Just remembered this from another thread going on.....
Fnfalman, pretend for a second....I am saying "P.R.E.T.E.N.D. that this is you, headed for the mouth of a dangerous and silty cave.....Should a good Cave Diver Intercept you if this was you....and if so, would you be planning on a vigorous use of your pig sticker?
Look - no one is saying training is going to solve all the problems of the world. BUT... it is a good bet that anyone who goes through cave training will be more prepared to go into caves, safely, than they would have if they had not.
I've been in Ginnie when I've had to get on the line in the first 300 feet of the cave. Believe me - it is NOT easy to crap out the viz in that area of the cave. In fact, I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there. I'm sure it cleared fairly quickly, but it was rather disconcerting for a moment. Not in the sense that I was concerned; I knew exactly where I was, but I just would have never expected Ginnie vis to go down like that. The point is, even in a high flow cave, careless form can turn visibility in an instant. In a low flow cave, that kind of a mess would have taken *hours* to settle.
You guys talking with such bravado about your pig stickers and book training
don't know what you don't know - and that includes that you are not just risking your own lives when you go in a cave without training. You are risking the lives of every person already in the cave, and every person who may follow you in. No, training isn't perfect. It's not going to guarantee perfect form, or a perfect reaction to every situation. But at least it will give you a minimal understanding of non-silting kicks and give you exposure to situations designed to simulate problems that you may encounter in a cave... So, if your primary light goes out - instead of losing buoyancy and flailing about while trying to find your backup and get it deployed in the dark - it's a complete non-event to pull out your backup and store your primary so that it won't snag anything on the way out. And you can do that without losing control of your buoyancy and/or losing/blinding your buddy. You will learn how to enter the cave without tearing up everyone else's line that has already been run... a book can't teach you that.
But going into a cave without training - if I'm there, you are putting me at risk, every time. What do I care if I'm not there? You are putting friends of mine at risk. So go ahead, call me elitist. Call me whatever you want to, I don't really care. If you want to go in a cave, just get the training. I am not saying I am better than you, all I am saying is that I have training appropriate for the environment. I don't see how that is elitism, personally.
