PSA: Please don't park your stage bottle in the clay...

[rddvet]

While I generally agree don't put your stage in clay, I won't lie I made the mistake once. Sometimes clay can look like rock (due to flow molding the clay and whatnot). As an early cave diver my buddy and I went to drop our stages on what appeared to be the only rocky area for a while. Well it was clay. Mistake made, lesson learned. Stuff happens. I know when it happened to me my buddy and I looked at each other wondering what was worse, leaving the stages until we came back or removing them from the clay which just threw a bunch of clay into the flow for anyone on the exit side of us. Since there was flow we decided to pull and put elsewhere.
So I think most cave divers are smart enough to know not to do it but sometimes mistakes happen. As long as you learn from them, that's the important thing. I've seen way more poorly trained divers finning through silt and clay banks more than I've seen someone drop a stage in clay. So in the grand scheme of things one mistake doesn't destroy the cave.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm still learning how to "read" the bottom composition, though my lesson was in Mexico. I wanted to finish my cave training in Mexico exactly because the caves are so different from FL, and that includes things like where to drop a stage. In Mexico, just because it looks like a clean white surface doesn't mean it's solid; I dropped my stage on what looked like rock to my Florida-trained eyes but was in reality powdery, and my instructor later pointed out to me that you need to learn to read the bottom composition wherever you are.

 

[PEDiver]

While I generally agree don't put your stage in clay, I won't lie I made the mistake once. Sometimes clay can look like rock (due to flow molding the clay and whatnot). As an early cave diver my buddy and I went to drop our stages on what appeared to be the only rocky area for a while. Well it was clay. Mistake made, lesson learned. Stuff happens. I know when it happened to me my buddy and I looked at each other wondering what was worse, leaving the stages until we came back or removing them from the clay which just threw a bunch of clay into the flow for anyone on the exit side of us. Since there was flow we decided to pull and put elsewhere.
So I think most cave divers are smart enough to know not to do it but sometimes mistakes happen. As long as you learn from them, that's the important thing. I've seen way more poorly trained divers finning through silt and clay banks more than I've seen someone drop a stage in clay. So in the grand scheme of things one mistake doesn't destroy the cave.

Mistakes happen and I'm definitely not trying to demonize anyone. We're all human. It was just very disheartening to see since everyone else in that dive team had parked their bottles properly. Clay banks are some of my favorite features to see in caves, so it is always sad to see damage done to them by bottles, fins, scooters, etc. since it's usually so avoidable.

 

[PEDiver]

I'm still learning how to "read" the bottom composition, though my lesson was in Mexico. I wanted to finish my cave training in Mexico exactly because the caves are so different from FL, and that includes things like where to drop a stage. In Mexico, just because it looks like a clean white surface doesn't mean it's solid; I dropped my stage on what looked like rock to my Florida-trained eyes but was in reality powdery, and my instructor later pointed out to me that you need to learn to read the bottom composition wherever you are.

I have not dived in Mexico but it is definitely at the top of my travel list for cave diving. Will be great practice in a new environment for those reasons.

 

[ofg-1]

I was making a little blue pill joke.

That just makes it hard to dive.