Tao, I really wish you would heed the advice being offered to you. Without Proper training you are taking too many risks. You are risking your sons safety diving beyond your training. You think you know how to do it safely but I have my doubts. Having proper gear and training in the overhead is paramount. I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do. You mentioned in the Ben McDaniel's incident he was in over his head, poorly trained, and in an environment he had no business in. How is this any different than you and your son. No matter how good your son is, at his age and certification level he is not mentally prepared to make these dives. You say you don't go places your not allowed, Where are these caverns that allow non certified divers to enter?
@ TreyR & Superlyte27 - We dive strictly Devils Den, Blue Grotto, and Ginnie Springs (Ballroom only). Those are what I am referencing when I say we only dive where we are allowed to dive. My intent is to get him as close to the environment we will be diving,as I can. As I said before, I know most hardcore cavers do not believe that there is anything such as an OW safe cavern or cenote. For the most part, I used to feel the same way, despite 90% of my dives being in Ginnie Springs. Hypocritical? Sure. But their rules suit my purposes, which is to get wet, dive caverns, and bide my time until I can follow the course progression like everybody else. I'm not doing anything that scores of cavern and cavers before me haven't done.
The key difference between a certain Vortex casualty and myself, is that he willingly went beyond barriers erected to keep him out, whether they were physical, or educational by using a copied key and/or digging past the fence. He thumbed his nose at conventional wisdom and training, and even training organizations. I want to follow the advice I'm being given as fervently as I possibly can. I want us to do what we are supposed to do, learn what we are supposed to learn be where we are supposed to be. I do not like the circumstance of having to wait for cavern class, but unfortunately, that is the circumstance of seeking more training at his age. My goal was to seek out Jim Wyatt before he turned 16 in order to arrange the cavern class. This was based on checking Jim's website, which states 16 is the age he will accept. Per your post Superlyte, you say 15, so I plan to contact Jim to see if his website needs updating. But in Jim's defense, thus far, in most of my checking "most" instructors seem to require 16. But I really am trying to adhere as close to conventional thinking and training as I can, with a sincere desire to do so. And for the record, I've asked my son to read this thread, even though I've asked him to stick to teen divers and New Divers. (My reasoning is to keep him from getting bad opinion disguised as knowledge.)
I don't know if you guys were thinking that I was taking him into other caverns, or if you guys feel like many, that no cavern is "OW safe." I'm tending to think the latter. But if that's the case, then we are at divergent philosophy, and all I can do is tell you that we do everything we can do to minimize failure, problem, or accident when we are in those bodies of water. Not everything can be accounted for, but we can at least try to minimize it.
---------- Post added May 13th, 2012 at 09:43 PM ----------
Tao, I am a know-nothing wannabe cave diver, and have been following this thread with keen interest. I see what you write . . . but above, you wrote:
And I don't care what agency manual you read, you have just defined a major restriction which is allowed only after Full Cave.
Cavers, please feel free to throw the BS flag if I am off-base.
It's a dead end restriction with overhead pass-throughs which allow ambient light from above to penetrate. It's not a major restriction. To my understanding, all of the major restrictions in Devils Den are gated off, and I've never encountered one in my dives there. Ambient light was visible no matter where I poked my head, which I readily tested by flipping my lights on and off to check. Apparently by some tones, I'm a dangerous , know nothing wannabe myself...
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