My First Solo Cave Dive

[BgDadddy]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to ScubaBoard and just found this forum. After reading some of the other posts and replies in the forum I would like to talk about my first solo dive and the preparation, gear configuration and contingiency planning that took place before and during the dive.

It was a couple of weekends ago at a popular spring in North Florida. I had a big weekend planned out with a bunch of friends meeting me to camp out and play around from Fri - Sun. I knew once we got everyone there that I wouldn't be able to get any dives in, but I did want to dive so I went up a day early. None of my regular buddies were available to dive the night I got there, but I already knew this so I went ahead and made the decision to do a solo dive before I even left to go there.

For those of you that aren't familiar with cave (or other overhead) diving, let me explain a few of the basics. The key word for this type of diving is redundancy. When you eliminate the possibility for an emergency ascent to the surface you have to hope and expect the best, but plan for the absolute worst. This means you have a back-up for everything! You wear fully redundant double tanks with an isolator valve and two totally independant first and second stages. This way even in the event of a total and catastrophic failure of one complete system, you still have sufficent gas to make it to safety. You also carry a minimum of three lights, which will allow you to make it back out in the event of a light failure (ore two). There are other examples of redundancy that you follow, but those are the big 2.

That night, when I made my solo dive, I took my usual redundancy to an even higher level. I wore my double tanks, but didn't breathe off of them at all. For my breathing gas, I carried an aluminum 80 'buddy bottle' with it's own regular and SPG. Between the 3 tanks, I had enough gas for over 2 hours at my planned depth, with a dive plan of about 30 minutes. During the dive, I breathed off of the al-80 and turned the dive at half plus 250psi. In the event of a failure of any of the 3 tanks, I still had fully redundant (2) back-ups to use to get back out of the cave.

Other precautions that I took included carrying four lights (instead of three), an extra mask, an extra cutting tool and two extra safety spools. Also, I have previously done 25 or 30 dives in this particular system and am very familiar with it.

For my dive, I did a basic (intro-cave style) dive up the main passageway for about 500 feet. I didn't do any gaps, jumps or or get out of sight of the guideline. It was one of the most basic cave dives I have done in a long time, but it was also one of the most enjoyable. Normally when I do a dive, it's all about making it to somewhere I hadn't been before - this time it was about really seeing what I have rushed past all of the other times. I was able to peek into all of the nooks, crannys and holes for 20 minutes or so and then make a slow, leisurely exit.

I had no problems with the dive at all. Although I was a bit nervous doing the dive, I was confident that my training, experience and preparation would help me deal with anything that might have come up.

Looking back at the dive, I believe I was maybe a little too conservative (with my gas management) but that worked for me and kept me well within my comfort level. I intend to do some more solo dives and I will probably do them exactly the same... at least for a while. You can duplicate every system you have and then duplicate it all again (if you can carry all of that). The one thing you can not duplicate is your mind. STAY WITHIN YOUR COMFORT LEVEL!

Incidently, I am PADI AOW/Rescue and am currently doing my internship for Divemaster. I also have Full Cave, Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures.

Safe diving everyone!

Rick

 

[do it easy]

Glad you had a fun dive and thanks for sharing.

 

[Stoo]

Interesting tale Rick. Most of my diving is Great Lakes wreck diving. There is some penetration on a few of them, and these dives most closely resemble cave diving I suppose.

I don't know much about the politics of cave diving, but I understand many of the spring entrances are "owned" and the operators have some control over who dives there and how they dive. ( A bunch of my friends cave dive, and this is just my understanding...) I am just curious about the reaction you might get diving solo in a spring. I suspect that this forum is one of the few places where you wouldn't be considered a suicidal whack-job...!

 

[DeepBound]

Hi,
That sounds like a fun dive. Is there a solo cave diver course available? The one's I've seen say that you should never go into overhead. Surely there must be safe ways to solo dive in overhead environments. I wonder if NACD or NSS-CDS will come out with a solo cave diver certification?
It seems like the main un-solvable problems that solo divers will always have are entanglement and having a heart attack in the water. I don't know why overhead environment has anything to do with being solo or with a buddy? If anything, they should say to avoid places with entanglements.

 

[loosebits]

Hi,
That sounds like a fun dive. Is there a solo cave diver course available? The one's I've seen say that you should never go into overhead. Surely there must be safe ways to solo dive in overhead environments. I wonder if NACD or NSS-CDS will come out with a solo cave diver certification?
It seems like the main un-solvable problems that solo divers will always have are entanglement and having a heart attack in the water. I don't know why overhead environment has anything to do with being solo or with a buddy? If anything, they should say to avoid places with entanglements.

I know neither the CDS nor the NACD have solo cave diving classes. That being said, I know both agencies neither condone nor disapprove of solo cave diving at the full cave level.

Rick, while I've never solo cave dived, it sounds like you took all the precautions necessary (and then some). I'm glad you got to rediscover a cave. I know the feeling. Really taking your time and poking around, you can find things you've swum right past on 20 other dives.

 

[Meng_Tze]

Rick,
you are more man than I. I have been contemplating solo for a while, but have not done it yet.....good on ya!

 

[eandiver]

Excellent original post and responses (so far)!!

 

[wedivebc]

I have never solo-ed cave but I have done plenty of wreck dives solo. I am not quite so conservative on my gas supply, follow rule of thirds except I dive independant doubles so no single failure can't be dealt with. I only ever carry 3 lights as I feel quite comfortable finding my guideline and exiting in total blackness if I was ever to lose all 3. So when you solo do you still have a long hose? Don't see the need myself.

 

[BgDadddy]

Thanks for all of your replies. To answer a couple of your questions, There is a solo cave dive course available, but I haven't taken it. I'm not even sure who it's through (IANTD maybe...)

It seems like the main un-solvable problems that solo divers will always have are entanglement and having a heart attack in the water. I don't know why overhead environment has anything to do with being solo or with a buddy? If anything, they should say to avoid places with entanglements.

Entanglement is a definate problem, but there is not a whole lot in a cave that you can get tangled up in... Just the guideline. Proper training and careful guideline management will greatly minimize the hazard. Even so, I carry a z knive on my left wrist, another on my belt and a knife in my thigh pocket. Having a heart attack in a cave is going to be fatal whether you have a buddy or not. The only difference would be whether your body is brought out right then or by a recovery team the next day.

I have never solo-ed cave but I have done plenty of wreck dives solo. I am not quite so conservative on my gas supply, follow rule of thirds except I dive independant doubles so no single failure can't be dealt with. I only ever carry 3 lights as I feel quite comfortable finding my guideline and exiting in total blackness if I was ever to lose all 3. So when you solo do you still have a long hose? Don't see the need myself.

I had 2 other reasons that I breathed the 80 instead of my doubles - one was to limit my penetration and the other was that I was diving with a buddy the next morning and wouldn't have time to get my doubles filled prior.

As far as finding the guideline and exiting in darkness goes, I too have run too many drills to count and have done well on them. I have also been in total silt outs that result in zero vis which is the same thing. While I am confident that I can get back out, the main thing that the drills teach you is that you'd rather not be in that situation... hence the 4th light. To each his own.

I used my regular cave rig, including the long hose. While I agree that it's not necessary when going solo, it's part of my gear set up, I have a hundred dives using that configuration and I am very comfortable with it. When the hose is routed under my canister and looped properly, I don't even know it's there. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thanks again for all of your replies.

Rick