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

[RikRaeder]

...Recently, entering a cave, we came across 3 guys sitting on the bottom inside the cavern, with no lights at all, no line, no nothing. It's pretty freaky when you see that and know that they could be in trouble FAST. Especially, with the BIG SIGNS that you mentioned.

So what happened? Were they doing a drill? Passing the bong singing Kum-bi-ah? In trouble? Did you help?


PS; Congratulations on your good luck and lesson learned Gills.

 

[JillGadget]

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

We decided to go in "just a little bit" and then come out again.

We went in, we penetrated about 30 meters

just a little bit? 30 meters? to me "just a little bit" means 20 feet. I think I learned more about the dangers of cave diving in my cavern cert class not OW or AOW. Maybe they should impress that during OW class. (at least I don't remember them talking about it) So lucky, You have a friend up there somewhere.

Thanks for sharing. I learn so much on this part of the board. It keeps my brain in-check during SI's at least.
Jill

 

[cave_diver]

This is usually how things get bad. Most signs are usually a bit back in the cave – if you did already see the griping reaper, you were almost there. Get training if you like to live, or you might end-up as the next fatality in the annual count-down!

 

[BioLogic]

I wish I could show this story to a student I had last semester (a biology student; I'm just a newborn baby as a diver). I mentioned to him that I was taking scuba classes. He said he wanted to do that too; he had done some cave diving with a certified friend, but was afraid to do the 'more dangerous' ocean diving without training.

I just ......boggled for awhile. I hope my description of how the losing streams work in Missouri caves and what can happen when you can't get to the surface convinced him to not do that again, but a real story like this would have been better.

I'd like to cave dive sometime (Missouri's caves are so cool above water!), but I'm not even beginning to go there until I have some solid experience in the 'bunny bays'.

 

[holeup]

Happy for your experience and survival, however very sad you earned it the way you did.
Id really like to know the cert. caver you were with so I can be sure to add him to my do not buddy with list.

He/She should have grabbed you by the fins and pulled you back before you even got near the entrance. The other thread i saw here about the so called air pocket, let me second the motion.

Im an underwater welder, and i have seen alot of "pockets" some inside vessels and some in natural overhead environments as well as confined spaces. We use a hand held analyzer to test these pockets before welding and i can tell you this.. 9 out of 10 times is co2, hydrogen methane or a weird mix of all the above. Add this to your depth, length of time at the depth and the circumstances you were in, its a soup for a disaster meal.

Glad you made it back.

 

[I Dive]

I don't know what it is about caves and caverns that give untrained people the false sense of security that they do. In my OW class, on either OW dive 2 or 3, my stupid instructor went in to a cavern and the other two students followed him in. There was absolutely no way I was going to in there. I immediately went to 15 for my safety stop and called it a day. He tried having some words for me when he surfaced, but I wasn't having it. I did nothing wrong, he on the other hand was a moron and should probably not be instructing any longer. I finished my training with the guy on another day but immediatley found another shop and enrolled in Advanced OW to get some real training with an instructor who has a brain. Knowing the instructor was dumb enough to take OW students in there made me doubt just about everything else he showed me.

 

[GLENFWB]

I am amazed at how many times I see instructors who are with students lead students in the cavern at Vortex and Morrison. A couple of times I have listened to them talk after coming back up to determine if they are some type of advanced class. Each time I have been amazed to hear that they are students on an OW dive...following their instructor in "just a little ways".

I don't know what it is about caves and caverns that give untrained people the false sense of security that they do. In my OW class, on either OW dive 2 or 3, my stupid instructor went in to a cavern and the other two students followed him in. There was absolutely no way I was going to in there. I immediately went to 15 for my safety stop and called it a day. He tried having some words for me when he surfaced, but I wasn't having it. I did nothing wrong, he on the other hand was a moron and should probably not be instructing any longer. I finished my training with the guy on another day but immediatley found another shop and enrolled in Advanced OW to get some real training with an instructor who has a brain. Knowing the instructor was dumb enough to take OW students in there made me doubt just about everything else he showed me.