So, what's different about Cave Diving?

onetime

Forgot about that one. Definitely a decent read but, iirc, more about leading the expedition than the diving.

Marc T

humility will keep you (us ) alive
That was the last evening thought for me

dan@scuba-training.net

Very well said.

JPJones

Finesse is the big one, plus navigation can be a lot more complex, distance from a free acent. When was the last time you went 4k into a wreck? It is not uncommon to take CCR Cave class to the Hinkel in Ginnie and that is 3200 ft back.

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Crazyduck

And Jackson Blue, Little River, Peacock…Oh my…

Nice post sir...



Andrew

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EBT

Who waves a posh pigeon at a hole in the ground. Pervert.

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gtzavelas

Sorry but I don’t agree!
What really impressed me in this book was the huge determination and the will power required for these achievements.
They actually designed, build and tested the CIS Lunar in order to pass the sump of this cave.
Even for this only – the history of development of the Cis lunar the book is a must for all Rebreather cave divers…
Just imagine that a couple of days of effort was required just to arrive at the sump and start the diving.

And in addition I have the utmost admiration for exploration done AFTER a sump cave dive. Having been there (not so often as I would like) I consider any cave exploration done after passing a sump by cavediving is an achievement. And they explored and surveyed a HUGE cave after two sumps…

Mdemon

Thanks for all the links/help everybody.

Amazon is useful - gives a flavour of each book. Are there are no "How to..." websites for this?

Looks like line techniques - "gaps, jumps and T's" - are more specialised. Looking forward to reading more on this.

Interesting quote I found on a caving site where the writer mentions "bits of string" at the beginning of (dry) caves, left by newbies and that "you can never carry enough string with you to leave a trail". And just above this post is someone mentioning a 4k push! Interesting to see differences of opinion in such close disciplines.

Being ignorant - do cave divers survey/map where they go, or is there not enough time so they just reel off? Is that why dry cavers don't need line? (I can hear the cringing at the newbie question... )

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Steve

That depends on the divers in question and if it has been surveyed before.

Hopefully this will work. Have a look at the trip reports for Kija in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. http://www.trimixdivers.com/Navigate.do?tableName=caves&code=kija_blue_sinkhol e

Or here as well www.divedoc.net - Speleology - A Cave In Detail

We surveyed a significant amount of virgin cave on the 2006 trip using a few methods. Having knowledge of dry caving, SRT and rebreathers were invaluable up there. Please shout if that page doesn't load by itself.

EDIT; If it wont load go Open Cave Diving - Australia - Western Australia - Kimberley - Kija (this menu is located in the bottom right)

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Mark Chase

Seeing as I have no cave training and have dived only a hand full of easy peasy caves i will no doubt be missing the bigger picture, but for the sake of discussion,


3200ft into the cave is a big number but the question is how long are you in the water for? The deepest cave dive i did was maby 1500ft in but the actual penetration and return took just over an hour and we weren't rushing it.

In a cave there is absolutely no possibility of going up. However is this any different than being at 60 -70m with a two hour deco obligation? Possibly from a stress point of view being on the way up as apposed to on the way out is better but personally I don't feel like that. Turning the dive in a cave had the same "I am going home" feel as ascending on deco.

Navigation in a cave is interesting. I have laid line in caves and find it hard to keep to my wreck diving discipline of short regular tie off positions. This is because there isn't anything to tie off on. On a were dive a tie off every 5m is no big deal but in a cave it really slows you down as all you seem to want to achieve is to go further in. (no offense i just don't get baron caves).

The bigger caves I have dived all had permanent lines in. big thick poli prop line with direction markers on it. I found it pretty easy to follow it but we had good viz. I think a cave dive in 0 viz would scare me a lot but no more than accidentally penetrating a wreck in 0 viz. Give me a CCR and id feel a lot more relaxed.

I want to do a cave CCR course just so I can dive the caves in Mexico. Andy P wants to go and play in the caves in France but I am concerned it will be rock rock and more rock.

Any how I have no doubt there are caves that would challenge me but I don't know how a cave course would prepair you for these. I think it would be just like wreck diving in that you just build up to them.

ATB

Mark Chase

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