I've always heard that most cave diving deaths could have been avoided if they hadn't been diving solo, goes back to the old YMCA swim with a buddie rule.
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I've always heard that most cave diving deaths could have been avoided if they hadn't been diving solo, goes back to the old YMCA swim with a buddie rule.
Hmmmm....that's kinda funny, I've always heard that most cave diving deaths could have been avoided by not going cave divingOriginally Posted by D1V3R
Now if you're solo cave diving and not sidemounting, using independents or carrying a buddy bottle well then yes, you're asking for it....that I'll agree with!!
Safe diving,
Rich
Would you be able to expand on that?
Why is that the case?
Are you stating that BM doubles solo is dangerous, but SM solo is not?
Yah, I dont get that either. I always thought that Independant was safer because If one tank has to be shut down you still have the entire other tank left, but if you have a manifold bridge you might only have half a tank.
Absolutely. Manifolded backmount doesn't have complete redundancy. Sidemount does. As does carrying a buddy bottle.
That's the difference.
Russell
Right, but SM isnt any safer than Independant BM right?
Right, sidemount and independent backmount offer equal redundancy.
Russell
Well sidemount would allow you the access to your tanks needed to swap a single functional reg between them that backmount independents would be much harder to do - still basicly the same.
I don't know of any solo cave diving deaths that would have had much of a chance of being saved if they had a buddy. And I don't know of any equipment failures that would have saved them if they had been using independent air sources. Actually even diving rebreathers with no independent backup has been becoming more common. Not a lot of deaths related to that yet... but I wouldn't be all that surprized to hear of more in the next couple years...
Mostly the solo deaths I've heard of were either medical (likely nothing a buddy could have done to help) or the result of breaking the same rules that killed everyone else (Training air line depth lights).
Some solo divers pull some really stupid stunts I have to admit. The contributing factor is that they don't have a buddy around that goes "what the #### are you thinking!?".
You have to figure anyone who doesn't run lines and gets lost in complex cave, or dives to half their availiable air and then gets lost off the line in a siltout or whatever even if they were in a buddy team is not that surprizing when you hear the incident report.
It's not about solo it's about breaking the basic precepts of cave saftey and unfortunately there are some solo divers out there that do that. Buddy teams that do that are just as likely to die.
I dive independents (some sidemount and do a lot of solo - or at least use to).
It depends on the failure you have. Obviously a manifold failure independents is better. For a regulator failure though manifolds give you access to your whole air supply. Tanks neck o-ring they are petty much the same.
If you know what you are doing either system is probably equally fine. Personally I wouldn't want to solo with out a independent air source not tied together through the manifold - realistically though they are fairly stable.
So not a big advantage either way. Things most people probably wouldn't guess like regulator failures that drain both tanks before they can be isolated via the manifold (story from caverns Measureless to Man) the one in a million problem that actually causes some manifold catastrophe, and the ability to get air out of a tank/reg even after the regulator has failed keep me with the independent tanks even when with a buddy.
I don't solo alot, but when I do and have my aluminum "buddy", I dive more conservativly and carefully, and stick to routes I am very familiar with.
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