Lost in a cave

[Diver Lori]

Years ago when I was going through my training, my instructor played a little trick on me, a very valuable trick. Part of our dive plan was to surface at Olsen sink, chat and then turn the dive and head back the way we came. We surfaced, we chatted and then he said, let's go home, you lead. I started to drop down and found there were two lines below me and immediately popped back up and looked at my instructor and asked "which line?" I was greeted with a chesire cat grin as big as Texas, and his reply was, "I don't know which line it is either." Of course he knew which line, but that's an error I've not repeated to this day..... I pin or cookie everything. Even in Mexico, with a guide, I cookie the line. Another instructor, who I have high respect for, liked to swim his students off the line and then when he had them sufficiently lost (or so they thought, they weren't really), he'd turn and flash a sign in their face, "I just died, find your way out".

Very valuable lessons indeed.

 

[tstormdiver]

Excellent things to think about for my upcoming course.

 

[TSandM]

I was taught that, when you want to surface to check out a dome, you tie off a spool and cookie the exit direction. Otherwise, when you go back down, you could get confused about which way you came in. Similarly, if two team members are involved in something (eg. releasing an entanglement, or shutting down a backup light) the job of the third is to reference the line and maintain awareness of the exit direction.

A few dives in Mexican spiderwebs gives you a profound respect for how even a continuous line can fail to keep you out of trouble!

 

[Peter Guy]

I was taught that, when you want to surface to check out a dome, you tie off a spool and cookie the exit direction.

Why would you cookie it? Why wouldn't you put an arrow on the line in the correct direction and then tie off your spool to the arrow and then go off with your line attached to the arrow pointing out? What's the advantage of a non-directional cookie over a directional arrow?

 

[Belmont]

What he said?

 

[TSandM]

Tying in and placing a cookie on the exit side does not change the general navigation of the cave. Your personal marker is your own information, and doesn't confuse anyone who may pass the point while you are away from the line. (I suppose that, if you are in an area where the arrows in general are pointing to your exit, you could use an arrow, but the way I was taught, arrows are used for very little, because cookies accomplish the same thing and don't impact anyone else.)

 

[BabyDuck]

while i agree with that, i was also taught that only arrows you have personally verified mean anything anyway. and though i don't think that is practical, it is the official stance, so you could put an arrow if you wanted.

 

[Peter Guy]

Baby Duck -- who says "it is the official stance" -- my card says TDI, her card says GUE -- I say potato -- she says tomato!

 

[wedivebc]

I am not sure what the lesson here is. Improperly trained divers doing visual jumps and passing under guidlines and how ever many other stupid things. The big problem I see here is stupidity should hurt more. These guys got off way too easy.

 

[Tortuga68]

Would you be happier if they got bent or dead?

This is the near misses lessons learned forum in case you missed it