My one dive I regretted, but then later made into a force for good.... I had a very bad lapse of judgement & made a very unwise decision. About 5 yrs ago, I was a Dive Control Specialist (Assistant Instructor) for my shop. I went down to Vortex Springs with a couple instructors to help them out with OW dive evaluations. On the first day of diving, I went between the instructors assisting them & their students. After the dives, a buddy asked me if I wanted to go inside of the cave to the grate that is present about 300- 400 ft back. He assured me that he had been there a bunch of times & it was no big deal. Yes, at my level, I knew that I should not go into an overhead environment,... curiosity got the better of me, not that it was any excuse. There is none. We decided we would go in after dinner. It was dusk & becoming dark. We entered & went down the cave to the grate, at about 115 ft. We messed around for quite a while & I signaled I was getting low on air & we started on our way back, taking our time, with no worries. We got back to the cavern area, but because of the dark, we could not make out the difference between the cave & the walls of the depression in front of the cave. We were in open water, but did not know it. We swam back & forth several times trying to figure things out. Even though we saw the warning sign & knew we had to be close, it just didn't make sense. By then, I was becoming critically low on air. Not long after, while my back was turned, my buddy figured it out & took off for the shallower waters, silting things out & leaving me. He was so freaked out, there was no way he was coming back down for me. He tried to signal me with his light from above, but I could not see it because my light was so much brighter. After a while of trying to figure out where he went, I had the presence of mind to cover my light. I then saw him signalling me & followed him shallower. We exited the water, none too soon. I was down to about 200 psi in my double 85's. Too close for any comfort. When I returned home, I got a much deserved butt chewing from my instructor (who is a cave & tech instructor). After discussing the seriousness of my poor decision, he then asked me if I wanted to learn how to cave dive properly. My interest was piqued enough, that, yes, I wanted to do it. During that training (& he was very hard on me to drive the lesson home), I came to realize how stupid the decision to make that dive was. During that dive, I had broken many of the basic cave diving rules.
1. Training- I was beginning my technical training, but not cave trained.
2. Guideline- We used no guideline
3. Air management- We had none & I was nearly out of air by the time I surfaced
4. Depth- We did remain within our depth limits
5. Lights- I had proper lights, my buddy did not
My buddy & I broke 3-4 of the 5 rules & made it out alive only by sheer luck. I came very close to becoming another cave diving death statistic. I use my story every & anytime I can to try to help dissuade anyone who might be planning to do the same thing. There is no excuse for someone to enter an underwater cave without proper training. The training is available & not terribly priced.
1. Training- I was beginning my technical training, but not cave trained.
2. Guideline- We used no guideline
3. Air management- We had none & I was nearly out of air by the time I surfaced
4. Depth- We did remain within our depth limits
5. Lights- I had proper lights, my buddy did not
My buddy & I broke 3-4 of the 5 rules & made it out alive only by sheer luck. I came very close to becoming another cave diving death statistic. I use my story every & anytime I can to try to help dissuade anyone who might be planning to do the same thing. There is no excuse for someone to enter an underwater cave without proper training. The training is available & not terribly priced.
