How often do you run a line?

[Marc Bryan]

For some reason I can't picture excately what you are describing

I have included a diagram.

but I can say this, yes many times on the mainline in caves here or in Mex I am off the line a bit, but I am followinga line and paying attention to the line, if at any point something goes wrong I am never far off to the point that I could not immediately swim back and reconnect to the line.

Me either. Never more than five feet.

The big difference is that if you do not run a continuous line to OW you are at some point disconnected from the exit

, How? I am never more than five feet from a direct Line to OW.

now say some sort of emergency happens be it small or big you need to be able to get out and follow the line without even having to guess which way is out and not add stress and risk to an already potentially bad situation.
To each his own I guess the people who don't run jumps will continue to do so and think it's ok.
I dive fairly extreme conditions here as we are doing mainly exploration and almost every exit is zero viz, deep inside an unexplored cave in zero viz the meaning your life hangs by a thread takes on a whole new meaning, that line sliding through your hand feels real good.
But when I dive known caves and do some "recreational" cave diving in systems that don't silt out etc.. I always run a reel no matter what, even on reach gaps that are only a foot apart, I respect each cave as much as an unexplored one.
I think it is more dangerous to dive a nice cave you think you know real well that has been dove thousands of times, "recreational" cave diving it appears has people loose respect for the cave environment and they start becoming complacent.
When you are in a unexplored cave you have your guard up 100% and I think it should be like that in every cave on every dive.

I agree.

I think that you guys who don't always run a line should take cave diving way more seriously, it is a potentially deadly activity that has many risks involved as it is, why unnecessarily increase the risks?

I take it very seriously. My responses are not just some flippant remarks. I am interested in a discussion that leads to me learning something/anything. Not just banter of its super dangerous, so stop thinking for yourself. I am genuinely interested in your view of how this scenario increases the risk at all, much less unnecessarily. How does my dive plan do that?

Many deaths have occurred either directly or indirectly from not having a continuous line to OW, should you not learn from that and always run a line?
So it will take a few precious minutes more to run a line, or maybe require a second incredibly painstaking dive to retrieve a jump a reel, so what? do you not consider you and your buddy's increased safety worth it?

It is not about saving any time, or a second dive, it is that I am closer to a continuous line to the surface on this dive, than you are when you are more than 5' from the gold line, but somehow I am unnecessarily endangering me and my whole dive team.

Why not stop doing bubble checks and S drills too while we're at it, oh yeah and don't rinse your regs anymore and leave all the sand and silt in them too, there is such a small chance anything will happen to them and anyway you always have two so why bother..

This is not conducive to a productive discussion. Other than that, thanks for your input thus far.