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Intro to Cave in the United States: 33 dive centres on TecDiveTools, with agencies, courses taught and a summary of what students say. 4 publish course prices.
TecDiveTools lists 33 dive centres teaching Intro to Cave in the United States. 4 of them publish course prices, in the currency the shop advertises and with the date each was checked — not converted, and not estimated.
Listings are ordered by how much evidence exists about their technical diving, not by a star rating, with any paid Featured listing shown first and marked as such (how rankings work). 26 of these 33 carry reviews we have read and classified as being about technical or overhead training. The count excludes recreational certifications by name, so a busy resort does not outrank a one-instructor cave operation on the volume of its reef trips. Separately, 21 have at least one instructor whose reviews we have read and summarised — a dive centre carries no synthesis of its own. How we read and count reviews.
Looking for individual instructors instead? Instructors in United States.
About the course
First formal cave certification beyond Cavern, introducing basic cave navigation and single-line-following technique with conservative penetration limits before progressing to Full Cave. Teaches jump-free single-line navigation, silt-avoidance finning, and team communication specific to cave environments, without yet allowing the complex multi-line navigation Full Cave covers. Deliberately designed as a bridge course—TDI limits penetration distance and duration here specifically so divers build cave comfort in stages rather than jumping directly to unrestricted cave access.
Divers must perform jump-free single-line navigation, demonstrate silt-control finning, maintain team communication and awareness, complete 4 dives with limited penetration (no fixed depth, limited by gas and distance), accumulate 80 minutes of bottom time minimum across 2 different cave locations, and execute emergency procedures safely.
The centres listed above teach TDI Intro to Cave in United States. Requirements are set by the agency, not the centre, so they are the same wherever you train — what differs is price, class size and how much diving is included.
33 dive centres on TecDiveTools teach TDI Intro to Cave in the United States: North Florida Cave Country (24), Florida West Coast (Tampa Bay) (4), Southeast Florida (3) and Florida Panhandle (2). Each is listed above.
Florida's springs are the other classic cave-training ground besides Mexico, and the conditions are the difference: strong outflow in many systems, water around 22°C (72°F) all year and sometimes tannic, lower visibility. You learn to manage flow, gas and line in harder conditions, and divers who train here often find Mexican caves easy by comparison.
Every centre in the TecDiveTools directory that publishes a price for TDI Intro to Cave in the United States charges by the day rather than for the whole course. Prices differ mainly in what they include, so compare the inclusions before comparing the numbers. Prices were last checked in September 2026.
2 days, based on the durations 1 centre publishes for it in the United States. The time depends on the centre's schedule, weather, and how quickly the required skills are demonstrated — agencies set a minimum number of dives, not a fixed number of days.
At the same tier in TecDiveTools' cross-agency comparison, dive centres in the United States also teach IANTD Introductory Cave Diver (6). They are comparable rather than interchangeable — each agency sets its own standards and card, so check which one your next course accepts.