Is cave diving the most dangerous sport?

[Ber Rabbit]

Now THAT's a dangerous sport! You can train for it but it's still 1000+ pounds of unpredictable hamburger with or without horns who would like to stomp on your head!

I don't cave dive because I'm claustrophobic. My cousin, a bull fighter/rodeo clown says I would make a good bull rider, I have a well balanced seat and a thigh grip when sitting on a horse. I don't ride bulls.

Cave diving involves a lot of training and the minimization of unpredictable occurences. Doesn't sound like a "most dangerous sport" to me. Now if you're doing it in a geologically active area, say on an active fault then it would fall into the "most dangerous" category.
Ber

 

[Divesherpa]

Excellent points.
Cave diving is not very dangerous at all if the proper precautions are learned before entry.
For that reason, I consider it much safer than most ocean dives.
Noone has ever been eaten by anything in a cave (except crayfish, but the person was long since gone)

 

[Peat Bogg]

DiveSherpa

are you a cave instuctor? Thumper and I are curious.

:rasta:

 

[Divesherpa]

No, I'm not a cave instructor. I teach Cavern occasionally and considered cave instruction (even "divemastered" a couple of intro and full classes), but decided against it. I love cave diving, which means that I should probably let someone else teach it. The quickest way to get tired of something is to be required to do it.

 

[KVDIVR]

Having done all the overheads I vote for deep wreck diving!!!

Not the PADI swimming around the wreck, wreck diving, but the actual finding your way thru silt laden, no visability passages with collapsing panels, entanglements, monofiliment fish nets, getting blown off the wreck and having to float away in the current on a lift bag that someone might not see pop up in large seas & you without all your deco bottles.

sounds like a top contender, does it not?

 

[Peat Bogg]

Not to change the thread but I get hyped for Wreck diving....Ultimately it is what I love the most. I consider the cave diving...as training for wreck diving. :shootmup: But wrecks as you pointed out are usually in a state of decay and can be extremely dangerious. Living in NE Florida has provided me with the ability to be a wreck diver and a caver. I love bothe side of the sport. A lot of people dive certain ways simply because of location. In KY guys dive quarries and they ice dive in the winter.... On the west coast guys dive kelp. In Truk lagoon guys dive big war wrecks. In a perfect (money is no object world) I would fly all over the world and dive places like Scappa Flow, The English Channel, Normandy, Palau, Truk, Bikini, and Blue hole Belize, Great Barrier reef Eagles Nest, Dos Ojos, Akumal, and my neighbors pool....but Wrecks are awesome. As much as everyone in the keys thinks the Speigal Grove is a goose egg...my buddy Thumper and myself, dove the Grove over labor day and it was awesome!!! here is the link to the picks...I hope you all like them. http://thumper.wox.org/dive_pics.htm
:shark:

 

[zman]

Cave diving even for trained divers can be extreme! But only for those who choose not to receive the proper training and follow simple rules! eg. NO SOLO DIVING!!!!!!

 

[Peat Bogg]

I don't Solo dive but I am not sure how dangerious it is. Considering that a lot of deaths from Scuba diving involve a person and thier buddy. Personally I have done a couple of solo dives....but the Solo Dives I did were in a sinkhole in the swamps in Suwanee County FL. The Solo dives were esentially shallow and in open water. ...I was fossil hunting and the only thing I was scared of was the huge snapping turtle :turtle: that was trying to eat me. ...
I know some hardcore cavers who won't dive with a buddy because they claim that they are safer because they don't have to rely on the uncertanty of what thier buddy may or may not do.
Not sure how smart that is. But isn't diving with a buddy more like a security blanket anyway?? Do you really think your buddy can save your @ss?? Maybe if you don't panick and your buddy doesn't panick you can buddy breathe your way out. I think its a matter of training,and experience that keeps you from panicking and THAT may help you get out. But can you imagine being a top notch highly trained caver. Your doing your solo dive and you blow a $.30 O ring.... Who wants to dive alone?? ....I Don't

And my current buddy and I are doing our trianing togehter...I think It makes for more of a "team"....

 

[Campana]

I was trained to be able to help my buddy, and for my buddy to be able to help me. For example, buddies need to stay close enough to help. This seems elementary, but general Open Water divers have no buddy awareness at all. There have been a few times in caves when my buddy was out of sight around a corner or something, and once or twice in training my buddy got too far away, but that was dealt with in training. On a trip last spring, a buddy got a little too far away, and before I dive with that buddy again, I'll talk to him about it. If you have good buddy awareness, your buddy can definitley help you.

Dave

 

[Peat Bogg]

Dave...

I agree with you wholeheartly. My dive buddy is Thumper and he and I make a point of keeping track of each other...we may lose the dive boat ... but not each other. But lose your buddy in a cave means death...for one of you and maybe both. Do you think there is caving situations where it is better to Solo dive?? I just don't see the logic in Solo diving. Now in some situations a buddy can be a danger. IE: a newbie. Every once in a while your buddy kills you. It happened in Troy Spring about 8 years ago. Two open water divers decended to the bottom of the sink hole at 80 feet. There is a small tight cave at the bottom and these 2 guys decided to go in. The first diver got stuck and his buddy tried to help him. the buddy tried to pull the first diver out by the fins and the first diver panicked and kicked the regulator out of the second diver's mouth who was behind him. Diver # 2 couldn't find his regulator ( open water diver with no experience or cave training.) He drowned while his buddy was still alive and stuck in front of him. His buddy's body blocked the way and he couldn't turn around. A horrible tragedy, that could have been avoided. I wish divers would think of themselves and thier buddies as a "team".
It would promote more "buddy awareness".

safe diving
Pete