Is cave diving safer than Open Water

[Lorenzoid]

Social media and the internet in general promote the mindset that all cave diving is what I refer to as “squeezy sh*t.” Far from it. I cave dive and I don’t like squeezy sh*t at all.

Good thing I don't read social media or the internet in general. I have no idea what normal people think of what we do.

I was taught during my cavern/intro to cave class that only ONE diver is known to have dived due to a cave-in.

Same!

 

[jordaof]

I love when people overthink the extremely unlikely possibilities while doing things that are way more likely to kill you like driving on a daily basis without concern.

Your absolutely right on that, indeed we are far more susceptible to have a fatal driving accident than something go wrong on a cave dive, I think we are bombarded by so many information/disinformation in social media/news/random chat that all that information compounds in a primal fear of something that we even weren't able to experience, which is unfair.

 

[arew+4]

Why can't we just let this thread die like an untrained "diver" with an Oxygen tank in the eagle's nest. The fact there are 28 pages debating if cave diving is safer than open water diving only encourages unqualified individuals to enter into caves and other overhead environments for which the are not trained.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Why can't we just let this thread die

I see lots of threads on SB that I think should die. Whenever I see them I simply quit reading them. My thinking is to just let everyone else read them but not me.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Why can't we just let this thread die like an untrained "diver" with an Oxygen tank in the eagle's nest. The fact there are 28 pages debating if cave diving is safer than open water diving only encourages unqualified individuals to enter into caves and other overhead environments for which the are not trained.

The "debate" was precipitated by how ambiguously the question was phrased.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Why can't we just let this thread die like an untrained "diver" with an Oxygen tank in the eagle's nest. The fact there are 28 pages debating if cave diving is safer than open water diving only encourages unqualified individuals to enter into caves and other overhead environments for which the are not trained.

cause scubaboard sadly doesn't work that way LOL
every time I see this thread pop up in the new threads section I get extremely confused as to why

 

[PfcAJ]

I could never do cave diving, neither I want to, even with training I would go berserk, cause I'm a claustrophobic guy, I don't like tight spaces where I can't move freely, and in my mind the variables for cave diving accidents are quite high, even for trained people, with all your training what can you do if there's a earthquake? I don't know if you guys know about that case in the States that I've listen in dive talk "from which I'm a fan", from a poor soul that got trapped from a landslide from the roof of the cave that was originated by.. imagine.. bubbles or air that created an air space on the top of the cave, the roof lost consistency and strength because of that, and the guy got completely entombed on that landslide. I respect those that like, and, respect the difficulty and the severity of the situation going to a cave.. without training, you talked about Mount Gambier 1973, yeah that was a sad episode of people not knowing their limits and being narked to hell, "those kids were OWD instructors, at least the brother and sister", no OWD AOWD "only" even instructor should enter, people should know their limitations.

- No line
- No reserve air supply
- Inefficient buoyancy -> provoking the damned silt to be loose

Compound this and,

- Anxiety by lack of experience -> More air consumption -> more anxiety -> panic -> accident

The “landslide caused by bubbles” thing is up for debate.

There is an account of a witness who saw the water flow reverse in a popular swimming sinkhole (probably Inisfree or Upper River, for the interested reader) on that same day. That sinkhole is quite some distance away from where the fatality occurred. This is suggestive of a much more dramatic event than some dirt simply sliding down a slope.

Sometimes, things just go wrong that are outside of your control. That’s life, and sometimes death comes with it. It happens everywhere.