I have read only what everybody else has read. But my first two reactions to the report were: WHY do people not set jump spools? Whether it would have helped here or not, they didn't do it. It takes so little time . . .
The second reaction was to bless Danny Riordan, who was my Cave 1 instructor. Danny pounded and pounded and pounded on us to take "snapshots" of the cave -- memorable places where you could recognize a formation, and note time and gas at that point. He told us to turn around and look at our "snapshot" places from behind, so we could recognize them coming out. He quizzed us unmercifully about our snapshots, and I really resented it. Danny, as always, was right.
I have dived with Florida-trained divers from my same agency, who weren't taught about snapshots. Given the frequently simpler navigation, the lack of alternate exits, and the distance markers on the line, I guess the instructors there don't harp on this.
But it's amazingly comforting to know where you are, and if you don't make note of it, I wonder if you actually remember. I hear Danny's voice on every dive; I do my damnedest to note my bookmarks, and I'm furious with myself, at the end of the dive, if I can't remember them. If I got disoriented, I would hope I wouldn't have to swim more than a couple of minutes before encountering something I had made enough note of to recognize; in the absence of total panic, I would hope I would regroup and fix the problem.
The final note is team . . . in Cave 2, we had some instances where one team member was completely convinced we should go one way, and the other two knew a different choice was correct. I would hope that, if I were anxious and unsure, I would trust a calm and composed buddy. He may be wrong. But if so, I made the wrong choice of teammate.
