If you want to know about the official organizations that provide cave diver training in various countries, here is the information we can give you.
The National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS)
The National Speleological Society (NSS), founded in 1941, is an organization that brings together many people committed to the study, exploration, and safe protection of caves.
The National Speleological Society (NSS) is an organization that inspires scientific, academic, and conservation work.
This plan includes scholarships and grants to:
- biologists student
- geoscientists
- hydrologist
- archaeologists for related studies of cave
- purchase of cave properties for the people’s trust
- research of conservation
- cleanups
- restoration studies
- establishing a countrywide rescue and recovery system
- NSS published much information covering the critical elements of cave science, discoveries, photography, cartography, and physical methods.
In 1973, the National Speleological Society formed the Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS) to meet the particular requirements of cave divers.
The NSS-CDS is the largest cave diving society in the US and has members in nearly every state and worldwide.
The Cave Diving Section became independent incorporation in 1983.
In 1987, CDS was officially recognized as an academic and research institution.
CDS is eligible for tax-exempt status due to its position as a non-profit foundation.
In addition to providing instructions, the Cave Diving Section also has exceptional attention to:
- preserving and acquiring cave diving locations
- establishing new sites
- cave conservation.
National Association for Cave Diving (NACD)
A meeting of expert cave divers occurred at Hornsby Spring in August of 1968, near High Springs in Florida.
They did something about the unacceptably high number of deaths occurring in caverns.
As a result of the participation of law enforcement, government authorities, and open water concerns.
It became evident that establishing widely renowned training requirements for cave diving could be the optimal answer.
On May 15th, 1969, the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) was formally founded as a non-profit organization.
The NACD is a pioneering organization in:
- cave training
- skills training
- discovery
- study
Its goal is to enhance safety, motivate training, and facilitate the distribution of information. In addition, it facilitates coordination with other diving societies, the gov, and personal interests.
Cave Divers Association of Australia (CDAA)
In September 1973, the CDAA was founded as an organization.
As happened in the United States, landowners in the Mount Gambier area, South Australia, are considering stopping dive sites after several people drowned while diving.
The recently established organization outlines a set of requirements as well as a set of inspection methods.
Initially, this is a breakdown of each famous cave dive site that has been separated into three groups according to each location’s difficulty level.
Divers are required to have a card showing their skill level to the landowner. Landowners are increasingly developing confidence in the CDAA’s ability to educate safe cave divers, resulting in the site being accessible to cave divers.
The most important aims and objectives of the CDAA as it exists today are to:
- promote growth
- advancement
- advertising
- cave mapping
- cave diving training
- exploration
- conservation
- safety
- study of underwater caves and the characteristics connected to them.
Cave diving training in Australia is divided into several stages; the first three are:
- Deep Cavern
- Cave
- Advanced Cave Diver.
Each website receives a score based on the amount of technological complexity presented.
To dive into a place that falls into a specific category of complexity, divers must provide evidence that they have completed their training.
Also, in certain situations, the divers should have experience diving elsewhere with similar difficulty. The four classifications available are Cavern, Sinkhole, Cave, and Advanced Cave.
CDAA Deep Cavern Course
The Deep Cavern course integrates the knowledge and skills required to dive safely in a location classified as a Cavern or Sinkhole.
This training includes locations with no visibility at all and areas that may have unlimited visibility.
It is recommended that the deepest point of the training is 40 meters.
As an essential requirement, the material covered in the Deep Cavern class is comparable to five full days of theory and diving lessons.
CDAA Cave Diver Training
The qualification for a cave diver expands upon the abilities acquired at the Deep Cavern (previously Sinkhole) stage.
Specialties encompass topics like:
- type of equipment
- anti-silting procedures
- dive preparation
- decompression referenced to cave diving
- line methods
- underwater contacts
- emergency and problem handling
- cave conservation
- gas usage
- physiological concerns
- access protocols
- accident investigation
CDAA Advanced Cave Diver
This course focuses on locations that have considerable penetration and limitations, and it involves:
- equipment critique
- safety drills
- jump reel
- the lost line search procedure
- blackout drill
- equipment removal or restriction practice
- mask and regulator removal skill
- valve shutdowns
- underwater entanglement removal
- line cutting
- stress management in diving
- air sharing through limitation
- stage tank operation, removal, and replacement.
Cave Diving Group (CDG)
The Cave Diving Group (CDG) is a divers training provider established in the UK that focuses on cave diving as its primary area of expertise.
Graham Balcombe founded the organization in 1946, making it the world’s oldest cave diving club today. In the late 1930s, Graham Balcombe and Jack Sheppard were the first to dive into a cave at Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset.
Apart from educating cave divers and providing training for crisis management, the organization dramatically emphasizes cave excavation and sump procedures.
CDG uses a mentorship and apprenticeship-based system to carry out its activities.
Since many caves in the UK require sump investigation under challenging circumstances, any cave divers in this organization must first demonstrate their competence as dry cavers.
Mastery of essential caving skills, cave exploration, and responsible risk management practically takes all the highlights out of diving.
This organization has various categories of membership, including divers, temporary permit holders, and non-divers; however, the rule prohibits recreational cave divers from participating in cave diving operations in the UK.
Cave Divers Training in Other Country
Many other countries, from France to Italy to China, also provide regulated training and education that focuses on the specifics of the local environment.
Naturally formed caves are hard to find in Finland and Scandinavia. As a result, specialist training oriented explicitly to mines in complex and flooded zones has now been developed.
While studying in an offshore sea cave may require a good understanding of the impact of tides on it, Mexico focuses more on protecting fragile speleothem.
However, most of the much larger business training institutions and entities provide at least some level of cave diver lessons.
They include but are not limited to the following:
Another relatively small, site-specific, non-profit cave diving association also serves a valuable purpose.