ScubaBoard feels very strongly that diving in caves without proper training is extremely dangerous, and it does not allow posts that advocate such a thing. When such posts appear in any forum, please report them so that they can be deleted rather than respond to them, since it will be necessary to delete the responses as well. An unfortunate consequence of this policy is that many fine responses that explain why cave training is necessary will be lost, so this post will include an all too brief summary in the hope that those who read it will understand.
In the 5th edition (1979) of his important work Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival, pioneering cave diver Sheck Exley wrote "In 1974 no fewer than than 26 perished in underwater caves in Florida" (p. 4). That is a staggering number. In response to the high number of deaths in caves back then, Exley studied the causes of cave diving fatalities and devised the basis for modern cave training. Today, the overwhelming majority of divers who enter caves have been properly trained, and as a result, it takes many years for all the cave diving deaths in the world to combine to the total of the 26 who died in Florida alone in 1974. Even though it has become very unusual for untrained divers to enter caves, approximately half of all cave diving fatalities come from those few untrained divers. With the remainder, almost all fatalities occurred with divers who for some reason intentionally violated at least one key principle of their training. When divers follow their training, cave diving is a safe sport; when divers ignore training or have not had the training in the first place, it is extremely dangerous.
In cave training, divers learn the many things that can go wrong in a cave. They learn how to prevent them, and they learn how to overcome them should they occur anyway. It is not possible to make all of that evident to someone who has not had the training, so an open water diver who is convinced that he or she can dive in caves safely will not be easily persuaded otherwise. Because things do not always go wrong in a cave, and because some caves are safer than others, such a diver may successfully dive in caves without training a number of times, creating a false sense of confidence. That diver is, however, taking terrible risks.
If that diver chooses to take those foolish risks, there is nothing ScubaBoard can do about it. On the other hand, ScubaBoard can prevent that diver from persuading other ScubaBoard readers to follow that same path. It is for that reason that we do not allow anyone to advocate diving in caves without appropriate training in this forum.
In the 5th edition (1979) of his important work Basic Cave Diving: A Blueprint for Survival, pioneering cave diver Sheck Exley wrote "In 1974 no fewer than than 26 perished in underwater caves in Florida" (p. 4). That is a staggering number. In response to the high number of deaths in caves back then, Exley studied the causes of cave diving fatalities and devised the basis for modern cave training. Today, the overwhelming majority of divers who enter caves have been properly trained, and as a result, it takes many years for all the cave diving deaths in the world to combine to the total of the 26 who died in Florida alone in 1974. Even though it has become very unusual for untrained divers to enter caves, approximately half of all cave diving fatalities come from those few untrained divers. With the remainder, almost all fatalities occurred with divers who for some reason intentionally violated at least one key principle of their training. When divers follow their training, cave diving is a safe sport; when divers ignore training or have not had the training in the first place, it is extremely dangerous.
In cave training, divers learn the many things that can go wrong in a cave. They learn how to prevent them, and they learn how to overcome them should they occur anyway. It is not possible to make all of that evident to someone who has not had the training, so an open water diver who is convinced that he or she can dive in caves safely will not be easily persuaded otherwise. Because things do not always go wrong in a cave, and because some caves are safer than others, such a diver may successfully dive in caves without training a number of times, creating a false sense of confidence. That diver is, however, taking terrible risks.
If that diver chooses to take those foolish risks, there is nothing ScubaBoard can do about it. On the other hand, ScubaBoard can prevent that diver from persuading other ScubaBoard readers to follow that same path. It is for that reason that we do not allow anyone to advocate diving in caves without appropriate training in this forum.