it all about?

[WIdiver_Paul]

Why Do I Need Overhead Training?

At some point in time during or shortly after your Open Water class, inevitably you will find yourself confronted with a dive site that if you explored it further, would require a completely different set of rules, experience and training. This would be any situation where you would be unable to directly ascend to the surface with the skills you learned in your open water class, with your instructor. This is called an overhead environment. This might obviously be a cave or the deep recesses of a submerged shipwreck. Surprisingly, this could also be a deceptively "safe" location such as the entrance to a cave or wreck, a "swim through", or even a kelp forest or a submerged forest like we find in our own Lake Wazee! Anytime we cannot make that direct ascent to the surface, we are in that overhead environment, and no longer diving under the rules of recreational diving that we learned in the classroom. Even diving beyond the limits of our "PADI Recreational Dive Planner" puts us technically in an "overhead". PADI is very clear on this in the Open Water Divers Manual:

“until you have the training and equipment you need do not enter a cavern, cave, wreck or any other overhead environment”
“One of the leading causes of diver fatalities is going into overhead environments without the proper training and equipment”
“hazards that you may not recognize, nor realize are present until it’s too late”
“As soon as you lose the ability to ascend directly to the surface, your risk and the potential hazards go up dramatically.”
“Stay out of overhead environments unless you’re properly trained and equipped for that overhead environment”

PADI is very clear in it's standards exactly what is and what isn't an overhead dive. Years ago, divers going into caves and wrecks had to make their own rules and procedures up in order to dive in overheads safely. Sadly, this was the cause of more than 400 deaths by divers (including instructors and divemasters!) and their buddies. Luckily, pioneers dedicated to the sport standardized training and procedures for diving in overhead, and the equipment and training is readily available for you.

Overhead Training: How Do I Get It?

For those seeking to make the commitment to dive safely in an overhead environment, there are several well-defined paths for you to follow. An easy way to get started in your PADI training is to participate in the PADI "Adventure Diver" program. Anyone with an Open Water certification may take the entire PADI "Wreck Specialty" class outright; or you may get a taste of it with one "Adventure Dive" in your Advanced Open Water Class. This dive may count as the first of approximately 5 dives (usually taking a weekend of diving) to apply toward your PADI "Wreck Specialty" certification. For those with more dedication to safe diving beyond the limits of the PADI Wreck Specialty may now take a PADI Wreck Tech class or alternatively you may seek non-PADI training with other agencies in the roughly parrallel "Cavern" course, which allows you to go all the way on to "Intro to Cave", "Full Cave" and other technical certifications related to overhead. These are discussed in the bottom of this article.

Overhead Training: What will I really learn?

In the PADI "Wreck Adventure Dive", you will learn how to swim on the outside of a wreck, identifying it's problems and hazards. You will learn to navigate on a wreck, so that the ascent point (usually a mooring line) can be located without surfacing. Most importantly, you will work on buoyancy and body postion so you aren't destroying the great visibility like we've been seeing on the Great Lakes this year! You will not do any penetration in the Adventure Dive.

In the PADI "Wreck Specialty" class, you will work on the foundation for techniques for you to safely begin to penetrate a wreck to "recreational limits". PADI defines these limits (for a Wreck Specialty Certified diver only) as 130 linear feet from the surface (for instance if your wreck is at 70 feet and your safe area of penetration with available sunlight still apparent, a.k.a. the "light zone" is 30 feet in the wreck, you net penetration would be 100 linear feet from the surface). This will include equipment preparation including penetration lines, reels, special lights and limited light diving techniques and emergency procedures. This will include the intenationally recognized tenets of overhead diving:

1.) Always have a navigable line with a direct path to open water

2.) Always have enough gas to safely accomplish the dive, utilizing the rule of thirds (one third for penetration, one third for exit, and one third in reserve for emergencies) or even a more conservative gas management technique, including "gas matching" with your buddy. This includes redundant gas supplies and equipment.

3.) Always have adequate lighting equipment available for safe return to open water. This may include up to 3 lights, including one high powered "primary" and two smaller backup lights. No light should have too short of a burn time or too small of a power rating for you to safely navigate in an emergency for the entire duration of your dive.

It shouldn't surprise you that the violation of one or more of these simple rules have resulted in the demise of most divers who perished in overhead, including trained divers that had become complacent in their preparation. In addition, a penetration dive should never be attempted with any doubt as to the dependability of your equipment, your buddy, your skills, conditions or even your confidence. To safely dive in overhead, conditions must always be "100%" or the dive plan abandoned!

Overhead training is an accumlation of great skills that any diver can apply to their current arsenal of skills. They are a great confidence builder, and I definitely recommend that anyone wishing to dive on our great submerged resources take the wreck specialty course through PADI.

attached is an excellent synopsis courtesy of Heather a.k.a "Chick Diver":

Cave Training

Cave Diving is an exacting sport, almost more science than recreational activity. It is a sport where reputation is not earned in numbers of caves dived, or distances penetrated, but rather in terms of proficiency and perfection.

The process of training for Cave Diving begins by perfecting the most basic skills required for survival- propulsion technique and reel work, when those skills have been mastered in the relatively benign environment of the cavern zone a diver takes the second step. The Intro to Cave certification level is all about learning to navigate the cave environment- since it is limited, main line penetration, and the skills of propulsion and line work have already been mastered, this is the time when the TRUE cave diver begins to train his or her MIND for the activity at hand. At this stage the diver needs to learn all he or she can about the geology, biology and hydrology of the cave environment, and how they are interconnected. He (or she) needs to begin to focus on executing flawless dives EVERY time. After passing through a small, silty area, the diver should be able to look back and not be able to determine any ascertainable message that a diver just passed through. The diver needs to begin to play "what if" scenarios over and over and over, with this comes practice at skills such as air sharing exits, lost line and lost buddy drills. It is not enough, at this point, to be able to execute the drill, one must be able to execute the drill flawlessly, without disturbing the environment, and without allowing physiological responses to stress to take control of the mind and body. This is also the time when the diver becomes intimately acquainted with equipment, knowledge of how it works, and how to repair it becomes essential at this stage of development. After all of this, then the diver is ready to begin considering taking the step towards full cave instruction.

Full Cave training begins the evolution of an entirely different animal. The diver who has now mastered moving through all types of caves, and has a good working knowledge of the cave environment begins to make longer and more complex penetrations. In a Full Cave course they are taught the most rudimentry basics of jumps, circuits, traverses and other forms of complex navigation. Once the training has been completed, the diver is ready to begin making more difficult dives, which continues the process of training the mind and body for this endeavor. From this point, some divers choose to utilize sidemount, stages, scooters and other more complex forms of diving. For some, the progression may take months, for others years. There is no set time limit.

Cave diving is an evolution of the mind and body. It is not for the uncommited or casual diver, nor is it for the diver whose attitude toward training, the environment, or equipment is cavalier. It is an exacting activity whose sole goal should be perfection at each and every step.





For more information on PADI instruction, contact PADI America at , talk to your instructor, or you can even email me directly at lothary@cavediver.net and I can direct you to excellent instructors in your area.

[Omicron]

Interesting little writeup.

I can best describe my overhead training as an "enlightenment". It was a complete revelation. I was already a pretty good diver, but the cave diving classes just turn a diver into the equivalent of a ferrari.

Buoyancy control is described in inches. Buddy awareness is brought to something like a sixth sense. Your emergency drills are flawless. You learn to dive with just the gear to get the job done, and you learn to set up your gear so it's as if it's not even there. It's streamlined, simple and efficient.

I love it. I could never go back to the old way!!