Why?Originally Posted by Tegg
For me, cave diving is about the technical challenge. I have no desire to go dry caving. I spend enough time at work crawling around in small dirty places and getting grubby- I've no desire to do it in my off time.
Making someone do something doesn't always have the effect of making them appreciate it. I think if you truly love caves, you'll inevitably be drawn to all types of them.
"omg take that out of your signature." ~ pink arrows
Well said!
While I prefer floating through caves with a gentle fin stroke as opposed to crawling through mud while scraping knees and elbows... I certainly enjoy the experience of leaving the outside world behind and the adventure of exploring the next few feet in front of me. It makes me feel like a child, in a good way, where concentration and imagination are part of the equation.
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As a pastor I am amazed that some of my best communions with God are when I am in the underworld!
The ADM Exploration Team hosts several dry cave / vertical clinics each year. We too feel it is important to educate cavers about the entire karst landform.
In conjunction with the Cave Alliance and Light Monkey's Cave Summit, Jon Bojar and I will be conducting a dry cave / vertical clinic on October 13th.
That's the situation in the UK. The Cave Diving Group used to only admit experienced cavers, nowadays it is no longer a condition to join but anyone trying to qualify under the CDG training programme has to demonstate that they have "dry" caving experience as well as time served underwater. Until very recently you could join the CDG without any diving qualifications at all but now you have to reached a minimum standard of open water training. Fortunately this is not retrospective otherwise some of our more senior members would forefeit their status.
Like the discussion about whether the CDS should issue C-cards, the CDG is agonising over the same issues. The mentoring system by which UK cave divers learn under the auspices of the CDG is free of charge and done on a voluntary basis. People are getting a lot more nervous about legal liability.
Personally I think "dry" caving experience is essential to being a fully rounded cave diver. Knowning how caves "work" may well save your live and a love of caving increases your enjoyment of the underground environment rather than treating these precious resources as just another "fun" or "challenging" place to dive.
i'd go tourist dry caving, but buying more equipment & crawling in the mud don't sound fun to me. at this point, at least - i'd never rule it out. but i don't have any current urge to see moist rocks without a reg in my mouth.
proud cave tourist!
I really don't understand the point of insisting that cave divers dry cave.
When I got interested in cave diving, I collected information on the geology and hydrology of the Yucatan. It wasn't terribly hard to do, and people were very helpful. I have read about cave ecology and the life that has adapted to this low-energy environment. I learned to dive in caves from people who have a VERY strong bent toward conservation and scientific inquiry.
I am also almost 60 years old, small and arthritic. Why should I spend time learning to rappel and use Jumar climbers? I can see everything in a cave that a dry caver can see -- maybe sometimes more, because of my 3-dimensional freedom. I can read everything they can read. How would it make me either a better cave diver or a better steward of caves, if I had to cope with gravity to enter them?
My instructor said you can always tell which ones were dry cavers first, they never stay close to the line and are all over the place. The people that are divers first are always right next to the line.
Funny, I find the opposite to be true. Sump divers depend heavily on the line, since they tend to dive low visibility caves, and that is the ONLY reference available. It took me years to learn to swim beyond an arms length from the line.
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