The history of cave diving: How accident analysis has shaped cave Diving A Brief History Cave and Cavern Diving has existed slightly longer than the advent of actual SCUBA diving. The first cave dives took place sometime in the mid-1930s, with the forming of a dive organization following suit shortly after. These dives were conducted using equivalent hard hat diving gear with surface supplied air, whereby limiting the distance these divers could explore. With the advent of SCUBA gear by Jacques