First Dive Trip Without Instructor - Need to Rent Gear & Help Planning

[GlennL]

In another thread I saw you stated you are in Atlanta. I’m in the Atlanta area as well. I have started going solo at the quarry in White but would dive with you if you wanted.

 

[MichaelMc]

I would highly recommend following the limits of your training, especially this early in your diving career or it may well end before you get to see what is beyond

^^^^ This

It seems like I recall lots of responsible talk, that then did not occur once in the water. That is very hard to understand after all the discussion of being rather soon to be cavern qualified and your own request about undertaking your first dive and all. Please get proper training and mentoring. And follow it! People do not want to be recovering your body due to recklessness.

Edit: deleted question about having buddy.

 

[CavernFrog]

I am truly sorry for breaking my word and the cavern rules about penetration depth, light zone, etc...

I take full responsibility for my error and I apologize. I want to be able to do similar dives in the future, therefore, I will proceed to intro to cave training and sidemount doubles training so that I can do so more safely.

 

[Neilwood]

I am truly sorry for breaking my word and the cavern rules about penetration depth, light zone, etc...

I take full responsibility for my error and I apologize. I want to be able to do similar dives in the future, therefore, I will proceed to intro to cave training and sidemount doubles training so that I can do so more safely.

I am not a cave diver but I have huge respect for those that do.

Please understand that the limits for cavern and cave have been put in place for a very good reason (apologies for the bold and colour but it is worth the emphasis IMHO) - people ( a lot of them vastly more experienced than you) have died because they ignored safety guidance and didn't bother either getting training or didn't follow it. Even very well trained cave divers die while following their training.

Even with training, caves are some of the most dangerous dives you can do. One screw up from you or your buddy could lead to problems you are not equipped for or trained on how to get out off.

 

[Marie13]

I am truly sorry for breaking my word and the cavern rules about penetration depth, light zone, etc...

I take full responsibility for my error and I apologize. I want to be able to do similar dives in the future, therefore, I will proceed to intro to cave training and sidemount doubles training so that I can do so more safely.

Why did you do it? Did you get carried away or was it a deliberate decision to just let caution fly to the wind? And how many dives do you have?

 

[tbone1004]

And how many dives do you have?

make that "non-training" dives, since you don't get to count training dives for "dive experience"

 

[CavernFrog]

I could go into the various excuses but the summary is that the situation in there didn’t seem all that dangerous. At no time did I feel we were going beyond reason or safety. The presence of the gold line especially made me feel safe. I was not aware we were so far beyond the cavern, etc...

 

[CavernFrog]

We didn’t know what we did was a cave dive till after we got back and reported where we had been.

 

[CavernFrog]

We were told to to look for a knot in the gold line which indicated the end of the cavern zone and neither of us ever saw it until I watched us go past it in the video.

 

[CavernFrog]

And the chimney we were told not to go down didn’t seem tight enough to me to be called a chimney. We found out that was the chimney when we described it afterwards.