OpenWater Vs Cavern Vs Caves: What Is The Difference

what do you mean I can't go inside that cave I'm a dive instructor those rules don't apply to me [Music] [Applause] [Applause] what's up guys the sprite again from Lake Hickory scuba marina if you are new to us I just want to say welcome to our channel I really hope that you found our videos interesting and entertaining and more importantly educational if you are new though make sure you hit the little subscribe button over here and click a little bell icon that way you will be notified each and every time that we upload a new video if you are a longtime subscriber of us I just want to say thank you for coming back and join us and I really hope you enjoy this video today's topic we're gonna kind of get into a heated area such as cave diving now I know there's a lot of dive sites out there that have overhead environments some people call them caverns some people call them caves what we're going to do today is we're going to take a look at the actual definitions of say open water diving cavern diamond and cave diving and I'm going to show you some actual examples of dives that I've been on say in the last few years and I'm going to show you where the line was crossed where we went from say open water into a cavern environment and where we actually cross the line say cavern into a cave environment so without further ado let's jump to the footage and I'll give you some great commentary throughout this video alright guys so this first off site that we're going to look at is one of my favorites this is called Devil's Den it's down in Williston Florida and I chose this site because it's so versatile you can do open water knob and you can do cavern diving there are some designated caves here though they really don't recommend you going in them for the obvious reasons and they really don't even cave divers using these two particular caves but I'm going to show you several different parts of this table that's considered open water and a swim through we're going to talk about a cavern and we're going to talk about when the cavern actually switches over to a cave by definition alone but I want to give you a quick definition of what open water diamond is and talk about what a swim through he has before we get into the other two open water sites are basically just a body of water where you have a direct descent to the surface without any type of overhead environment so that could be a spring a quarry a lake the ocean you know a nice beautiful coral reefs a 30-foot deep you can always swim straight up to the surface what a swim through is it is an overhead environment but there's a clear destination as far as the entry and exit point so take my phone maybe this is the overhead environment this is the entry this is the exit and as long as I can see both at the same time and let's say it's a distance shorter than somewhere between 10 to 20 feet that would be considered a swim through so no matter where about in this overhead environment I can clearly see the entry point and the exit point so as you can tell here in this part of the dive we're in open water yeah it's a little dark just because we aren't underground but I have a clear direct ascent to the surface at any given time there's no overhead that's gonna block me from doing that now here briefly we're going to transition into a cavern so what's the definition of a cavern a cavern is an overhead environment where you still have a direct descent but it's more of a diagonal it's not just straight up you're still gonna have some of that ambient light coming from the surface but you don't have a clear exit point if you will so in a cavern would be I've got an entry that also designates as an exit point as well and as I go in there's no exit over here as I go in I'm in an overhead environment but I have to return the same way I came from and I'm still gonna have some ambient light so as you can see here I'm clearly in a cavern I've got ambient light coming over my shoulder if I was to turn off my camera lights or my flashlight then I would still be able to see what I was doing and where I was at because the ambient light and I can use that ambient light as my exit point now here briefly we're going to switch over to an actual cave and this is actually the exact same spot so I'm going to show you where this particular cavern actually turns into a cave and this is it here as you can clearly see there is zero ambient light in front of me there is ZERO ambient light behind me I have at this point effectively transitioned into a cave environment now with the cave environment cave environments there is no depth rating to them so it could be five foot deep it can be a hundred foot deep it can be 250 it doesn't really matter on the depth with caverns it tends to change around the 70 foot mark so a cavern that is deeper than 70 foot tends to be considered a cave but a cave there is zero depth distinction to it it's basically where you have zero ambient light you cannot see your entry point or your exit point this is clearly a cave right here if I was to turn off my flashlight it would just be pitch-black wouldn't be able to know where to go without some type of guideline leading you out now this next site that we're going to look at is Blue Grotto Blue Grotto is basically right across the street from Devil's Den it's also down in Williston Florida it's a beautiful place to take all different types of divers I really like Virgil he's a little softshell turtle here now another cool thing about Blue Grotto is you can see clear distinctions between a cavern and cabin we're going to talk about them once again as we descend down now here we're actually in the open water portion or the open water environment of Blue Grotto I have a clear distinctive ascent that I can come up there is zero overhead that's going to block me there are some swim through some of these platforms you see here you can swim all the way up underneath them you can swim up the main deck area you can swim up underneath it and pop out those would be considered swim-throughs now we've actually transitioned into a cavern we have that overhead environment yet we're still above 70 foot we also have plenty of ambient light coming down through us so we can see the entry we can see the exit which is the same part and like I said we're we haven't reached the point where there's zero ambient light yet so we're still technically in a cavern here and like I said this is a very open environment this particular cavern here is kind of recognized by the industry as okay for open water divers to adventure into at the 35 foot mark you are technically at the beginning of that cavern there's a little Diamond Bell that you can swim up in pull your reg out and actually talk to your dive buddy which is really cool now we've actually transitioned over into the cave part of this dive and once again by definition alone a cave is an overhead environment may or may not be deeper than 70 feet in this particular situation it is deeper in 70 feet and there is zero ambient light now a lot of people will tell you that Blue Grotto is nothing more than a cavern because you swim down you follow the rope you swim up and there's always going to be ambient light that is not actually the case here at the very very bottom you'll see where all the dark silt is basically this is the point of where it becomes a cave at Blue Grotto because there is zero ambient light yes there is a large diameter rope that we use as a guideline to come but by definition alone this is a cave and you can see how we transitioned from that cavern to the cave because if I turn off my flashlight there's 0 and B at lot by definition alone that makes it a cave now the the good news is here if you do happen to go that deep in blue grotto you're not gonna be there for a very long time because you've only got to swim about thirty feet one way or the other and you're gonna have that ambient light poking around the limestone and you'll be able to see the the exit point whether or not you feel that safe or not this is one of the sites that the industry has kind of said okay we're not gonna really consider this a cave even though it is by definition alone and it's a lot of open water and say deep students will go here just because it is such an open area but now we've actually transitioned back into the cavern as you can see as I pan the camera you will see plenty of ambient light there you need to see the overhead environments you can also see that large diameter rope leading us back out but we have transitioned this is another great site to go safe from open water to cavern all the way to cave as well but it's an absolutely gorgeous site to go to it kind of gives you a clear distinction between open water cavern and cave and and it's one of my favorite spots I take a lot of deep diver students here just because I can get up to sixty eighty and a hundred feet it's a great place for your cavern training and even intro to cave at that now the last place that we're gonna look at is genie Springs and this is down in Hot Springs Florida is probably the most popular site in the northern Florida area just for caves and even caverns I love taking open water students here I love taking specialty students here just because there's so much that we can do we can drift down the Santa Fe we can do cavern training we can do search and recovery we can do navigational train it's just a beautiful sight to go to here we're clearly in open water we've got a direct ascent to the surface without any type of overhead environment as we start to enter the mouth of the ballroom of what's called genie springs we will clearly be inside of the cavern it's an overhead environment we've got plenty of ambient light coming from the surface and we still have that entry and exit even though it's only one part so once again we don't have a clear engine or clear exit we just have one spot where we're going to enter exit out of but now we're in a cavern we're at an overhead environment obviously we do have some lots down there but we still have plenty of overhead or ambient light if you will poking through for us to see now there are certain parts of the ballroom that are considered a cave once again this is one of those sites that the industry is kind of said well it's so open and there's not really a spot where somebody can get stuck out and I actually beg to differ there there's actually plenty of places here at the say the ballroom of Ginny Springs where you can actually get stuck in those spots or where we're actually going to be transitioning over into that cave environment now at the very bottom of the ballroom there's a grate that actually blocks off the actual entrance to the cave system not the entrance to the cave but the entrance to the cave system and you can't get beyond that that's what the industry is actually considered a cave but by definition once you've reached that point you were actually in a cave because there is zero ambient light if you're holding on to the grate which a lot of us will swim down will grab onto the gate and let that flow of the water pushes but if you're holding on to that great there is zero MBA lock the limestone has actually blocked all ambient light from the surface and by definition alone there at the grade you are technically in a cave there's also another spot here that I want to briefly talk about if you're going down into the ballroom over to the far left-hand wall there's a little swim through that you go through and it's actually wide you can get through it the set of doubles you can get through it with a single in your back whatnot but once you go through that swim through that is also a cave as well and it goes back into luck what I call a little turnaround or a little cul-de-sac but it's a very narrow restriction up in there and even myself it's hard for me to get turned around once I'm in there and once you go beyond that little swim through then technically you are in a cave as you can see here there's zero ambient light if it wasn't for our flashlights we wouldn't be able to see anything but this is a clear definition of what a cave is it's an overhead environment doesn't matter on depth and there's zero ambient life force so we're clearly in a cave here but to get back to what I was saying if you go over to that left side there's zero ambient light there's only one entry and one exit now once you're up in there there is kind of a Ledge that you can swim up over an alleged and I've done it a few times inside Mount because that's really the only way I can fit through is when I'm inside male because if I've got back mounted doubles or even a single on my back I can't get through that that little ledge area so a side mount diver is gonna be the only one that's actually gonna be able to go through there with that being said there is still zero ambient light so your only exit point is to come back through the swim third that you went through initially so once again you're in a cave at that point my suggestion to you if you are not cave certified do not go in a cave if you are not cavern certified do not go in a cavern unless you are with an instructor who is cavern or cave certified and knows what he's doing maybe you're doing it for training here's the great that we're talking about like I said if I was to cut off my light here at the grade you wouldn't see anything it would be complete pitch blackness out there there's no ambient light hitting this grate whatsoever you have to get about 25 feet away from the gray and pop up about four or five feet up off the bottom just to catch the ambient light from the mouth so once again if you're not cave certified please stay out of caves if you're not cavern certified go get trained to go in that cavern or at least be with a cavern or cave instructor that can lead you through it now certain swim-throughs you're gonna be okay even this the ballroom the main part of the ballroom at Genii is going to be perfectly okay for you to swim in swim out just understand when you transition from open water with the swim through to cavern back into a cave now as you can clearly see we're back in the cavern portion of the ballroom there's plenty of ambient light for us to see here and like I said this is another gorgeous spot I love taking all types of divers here open water divers cavern divers drift divers rescue divers my professional divers I love the spot as well it's just so unique there's so much to do and so much to see because I hope this kind of gives you a better understanding of the difference of open water with a swim through what an actual cavern is and what an actual cave is in the distinction between them there is a fine line and you can cross that line without actually knowing it but hopefully this video will help you out in understanding when you actually went inside the cavern when you went inside a cave and whether or not you should have done it please make sure that you are trained appropriate and that you hold the right certifications to do that type of Dobbin guess I really hope you enjoyed this video hope you found that educational I hope you understand the need for proper training if you got any question on any of the things we talked about please put it down in the comment section below if you did like this video do me a huge favor hit that like button definitely share this video as well guys as always mission falls on Instagram and Twitter like us on Facebook pin us on Pinterest subscribe to us here on YouTube and as always guys we appreciate your business [Music] [Applause] [Applause]

Channel: LakeHickoryScuba

Views: 3,343

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: OpenWater Vs Cavern Vs Caves What Is The Difference, What Is Cave Diving, How To Become Cave Diver Certified, Florida Cave Systems, Ginnie Springs Outdoors, Devil's Den, Blue Grotto, Lake Hickory Scuba Center And Marina, Instructor Trainer Bryan Stafford

Id: sa0HL_7GSAQ

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019