Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program

The Extended Range Cave Diver^® program lets you:

Travel further and accomplish more.
Earn Stage and DPV Cave Diver specialty ratings.
Earn Advanced Trimix Diver certification.
Enjoy seven days of unparalleled high-voltage diving and specialized intensive training.

Today’s recreational cave divers penetrate further and accomplish more than their counterparts of twenty years ago. By employing the use of Nitrox and Trimix coupled with advanced technologies such as multi-gas computers, DPVs and computer-generated dive tables, the properly trained and equipped diver is presented with the opportunity to achieve far longer penetrations and deeper depths in a more practical, properly configured and safe manner.

Consider, for example, a dive to the end of the Sherwood Split in Devil’s Cave System:

A 1980s diver, limited to double 72s or 80s, breathing air and diving US Navy tables, would find this 2,300 foot penetration well beyond his range. This was probably just as well- the Navy Tables require from ninety minutes to two hours of decompression for such a dive.
A modern cave diver, breathing Nitrox, using oxygen for decompression and using either a stage cylinder or DPV to cover the first 1,000 feet of penetration, can make this dive in as little as seventy minutes and have as little as ten minutes of decompression time.

While each of the individual specialties included within the Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program is a separate and distinct training program, each is typically taught as a separate course with no relationship or reference made to the other. The purpose of the Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program is to offer the qualified Full Cave Diver training in these distinctive specialties in a complete and comprehensive manner. The Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program offers an intelligent, progressive new teaching approach to learn the techniques employed by the Full Cave Diver to extend his range- either in terms of penetration or depth within a particular cave system.

Primary emphasis of the program is placed upon diver safety and cave conservation along with an examination of each diver’s personal motivations for pursuing this advanced level of training.

The Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program begins with stage and DPV diving and concludes with Advanced Trimix diving. The Program covers safety and emergency procedures that are often overlooked when divers attempt to teach themselves these skills. More than a simple training program, the Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program is seven days of intense, high-voltage diving and training. The fact that you learn so much while also having this much fun just seems like a bonus.

The Program begins with two days of DPV diving. Dive planning and execution, technique, conservation and emergency skills and drills shall be discussed and practiced. On the final of four DPV dives, divers may have the opportunity to begin employing the use of a stage cylinder.
The third day shall emphasize stage cylinder usage and is in preparation for the next four days of diving. Two dives shall be conducted employing the use of stage cylinders and focusing on the necessary planning and skills required for proper and safe stage diving.

Depending on current conditions, the first six dives of the Extended Range Cave Diver^® Program may be conducted at cave sites including the Devil’s, Little River, Peacock and Manatee Cave Systems.

But wait — the excitement has just begun.

Over the final four days of the Program the diver shall have the opportunity to conduct Trimix dives at some of the world’s most prestigious cave locations including Henley’s Castle/Lower Orange Grove, Eagle’s Nest and, best of all, Diepolder II and III. One day is set aside to present the required academic material and perform shallow-water drills with the following three days for dives ranging in depths from 200 ffw to approximately 280 ffw. Due to the depth of the dives and decompression requirements, only one deep dive per day shall be conducted. The diver will also have the opportunity to refine stage and decompression cylinder skills during these dives.

Upon completion of the seven-day course, successful divers earn the NACD Stage and DPV Diver ratings along with the TDI Advanced Trimix certification.

The course fee includes: