What the levels mean
The Competencies
Course comparison
The ASF is involved in caving and cave diving throughout Australia in a number of quite different environments. Because of this the skills required by divers within the ASF and the training available also varies. To allow comparison of divers abilities these Units of competency have been developed.
These units are not endorsed units of competency within the Australian National Outdoor Recreation Industry Training Package. They are provided to promote discussion within the Speleological community, and to outline the skills expected of people who participate in cave diving within the ASF.
Use of these units by dive training agencies to assist in the documentation and assessment of cave diver training is encouraged and permission to use the material can be obtained by contacting:
The Cave Diving Commissioner
Australian Speleological Federation
PO Box 388
Broadway NSW 2007
Australia
Competencies have been divided into 4 levels applicable to particular types of cave diving
Unfortunately different dive training agencies provide training at different levels, and for different types of environment and so these levels do not necessarily align with particular training courses. These levels have been chosen with a view to reconciling the abilities of different training agencies with respect to what is necessary to conduct certain activities in certain sites.
An attempt is made in the next section to align some of the more popular courses with the chosen levels.
The Cavern environment is the simplest of the cave environments and defines a site in which access to the surface is always possible for a diver in trouble. This means that depth and penetration are limited to what the diver can reasonably expect to swim should they experience a breathing system failure. The cavern level represents an important stepping stone for a cave diver to become familiar with the underwater cave environment.
The cave environment is a true cave and requires the skills of both caving and diving. Divers are restricted by a ceiling (real or imposed by decompression) that prevents them from reaching the surface. They are consequently responsible for ensuring that backup systems can compensate for any emergency situation that might arise with either their breathing or lighting systems. Skills to move through the environment while minimising impact which were acquired within the Cavern environment are now tested to the limit and line laying skills become essential to ensure access to the surface.
The sump environment is generally associated with flooded passage of an otherwise dry cave. As such access to these sumps is not always straight forward and can involve extensive dry caving. Sump environments are often associated with extremely poor or zero visibility and otherwise harsh environments. Often sumps can be very short (although not exclusively) and the shortness of the sumps and the difficulty of getting heavy gear into a cave means that techniques and equipment on a sump dive can be quite different to that used on a conventional cave dive.
The advanced cave environment differs from a cave or sump by the degree of task loading required of a diver. The level of training provided to a cave or sump diver is adequate for the diver to safely negotiate the cave, but not necessarily to deal with additional task loading from another activity such as mapping, complex navigation, or gas management of multiple breathing systems. For the advanced cave diver the conventional activities of a cave diver must be automatic and subconscious. Although there are some cave systems that definitely require advanced cave capabilities just to traverse them due to their extreme depth or penetration, advanced cave skills are often required in even simple caves when speleological activities are being undertaken.
Demonstrate cavern diving skills
Demonstrate cave diving skills
Demonstrate sump diving skills
Demonstrate advanced cave diving skills
Very few courses alone satisfy the requirements for a particular level. This table represents the combination of the common courses available to ASF members.
NOTE in some of the following cases a course may satisfy or exceed many of the requirements of a particular competency however if it is deficient in even one area then it doesn't satisfy the competency. Thus the appearance of one course in a higher place from one provider than another does not necessarily mean that that course teaches at a higher standard than the other, just that it satisfied all of the requirements.
HELP These are initial evaluations of course content. Courses are continually evolving, and not all of our information will be up to date. If you feel that these evaluations are incorrect then please contact the ASF cave diving commissioner (contact details shown elsewhere), we would appreciate your help.
Extensive experience in low visibility diving and restrictions | Cave and
ASF Horizontal Leadership. Or Penetration and
ASF Horizontal Leadership and a record of involvement in speleological activities such as mapping. . | |||
ASF Horizontal caving skills | ASF Horizontal Leadership | |||
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© 1998 Australian Speleological Federation