How to count cave dives

[mgif99]

My buddy and I are both working towards our Abe Davis award. We have this discussion frequently: He feels any time you surface it counts as a new dive; i.e. the Grand Traverse would count as 3 dives (OG to Challenge, Challenge to Olsen, Olsen to Peacock). I tend to disagree with him. What is the right way to do this? Interested to hear peoples thoughts.....

[whitecrowro]

Your buddy is right. What makes you disagree with him?

[syntaxerrorsix]

I agree with you. Your dive plan was to complete the grand traverse and your gas management for the dive was calculated as such.

[MORGAN]

Why not 4 dives? You swim under Pothole sink between Olsen and P1....

I count the Grand Traverse as one dive. If I got out of the water at Challenge or Olsen and had a surface interval before continuing, I'd call it a new dive.

If I applied your buddy's thinking to my 216 cave dives, I'd qualify for the Nicholson award!

There are people who count dives both ways - as far as I know there's no hard and fast rule. I just do what makes sense to me.

[Slüdge]

I think if you get out of the water and remove/put on your gear it's another dive. Otherwise, it's one.

[LCF]

I actually got into a discussion with a friend about this the other day, because we did Peacock to Olsen and surfaced to talk a while. She was almost at thirds when we surfaced.

She thought that, since we had surfaced, the trip back counted as a second dive, which meant we had to recalculate gas. I pointed out that we had planned a thirds dive when we started, so she used a third of her gas getting to Olsen. If we then recalculated, she could only use a third of the 2/3 she had left to do the next dive, which wasn't enough to get back to the entrance, assuming her consumption was the same. By her theory, we had to get out and walk home

If it's all one gas plan, it's all one dive in my book.

[Slüdge]

If we then recalculated, she could only use a third of the 2/3 she had left to do the next dive, which wasn't enough to get back to the entrance, assuming her consumption was the same.

Actually, if the distance of a traverse is an absolutely known distance, you can choose to dive to the midpoint on thirds - your second third is used on the second half of the traverse.

But you really need to be sure of your distances to do this. Fortunately, Peacock has known distances.

[diveongas]

My buddy and I are both working towards our Abe Davis award. We have this discussion frequently: He feels any time you surface it counts as a new dive; i.e. the Grand Traverse would count as 3 dives (OG to Challenge, Challenge to Olsen, Olsen to Peacock). I tend to disagree with him. What is the right way to do this? Interested to hear peoples thoughts.....

There are basically 3 traverses, each lasting at least 30 minutes. Just have a surface interval between each at each opening.

This is why it makes so much more sense to say so many hours of bottom time, say 100 hours. You could have 100, one hour dives. You could have about 30 dives equal to the Grand Traverse. Or, you could pop up at evey hole and have 200, half hour dives.

Time not withstanding, even then not all cave dives are equal. One swimming dive at EN downstream to the "Room of Dreams" (not counting any prep dives) ought to be equal to at least 3 complete circuit dives at Peacock. Some cave dives are understood to be "no-vis exits" and require greater skill/experience to safely complete.

Until these things ("Safe" dive awards) start to actually make any sense, do whatever works for you.

[Kevin Carlisle]

Why not 4 dives? You swim under Pothole sink between Olsen and P1....

I count the Grand Traverse as one dive. If I got out of the water at Challenge or Olsen and had a surface interval before continuing, I'd call it a new dive.

If I applied your buddy's thinking to my 216 cave dives, I'd qualify for the Nicholson award!

There are people who count dives both ways - as far as I know there's no hard and fast rule. I just do what makes sense to me.

+ 1. Seems like someone is trying to inflate their numbers, and several agree with it.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I think if you get out of the water and remove/put on your gear it's another dive. Otherwise, it's one.

Pretty much this...



Surfacing at a sink in the middle of the dive, I definately wouldn't call a surface interval, nor the resubmersion a second(or third) dive.