Cave 1 in Australia

[Gareth]

Richard,

Do you know if it is possible to run a Cave 1 course in Australia? Does GUE have the right to teach in the Mt Gambier or Nullabor Caves?

Thinking from a wreck penetration perspective and the associated complications that cave training teaches you about.

Great work by the team in Florida, good to see that even Gideon "Dood" Lew managed to smuggle his face into some of the shots.

[Deep6]

There are no GUE Cave courses in Oz yet, mainly because the CDAA has a strange type of monopoly on cave diving down under. This is mostly because cave diving in Oz is a fairly "private affaire" - most of the sites are on private ground and the CDAA stress careful control the interaction with the caves' owners. Trust me, there are some strange, individual arrangements for cave diving down there (at least compared to Florida and France), and sometimes it only seems to work because the CDAA boys and girls are on a first-name basis with many of the owners. In fact, becaomming a CDAA instructor is quite a political process due to this fact: To some degree it really comes down to "who you know".

Anyway, it's not that CDAA are alien to GUE - most of them are GUE trained: Even the CDAA Standards Director is a GUE diver (George Yarra, a great guy and fantastic diver - and his wife Tanya has got the longest female cave dive in Oz, hitting Toad [edit] Hall recently)! So, although there are no GUE courses down there, it's pretty easy getting permission to dive, and well worth it. Mt Gambier is awesome! :)

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi

I hope that we will have a local GUE Cave 1 instructor with access to the Mt Gambier caves early next year. I'm spending more than one moth down there, Australia, working/assisting talented people with their instructor development.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[Gareth]

Good man Richard, any hints on who that will be? I presume it will be someone from the latest exploration group out in the Nullabor?

Looks like Dive Frontier will be planning a trip south sometime in the near future.

[Ola_K]

Hi people,

This thread caught my eye as I'm currently living in Perth (Western Australia).

I've noticed that in general there seems to be a pretty low level of GUE presence in Australia (especiall WA), it is almost enough to get back into diving to try and help educate the poor guys and gals down here who still havent seen the GUE/DIR light ;)

On a more semi serious note, next time you're down under Richard and if you happen to come over to the west coast let me know, it would be great to catch up :)

/Ola

[Craig]

Hi people,

This thread caught my eye as I'm currently living in Perth (Western Australia).

I've noticed that in general there seems to be a pretty low level of GUE presence in Australia (especiall WA), it is almost enough to get back into diving to try and help educate the poor guys and gals down here who still havent seen the GUE/DIR light ;)

On a more semi serious note, next time you're down under Richard and if you happen to come over to the west coast let me know, it would be great to catch up :)

/Ola

There is a few of us around.
http://craigljames.com/Gallery2/albums.php

[Deep6]

Hey, I'm coming to town around the 15th, and I'm looking for buddies to go dive with and give me a bit of an introduction to the town (will be my first time in Perth)! Drop me a line if there is anything going on that weekend! :)

[Hugh]

Sasha, its "Toad Hall" , not Turtle Hall. :)


Regards


Hugh

[Deep6]

Ooops... sorry :)