Here in central Florida, we are home to one of the largest concentrations of freshwater caves and caverns in the world. Our Single Tank Cavern Diver course is a safety course aimed at open water recreational divers. This course gives recreational divers the knowledge and skills to experience cavern zones safely - allowing you to enter within safe limits, always staying within the light zone for an easy exit to open water.

This certification not only opens up new dive sites off-limits to open water divers (such as the Jug Hole cavern at Ichetucknee), but also allows you to legally carry dive lights in the Florida State Parks and Devil’s Run at Ginnie Springs. It also educates you on the hazards and risks of diving in these environments.

During your cavern class, you’ll learn to handle a reel, how to lay and follow guidelines, and safely navigate in and out of a cavern. Your instructor will provide a variety of reels and spools, and we will practice linework both in and out of the water. You will also work on fine-tuning trim and buoyancy, and anti-silting finning techniques (e.g., frogkicks), to prevent kicking up silt and preserving visibility in the cavern.

For open water recreational students looking for a stand-alone cavern course, our single tank cavern class is taken in standard recreational gear with a single tank. You will learn to tweak your existing gear to dive safely in overhead environments, while staying within the limits of natural daylight. This class is NOT intended as a prerequisite for, or as part of, the cave training sequence. Rather, it is intended to educate single tank divers on the risks and hazards of cavern environments, and equip them with skills for diving safely in limited overhead environments.

Are you looking to progress onto cave training? For students looking to progress onto cave, our technical cavern class is taught in backmount doubles or sidemount, and forms the first step in the cave sequence. If you do not have prior experience in doubles or sidemount, we are happy to work with you; our intro to tech course is intended to introduce students to diving backmount doubles for the first time.

Our cavern instructor, Peter Kibler, is an active tech instructor and cave diver, with extensive personal experience of Florida cave and cavern systems. He is certified through the Full Cave/Cave DPV level, as well as Advanced (Hypoxic) Trimix, and proficient in both sidemount and backmount doubles. For more on his tech/cave teaching philosophy, see here.

Prerequisite: Advanced Open Water (AOW); minimum 25 logged dives (50-100+ dives recommended) and good buoyancy control

Gear Configuration: Single tank only

Course Details: PADI Cavern Diver

Total time commitment: 2-3 days

Recommended Reading (optional): Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival by Sheck Exley

Minimum age: 18 or older

Maximum Course Size: 2 Students

Course Cost: $500 USD* - Complimentary rental gear is available for recreational cavern upon request, at no additional cost. Reels and spools are provided. You may be required to provide your own lights; please contact instructor for details. Additional fees may be required for air fills, transportation, and dive site entrance cost. Contact us for more information.