What makes one cave dive "bigger" than the other?

[lv2dive]

Plus Diepolder 3 (certainly not intro but also not requiring stages). I'm not pointing fingers just adding to the perspective that there is a lot of cave in the area.

How can you get consensus when most people are not familiar with all the systems in N FL much less the US caves outside of FL, never mind caves outside of US, in Mexico, Europe, and other continents? Hell I know for me temperature would be a complexity factor (cold, that is) but for some it's just normal.

What about upstream Hole. The Century Tunnel T (which is white line T'd into gold) is within the limits of a skilled intro diver. If he was referring to any T's and not just white line T's off the gold line then I guess he forgot about Little River. He has a house not far from there. No one from the CDS even questioned the statement so to me I am assuming they all agreed. Definitely made me question their actual diving experience.

 

[lerpy]

Returning to the original discussion, I have to say as a newly minted cave diver EVERY dive for me is a BIG dive. The very first dive of full cave, boom we are doing 1/3's, that was huge, first time jumping off the mainline, seeing a 1000' marker, there were all very big, for me at least. My first dive without my instructor 2 days after completing the course, that was huge, and of course being new has this affect. But even diving here at home, a big dive for me is, any new site, or a site that may be an "easy" dive that I am familiar with, after siting in the snow for 4 months, the first time back on a dive that I know like the back of my hand is a "big" dive.

I see my diving in a similar light as I do my flying, its all big until I pull off the runway, or until I am back on dry land. They are all big because diving or flying, as with a lot of things, there is the potential for things to go wrong which turns easy to mayhem in a blink of an eye if not managed properly.

 

[kafkaland]

Before we rate caves, I think we should have reliable maps, with all the depth, distance, and navigational info first. And info on access, landowner rules, etc. If you have those, you can already venture a pretty good guess as to the seriousness of a dive. And to the mountaineering analogies: good maps were first. Before any ratings.