Overhead environments and open water scuba divers

[walrus2]

Interesting story. I was at Sipadan two months ago. I saw the map of the cave on the boat. It clearly was a cave, not a cavern, and they even offered a special 'cave dive', which I think involved proper cave gear for at least a DM/guide and only one or two divers, but I didn't follow up (although I did have cavern gear). The first time there we went near the mouth only, but a bit to my surprise later in the week the DM said she'd take 5 of us inside. I also declined, both at the briefing on the boat and confirmed when they went in by signals. I said I'd wait outside at 30-40 ft. The others were back after 15 minutes or so and the dive continued along the nice wall back to the much nicer shallows. I got no negative comments from anyone, including the DM. I mentioned afterwards to some of the others the dive violated 4 of the 5 basic cave diving rules but none of the pretty experienced group (but mostly tropical/liveaboard diving, no overhead training) appeared particularly phased. I'm still somewhat puzzled by this. A friend told me when I mailed him a trip report that the fact that even turtles apparently drown there should have been an obvious sign that this dive has problems. I didn't expect them to die, but my choice was clear to me and not an issue during the dive as I decided beforehand I was willing to wait outside by myself. I think there are at least two issues - not all divers recognize that some dives are potentially a bad idea, but some who do might feel pressured to do those dives anyway. Don't...

 

[Centrals]

.... Why did these guides lead untrained divers into this cave? Simply to enhance the diver's experiences & get bigger tips. We were told this directly. To this day, they still do these cave tours daily. Yes, there have been fatalities from it,.. but of course you don't hear about that in the briefings. All the more reason that overhead training is so important.

Money comes before safety!!!!!! So pathetic and sad.
I had met divers bragging about the experience. All of them did not realize that their diving insurances DID NOT cover this kind of dive ie. beyond their training.

 

[tstormdiver]

I saw the map of the cave on the boat. It clearly was a cave, not a cavern, and they even offered a special 'cave dive', which I think involved proper cave gear for at least a DM/guide and only one or two divers, but I didn't follow up (although I did have cavern gear).

When I was there, there was no cave gear on anyone. Everyone was in single tanks, recreational configurations, maybe a few lights between all of them (there were 8 of us on the boat) & no reels or guidelines of any type. The guide had a regular sized flashlight & a few of our divers had some small lights (what I would consider as back- up lights). A couple days later when I entered, I took my 10 watt HID light & 2 back- ups, yet with as "dusty" as it was with silt, it didn't shine very far. Personally, I had learned my lesson (almost the hard way) the year before, about diving beyond my training & entering an overhead environment. I wasn't going to tempt fate a second time. Most of the negative comments were from the other divers from my shop, who couldn't understand why someone who is trained wouldn't go in. Yes, I was trained, but lacked the proper equipment. They were too excited at the aspect of getting to dive in a cave, like the "elite" cave divers, that the risks didn't even occur to them. Even when warned about how dagerous their actions had been, after the fact, most of them just didn't see it, because they had come out OK. When I dive in these environments, I try to stack the odds in my favor as much as I can.