Bodies Recovered in School Sink aka Wayne's World, Hudson, FL

[bpd375]

bpd375 thank you for your time, objectivity, and concern for diver safety. I for one appreciate your coming here.

As soon as is possible, once names are released to the public, we will get a thread going for condolences as I am sure many want to express their sympathies for the family and friends of these divers. My heart goes out to you bpd for the loss of your friends.

Thank you. I am glad to answer whatever I can, but I must be cautious as I already know far more than their families do. (11/13 - their families likely know far more than I do at this time.) We have been talking with them off and on all evening trying to give them as much as they need to cope without overwhelming them with the harsh realities. It is unlikely that this is the place they would come to, but they may find it via Google as I did while searching for answers.

Please feel free to ask me anything. I will answer what I can and by morning, much more will have been released to the public anyway. I am a former medic, very active in disaster recovery as well as other forms of first response, and a divemaster focused on dive safety and rescue skills. It is a passion of mine and talking about what has happened is helping me to make sense of it all. Besides, if one person learns from their mistakes, it is worth it to discuss this openly and objectively.

Thanks for being here and for all of you being so professional in your discussion. This is the kind of diving community I have looked for. (11/13 - well, it was)

 

[Missdirected]

Besides, if one person learns from their mistakes, it is worth it to discuss this openly and objectively.

Thanks for being here and for all of you being so professional in your discussion. This is the kind of diving community I have looked for.

This forum has been beneficial to a great many, myself included. Hopefully, the loss of your friend's lives, through this thread, will serve to save/educate another diver.

I am so sorry you had to be introduced to SB this way but nonetheless welcome to our community.

 

[ucfdiver]

As soon as I heard 2 divers missing my gut instinct was that it was a navigation error. Hopefully it wasn't an unmarked jump or forgetting to cookie a T, as there really is no excuse for that.

 

[bpd375]

As soon as I heard 2 divers missing my gut instinct was that it was a navigation error. Hopefully it wasn't an unmarked jump or forgetting to cookie a T, as there really is no excuse for that.

I wish it were a navigation error. I wish it were something that we could all say, "wow, what an odd thing to happen, but they did all they could." Sadly, from the little I know, we can't in this case. There were definite avoidable errors.

I don't know if we'll every understand why they separated from each other. They were found 300 feet apart, one just 50 feet from surface, the other still in a cave tunnel. It is presumed right now that the one in the tunnel did make an unmarked jump from one line to another. I am still scratching my head at it all because they both knew better. There are just some things you ALWAYS do and some things you NEVER do, no matter what.

 

[Dive-aholic]

In answer to your question, they were level 2 cave certified, with multiple other certifications outside of cave/cavern diving.

The only level 2 cave certification I am aware of is GUE's Cave 2, which I'm sure they were not. I believe you mean they were Intro/Basic certified based on what I have read on other forums. Actually, I read one was Intro and the other was not even cavern, but that could be misinformation. Regardless, Wayne's World is an advanced cave dive. It is owned by the CDS and the CDS requires a minimum of Abe Davis level (100 safe cave dives post full cave training) before you are given access to the system. That would indicate these 2 divers were trespassing. WW is a deep, dark system where even very experienced cave divers have had issues. I believe it can also be tidally effected. I've never been to Wayne's World, but I have been in systems like it. It is definitely not a place for inexperience.

bpd, I'm not familiar with "lvl 7 cave system". Can you provide me a link to this grading system? Also, do you know if the divers were in single tanks or doubles?

 

[carriemak]

Condolences to both families. Hopefully we can all learn from this incident.

 

[I Dive]

Absolutely horrible. My deepest condolences to the friends and family of the divers. It doesn't matter at this point (aside obviously from others learning from it) if these two were OW students on dive #6 or the two most experienced Cave Instructors in the state. The results are equally as tragic. Our wonderful SCUBA community lost two more members. I am definitely saddened by reading about this.

 

[Craig Winnerman]

Some news articles I have read stated they had permission to dive there (not trespassing) but certifaction level was still in question.

 

[ScubaSteve]

To dive outside of one's training and comfort is just gambling with more than you ever should. I am sure every diver has been in a position where they had the opportunity to make the decision of "We'll just go in a little way..." or "Just a little bit deeper......". I for one have, and I have been lucky because there have been two instances where I know I chose the wwrong answer and came out alive. It is sad and unfortuynate stories like this that we have to remember because this can happen to anybody, but if you exceed your training, there is little foregiveness with mother nature and scuba diving. If you are not trained to handle it, you will not be able to so when each of us has the option to go in one of two directions....all of us should choose the path which keeps us within our training and comfort.

 

[contender]

The only level 2 cave certification I am aware of is GUE's Cave 2, which I'm sure they were not. I believe you mean they were Intro/Basic certified based on what I have read on other forums. Actually, I read one was Intro and the other was not even cavern, but that could be misinformation. Regardless, Wayne's World is an advanced cave dive. It is owned by the CDS and the CDS requires a minimum of Abe Davis level (100 safe cave dives post full cave training) before you are given access to the system. That would indicate these 2 divers were trespassing. WW is a deep, dark system where even very experienced cave divers have had issues. I believe it can also be tidally effected. I've never been to Wayne's World, but I have been in systems like it. It is definitely not a place for inexperience.

bpd, I'm not familiar with "lvl 7 cave system". Can you provide me a link to this grading system? Also, do you know if the divers were in single tanks or doubles?

Rob,
NAUI has a Cave 2 level as well.