Why do divers Cave dive ?

[w ripley]

I was a technical diver before I became a cave diver. Took the cave training just to learn how to run a reel - the right way - in a wreck. The problem is that once I got in the caves I was hooked. Actually I find that everyone who takes the training gets hooked, too.

I am claustrophobic on land, but not at all that way in caves or wrecks. I hear others say the same, so try cave diving before you pass up on it for that reason.

I love the Mexican caves, but I love the Florida caves, too. They are just different in how they were formed and what they look like.

I don't know many dive sites that I could spend between 5 & 7 hours at on single, solo dives, but the caves are the exception. They are exciting in that they change at every turn, and mentally tax you with the challenges they provide. They are warm during the dives, although the extended decos do require thermal thought, and often support from things like heated vests. Rebreathers are ideal for extended bottom times, so they make caves the perfect venue. My OC dives were surpassing 4 hours so going to a RB was a no brainer.

Entrapment in a wreck is a key issue and you have to be prepared to remove your gear if caught. The older wrecks are more hazardous IMO, as they have become deteriorated and have many sharp and dangling elements that can snag anything exposed on your gear. Caves are "cleaner" than wrecks for that reason, IMO. When I get "caught" in a small tunnel, I can usually wiggle my way out without removing my gear.

If you enjoy swimming in large tunnels or poking into very small ones, cave diving offers both and everything in between. The caves also provide the opportunity to apply everything you have learned about being safe, as well as how to get out of difficult situations when a piece of gear fails, for example. Or better yet, cave training helps you keep your thoughts about you in a total silt out, like you can get in either a wreck or a cave, because you have trained to know how to do just that.

I would personally encourage every avid diver to consider taking the cavern course, just to get exposure to the beauty of the caves as well as to pick up additional skills that you can apply to whatever type of diving you do.

But be careful, if you take the cavern course the odds are you will get hooked on cave diving, too.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm not a cave diver, but I can add to something a few others here have touched upon. A cave diver answered the question by emphasizing how much he enjoyed the technical challenges--selecting gear, redundant systems, tanks and valves and gases and computers and planning and such. He seemed to get as much satisfaction out of the specialized gear and the planning as anything else.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm not a cave diver, but I can add to something a few others here have touched upon. A cave diver answered the question by emphasizing how much he enjoyed the technical challenges--selecting gear, redundant systems, tanks and valves and gases and computers and planning and such. He seemed to get as much satisfaction out of the specialized gear and the planning as anything else.

Cave Diver said something similar in post #8:

And yes, it is the adventure. I like the challenge, the concentration necessary. The planning, the checking, the knowing that it's up to me to make sure the dive goes flawlessly. Knowing that failure or sloppiness is not an option. It makes the senses keenly aware, it heightens the experience. It's the tension, the anticipation and the relief when you come back into the cavern zone and you know that you had a good plan, a good dive and everything is okay.

I fully agree.

During my training, one of my screw ups came when we were heading for the exit and I let my mind veg out for a few minutes while I thought about something else. It's the sort of bad habit I had gotten into in the last minutes of so many reef dives. At that point my instructor, who was in the lead, took a wrong turn into a side tunnel, and I just plain followed along like a sheep. We later had a discussion about how my inattention had "killed the team." It was a good lesson. There is never a time in a cave you can let your mind wander. Knowing that is in itself exhilarating.

 

[ianr33]

I'm curious why someone would want to cave dive,what draws them to a cave dive. I imagine an underwater cave would be somewhat like one above ground but without Bats.

That's not strictly true

 

[JamesK]

That's not strictly true

LOL! Nice.

 

[j2s]

It's all the things mentioned and more: Curiosity, 'what's around-the-next-corner', 'behind-that-closed-door', geologic history, fossil history, solitude, self-reliance, discipline, knowledge....Primal and visceral on one hand, highly cerebral on the other...... I can't wait to get in and really dislike having to leave.....It puts you in a 'place' unlike anything else.......

 

[Kevrumbo]

I'm curious why someone would want to cave dive,what draws them to a cave dive. I imagine an underwater cave would be somewhat like one above ground but without Bats. From pictures I've seen they didn't show any growth or fish ,just dark walls and danger and from T S&M's Thread a bunch of reasons one shouldn't go into a cave. I personaly have no present desire to go into a cave, what am I missing ?

I'd rather experience colorful coral & marine life and historically significant shipwrecks in sunny 28deg C waters of the many tropical nations on this Globe --not just going thru a maze of rocks, pushing out and off the mainline, looking at the same limestone formations & stalactites/stalagmites, farther & further back in a dark and relatively cold & lifeless eco system, year-after-year-after-year. . . (GUE stands for Global Underwater Explorers --"global" for some of this agency's overhead divers here in Scubaboard means life & the world only revolves around the Caves of Yucatan Mexico, or Florida). . .

Much of the beauty, inspiration, wonder & diversity of Marine Life are on the coral reefs of this planet between the surface and 18 meters --as novice open water divers, go see them first and as many times as you can before they disappear & die-off. (Only after then, try Cave Diving. . .).

 

[TSandM]

I love reef diving. I just spent a week in the Sea of Cortez, marvelling at the biodiversity and the sheer density of life there. I have gone to God's Pocket, on the north end of Vancouver Island, where sheer walls are so densely covered in brilliantly colored life that things are growing on top of other things. I have dived the Bunaken walls, and the Lembeh straits. I have been to the South Pacific, and drifted over the Rangiroa reefs, where you feel as though you need to take your hands to part the fish, in order to swim. I have sailed the huge reefs of Cozumel, and been buzzed by a whale off Lanai. I have spent hours admiring the beautiful soft corals of the Red Sea. I have watched the shafts of sunlight pouring down through the kelp forests of Southern California.

And, as my old teacher Joe Talavera told me, if I had to pick one kind of diving that was all I would be allowed to do for the rest of my diving career, it would be the caves in Mexico. It may not be for anyone, but it is definitely for me.

 

[Peter Guy]

Why do I cave dive? (That is assuming I am a "cave diver" by your definition as opposed to a "line following cave tourist" which is what I really am!)

I wanted to be an astronaut and this is the closest I'll ever be. In a cave I can float through a Cathedral and fly through rooms. I just can't do that anywhere else.

It is the frosting on the cake that the caves are decorated, beautiful and mystical.

Being a line following cave tourist is good enough.

 

[TracyN]

I was hooked the first time I dove in a cavern. I was amazed by the beauty of the cavern and I wanted to see the beauty beyond the Grim Reaper sign. Those dark holes were calling my name. For me there is nothing more peaceful than gliding through the silent beauty of a cave. I love the fact that I am getting to see a part of the Earth that few people will ever see. When you see the size of some of these underwater passages it's a very humbling experience. Not many people give much thought to the beauty that lies beneath their feet.