I'm finding it hard to picture the cave, based on the descriptions. Is it an overhead or not? i.e. Can the diver resort to immediate ascent to the surface at any dive during the dive, should they encounter a problem? Is it a cavern dive or not? i.e. is there risk of silting/loss of illumination leading to the diver being delayed/prevented from egressing (not surfacing) from the water when required?
I mentioned earlier about 'negotiating safety recommendations'... it's easy to disregard x, y or z... to negotiate with yourself internally and erroneously justify a course of action because it is what you want to do (or what a dive center wants you to do $$$).
How about this? What is the worst case scenario foreseeable on the dive? How does that equate to training provided at x, y or x levels?
DD and pwl, thanks for your feedback. It's interesting to read the views of an experienced cave diver and of someone else who has actually been there. Of course, it would be even better to have the opinion of a cave diver who has been there...
I like the 'worst case scenario' question... From what I understand, it may be something like:
- Losing orientation, buddy and the rest of the group e.g. because of silt-out
- Dive light failure
- Some emergency that can not be solved under water with my level of training / available gear, causing me to CESA (since no more buddy available), or being unable to find the exit and having to come up OOA
- Thus in both cases being 'stuck' in the chamber I'm in since exiting would require working dive gear and air (or would this not be the case and would a freediving exit be possible?)
I personally don't see this as a very dangerous situation: it's a question of waiting for someone to come and get me on their octo - assuming the swim-throughs are sufficiently large to pass side-by-side. Otherwise I would have to wait for a cave diver with a long hose
You could even say this is less risky then a high-current OW environment where you drift away from the boat - at least here they know where to come and get you, right?
I guess a medical problem would be more annoying than in OW because evacuation is harder - but any level of training would not change that.