Bob DBF
Contributor
No one should dive a site with out some prior understanding of what is down there.
From what I've seen over the years, an intellectual understanding of conditions is not necessarily an indication of how a new diver will react to the conditions when they actually encounter them. Without some introduction to the conditions of say tight spaces, zero viz, and solo, a new diver has no context to make an informed decision to make that dive.
That would mean that peer pressure was most likely deciding factor. All the training a new diver has reinforces No solo, No overheads, and low viz is an advanced skill best done first with an experienced night diver, and one has more than enough time to think about that in the chimney. Boogyman Effect
Although I would do the dive in a heartbeat, when I dove with my adult daughter when she was a new diver, I would have never considered the dive. I would have dove the cavern side with her to see her reaction. The bigger point is that I don't want to find out how a diver reacts when we are diving where they (we) probably shouldn't be in the first place.
Bob