If you don't have cave training.........

[I-want-gills]

YES!! I deserve a nice trophy to the most stupid diver ever!

We went to a nice divinf spot near the entrance to a cave that has a BIG sign advicing of the dangers of this cave. We decided to go in "just a little bit" and then come out again. BTW, of the three divers, only one has cave diving training. (yes, I know, that was stupid)

We went in, we penetrated about 30 meters to a huge chamber with a gigantic air pocket, we all surfaced in to this pocket and planned to go around the chamber along the edge and then back out the way we came in.

Well, as soon as we submerged again, my light died and instead of signaling or triying to catch up I went to the bottom and on my knees tried to fix my light (yes, I am that dumb sometimes). 1-2 minutes passed and I satrted to swim in the direction I tought they went...................and found several entrances (or exits?), I tried to find the air pocket thinking that as soon as they realized I was no behind them they would come back, I found the ceiling several times but not the air pocket, I swam to the ceiling and followed the ceiling with my hands as it had a slight "slope", this worked as eventually I found the pocket, at this point I had 900 PSI. I decided to breath from the pocket, but I started to think some crazy stuff about burning the oxigen of the pocket and something I read about "never breath from a pocket for too long". Well, I was freaking out to say the least!. After a few minutes (it felt like centuries) of fiddling with my light the damn thing came back to life and I attempted to find the entrance again, after swiming around I saw the light of one of my buddies and went towards him, this time he had a line and an extra bottle, (my computer showed 430psi). When we came out there was another 2 divers getting ready to go in and help. They were 2 experienced cave divers from Germany, we got a HUGE sermon in German from this 2 guys.

What have I learned?:

Iy you are not trained for it....DON'T *^&@#%^ DO IT!!!!

 

[24940]

Well, thanks for sharing that. I suspect there will be another lesson forthcoming....

Did you realize how many rules you were breaking when you decided to take a peek? One of the most important pieces of info I can pass on to students is to avoid situations/conditions they are not trained for. As you discovered, things can get hairy very quickly.

I'm glad you survived.

 

[Beachlover]

Sounds like you were very lucky that things did'nt turn out worse. It also sounds as though you learned your lesson.

 

[ronbeau]

YES!! I deserve a nice trophy to the most stupid diver ever!

We went to a nice divinf spot near the entrance to a cave that has a BIG sign advicing of the dangers of this cave. We decided to go in "just a little bit" and then come out again. BTW, of the three divers, only one has cave diving training. (yes, I know, that was stupid)

We went in, we penetrated about 30 meters to a huge chamber with a gigantic air pocket, we all surfaced in to this pocket and planned to go around the chamber along the edge and then back out the way we came in.

Well, as soon as we submerged again, my light died and instead of signaling or triying to catch up I went to the bottom and on my knees tried to fix my light (yes, I am that dumb sometimes). 1-2 minutes passed and I satrted to swim in the direction I tought they went...................and found several entrances (or exits?), I tried to find the air pocket thinking that as soon as they realized I was no behind them they would come back, I found the ceiling several times but not the air pocket, I swam to the ceiling and followed the ceiling with my hands as it had a slight "slope", this worked as eventually I found the pocket, at this point I had 900 PSI. I decided to breath from the pocket, but I started to think some crazy stuff about burning the oxigen of the pocket and something I read about "never breath from a pocket for too long". Well, I was freaking out to say the least!. After a few minutes (it felt like centuries) of fiddling with my light the damn thing came back to life and I attempted to find the entrance again, after swiming around I saw the light of one of my buddies and went towards him, this time he had a line and an extra bottle, (my computer showed 430psi). When we came out there was another 2 divers getting ready to go in and help. They were 2 experienced cave divers from Germany, we got a HUGE sermon in German from this 2 guys.

What have I learned?:

Iy you are not trained for it....DON'T *^&@#%^ DO IT!!!!

Thanks for having the courage to post your experience.

Hopefully it will prevent others from making the same mistake.

 

[Web Monkey]

We went to a nice divinf spot near the entrance to a cave that has a BIG sign advicing of the dangers of this cave. We decided to go in "just a little bit" and then come out again. BTW, of the three divers, only one has cave diving training. (yes, I know, that was stupid)

Unless the "cave diver" ran a line, he was being stupid too. He was being extra stupid for bringing you in, since if anything happened to him, all of you could easily die.

We went in, we penetrated about 30 meters to a huge chamber with a gigantic air pocket, we all surfaced in to this pocket and planned to go around the chamber along the edge and then back out the way we came in.

You got lucky again.

Just because it's not water doesn't mean it's air. The pocket could have contained almost anything, and there's no special reason to think that it was a breathable mixture. It could have easily killed you.

minutes (it felt like centuries) of fiddling with my light the damn thing came back to life and I attempted to find the entrance again, after swiming around I saw the light of one of my buddies and went towards him, this time he had a line and an extra bottle, (my computer showed 430psi). When we came out there was another 2 divers getting ready to go in and help. They were 2 experienced cave divers from Germany, we got a HUGE sermon in German from this 2 guys.

You were amazingly lucky. Generally we read about this stuff from the recovery team.

What have I learned?:

Iy you are not trained for it....DON'T *^&@#%^ DO IT!!!!

That just about covers it.


Terry

 

[stairman]

Just a peak can go bad quick.Lights are the least reliable equipment.Minimum 3 per diver.Lots of curious divers are dead doing just what you did.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Well I want gills, the way I see it you just had an Important First lesson. When are you going to try your second lesson, after all it is just doing it that you will learn, Im certain that you will learn on the net all you can and practice cave technics without an overhead enviorment.

ya see why you should always have a primary and a little backup light, So to me that was your problem from what I read, besides just following your buddy's right away instead of trying to fix it.


As long as you didn't get scared so much you ate your air up, I would say youll make a good caver, having that as your first cave dive and no what the feeling is why to be prepared.


Happy Diving

 

[potablewater]

I am so looking forward to my future cave training, but I can hardly believe this
kind of thing still happens...it's beyond me, and with a cave trained diver...

 

[wedivebc]

Thank you for being so honest. I am glad you realize how incredibly stupid your actions were and how incredibly lucky you are to be alive.
Usually we learn from these types of experiences after they recover the body.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[TSandM]

Thank you for posting this, because it will with any luck be a lesson to others who think that, because they are going in with a trained diver, all will be OK. Caves kill people, and the biggest group of people they kill are the people who haven't gotten the training to know what equipment and skills they need to dive in them.

And I say this, as someone who thinks that cave diving is one of the most amazing and wonderful things she's ever been privileged to do. But so far, I've been very respectful of the caves, and I think anyone who wants to survive them needs to feel that way, too.