"You're gonna Die"

[Rick Murchison]

Sorry if this is a really dumb question but I'm not trained in cave diving. Can you "BRIEFLY" describe what doing a 'T' and dropping a cookie are?

A "T" is an intersection of guidelines. You must mark every "T" so that when you come back to it there is no way to make a wrong turn at the intersection and end up out of air before you're out of cave. "Dropping a cookie" means attaching a circular marker to a line at a "T" to mark it.
Rick

 

[carldarl]

Thanks Rick. I assumed that was what the T was but had no clue what dropping cookies was. For me, dropping a cookie is ussually what I do just before I quickly bend over.

 

[Temple of Doom]

For me, dropping a cookie is ussually what I do just before I quickly bend over.

Whoah, I'm not sure what that means, but this is a family board!

Craig

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Here's what I got out of it... Every cave diver should have great training... but it's what's inside us that will determine if we become good cave divers. It's up to us to choose to dive by the rules that we have been taught and to plan and execute a safe dive. But MOST importantly, we must know our strengths and weaknesses and then make every effort to actively address them.

Discovering our strengths and weaknesses can be difficult. Some are obvious but others may be latent or difficult to recognize or even admit. A good instructor will expose some of these things but I believe it is also our responsibility to do some real soul searching. For instance, I realize that I am prone to "line-blindness" so I make a conscious effort to be more aware of my surroundings... not just in a cave but in everyday life. Also, I know that my teammate is, by nature, too aggressive and we have spent many hours talking about what we have to do to keep that in check.

I believe THAT'S where their lead diver failed... he was thinking too far ahead... moving too fast... not concentrating on tasks one at a time... too aggressive... or perhaps he wanted to look smooth and slick in front of the noobs or his buddies... or maybe he was nervous or anxious about the dive. Something led to his error. I have no doubt that he was thoroughly trained on the proper manner of negotiating a T... but he has a weakness that he has yet to recognize and to actively address.

When I read cave accident analysis I assume that these unfortunate divers had the best training. I don't want to fool myself into thinking that I'm invincible... or that I couldn't make that mistake because I had great training. I think... I COULD make that mistake... and here's what I have to do to make sure that I don't.

 

[TSandM]

Discovering our strengths and weaknesses can be difficult. Some are obvious but others may be latent or difficult to recognize or even admit. A good instructor will expose some of these things but I believe it is also our responsibility to do some real soul searching. For instance, I realize that I am prone to "line-blindness" so I make a conscious effort to be more aware of my surroundings... not just in a cave but in everyday life. Also, I know that my teammate is, by nature, too aggressive and we have spent many hours talking about what we have to do to keep that in check.

A wonderful paragraph, and one that's applicable to all diving, not just caves or technical.