Our cover girl (and pictured right) Kay Walten explains what turned her on to cave diving.
A cave explorer and cave diving instructor, Kay is mapping the undived 'Yaxchen' cave system in Mexico together with her husband Gary.

What possesses a woman to cave dive?
I guess at the time you have to consider that I was just coming out of bad relationship with a non-diver, and had taken up with the dashing cave diver Gary Walten. This was not a case of the boyfriend / girlfriend 'follow- me-into-diving' scenario. This person was fun, exciting, and adventuresome.
I was turned on to rock climbing, eating Chinese and heated passion in the pick-up truck while driving. Cave diving was an exhilarating continuation of the excitement. I already loved ocean diving and had done several trips to Grand Cayman with my girl friends, but cave diving was to become something more than just blowing bubbles and watching the colorful fish.

Cave diving is physically and mentally challenging.
It kept me on my toes, and sometimes my hands and knees, as I crawled out of the sinkholes before I could walk in my tanks. First was my cavern course, Gary (my husband, now) was my instructor. I had found a pair of old steel 72 cu ft. tanks in a barn not long before the course. The price was right (free), and so after valve replacements, a hydro and VIP inspection my old yellow rusty tanks were ready to go.
The class was being taught in Northern Florida. One afternoon while I was dragging my twin 72's to the compressor and wrestling them into the fill vat, some guy asked if my tanks were new. "New?" I said. They were rusty with paint falling off, how could anyone think they were new? I was a bit annoyed by this guy who was razzing me about my tanks while I struggled.
When I told Gary how this "guy" thought my tanks were new. Gary said, "Do you know who that is?". I replied no. He said, "That was Sheck Exley teasing you". Sheck Exley, one of the fathers of cave diving.
After my cavern course, I began a cave course with a friend of Gary's, John Orlowski (now NACD Training Director). Camping each night we would awaken to the sound of the compressor at the old Spring Systems' Dive Center in Luraville, Florida. Being January,
I would scrape the frost from the windshield of the truck and load my stiff, frozen wetsuit into the truck before heading to the dive site.
My early dives were spent fighting buoyancy problems in the twin tanks while trying to run the reel.
The primary light battery was mounted to my side and made me lopsided. One wrong move could roll me over and put me on my back like a turtle.
With more practice the skills came. I remember in a high flow system, Madison Blue, I jammed the reel on exit and surfaced with a tangle that looked like I'd been knitting a sweater. You need to learn and laugh and try again.
Things in cave diving don't always come easy, but the rewards are a great sense of accomplishment and a ticket to go where few can.
My experience in Florida was limited to my cave course, but Mexico stole my heart. The Mexican caves have very little flow and are shallow so one tends to float through the cave slowly, awestruck by the beauty. Eventually the skills and proper form became second nature to me. Moving to Mexico in '92 put me on the fast track of cave diving and exploration.

Even now, seven years and hundreds of dives later, the learning process goes on. If you've into it, it never ends.
Cave diving is perceived as a macho sport with the majority of cave divers being men, but women actually have a few advantages. Many women have low air consumption rates and are smaller in stature than their male counterparts. 'Smaller' means that restrictions in the cave are easier to pass.
Manipulating equipment underwater is actually mostly technique and takes very little strength. But perhaps the most important attribute that females possess is a lower testosterone level. There is less of a feeling to prove "something" and women are not afraid to ask for help. A little bit of toughness is needed both physically and mentally and emotionally.

For more infomration on learning cave diving and the Yaxchan project, visit Kay's web site Loco Gringo Underground

Kay's essential guide to cave training

A cavern course is the first step in diving in the overhead environment.
Cavern diving is done in the ambient sun light area of a cave. Daylight should always be visible. Farther in would constitute a cave dive. Rules for air management, finning and buoyancy techniques, line reel usage and emergency techniques are all covered. Many of these skills can be applied to wreck penetration diving.
Introduction to Cave diving provides an opportunity to experience the cave in a limited way. You penetrate beyond the daylight zone, but are restricted to shorter penetrations on only the main lines. This gives the student their first look at the cave environment and their introduction to the additional skills needed to go there... on short dives.
Full Cave is the whole enchilada. The penetrations are longer, and so are the bottom times. With each dive you get practice setting up and breaking down the equipment, and more importantly, plenty of time to learn the skills and techniques that you'll need to cave dive safely.
Self-sufficiency is emphasized.

Are you mad or what?

Louise Trewavas explains the attractions of cave diving.

Why? No, just tell me straight, why would you ever ever ever want to dive in a cave! Do you have some kind of death wish or what? Isn't it extremely dark in there?
I have to say that when I first heard about cave diving it didn't exactly appeal. So what exactly is in these caves? No fish. Uh huh. No corals. No light?? Oh please...
And then there's the kit. A huge mountain of it, with all these rules about what you can and can't take into the cave. It's exhausting and that's before you've even got wet.
Oh and let's not forget the stories about loads of people dying. Cave diving is the most dangerous sport in the world, apparently. And there is an army of people to warn you offand generally persuade you that it's a completely stupid idea.
Anyway. Call me bloody-minded, but when people are going 'oh no love, you don't want to do that' I just have to do it.
And guess what - it's completely fantastic.
Yes! you need training. Yes! you need the proper kit. Yes! you need to be physically and mentally up for it - just like any other adventure sport. You also need to be humble enough to recognise your own limitations or you can get into seriously big trouble very easily.
When I'm cave diving I find that it's attention to the small things that will help me relax. Rather than worrying about my regulator going into a freeflow, I worry about snagging the bottom of my wetsuit on the ceiling. Rather than fret about my air consumption, I make sure my nail varnish is up to scratch. Dumb, yes, but effective.
So when they're all trying to tell you that you're about to kill yourself in a horrible fashion, just check out your cuticles and ask yourself this. Is it worth breaking your fingernails for? And if the answers yes, go for it!
How to dive the ultimate overhead environment without breaking your fingernails

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