Cave diving popularity

[nolatom]

I, who has never gone deeper than caverns and the "Prevent your Death!! Go no Further!!" signs, am guessing here.
But I think it will attract a few more to the training, and a few of that number will stick with it.

I don't plan to be one of them. But I'm sure glad they are around when needed, and this rescue was, I think, good for the sport in general. Good Good Good on everyone involved, it was brave and selfless. And condolences to the family of the Seal who perished from hypoxia. Greater love hath no man.....

 

[The Chairman]

this rescue was, I think, good for the sport in general.

I do think it was.

 

[Schwob]

The way I see it is like this (and I don't know, so I am willing to correct my outlook once I learn why):

I think that some day I may do a cavern class first and cave1 second...... for the training mostly and maybe to be a tourist so to speak in known to be georgeous pre - explored caves without much reason to go in so deep so as to end up with super long dives and devo times.

To go beyond that, to become an explorer myself looks to me like this:

a.) It is imply beyond my time and financial possibilities and possibly beyond my capabilities (or willingness), but I'll likely never find out until taking cave 1...

b.) To explore new territory these days one either has to find a new cave (good luck) or go in real deep into an existing system (huge cost in time, expertise, money, equipment) or wiggle through something nobody managed to wiggle through (well, that's for smaller people and besides, having been stuck for what seemed a long time (maybe was 3 minutes) in a dry cave long ago, no thanks, that's not for me UW).

c.) No vis diving - I can see myself doing that in a silt out or to search for something, or for training purposes,
... but no vis sump dive, scraping along tight restrictions, for the purpose of then doing more of it and more of it with no real destination, just for the challenge in it... Not for me...
... and if there is a destination beyond all that, that is beautiful too look at and take in and is somehow not in no-vis water (maybe above water?), well, I would need to run out of easier reachable great to look at things first before even thinking about why I would want to dive sumps or passages like that.... .... And I suspect that I would, after being a traind diving tourists in caves for a while (not an actually expliring explorer) I either might feel I need to become an explorer (and realize again it maybe is not for me for already named reasons... or I get old first...)
... or realize that maybe I like looking at more marine live more over more "dead rock" however beautiful...
... or maybe I like both
... Won't know until I do cavern / cave and "looked at" a few caves...

But the whole recent rescue coverage really does not affect that thinking other than to reinforce the thought to simply heed that uneasy guts feeling about spaces simply too tight for me when it occurs and before it's too late...

 

[soggybadger]

It has already raised the profile of cave diving judging by YouTube. I think more people will at least research the subject but most will be put off by the reality of what is involved.

 

[Lorenzoid]

More thoughts: Dividing people into two major categories, there are those who have never scuba dived at all and been glued to the news for the past week because so much of what they saw was totally new to them, and those who are active scuba divers who are aware of cave diving and not been inclined to get into it. I don't think the first category will be attracted to cave diving if they were never attracted to scuba diving. I don't think the second category will now change their minds about cave diving, as this event didn't exactly make cave diving look attractive--if the multitude of Youtube videos of gorgeously decorated caves hadn't already piqued their interest, will the images of divers slogging through a muddy zero-vis Thai cave do so? Other than these two types, I suppose there are younger people who haven't been very interested in scuba because it's not enough of an adventure sport, and hadn't yet heard of cave diving, but there can't be many such people.

 

[Nirvana]

More thoughts: Dividing people into two major categories, there are those who have never scuba dived at all and been glued to the news for the past week because so much of what they saw was totally new to them, and those who are active scuba divers who are aware of cave diving and not been inclined to get into it. I don't think the first category will be attracted to cave diving if they were never attracted to scuba diving. I don't think the second category will now change their minds about cave diving, as this event didn't exactly make cave diving look attractive--if the multitude of Youtube videos of gorgeously decorated caves hadn't already piqued their interest, will the images of divers slogging through a muddy zero-vis Thai cave do so? Other than these two types, I suppose there are younger people who haven't been very interested in scuba because it's not enough of an adventure sport, and hadn't yet heard of cave diving, but there can't be many such people.

There is a close friend of mine, who is now a cave diver, who got interested in cave diving after reading the book “The Last Dive”, by Bernie Chowdhury. For those that don’t know the book, it is about a real story of a father and son duo that get into diving, cave diving and wreck diving and end up dying while exploring a submarine. Despite the several tragedies detailed in the book, the description of the feeling people had while cave diving and of the methods used was enough to make this friend of mine decide to persue the activity.

I believe this incident in Thailand can have an even greater effect on motivating people, considering the success of the operation (the tragic loss of a Thai diver notwithstanding).

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

For those that might read this topic/posting...
If you are interested in cave diving then it all begins with a “Cavern” certification. That cert will teach you more about the holy trinity of scuba diving - Bouyancy - Trim - Propulsion. You will also learn a number of other skills and it is a cert that can be done in backmount single tank. Find a highly qualified shop and instructor and start asking questions. Even if you never take “Intro to Cave” and then “Cave”.

 

[luscioman]

I think the news of the former Thai navy seal dying trying to save the children will spook most people. I think that whatever movie is made from this will scare the crap out of people as well.