It's funny that I've just stumbled across this thread in an email of the month's "Top Threads". I guess it is begging a response from me. What makes people want to criticize divers, adventurers, thrill-seekers, or whatever they are, so badly? You can't possibly know what training and experience all divers have and it is not everyone's business to jump in and pass judgement, especially unsolicited. Just because something seems daring to you doesn't mean the people doing it didn't take precautions and didn't have experience that you may not see from the outside looking in. If they are willing to accept the risks and live life as they choose, they are most likely not seeking your infinite wisdom in keeping them from taking such risks. I'm sorry if I sound unappreciative of the advice, but I'm smack dab in the middle of dealing with people posting comments on something they know nothing about.
We maintain a website/blog at
www.divingintocruising.comand we often publish videos on YouTube of our dives. Weve received some flack recently over our
Diving Into Cruising Paradise Springs and
"Diving Into Cruising - Manatee Springs" videos. Apparently some of the cave diving gurus out there think were somehow encouraging divers who lack experience to enter into caves without the right equipment or knowledge to do it safely. The videos we publish are simply to portray our own adventures and share them with friends and family and anyone else who cares to see it. Encouraging OW Divers to go beyond their limits....no, we aren't encouraging anything and anyone who simply watches a video and thinks Yeah, I can do that!, Well
best of luck to you. I would think that most people are smarter than that and realize this sport requires some guidance and training. That guidance can come in many forms and doesn't always have to be a "certification course" where you get your pretty picture on a card at the end. Getting the experience is much more important than getting the certification.
These cave diving experts who think we broke the code of conduct in diving are looking to see high tech lights, double tanks, and other equipment, that may be nice to have, but certainly isnt required in order to dive these sites safely. Its a shame that the diving industry has made this sport so equipment induced and convinced divers that there is a need for so many expensive pieces of equipment for which the purpose of could otherwise be accomplished by simply having the right knowledge and experience. We prefer more of a minimalistic approach to diving. As far as encouraging divers to ignore safety guidelines or extend beyond your level of training, we certainly hope it isnt perceived that way. In obtaining certification as an OW Diver, you should already know that diving is an inherently risky sport and when you start venturing into cave or wreck diving, the risks grow greater. This is the same with any high risk sport. The grim reaper sign in most caverns/caves does warn open water divers of going any further and before we had the right introduction to cave diving, we never exceeded those limits, even though we had seen videos on YouTube of the exact same site. We had sense enough to know that the people we saw doing it probably had training that we didnt. Hell, Ive seen videos of people flying off bridges in squirrel suits, but does that mean I would strap one on and jump not knowing what I was doing
I dont think so! Remember Darwins process of natural selection? You cant fix stupid! But....if I had someone show me a thing or two and teach me about the dangers unknown, I might be up for it!:blinking: