Wikipedia & Cave Diving

I was reading this news article . . http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200...pediabiography

I had never been on Wikipedia before. So I decided try to see what might be there on cave diving. Since anyone can contribute articles, etc to Wikipedia, I thought it a great place the cave diving community could offer the general public some basic info about the sport/hobby/endeavor or whatever. Well, there was something posted about cave diving. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_diving

OK . . I'm about to open up a whole can of worms. I know that. Many of you may have seen this. I don't know. As I said, I had not. I searched this Forum for any conversation about Wikipedia to be sure I wasn't about to beat a dead horse and found nothing. But for those who haven't seen it. . . One thing stated in the article about cave diving was this . . .

"Solo: The recent death of a very experienced and knowledgeable cave diver has been attributed entirely to the fact that he was diving alone. After careful analysis, it was determined that had a dive buddy been present - a safe exit would have been more than likely. Due to this tragic loss of a cave diving pioneer and expert, the various training agencies are now publicly in unanimous agreement - diving solo must be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS."

We all know which accident this is referring to. Now, I could say a lot about that one paragraph. But I think it speaks for itself.

I am not trying to start a flame war, bring up past accidents, people, or anything else. I just wanted to bring this to our attention. More interestingly, if some of us could post purely factual info about the sport in general, it could be of interest to those using the website.

In any case. . . Just something to stir up the board on a Monday morning.

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Originally Posted by aw

diving solo must be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS."

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Solo diving in caves is not for everyone......But done properly, It could be the most peaceful dive you will ever experience. :smt020

The article and the diver you are referring to are in the UK. There is a minor disagreement between the old guard and the new right now in UK cave diving. The UK divers have traditionally been cavers who trained to become sump divers. CDG divers are trained from day one to dive solo and independent/redundent from day one. They have very few "spring" dives there; most cave diving is sump diving. If you look at the next issue of the CDS UWS magazine you will see several articles on sump diving. The conditions are quite a bit different there than the US. Of late in the UK there has been a wave of technical divers wanting to go into cave diving and it is being pushed by an agency that wants a cut of the pie. In the UK the CDG has been the "official" cave diving agency for as long as cave diving has exsisted. Now some of the technical diving agencies want to get into the act and are having difficulty. The young man who died there was well liked in the CDG circles. There is a lot more to the story than you read and if you want to learn more you may want to get the info from the CDG web site. What you are looking at on that forum is a small group who seem to have their own slant on the accident and seem to me to have an agenda. There seems to be a few people out there who start these personal forums and invite a few friends to voice and discuss their view of what is going on in cave diving. Most of the information is inaccurate because it is formed in the vacuum of misinformation and personal opinion. Take it all with a grain of salt. Get the info from the source and don't be misled by this kind of thing. Cindy Butler

I've grown tired of trying to convince people that solo diving and even just cave diving in general are accepted and safe practices when done properly with the proper precautions, some are just too hard to turn. Unfortunatly I try to avoid telling people i cave dive or starting debates about doing it and its safety.... i just enjoy going on a dive and sharing it with people who share similar views.

-Matt

Yeah. I just don't talk about cave diving much with any one except other cave divers. Not even my husband. Seems that everybody knows someone who died cave /snorkling/diving and that I will die too -- so that makes me a bad mother because I cave dive. Sigh.......

Nevermind that I DON'T abuse, starve or neglect my kids needs. It ain't about a thrill. It's about a visit to a peaceful place. Even so, I'm still labeled a bad mother. People are idiots. It's like saying to a woman - "Gee you are such a pretty girl. Why do you want to mark your body with tatoos?"

Or better yet.....

"Gee you are such a handsome man. Why did you have to open your mouth?"

Just forget about it and pursue your passion. No one should live without passion because that is truly twisted. :-)

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Originally Posted by Angie Reim

"Gee you are such a handsome man. Why did you have to open your mouth?"

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I've never heard the first half of that, but I get the second half all the time.

Russell

Hey now I was not into this conversation now why do we have to drag tattoos into this LOL. There is a 1,000 other sayings out there why the tattoo thing.

Most cave diving in Canada is solo as well along the same lines as the CDG; our sites are the same as theirs other than being smaller and colder. Most cave dives are done by cavers and solo is simply looked at as a method that works.

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Originally Posted by aw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_diving

OK . . I'm about to open up a whole can of worms. I know that. Many of you may have seen this. I don't know. As I said, I had not. I searched this Forum for any conversation about Wikipedia to be sure I wasn't about to beat a dead horse and found nothing. But for those who haven't seen it. . . One thing stated in the article about cave diving was this . . .

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While the wiki artile still mentions "six general rules for safe cave diving" it now only lists 5. I'm assuming the entry has been corrected to omit the slanted opinion and seems to have been updated with more correct information.

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Originally Posted by jammer

Hey now I was not into this conversation now why do we have to drag tattoos into this LOL. There is a 1,000 other sayings out there why the tattoo thing.

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I don't know, first saying that came to mind that made my point. Probably because I have a secret yearning to get a tatoo. OHhhhhh....there I said it. I'm going to Hell now for sure..... :lol:

Gotta go.........(run! run away!)