I taught SCUBA diving for years, but never had the opportunity to go cave diving. I would think it would be wise to carry a pony tank in case of emergency. I don’t know about navigation. I can navigate in the ocean with or without a compass using surge direction, sand ripples and pilotages, but what do you use in a cave? Cord?
I see you addressed navigation in #14.
Yeah, you string a cord from the entrance and put little plastic arrows on it to point the way out.
Hopefully you tie the cord properly and don’t lose it.
I don’t cave dive, but have talked to a lot of them. Im a rescue diver, adv, and nitrox but dont teach. Dont want to teach either but do help on occasion.
As in all diving where you cannot make a direct ascent special precautions have to be taken. Pony bottle is just one of them. Real cave divers have at least two independent regulators, two lamps, lots of extra gas etc etc. And still a number of divers diving in caves die each year.
I see cave divers at the springs. Many with have three of everything. Depending on how deep they plan to go they will stage tanks along the route.