Freediver missing in Eagle's Nest

[aquacat8]

I truly admire you cave divers! It’s very intriguing, and one of my buddies has her heart set on it. But I’m really scared of it...I could get lost in a parking lot! I think one reason I love my swimming and shallow Freediving is that I can get lots of chances to see where the frick I am LOL.

 

[Nick Steele]

Those are some crazy pictures! Out of curiosity does this cave every get clear water? Or is it mostly stained?

 

[The_Aviator_1]

The pictures are horrible, lol. I just toss a gopro on and let it record the whole dive so I can review it later or enjoy whatever it captures. I'm not nearly experienced enough to worry about photography, I just focus 100% on the dive and not damaging the cave, and if I happen to capture something I like cool, if not all well. I have many hours of bad dive footage, haha. These were just perfect to pause and screen shot so people could grasp the darkness and danger down there.

 

[The_Aviator_1]

Nick, that's a good question that I don't know the answer too. My buddy that day is a very experienced cave instructor and she stated that it does get better, but I personally haven't seen it much better.

 

[aquacat8]

In the modern world, since the invention of electricity, I think very few people actually experience darkness like that, profound, primordial, unrelenting darkness.

 

[Dan]

Previous accidents (that I was able to retrieve from SB) in this site, prior to this last one:

2018: Eagles Nest Again

2017: Another Eagles Nest fatality

2016: Diving incident at Eagles Nest Sink

2013: Deaths at Eagles Nest - Homosassa FL

2009: Eagles Nest Cave Diver Death

2005: Eagle's nest accident report

2004: 2 Dead in cave diving incident.

 

[KevinNM]

I too fear that accidents like this could affect access to important sites.

Let's be honest. Eagles Nest is a horribly dangerous place for the recreational diver of any type. Freediver, scuba, whatever. Nobody should be diving there unless they are an experienced and properly equipped full cave and trimix diver. I vaguely remember that that legal restrictions were proposed to keep the foolish or ignorant out, not sure what the status on that is.

I have read accounts where the visibility in EN is in feet and others where it was multiple tens of feet. I've seen a video by pfcAJ where it was tremendous. There are a couple of people on this board who dive there all the time and more who have dove there enough to have a sense of what is common.

 

[aquacat8]

I can understand not allowing untrained people in the caves, but I’m not a big fan of restrictions on bodies of water. I prefer information and warnings to closings and restrictions. It’s a slippery slope, first they might close it to certain classes of people, later to everyone.

In the case of eagle’s nest for instance, as a swimmer I would love to swim around the basin and admire both the scenery and the cave divers, and perhaps provide some support to people who are really cave divers. As a shallow free diver I might enjoy diving in the basin but never going into the chimney. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that the tube penetration would be incredibly dangerous, and if you don’t realize that a warning sign should be sufficient. If we make a law every time fools do something dangerous we are letting fools determine everyone’s rules.

 

[aquacat8]

Think of all the teenagers that die in car accidents… Yet no one talks about closing the roads!

 

[reefrat]

The controversy over the dangers of free diving and the explosion of interest in free diving reminds me a little of the similar situation with rebreathers a few years back. There are (of course) still sad incidents involving rebreathers but overall the general recreational scuba community seems to have taken a look at it and gone back to their OC- which is a good thing IMO.
If Freediving is a current diving fad with lots of adventurous souls who are young and “bulletproof” pushing the envelope then unfortunately we are going to see a lot more of these deaths until common sense prevails and it becomes (once again) the sport of a dedicated group who understand and respect established boundaries.