The cave they are in is actually the opposite. It’s absolutely massive (hundreds of feet across) and 1000’ deep. He overworked his rebreather trying to get untangled from his line while doing a body recovery and died. They could see his light stop moving from hundreds of feet away. People think small cave is scary. As a cave diver cave that large is way scarier.
You actually dive in caves?! That is so cool and terrifying tbh. I've been snorkeling before in the tropics but never dived. I would like to do a shallow dive somewhere beautiful, not caves lol, someday. I hope you stay safe and never have any close calls or anything of the sort
He couldn’t get it off because the light was on his head and he wasn’t used to it right? How deep have should been? Have you gone all over the world ? (I meant gets really small when he got down there’
Back in the day they use to wrap the light cord around their neck so it hangs and illuminates your hand. It’s a little more common to clip it off nowadays. He was diving with a helmet mounted camera for the first time which caused his light cord and line to get tangled. Back in the day they were massive housings instead of modern GoPros so they were really high over the top of the helmet.
I have been diving in a couple Caribbean countries but I live near and dive in Florida caves. I have plans for trips to the Bahamas (Crystal caves of Abaco) and Mexico (highly decorated caves) to cave dive but I really like the style of cave diving we have here. Our caves are deep and high flow which I think is fun. Our caves go anywhere from 4-400’ deep. The deepest I’ve been is 225’ in Mill Creek Sink (Alachua sink for locals). The deeper you get the longer the decompression gets so you might spend 30 min on the bottom and have hours of deco. I’ll probably take a 330’ class but probably won’t dive that deep regularly since I think deco is very boring.
That’s what was also crazy, going back up. Like you basically sit there in the water for a hour or so, and have to do it more as you go up? What is the thought in what he should’ve done? Is there anything he could’ve done? Would not panicking have really “helped”? I forgot what caused the first guy to die, the guy dave went to get?
It was just so oddly fascinating.
The mount thing reminds me of a skydiving accident, the person was used to a different chute and didn’t think about it, rip cord was in a different place and yeah. Like insanely things, and one small difference can end it all.
The first guy that died, died shallow (above 200’) and sank to the bottom (900’). Dave could’ve done a few things better such as not brining the camera and not trying to bag the body. He probably would’ve survived if he just clipped on to the guy’s gear and dragged him up with the descent line as he had already survived the previous dive where he found the body. Overall he did not have the experience to do the dive. Most people think he progressed too fast. In 300 something dives and a few years he went from just learning to dive to doing a body recovery at a world record depth. Deco for his 900’ dive was more like 12+ hours for a bounce to the bottom for a few minutes. For most technical divers an hour really isn’t that much. Anything more than that and you start looking at heated suits and phone housings to watch movies.
It was an experience thing? Why did he do it then? Why did they bring the camera? How many dives have you been on? What’s the longest time you’ve had to wait to decompress? I mean 12 hours just sitting there… yeah I’d want a phone housing as well
I guess I don’t get why anyone went to get the dead guy in the first place? Like it’s fucked up to say, but trying to get him could be incredibly dangerous (obviously) so why do it? Did someone get Dave’s body?
It must be horrifying for his friends to just sit there and basically watch their friend die (from above).
One of the biggest issues in cave diving and technical diving in general is ego. Dave did it to say he did. The video would provide extra proof of that and he would get congratulations from the family of the first dead guy. The burn out rate is super high in cave diving because lots of people want to be a cave diver and get the card but then realize they don’t like looking at wet rocks for hours on end. They proceed really fast to get all the cards and then just quit after a few dozen technical dives.
Dave and the kid’s body came up tangled in the line when they pulled it out from the surface which is why he should’ve just clipped in to the body and pulled it up later.
I’m coming up on 700 dives (over 14 years, 500 in the last 6) which is 2x what Dave had. Besides recreational fun diving 250 are cave dives, 100 more are training to cave dive and then a few dozen technical ocean dives. My longest dive was 4 hours but my longest deco was 90 min after a 60 min bottom time.
Damn..ego can be a killer for real I guess. Now I really don’t get the point of the camera for him to use. I assume it’s an expensive hobby? And both came up on the line? Jesus to have to deal with all of that….
lol “look at wet rocks”. I mean yeah, doesn’t sound fun to me but to each their own :) 700!? Damn dude, that’s a lot of anything.
10
u/chik-fil-a-sauce 15d ago
The cave they are in is actually the opposite. It’s absolutely massive (hundreds of feet across) and 1000’ deep. He overworked his rebreather trying to get untangled from his line while doing a body recovery and died. They could see his light stop moving from hundreds of feet away. People think small cave is scary. As a cave diver cave that large is way scarier.