Buddy likes caverns

[Scot M]

I recently had an experience that, while it turned out okay, gave me a chance to learn a few things. I thought I’d share with the class.

I was on a two-tank boat trip to one of our local islands. Four of us on the boat didn’t bring our own buddies. After inquiring about experience and training, the DM paired us up. I have 50-odd dives over the past 8 months and rescue training. I consider myself competent for my experience level. I was paired with Buddy #1, who said he had “800 or a thousand dives - I don’t log them anymore.”

During our pre-dive planning, Buddy #1 asked if I was okay with “going deep or going in cracks and crevices.” I told him that deep was fine, and cracks and crevices would depend on the specific situation.

Our dive site was in a smallish cove with a rocky shoreline that dropped very steeply to the sand at about 75 feet. We dropped down to near the sand and then worked our way back up the rocks, looking for eels and lobster along the way. We had a good dive with no issues until we overshot the boat and surfaced for a bearing. I suggested that we drop back down to swim the 200 feet back to the boat. Buddy #1 agreed and then dropped down, not the 20-foot depth I had in mind, but to around 50 feet. I followed him to about 35 feet and then stayed above him until he noticed and came up to join me.

One of the other single divers lost his buddy for the second dive, and asked to join us. Buddy #2 had only 16 dives, but the DM who was with him on the first dive vouched for his basic buoyancy skills, etc. During the surface interval, we chatted with a crew member who told us about some nearby “swimthroughs”, which we decided have a look on our second dive.

In order to save time, we decided to swim across the middle of the cove to the area of the swimthrough. We took a heading and dropped down to about 20 feet, as planned. Buddy #1, holding his compass as if he was using it, swam straight toward the rocks at top speed. It wasn’t our planned mid-water compass swim, but following the rocks would get us where we were going eventually. Buddy #2 and I looked at each other, shrugged, and followed along.

After a while, we arrived at the swimthrough. Instead of the arch that I had envisioned, it was a cavern. The entrance, at a depth of about 15 feet, was 5 feet high and 20 feet wide. We could see sunlight shining down about 40 feet inside. Apart from the area with the sunlight, we couldn’t see the back wall at all.

I was thinking, “Wow, this is kind of neat” as I used my Q40 backup light to check out the fish hiding inside the mouth of the cavern. Suddenly, Buddy #1 swam past me, into the opening, and Buddy #2 followed. Buddy #1 had only an SL4 light and Buddy #2 had no light at all.

No way was I going along with this plan, so I parked myself at the opening and watched. My two “buddies” reached the sunlit area and spent about 5 minutes looking around, sometimes going out of my view. When they finally came out, they were pretty excited and started looking around for more trouble.

Buddy #1 found another cavern at about 30 feet, which had no visible light at all. He promptly entered and disappeared from sight. Buddy #2 showed a bit of good sense and waited outside with me. I spent the next 6 or 7 minutes wondering how long I should wait before I went for help. Suddenly I felt a tug at my fin – Buddy #2 had found a way out the back and had come around behind us.

The return swim was uneventful. I did the previously planned compass swim and put us directly under the boat. Again, I stayed at 30 feet while Buddy #1 swam at 50 feet.

As we were climbing the ladder back onto the boat, Buddy #1 said, “You didn’t like those crevices, huh?” I replied rather tersely that I prefer to dive within my experience and training, and it was left at that.

I’ve pondered the experience for a couple of weeks and have arrived at several lessons learned and/or confirmed.

1) Don’t assume that “lots of dives” equals good judgement or skills.
2) Communicate your expectations explicitly, even if they should be apparent. If we had discussed exactly what we each meant by “check out a swimthrough” or “drop back down for the swim back,” problems could have been anticipated and avoided.
3) Set a good example. I’d bet money that Buddy #2 didn’t follow Buddy #1 into the second cavern because he saw me refuse to follow them into the first one.
4) Be self-sufficient. If I’d had an emergency while I was waiting along outside the cavern, I’d have been on my own. I didn’t have an alternate air source, but I knew that I could safely ascend the thirty feet to the surface. If we’d been at 50 feet, I wouldn’t have stayed.

The unresolved question that I still think about is, what if Buddy #1 hadn’t come back out? I wasn’t equipped or trained to go in after him, so that wasn’t an option. We probably had about 30 minutes of air left when he was in the second hole (less if he got in trouble). I still haven’t decided how long I would have waited before going for help.

Thanks in advance for your advice, constructive criticism, and outright abuse!

 

[TwoBitTxn]

You are a smart man. Buddy #1 appears to me that some day he will probably become a statistic if he doesn't have a nerve wracking experience first.

I think you did pretty well.

TwoBit

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Sounds to me as if you did just fine, based on your experience level and training.

The lessons learned were pretty inexpensive - communication is generally the hardest thing, even for experienced divers. Communicating expectations is hard for buddies who dive together more frequently, among strangers you're lucky it was as together as it was. You've learned to differentiate between a cavern and a 'swim-through' (although sometimes the difference is pretty ambiguous), and next time you'll likely be much more specific with your dive planning.

Good on you for handling the situation without getting all escalated.

And with respect to your unresolved question, there is no set answer. You've no idea how much gas he had when he entered, nor what his consumption rate is/was. The best you can do is to surface for help when you (a) assume he isn't coming out, but (b) while you assume he may still have some gas left and be swimming around inside trying to get out. He sort of put you in an undesirable position, ...and I bet you don't let that happen again either.

All in all, sounds like you had an informative afternoon!

 

[Web Monkey]

and rescue training. I consider myself competent for my experience level. I was paired with Buddy #1, who said he had “800 or a thousand dives - I don’t log them anymore.”

Good for you!

You usually can't stop anybody from killing themselves if they're determined, but you can protect yourself. If you're not cave-trained, don't go into caves.

As for "Mr. 1000 dives," he might be full of BS or not. Maybe he's an instructor or DM and has done the same 5 checkout dives 200 times. The only time that's an impressive number is if he's done a lot of different dives, or a bunch of dives where you're diving.

Enough cavers die even with training. Going in without training is just begging to be removed from the gene pool. Even a short cave that looks really cool can turn into a silted out death-trap before you even know anything happened.

By going into a cave alone with a single light and a single tank, buddy #1 was begging to be removed from the gene pool.

You did great!

Terry

 

[divenut2001]

You did exactly what I would have done. I would have waited as long as my air allowed and I would have shined a light in the entrance to aid them in finding it if they were in trouble. If they didn't come out by the time my air ran low I would have surfaced and sounded the alarm while maintaining possition. That's all you can do if you're not cave trained and don't have the proper equipment. You showed excellent judgement! Hopefully the new diver learned from this.

 

[simbrooks]

Enough cavers die even with training. Going in without training is just begging to be removed from the gene pool. Even a short cave that looks really cool can turn into a silted out death-trap before you even know anything happened.

One death is too many, but lets not exagerate here, not many cave trained divers have died in caves. True that some areas can be a bit tough, but if you are trained, follow that training and use good judgement chances are you will be just fine - lets not turn cave diving into voodoo diving

Best option is to do a cavern course as a minimum, its one of those courses that really teaches you something in terms of taskloading, stress management, skills and awareness, just like rescue (and many say DIR-F too). If that doesnt interest you, at least you did all you could on this dive.

By going into a cave alone with a single light and a single tank, buddy #1 was begging to be removed from the gene pool.

I would add without a guideline and probably without training as well. I agree here though in general.

 

[Web Monkey]

One death is too many, but lets not exagerate here, not many cave trained divers have died in caves. True that some areas can be a bit tough, but if you are trained, follow that training and use good judgement chances are you will be just fine - lets not turn cave diving into voodoo diving

I'm not saying they're dropping like flies, but wanted to note that caving is dangerous enough even if you do know what you're doing.

Terry

 

[Stirling]

You did exactly what I would have done. I would have waited as long as my air allowed and I would have shined a light in the entrance to aid them in finding it if they were in trouble. If they didn't come out by the time my air ran low I would have surfaced and sounded the alarm while maintaining possition. That's all you can do if you're not cave trained and don't have the proper equipment. You showed excellent judgement! Hopefully the new diver learned from this.

I was just thinking exactly what Divenut added - if Buddy #1 went into the cave with only one light, I would hang out at the entrance and keep my light shining where he might use it to find his way back out if his light failed. Otherwise, just wait for him to return as long as you can, and surface to summon help when your air runs low (and presumably his is running low, as well).

If he had gone missing for much longer than I expected him to be gone, I might even surface early and summon help with the idea of maybe getting additional help and perhaps a rescue started *before* he runs out of air.

 

[ChrisA]

I was just thinking exactly what Divenut added - if Buddy #1 went into the cave with only one light, I would hang out at the entrance and keep my light shining where he might use it to find his way back out

The place was describbed to be a "cavern" not a cave. If true and it sounds like it is, then a "cavern" is a place where natural light from the entrace is visable and that entrance is always within some short distance limit. So with nartual light comming in from the entrace a divelight ain't going to add much more. When you are outside a cavern it looks dark inside but if you are inside the entrance looks hugely bright. Well untill it totally silts out to zero viz but then the dive light ain't going to help. it is not brighter than the sun.

OK all that said, I've been in the same situation. I stay claer of all overheads and I've waited outside while biddy(s) go inside and look. If it is not completey stupid I'll not argue and wait outside happy to do some macro photography while waiting

Cavern trainning is on my list of things to do someday. I'm not interrested in caves. To much work and money and there are no local caves. But I think the training for caverns would be usfull in general.

 

[humanFish]

800 or a thousand dives - I don’t log them anymore

Too many times I've been burned by someone that can't shut up about all the dives they've done, only to have them be the least skilled diver in the group. I always take it with a healthy dose of salt...until I can witness their behavior underwater. Ever notice that people talk too much when they are stressed or uncomfortable? Take any sport, skiiing, diving, biking, it's all the same in this regard.

This guy's judgement sounds pretty bad. He may actually have the 800-1000 dives he said he did, but all that has done for him is make him jaded and dangerous to himself and others.

You did very well, considering the circumstances.