A letter to the open water diving community from the NACD

[RonFrank]

Caves are dangerous. I read more about certified or experienced cave divers dying than about newbies dying in caves. These are skilled cave divers, but these folks are taking a risk as no one is immune to accidents.

There were 478 cave diver deaths between 1950-1998. People like to point out that most of these divers were not cave trained, however there was no formal training available until the later years. These divers represent some of the most skilled at the time as most died after completing hundreds of cave dives. By in large these were not newly minted divers.

Here are five guidelines that cavers use today

• 5: Use Three Sources of Light
• 4: Remain Within the Safest Possible Operating Limits for Your Breathing Media
• 3. Keep Two Thirds of Your Starting Gas Volume in Reserve to Exit the Cave
• 2. Maintain a Continuous Guideline to the Cave Exit
• 1. Be Trained for Cave Diving, and Remain Within the Limits of Your Training

I personally think cave divers should have their heads examined. As long as there are cave divers there will be accidents. All the accidents below involve trained certified cave divers. These accidents outweigh the occasional non-cave certified death.

4/2012
Authorities say a 29-year-old Gainesville man died of an air embolism during a dive at the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park.

Marson Kay was with a group of divers who went into a cavern with several tight rock formations on Saturday. During their ascent, investigators say Kay became disoriented and got stuck in an opening that was too small to swim through.
**
10/2011
TREVOR TWILLEY: We've had two deaths at Tank Cave and we had another death in March last year in another sink hole, completely different location. As to the safety of the caves, I don't think it's the caves, really, that are in question.
Read more: Cave diver dead after failing to surface
**
3/2012
According to the Holmes County Sheriff's Office, this past Saturday 43-year old Biloxi resident Larry Higginbotham also went diving alone and never re-surfaced.


Higginbotham's body was recovered Sunday evening by a group of volunteer divers.
"He just got himself in a pinch and couldn't find his way back out" said Chuck Corbin, a member of the recovery dive team.
**
9/2011
...reports that Artur Kozlowski, 34, failed to emerge as expected from the flooded cave he was exploring solo on Monday afternoon.

Kozlowski - known to friends as Artur Conrad - had been living in Ireland for several years and was regarded as one of Ireland's most experienced cave divers. He was previously highlighted on Afloat.ie for his lecture on cave diving at NUI Galway late last year.

He was also the holder of a number of diving records in the UK and Ireland, including longest and deepest traverse of a cave at 103m.
**

 

[j2s]

A few divers have posted their 'experiences' w/so-called 'guides' that tried to entice non-cert'd divers into caves/caverns and even belittled them for not going in...SB can't publish their names or the LDS's name, but it would be a good place to start preventing fatalities if there were a way to eliminate those people from the sport and notify the public of who they are.......

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Amazing that this thread was started five years ago...I have since had several folks attend cavern diver classes who reported to me that they took these nefarious tours in mexico and realized they were lucky to be alive after they thought about what they did.


Keep up the pressure on these people, keep educating, keep talking -- spread the word about what is safe and what not is safe. Forewarned is forearmed.

As the safety officer for the NSS-CDS I thank you for keeping on keeping on this....

 

[ianr33]

As long as there are cave divers there will be accidents. All the accidents below involve trained certified cave divers. These accidents outweigh the occasional non-cave certified death.

Agree that as long as there are cave divers there will be accidents. (Of course,as long as there are divers there will be accidents.........) But at least the trained Cave Diver is making an informed choice and knows what he/she is getting into.

Do trained cave diver deaths really outnumber non cave certified deaths? (Just asking,don't know)
Just in the last few weeks there have been 2 non cave divers die in the Yucatan, and a guy at Ginnie.

 

[RonFrank]

Just in the last few weeks there have been 2 non cave divers die in the Yucatan, and a guy at Ginnie.

Three divers died in the Yucatan, two clients (I have no idea of their cert level) and their cave certified guide. This occurred in Spring of 2012. There has been nothing in the news or on SB on a recent death at Ginnie Springs?

The number of people dying in caves involves mostly cave divers. Two recent deaths happened in Tank cave, a cave that is closed to all but the elite in the Australian Cave diving community and sits on Private property. Those new to Tank cave are guided. However the safety guidelines did not prevent two recent deaths, a 40 year old man, and a 29-year-old Melbourne woman Agnes Milowka.

The 40-year-old father and his partner both had over 10 years of cave diving experience and held the highest level of certification issued by the Cave Divers Association of Australia. These types of stories are not uncommon.

I'm a firm believer that cave divers should have the freedom to choose that lifestyle. However lets not cloud the safety issue with the occasional non-caver death which does not represent the majority. Cave diving is dangerous and a disproportionate number of highly skilled cave divers loose their lives, many under the age of forty.

 

[ianr33]

Three divers died in the Yucatan, two clients (I have no idea of their cert level) and their cave certified guide. This occurred in Spring of 2012. There has been nothing in the news or on SB on a recent death at Ginnie Springs?

Recent death at Ginnie:

Cave Diver's Forum - Cave Diving Resource
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/414368