My First Cave

[Rupert Vidion]

Hi everybody,

Does anyone remember their first proper cave? Went into my first cave yesterday and I can honestly say that it was one of, if not the most, remarkable moments in my, admitadly short, diving career. The whole experience was so strange that I feel I should share it and I hope that some others will share their first and/or most memomorable cave experiences as well.

Entred my first "proper" cave yesterday. Not a cavern, not a sea arch, not a swim through, not an oversized crack in a reef, a proper, card carrying, bona fide, 24-carat cave.

Diving off a RIB with a small group we came across a little cove with a cave at the back of it. While it is possible that the cave had been dived before the experienced divers on the boat agreed this was extremely unlikely given its distance from port. The first group, two very experienced divers and a novice, entred the water with the intention of diving the cavern portion of the (as it turned out) system, turning well within the daylight zone and then following the wall north from the cave entrance.

Right on schedule, 45 minutes later a dSMB popped up in the mouth of the cave, rather than 200m along the wall where we expected it. After heaving the first team back aboard they told us of a vast cavern with a constant access to the surface splitting into at least four different paths well within the daylight zone, three of which exited into daylight.

My buddy and I pulled on our gear and splashed over the side, swam to the mouth of the cave dropped down to a runnelled rock floor, swept clean by a gentle surge from the sea. We followed the left wall of the cavern round as it dropped to 8m and then back up to 5m at another entrance. We crossed to the opposite wall and re-entred the system. This dropped us to 14m and took us out of the daylight zone down a totally submerged 5x5m passage. As we approached the completely dark, torch beam swallowing void I got the eariest feeling I've ever experienced. Not fear or claustrophobia, not foreboding, no stress, just that we shouldn't go any further. Without discussion we turned at 5m in and followed the wall back to the daylight zone.

As we swum back into the light I had the odd thought that no-one else had seen the inside of this cave before and maybe no-one else ever would.

We crossed to another passageway with light at the end of it and finished the dive with a gentle swim out into open ocean.

Now all I need is to go back with a set of doubles, a cave reel, a primary light, a DPV, Decompression Procedures, Cave 1, Cave 2, DPV training and 200 more hours of diving.

Rupert

Edit: My buddy was a very (2000+ dives) experienced technical diver with hundreds of pentration dives into both caves (on the same coast and elsewhere) and deep wrecks. We were both carrying reserve torches, spools and ample gas. The cave had a hard, clear, rock floor and we had no intention of entering the system proper, we turned (as planned) while there was still visible light from the cavern system.

 

[Atomic_Diver]

no dpv's unless trained for dpv use in caves

 

[TSandM]

That's a lovely story, and I'm assuming from the description that the majority of this was like the Cathedrals in Lanai -- visible light and exits everywhere, and a sand or gravel bottom with little or no possibility of siltout. You were wise not to proceed into the dark without training, though. But it sounds as though the cave bug was in there and got you good

My very first cave was in the Virgin Islands. The guide had briefed us that there was one, and it was about 15 feet long, ended in a blank wall, and had room to turn around. There was no way I was not going in there, although I had to do it alone. I swam to the end of the passage and found the wall, just as described, and the feeling was an overwhelming disappointment and a powerful wish that I could keep going.

The next time I was to have that experience was diving Dos Ojos as a cavern tour, when we used our entire 200 feet from light, and swam a tubular passage that seemed like honest-to-goodness cave to me. I had goosebumps; I was thrilled. Caves still do that to me. I just love being in them.

 

[sea2summit]

no dpv's unless trained for dpv use in caves

"Pot this is kettle come in, over" Ohh, never mind you only dive on the internet.


Nice report sounds awesome. I've never done an ocean cave but they sure sound neat. Fist real cave was Jackson Blue, only went in maybe 300' total that dive, just enough to get totally out of the cavern zone, but your right it's almost too much to soak in.

 

[K Mejean]

My first cave was Ginnie. As part of my cavern cert the instructor showed me what the next level would be. We went back to the lips. I was ready to take intro and basic that day. It was an amazing feeling. I can't wait to get back in another one.

 

[ucfdiver]

no dpv's unless trained for dpv use in caves

For an OW diver (without even a cavern cert) you sure do like to troll the cave diving area of this board.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Rupert, great report! Sounds like an excellent find. Please do get the proper training before you enter an overhead again. You may have thought following the wall was safe, but that's not necessarily the case. It is easy to get disoriented in these environments and had your depth changed even by a meter, you could have been led into another passage that only took you deeper into the cave without even knowing it. This is why we use cave line rather than just following the walls. You state you want the training before venturing back in there. I just want to emphasize that it is truly necessary. The more advanced divers with you should be made aware of this as well.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Rupert, great report! Sounds like an excellent find. Please do get the proper training before you enter an overhead again. You may have thought following the wall was safe, but that's not necessarily the case. It is easy to get disoriented in these environments and had your depth changed even by a meter, you could have been led into another passage that only took you deeper into the cave without even knowing it. This is why we use cave line rather than just following the walls. You state you want the training before venturing back in there. I just want to emphasize that it is truly necessary. The more advanced divers with you should be made aware of this as well.

Ditto, what Rob said. The life you save may be your own.

 

[Cave Diver]

I remember my first cave. It was in Mexico, but it was also a sea cave, not a cenote. I'd signed up for a trip through my LDS and and I was a pretty newly minted AOW diver (meaning I'd done the dives, but I didn't have the experience). I'd met a few of the others prior to the trip and knew they were mostly a bunch of inexperienced divers as well.

There were a couple of guys in the group that had been diving a while and wanted to do some dives shore diving on their own, in addition to the group dives we'd booked. Thus far on the trip, I'd proved to be pretty stable in the water, even helping out a couple of the other divers that were having some issues, so the guys invited me to do the excursion dives with them.

Looking back at some of it with the hindsight of proper training, I realize that I (we?) were lucky. Even with lights, we really didn't venture much outside the daylight zone. But with all the bravado of a new diver, the testosterone of a bunch of experienced divers and a whole lot of not knowing what I didn't know, the potential for those dives to go sideways was a lot greater than I realized at the time.

Suffice to say, this turned into the epitome of a "trust me trip." If you believe everything you read on the board, I should have died on at least 3 of the dives that I did that week. In hindsight I'm really not even sure how "experienced" the other guys really were. Maybe it just seemed like they were from my perspective at the time, because it's hard for me to imagine now that truly experienced divers would have brought a newbie along on some of the dives we did.

Get the training and the experience then go back and truly enjoy the cave, safely.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My very first cave was in the Virgin Islands. The guide had briefed us that there was one, and it was about 15 feet long, ended in a blank wall, and had room to turn around. There was no way I was not going in there, although I had to do it alone. I swam to the end of the passage and found the wall, just as described, and the feeling was an overwhelming disappointment and a powerful wish that I could keep going.

Would that have been at Norman Island?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)