Answer: This is probably the hardest question to answer because the answer is different for everyone who cave dives. Most underwater caves are quite beautiful, especially in the clear water regions of north-central Florida, and the rugged jungle cenotes in and around Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico. This beauty can be attributed due to their cave formations, passageways, mineral encrustations, silt formations, unique fauna such as blind cave fish, and even bacteria colonies. Most anyone who has been in a cavern zone has seen the beauty of the sunlight shining through the opening. Other cave divers are entranced with the difficulty: they enjoy a challenge. The cave passageways are usually complex and the trained cave diver must plan carefully. The planning for and successful execution of a cave dive through a cave can be enormously satisfying. And yet other cave divers simply love the technology: they are equipment junkies. This isn't always a good thing, but even with a minimalist approach to cave diving, there is quite a bit of gear required, and certainly quite a bit of preparation, cleaning, adjusting, assembling and reassembling. The diver, too, must be careful to keep their second most important piece of equipment in shape, too: their body.

A: The one you return from.

A: The drive to the dive site. Cave diving done by properly trained and equipped cave divers is statistically safer than bowling... Yes!   Bowling!

A: First, you must have advanced open-water certification from any of the major scuba certification agencies as a pre-requisite to training as a cavern diver. While a Rescue Diver course is not required, the rigors of Rescue Diving may give you a better idea of the rigors of cavern and cave diving. Also, the more dives you have -- meaning, the more experience you have in many different situations -- the better prepared you will be for learning about and dealing with the underwater cave environment. 50 open-water dives may not be enough for most divers, especially if many of them were in sheltered coves or lakes. You also need to become introspective and decide how you would deal with emergency situations. Has a fin ever fallen off your foot? Have you ever been entangled in a line or other object underwater? Have you ever kicked up some silt or been in a very low- or no-visibility situation? Have you ever had your mask kicked off by another diver? Have you ever run low on or out of air? How did you handle these situations? Did you ever feel panicky? Did you take steps so that that problem will never happen again? Do you take adequate care of your equipment? And... can you hold your ego in check, and end a dive because things aren't going right?

A: Ego, stress, motivation, judgement... understanding and dealing with these psychological aspects are all critical in successful cave diving. While cave divers are probably pre-judged as being young, macho daredevils, that may be true only above the water line. Once in the water, even the most confident and virule diver has to know when to "call the dive", in other words, turn around and head on out when things start going wrong, or, simply, when they get a "bad feeling." If you don't think you can do that, then cave diving is not for you.

A: Not only is this an excellent question, but your choice will color your entire cave diving experience. So do your homework. Find someone that not only does a good job of teaching, but does it with a style that is comfortable for you. Talk to everyone you can. Ask them all kinds of questions about their training and their instructors. But, since almost everyone only takes a single course from one instructor, it can be difficult for them to be objective, so you also have to be wary of TOO glowing a report. You should also contact the instructors that you are thinking about. You can see a listing of all NSS-CDS instructors on the NSS - CDS Cave Training Website.

A: Other than meeting the requirements, the two best things you can do is 1) to dive as much as you can, in as many different situations as you can, and 2) you can read some of the books that are available for cave divers. The two best books to start with are Sheck Exley's "Blueprint for Survival", the "NSS-CDS Student Workbook" and the "NSS Cave Diving Manual".

A: Do you know what the "right" equipment is? Probably not. Equipment considerations are taught throughout the cave diver training course, so it is unlikely you'll really know prior to that. However, you can always talk to a variety of cave divers, look at their gear and ask questions like why did they choose this, why is that there, etc. However, one prudent approach is to rent a good deal of your gear for the course. Many instructors will have a wide variety of equipment, giving you the opportunity to try out different brands, different configurations. However, some instructors teach a strict Hogarthian configuration which will almost explicitly define the equipment you will need and use. Others instructors prefer to expose the students to ALL brands and types, and let the student decide which is best. This is another question you could ask when investigating instructors. Neither approach is bad or good, just different.

A: While many instructors don't believe in the Hogarthian system, many others approach it as being the most common-sense way to configure your gear. Within the tight-knit cave diver community, it is akin to a religious war... kind of like IBM PCs versus Apple Macintosh. NSS-CDS instructors have the perogative to instruct either the Hogarthian system, or any other configuration, as long as it is safe and functional. For excellent coverage of the ideals behind the Hogarthian configuration, review this paper .

A: There is no good answer to that. The problem is, what equipment are you going to use? Brand A may be widely available, and widely discounted; Brand B may be manufactured in small lots, available only directly from the manufacturer, and require a mortage on your house! Until you take your course, learn about and decide on which equipment you will need, you really shouldn't be spending a lot of money up front. The exception to that guideline is, if you have a dive buddy who is a cave diver and he/she wants you to dive with the same gear and configuration as them, then your problem is easier (but it's still a problem). This isn't necessarily the best approach, but there is some validity in having the same "kit" as your primary dive buddy. But if your dive buddy is sloppy, or made the wrong decisions, had a less-than-enlightened instructor, then you're making the wrong decision, too. Maybe you should get another dive buddy! The other issue is: cave diving equipment IS expensive. There is no way around that! Even at wholesale prices (which you are unlikely to get), you could spend $4000 putting together a kit, the double tanks, the manifold, the backplate and harness, wings, dual regulators, SPG, knife, primary and backup lights, etc., etc. All your equipment should be of the highest quality since you are betting your life on it. But that is the real point here: if you have a problem with your gear 1000-feet back into a cave, you aren't going to be able to dig a hole through the limestone to surface: you have to deal with it. Given that situation, do you REALLY want to go cave diving with less than the best regulators, etc.? I didn't think so... The redundancy required by cave diving means that your kit will be almost twice what an open water diver would spend. So, in summary: it will be expensive, but ask around and you might find good sources.