Yes, I AM a jackass.
And it's too bad I ruined your fun by chasing you down and making you turn around, then lecturing you on surface. Based on your responses to me, I'm not sure you really appreciated my intervention, but I don't really care. I got the impression you'd make the dive again, given the chance.
Yeah, I know you told me I don't have to worry about you ever doing that dive again and that it kinda freaked you out. But I didn't detect any real fear in you and I got the impression you were saying what I wanted to hear just to shut me up. I sincerely hope I was mistaken about this.
If you want to explore caves, get the proper training and equipment. While you may have thought you had things under control, let me share what *I* saw when I caught up with you in the cave.
Your trim and buoyancy was poor. You were swimming at a 45* angle and your fins were stirring up the bottom with every kick. Luckily JB isn't a place that silts easily or that could have been a real problem. You were also finning with your hands to stay in place.
At least one of you had an octo dragging behind you. I saw it snag several times on rocks and a couple of the lines. Do you realize that if something happened to your reg in that environment you wouldn't know where to find your octo? Or that it was likely full of sand and rocks and crud? Or that you were increasing the chances that something might cause it to freeflow and you'd lose all your gas in that single AL80 you were wearing? Or that it getting caught on someone else's safety line could cause the line to break, putting them in a potentially bad spot while you swam away oblivious?
Neither of the two of you in the cave had any sort of redundant air supply, not even a pony. And you'd already swam across the pond from the boat dock before entering the cave and appeared to be discussing following someone's jump line when I caught up with you. Do you have any clue how much gas it would have taken you to exit if I didn't turn you around at that point?
Do you know what you'd have done if you'd gone further and one of your lights failed?
Your buddy that stopped at the entrance and refused to go in was the only one that exhibited any common sense. I'm not sure if he was just freaked out by the idea, or too cold since he was wearing only board shorts and no exposure suit, but I'm glad he listened to that little voice regardless.
So if you want to explore caves, GO GET SOME TRAINING!!!
If you continue diving caves with rudimentary skills, improper equipment and no training, one of these days your luck is gonna run out and you're gonna be just another notch on the grim reaper's scythe.
And it's too bad I ruined your fun by chasing you down and making you turn around, then lecturing you on surface. Based on your responses to me, I'm not sure you really appreciated my intervention, but I don't really care. I got the impression you'd make the dive again, given the chance.
Yeah, I know you told me I don't have to worry about you ever doing that dive again and that it kinda freaked you out. But I didn't detect any real fear in you and I got the impression you were saying what I wanted to hear just to shut me up. I sincerely hope I was mistaken about this.
If you want to explore caves, get the proper training and equipment. While you may have thought you had things under control, let me share what *I* saw when I caught up with you in the cave.
Your trim and buoyancy was poor. You were swimming at a 45* angle and your fins were stirring up the bottom with every kick. Luckily JB isn't a place that silts easily or that could have been a real problem. You were also finning with your hands to stay in place.
At least one of you had an octo dragging behind you. I saw it snag several times on rocks and a couple of the lines. Do you realize that if something happened to your reg in that environment you wouldn't know where to find your octo? Or that it was likely full of sand and rocks and crud? Or that you were increasing the chances that something might cause it to freeflow and you'd lose all your gas in that single AL80 you were wearing? Or that it getting caught on someone else's safety line could cause the line to break, putting them in a potentially bad spot while you swam away oblivious?
Neither of the two of you in the cave had any sort of redundant air supply, not even a pony. And you'd already swam across the pond from the boat dock before entering the cave and appeared to be discussing following someone's jump line when I caught up with you. Do you have any clue how much gas it would have taken you to exit if I didn't turn you around at that point?
Do you know what you'd have done if you'd gone further and one of your lights failed?
Your buddy that stopped at the entrance and refused to go in was the only one that exhibited any common sense. I'm not sure if he was just freaked out by the idea, or too cold since he was wearing only board shorts and no exposure suit, but I'm glad he listened to that little voice regardless.
So if you want to explore caves, GO GET SOME TRAINING!!!
If you continue diving caves with rudimentary skills, improper equipment and no training, one of these days your luck is gonna run out and you're gonna be just another notch on the grim reaper's scythe.
