Cave Dive Video

[MarcLaukien]

I'm not sure what you are getting at. Are you trying to quiz me about my cave diving skills? If so, thank you for your concern, but I am really not interested in this discussion.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Not trying to quiz you, just wondering what he would do. It's a legitimate question. I'm wondering how he would be able to feel the line with those gloves on. It's also not unrealistic since there have been silt outs in JB that have spread over several hundred feet of passage. With almost no flow, that would be even more of a concern because the silt isn't going to clear out very quickly. The only reason I ask it here is because non cave divers who view the video might get the wrong impression that wearing gloves while cave diving is okay.

 

[JimC]

Not trying to quiz you, just wondering what he would do. It's a legitimate question. I'm wondering how he would be able to feel the line with those gloves on. It's also not unrealistic since there have been silt outs in JB that have spread over several hundred feet of passage. With almost no flow, that would be even more of a concern because the silt isn't going to clear out very quickly. The only reason I ask it here is because non cave divers who view the video might get the wrong impression that wearing gloves while cave diving is okay.

And why is wearing gloves a bad thing? I can still feel lines in dry gloves with double thick fleece gloves (~400g total) and polypropylene liners under them in very cold cave water. It is routine to fined your self in zero vis, heck our starting vis is a glorious 5 feet! Not everywhere is Florida. Gloves are not going to kill you, contrary to the opinion of many cave divers. They just take some practice to get used to.

 

[eandiver]

Gloves are fine as long as you feel comfortable in being able to identify small objects by touch such as small clips, line and arrows. Personally my 5 mil's have the top 1/3 cut off the fingers because my touch isn't that fine.

I don't think Dive-aholic was trying to question you as much as ask a question.

 

[Dive-aholic]

True, not everywhere is N. Florida. And I haven't done any cave diving outside of N. Florida yet, but I would guess that in your caves you have different procedures and different type of line. JB has jumps throughout the system. I can think of over 1/2 a dozen in the first 1000' along. Jump line feels different than gold line. Would you be able to tell the difference with your gloves and liners? (No facetiousness meant here. I'm truly interested in knowing the answer). I don't think I could, but I also don't dive with gloves very often.

 

[MarcLaukien]

My dive buddy started cave diving in Europe, where the water temperature is so cold that it's not only ok to wear gloves, but you must wear gloves if you want to retain any kind of feeling in your fingers. Of course he is fully capable of doing the lost line drill with his gloves on. As for the question "how he would be able to feel the line with those gloves on" the only answer I can give you is simply that he does feel the line. There is no special "how" part to it.

 

[Dive-aholic]

What I'm asking is how can he differentiate between the gold line and a jump line with those gloves? I haven't been in the European systems, and wouldn't attempt it without a guide first, so I don't know if procedures there are different or not. But based on the colder water and requirement to wear gloves, I would guess they are somewhat different.

 

[JimC]

What he said.

We do mostly T's since its basically all exploration dive. Gold line is irrelevant (not that we have any) if your exit is marked correctly. All gold line does is give you a warm fuzzy that you are on the correct line, it doesn't give any more navigational information than any other line.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Thanks, Jim. So you're basically using wreck reel procedures in a cave. That makes sense. My point is that in N. Florida, and I'm pretty sure in Mexico too, feel is important. At least that's what was drilled into us during our training. In a silt out situation, the only way to know you're on the gold line is by feeling it. And it definitely feels different than a jump line does to bare fingers.

 

[O.M.O.H.]

Its absolutely amazing how this innocent post about a very nice video, actually the best i've seen in a very long time, turned into something completely off the wall. Regardless of the fact if the guys used porpoer in-proper procedure. Lets stay on the subject for a change...

ScubaNerd - my compliment on the video, i am hoping for more.

Cheers.