MBH:
My class requirement is for one primary reel per team and one safety reel per diver. I always carry a finger spool with me for bag shoots.
That spool will come in handy in the cave. Deploying a bag just before "The Lips" is always a good time had by all!
Seriously, though, when I first started cave diving I would go into a cave carrying enough gear as if expecting a DIR jihad. "You want a spare second stage? Psst... I got some good chit right here in the left pocket, hey, Esé?"
I also had a "one size fits all" mentality and I viewed the functions of my equipment and my pocket contents as being applicable to open water, wreck diving and cave diving simultaneously. But, thanks to my instructors, my own experiences and by listening to the old pros teach talk or teach their students, I learned to view the equipment I carried and its function solely for its purpose for each particular cave dive.
I learned to "dive the cave" and my mind sharpened to a higher level of dive planning. You begin to envision all the possible scenarios for that specific dive and plan accordingly. There is a saying in cave diving, "If you don't need it, don't take it." When planning a dive, everything that I carry has an assigned role or purpose planned specifically for that dive. I also leave behind anything that I do not need no matter how small whether it's an additional arrow or cookie, spool or even a paper thin flexible signal mirror I have in my notebook.
Every item that you carry adds to your profile, your drag and your weight. As you increase your profile you have more of chance of entanglement or damaging a cave. Increased profile and increased weight will increase your drag. Increased drag will cause you to work harder and move slower. Work and time uses gas. Gas is life.
This is true even if you have your equipment in your thigh pockets. Bill Main explained to me how much thigh pockets will increase drag so you don't want them bulging with gear. I try to keep everything I carry in those pockets to a minimum for both streamlining and to allow me to more easily access the equipment I do need or may need.
I know you weren't going to take a liftbag into a cave.
But, I just wanted to mention something that might speed your learning process.
That spool you
always carry... what is its purpose on this dive? Do you need it? How much line does it have? Would you be safer with more line? Do you need less line? Do you have reels/spools with more or less line in your arsenal? Would one of those be better? When do you plan to access it? How far into the cave? For efficiency, where will you carry it? In what pocket will it be placed? Can you identify it as yours by feel?
I think there is an evolutionary hierarchy among divers much like there was among astronauts. First, they wanted dogs and chimps to orbit, then they started sending test pilots with names like "Buzz" and finally Asians from MIT. In diving, you've got your wreck divers :cwmddd:, and then your more highly evolved tech divers :babycrawl , and finally you've got your cave divers :lightbulb!
), I try not to. Seems like stuff on my doody ring has a much greater tendency to come loose in some fashion or another. Line coming off spools or reels would be one snarly mess. It doesn't happen much anymore, but its still a potential issue back there.
