Exploring "new to you" passage -- what do you want to know?

Need a location.

Need a continuous line to the surface, even if its supplied by me.

Need a competant buddy that doesn't mind that I turn conservatively for gas, and penetration, when I'm somewhere new.

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Originally Posted by sskasser

And there is not a THING wrong with that! I admire folks who don't get pulled into the "competitiveness" of who can do the nastiest, tightest, etc. I would much rather have a buddy who says "That just ain't for me, let's do something else" than have him go somewhere he's not comfortable.

On the other hand, I also admire the folks who do go out and do the exploration and push the "ugly" stuff, not due to bravado, but because it is truly "their thing."

There's plenty of room for both types of divers, and all the ones in between...just do what you enjoy, simply because you enjoy it.

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Very nicely put.

Well, I guess a related question is, has anybody ever headed into something that looked interesting and, a few minutes later, wished they hadn't?

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Originally Posted by LCF

Well, I guess a related question is, has anybody ever headed into something that looked interesting and, a few minutes later, wished they hadn't?

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yep

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Originally Posted by SuPrBuGmAn

Need a location.

Need a continuous line to the surface, even if its supplied by me.

Need a competant buddy that doesn't mind that I turn conservatively for gas, and penetration, when I'm somewhere new.

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Then why do you bring me? You never turn first. I always turn first. But this is very good, and practical advice as it is not just an idea, we use our own advice and it works well. Don't forget a competant reel that doesn't come apart either. :)

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Originally Posted by LCF

Well, I guess a related question is, has anybody ever headed into something that looked interesting and, a few minutes later, wished they hadn't?

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Yes, but I was laughing at my fool self the whole time. Having plenty of gas helps there, to keep it "entertaining" instead of terrifying.

Some places aren't so easy to back out of. I don't know about backmount (I haven't done that much of it), but in sidemount, it seems that every single bit and bob catches when trying to back out of a snug spot.

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Originally Posted by sskasser

Some places aren't so easy to back out of.

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One of my instructor's rules was that if the passage looks even remotely questionable, BACK IN! If you can't back in, you didn't need to go in in the first place. And if you get stuck it's a whole lot easier to go out frontwards.

All I NEED to know about new passage is that I've got a continuous guideline to the surface and that my buddy is happy to go in there. More than once Tracy and I have stuck our heads into a hole and looked at each other inquiringly - it's either a go or a no-go at that point. Neither one of us is at all reluctant to give the no-go if it doesn't look inviting. (The entrance to Rocky Horror comes to mind.) And we stay out of places that we don't think we can go without making a mess.

In new to us passage we add to our convervatism and our turn pressures, and have a very low threshold for thumbing the dive. We also are more apt to look at new passage early in the dive when we've got lots of gas.

What I PREFER to know about new passage is: everything I can find out! Though we do sometimes serendipitously try a new passage, we'll more often do some research - look at it on the map if available, ask other people who've been there, or even look at video if we can find any. For instance, before doing the Waterhole III tunnnel the first time, we watched the Harvey Boyd video, as well as looking at the map and asking friends about it. Route planning and trip planning is kind of a fetish of mine from guiding wilderness canoe trips. Tracy says I plan a caving trip like I'm planning the Normandy invasion. I say that having good plans and being well prepared allows for maximum flexibility.

Mike

There are other complicating factors.

Here's one of my dumbest dives. I was running line into a very silty (actually worse than silt, it was that insulation stuff that you get in the Ginnie insulation room) cave with a stage. i hadn't EVER run new line before so I was mega excited. I had a stage - when time came to drop the stage I thought, "What do I do? I can't attach the stage to the line because it's loose right now" (WRONG!!!) So I put the stage down next to the line.

Clearly when I then did the next tie, I moved the line off the stage. I came back in a total silt out and never even saw my tank. I exited at about 800 psi.

What really sucked is that teh landowner had granted me that as my last dive. So I then had to re enter at 3 am the next morning for a sneak dive to recover that stage. I was incredibly nervous when I exited, expecting a bunch of cops to be sitting there.

Of course, I should ahve waited until doing my next tie off before securing the tank a few feet back to the tight side of the tie off. Obvious now, not so obvious then.

So - not only line to the surface, but also well secured gas reserves.

Mike, you sound like me! Even in open water, I try to learn as much as I can about a site before I dive it. But my insistent planner sometimes gets overruled by the little voice that says, "Oooh, that looks interesting -- wonder where it goes?"