How do you stay inspired as a cave diver?

[TEKDiveUSA]

How do you stay inspired as a technical diver? What makes you want to learn/explore/research/dive something new?

[Kelly Jessop]

How do you stay inspired as a technical diver? What makes you want to learn/explore/research/dive something new?]

There is so little known about the cave ecosystem and there is so much discovery to be made. Exploration of new passage is the main driving force behind most cave divers,but understanding the cave ecosystem is a puzzle that never fails to fascinate me, and makes me constantly wonder what is going on. For example, we know of a insurgence/resurgence that flows in one direction,but we saw it change directions with a low river. Required a lot of though and hypothesis to figure out what was going on.

[patpicos]

There is so little known about the cave ecosystem and there is so much discovery to be made. Exploration of new passage is the main driving force behind most cave divers,but understanding the cave ecosystem is a puzzle that never fails to fascinate me, and makes me constantly wonder what is going on. For example, we know of a insurgence/resurgence that flows in one direction,but we saw it change directions with a low river. Required a lot of though and hypothesis to figure out what was going on.

+1 I've always been fascinated with predicting flooding conditions based on gut feel and some level of empirical data from gages/gauges. Obviously im missing many variables.

one item i've been curious about are what variables lead to good/poor visibility at Eagles Nest. Short of diving it daily throughout the year...its hard to make patterns

[FW]

I have been cave diving for almost 50 years. While I get most inspired diving virgin cave, I still need to stay in practice between discoveries, so I enjoy diving in caves I have already seen dozens or hundreds of times.

[Troglodyver]

Everything about the caves inspires me. Seriously. The caves are absolutely amazing. Their formation over aeons -- and still continuing -- is mind-boggling. The geohydrology that flows water through the aquifer. The gazillion fossils everywhere. The complexity of their passages. The appearance, and how it can completely change every few hundred feet. The aquatic life inside and around them.

The more I dive these caves, the more amazed I am. Everything about them is wondrous.

[MORGAN]

Everything about the caves inspires me. Seriously. The caves are absolutely amazing. Their formation over aeons -- and still continuing -- is mind-boggling. The geohydrology that flows water through the aquifer. The gazillion fossils everywhere. The complexity of their passages. The appearance, and how it can completely change every few hundred feet. The aquatic life inside and around them.

The more I dive these caves, the more amazed I am. Everything about them is wondrous.

Very well expressed. That about covers it for me, too. I like seeing caves. I was a caver before I was a diver, and I enjoy new caves and old favorites. If it wasn't for cave diving, I'd probably be one of those people who quit diving after a few years. But approaching 12 years full cave and 400 cave dives, I'm still excited. Maybe living in Vermont and only getting to do two cave diving trips and 30-40 cave dives a year has kept it fresh. The people I've met and friends I've made cave diving have been inspirational as well.

[Garyh]

1st would be Mexican caves ,
2nd would be no matter how well u perform in any given situation/circumstance you could of always done better

[graepaep]

Cave porn is what gets me going

[Rich]

Cave dive! It's the little things, a retreat from all the hassles of real life, inner peace, being the best you can be, pitting yourself against yourself, the satisfaction of improvement, the camaraderie with other cave divers and oh yeah did I mention that UW caves are the most glorious things...

Safe diving,

Rich

[cmint]

Get a scooter. Just a heads up though, your mask is going to leak from the grin on your face.