why not a poodle jacket

[PfcAJ]

I agree with this to a point. I will never obtain the skill level in a cave living in central Washington that someone that lives in Playa del Carmen or North Florida would be able to obtain. So because I have to travel a long distance and I am unable to dive in a cave every weekend, I should just stop here and not continue to improve my skills so that when I get a chance to make a cave trip, I am at the best I can be given the lack of actual caves to dive in. I look at this like I do a number of other hobbies I have. One is snow skiing. I live 20 minutes from a resort and can ski everday that its open when I am not in Alaska. In the fall when the resort opens, everyone is equal. We are all starting over because there was no available snow to ski on. So the people that I know that bike or jog or whatever to keep themselves in shape are that much better off than the ones that did not. I see some fantastic skiers that haven't been on the snow for 8 months each and every year at the start of the season. Why shouldn't this be true for cave diving. Once you learn the skills, do you really think you lose them that quickly?

Not at all, I feel that you can maintain your skills enough to cave dive and enjoy it. But you must also recognize where the limit is. There was a double fatality a year or so ago where two folks thought their skills were at a certain level, and they weren't. Yes, they were local, but an overinflated opinion of themselves caused them to pay a high price. My point is to be aware of where your skill actually is and dive accordingly. Unfortunately, 'feeling' is a horrible indicator of safety and competence, and thats where having a local mentor is extremely important: an outside observer that can relate reality to your perception. As far as comparing cave diving to other sports, the issue comes in the limited time you have. Problems compound, time ticks away.

You mentioned that its tough to read a cave in OW. That is very true. I run a lot of the rivers in Oregon and Washington with a 20' jet boat. Learning to read a river takes time. I spent a lot of time in a drift boat or raft before I got my jet boat. You have a lot more room for error with a raft. The boat handling skills that I first learned were done on a lake or in the frog water on a river, way before I took it into white water. If I take the boat and want to run an unfamilier section of river, I will start and run one section at a time. Run up a section, then spin and run back down. I will do it over and over until I am confident that I can hit it right each time I run it from up river. I plan to do caves the same way. If I get to a section where I am uncomfortable, I will turn and try again the next time around. The whole time I will be learning so that level of confidence will increase with each dive, even if I have to wait 6 months to do it again.

I am kind of hoping that someone else will step in here from the PNW or anywhere else where its required to travel a long distance to cave dive. I read a lot of input into this section of the forum from people that I know are in the same situation that I am in. It sounds like they are very confident in their cave diving ability, but I don't know if all of them have the means to dive in a cave each weekend......

I'll agree with that. Seems like a conservative approach that will develop a solid understanding of the cave. Just keep in mind that there is more too it, esp when things get a little sporty and I think you'll have a good time with cave diving.

 

[sea2summit]

Let me throw something out there for those talking about following the line and being a tourist. I'm pretty sure anyone with halfway descent boyancy and a light can follow a line. If you're practicing skills I'd practice lost line drills and maybe some OOA drills I think those might be higher payoff for you.
Enjoy you're trips. I've got to move from cave country soon so I'll be in the same boat

 

[Fish-R-Man]

Not at all, I feel that you can maintain your skills enough to cave dive and enjoy it. But you must also recognize where the limit is. There was a double fatality a year or so ago where two folks thought their skills were at a certain level, and they weren't. Yes, they were local, but an overinflated opinion of themselves caused them to pay a high price.


This is true for life in general. The way I look at it, everything a person does is a caculated risk. Whether you are driving in crappy conditions, doing any number of active sports, or just crossing a busy street. For me just flying into Dutch and leaving town to fish is a calculated risk. I know what limits make those risks unexceptable for myself. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser, those limits have been reduced over the years. In the business that I am in, I run "what if" scenarios all the time. An example would be "what if the main engine cooling pump fails, what is first thing I need to do to make sure that the engine doesn't overheat and shut down. If it shuts down then whats next and so on and so on until the situation is back to normal. I do the same thought process diving. That way if a problem starts, you have already run that same scenario through a thought process and possible even drilled for it. So if it happens, you have a fairly automatic responce, thus reducing the amount of time it takes correct the problem and remedy the situation.

Given the limited amount of actually cave time that I will be able to get. I am sure that I will just be a cave tourist. More than likely I will be diving with one or two guys I know that guide in Playa del Carmen. I am sure that they will know what a reasonable risk level or limit will be for each dive. I also want to make sure that I don't increase that risk level by lack of practise