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

[tbone1004]

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

if that is the case, you should have some words with your cavern instructor for not clearly outlining the limits of your training and how to determine them. This is more a learning opportunity for any other cavern divers out there vs. bashing on you which if you've talked to Edd and told him, you've probably heard enough.

So regardless of what is defined as the "cavern" zone, your certification has a 130ft total distance from the surface limitation because it is a recreational certification, you have no redundancy, not enough lights, etc etc. A great option to ensure that you don't violate that limit is to use a Dive Rite Classic reel with #36 line on it. It holds ~250ft of line which gives you enough for primary/secondary tie off and some zig zagging, and since you are usually tying off at some sort of depth, it will push that limit, but not excessively.

Out of curiosity, how does a 60ft tall vertical shaft not seem like a chimney? or were you thinking a small tube?

 

[CavernFrog]

My reel is a 200ft. We had about 1/3 left when we got to the gold line.

Now I know what a “chimney” is!! Live (or don’t) and learn.

 

[CavernFrog]

Edd gave me a talking to both in person and email. I’m honored that he is offering intro cave training to me and my buddy in August.

However it goes, I will get the right training from the right instructor to be able to cave dive safely as I already love it and don’t want to disrespect myself or the community.

 

[tbone1004]

My reel is a 200ft. We had about 1/3 left when we got to the gold line.

Now I know what a “chimney” is!! Live (or don’t) and learn.

so at 200ft, a third left means you tied in at roughly 100ft of penetration *line lost for ties and snaking over to the right*, and had 30ft of depth penetration which is about the limit of your certification. Obviously I'm not a stickler for exactly 130ft as there are very few ways to get it exact, but "close enough". So as you tied in, did you think that you were violating the limits of your training or not realize it? When you tied in, did you look back and see if you could see the light which is the primary restriction of your certification?

again, not ragging on you, but it's a good teaching moment for anyone else that comes and reads this. Don't have to answer if you don't want to, just a good teaching moment

 

[CavernFrog]

I got carried away with how awesome it was and lost situational awareness.

 

[Storker]

I got carried away with how awesome it was and lost situational awareness.

That could well have been someone's last words...

In my opinion, one of the best reasons for progressing slowly is just that statement of yours. With only a handful of logged dives, everything is amazing, and every thing you (general 'you') do requires almost all of your mental bandwidth. That means that you (again general 'you') have little to no mental bandwidth left for situational awareness. As you keep on logging dives, the stuff that required most of your mental capacity to process, becomes more and more automatic and is handled by the back of your brain. So, your capacity for processing new info increases.

One example from open water is UW photography. There are many who would say that you shouldn't bring a camera until you've logged a certain number of dives, because operating the camera steals a lot of mental bandwidth.

And like @tbone1004, I'm not saying this to bash you, but to provide some perspective and perhaps some learning.

 

[Colliam7]

I got carried away with how awesome it was and lost situational awareness.

Not to minimize the potential consequences which you might have faced: You made a mistake. You, in your own words, got carried away, got mesmerized by the environment, . . . You lost situational awareness. FWIW, you are not the first diver to get into that situation, you will not be the last. You came out OK (some would say by luck as much as skill), learned a critical lesson (that you are specifically subject to loss of situational awareness), and have already arranged to pursue additional training.

Thank you for posting about your experience in an honest, open manner. Ideally, others will learn from your experience as well.

 

[Neilwood]

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.

I should probably apologise for the tone of my earlier post as it seems like I am raging at you - I am simply trying to get across to you and anyone else who reads this that training is especially important with cave diving.

There is a resource available within the cave diving sub forum called the "Blueprint for Survival" which I would hope you read. It gives a basic grounding on some of the techniques and why they were put in place (ie the circumstances behind the death or injury that caused them to be thought about).

 

[tbone1004]

I should probably apologise for the tone of my earlier post as it seems like I am raging at you - I am simply trying to get across to you and anyone else who reads this that training is especially important with cave diving.

There is a resource available within the cave diving sub forum called the "Blueprint for Survival" which I would hope you read. It gives a basic grounding on some of the techniques and why they were put in place (ie the circumstances behind the death or injury that caused them to be thought about).

linky link
https://nsscds.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Blueprint-for-Survival.pdf

 

[GlennL]

In the TDI cavern standards it states using a rule of 1/3 for a single tank but 1/6 for doubles. I dive back doubles pretty much exclusively. Can you explain the extra conservatism for doubles over a single tank?