Stage Diving is aimed at the more advanced cave divers who wish to learn the special techniques of rigging a stage bottle with the necessary hardware and regulators. This course is intended to help develop the participant's skills in extended penetration diving with the use of a stage cylinder(s).  Longer decompression and more complex navigational concerns are covered.  At least an hour of lecture to include discussion of motives, equipment, procedures, technique, task loading and decompression.

All stage bottles could be filled with air, or could contain a variety of breathing gases as required by the dive plan. See below Instructions on  How To Rig A Stage Bottle

The cave diver will be entering the cave breathing off the stage bottle, and at some point it will be detached from the cave diver's harness, and left clipped to the guideline. The cave diver then continues on, breathing off back mounted doubles. The stage bottle is retrieved on the way out of the cave, reattached to the cave diver's harness, and breathed while exiting the cave.

Equipment:  All equipment listed in the Cave Diving Course.  Dive cylinder configuration may consist of any twin cylinder configuration agreed to by the instructor and student(s).  Suitably rigged stage cylinder with regulator.  It is recommended that each team will provide an in-water decompression cylinder on all dives in which stage decompression may become a factor. 

The cylinder(s) will incorporate all necessary support gear including, but not limited to: regulator(s) and submersible pressure gauge(s).   The cylinder(s) will contain adequate gas for at least l.5 times the expected decompression needs of the dive team and should be placed in a safe and suitable location.

This course consists of three dives over two days.

Course Cost:  Private Stage Diving course $500.00 plus certification fee;  2 or more students $300.00