A letter to the open water diving community from the NACD

[Walter Pickel]

A Letter for the Open Water Diving Community



Since the 2007 dive season in Florida is underway we at the NACD would like to take the opportunity to discuss with you an important topic related to diving in Florida.

This year has had its share of cave-related diver fatalities. Currently, the death toll in Florida caves includes two experienced cave-trained divers and two non-cave trained open water certified divers. This adds to the fact that over the years the NACD has seen an unacceptable rate of non cave trained divers perishing in the cave environment. Most of this is likely due to the divers not being fully informed of the hazards and specialized training that diving into the caves requires.

Our guidelines of accident analysis have shown that the following are the primary causes for untrained divers dying in caves:

• Lack of training for the overhead environment.
• Lack of using a permanent guideline when in the environment.
• Not using safe and proven gas management rules.
• Diving too deep, beyond their level of training.
• Not using the proper equipment for the environment.

Over the years we have found that divers have perished for all the above reasons. Open water-trained divers, attracted to the crystal clear waters and inviting cavern entrances, can unknowingly enter a cave. Their flutter kicks stir up the silty bottom, which slowly closes the door of visibility behind them. Eventually they turn and have lost visual reference to the surface and with no line of reference may inadvertently follow the clearer water deeper into the cave or spend precious moments blindly searching for the exit, which eludes them.

The NACD hopes you will review these guidelines before considering which dive sites you will visit. Our Public Relations and Safety committees have volunteers that are always available to speak to you, your local dive shop or dive club. To arrange for one of our Public Relations members to speak to you please contact Walter Pickel at 813-843-1588 or send email to pr@safecavediving.com.

Go to http://www.safecavediving.com/safetybrochure and download a copy of our safety brochure for you to help educate yourself and other divers of the hazards involved with cavern and cave diving.

In closing, if you have any comments or questions about cave related safety in your area please contact the NACD Safety Officer Richard Dreher at 612-508-4469 or send email to safety@safecavediving.com.


Jeff Bauer, Rick Murcar, Larry Green, Jim Wyatt, Bert Wilcher, Richard Dreher and Tracy Grubbs
Board of Directors, National Association for Cave Diving

[Gibby]

Thanks for the post Walter.
How can we help keep inexperienced divers out of the systems without being A-holes? Or do we need to be harder A-holes? We all know it is almost impossible to keep an eye on the backwoods caves that I am particularly fond of and places like Ginne are fairly well guarded but they all get their share of deaths as well. Does anybody else beleive that places like The Ballroom, Devils Den, Blue Grotto, and Paradise Springs help in fueling the fire by allowing OW divers in a overhead environment? They see how easy these places are and think they can give Crystal Beach a whirl with a single 80 and a C-4 light.

[sskasser]

That's a tough one, but one that definitely merits additional discussion. There will always be those that will believe they are the exception and do it anyway. And there will always be those that just simply don't "get it", don't pay attention to the signs or listen to warnings. And there will even be trained cave divers that push their own limits to a bad conclusion.

Is it really being an A-hole if you're saving someone from themselves by stopping them? On the other hand, how many of us carry our c-card in our drysuit pocket? How do we "police" the inexperienced divers without overly harassing the divers that are properly trained and experienced?

I certainly wish I had answers instead of questions.

[Angie Reim]

Regarding Letter to the Open Water Community:

Good post. Scream more, scream louder. Thankfully I heard this message before moving forward to Cavern and then Cave. My open water instructors often repeated this message. I hope posts like this make their way to the Open Water forums.

To those doubtful folks:

It 'may' not help but it surely will not hurt. At least the cave diving organizations will have fulfilled one of their responsibilities toward OW divers.

[Walter Pickel]

I wanted to also add that this letter will be in SCUBA News, Northeast Wreck Diver, PADI's journal and other publications.

If anyone has been following this issue, a separate set of letters were sent to the LDS's that were running "trips" to Eagle's Nest and Buford.

[Limestone Cowboy]

I wanted to also add that this letter will be in SCUBA News, Northeast Wreck Diver, PADI's journal and other publications.

If anyone has been following this issue, a separate set of letters were sent to the LDS's that were running "trips" to Eagle's Nest and Buford.

I'm interested in who/what shops these were.

Drew

[Walter Pickel]

Thanks for the post Walter.
How can we help keep inexperienced divers out of the systems without being A-holes? Or do we need to be harder A-holes? We all know it is almost impossible to keep an eye on the backwoods caves that I am particularly fond of and places like Ginne are fairly well guarded but they all get their share of deaths as well. Does anybody else beleive that places like The Ballroom, Devils Den, Blue Grotto, and Paradise Springs help in fueling the fire by allowing OW divers in a overhead environment? They see how easy these places are and think they can give Crystal Beach a whirl with a single 80 and a C-4 light.

It's an interesting proposition Gibby and I feel there may be some merit to your point -- not so much enabling but more desensitizing. However, I feel that places like Buford and Eagle's Nest are intimidating enough to scare most -- and of course Crystal Beach for that matter. However, that will never stop the "tough" divers that are not cave trained. That is something Darwin will unfortunately take care of.

[wingman]

I wanted to also add that this letter will be in SCUBA News, Northeast Wreck Diver, PADI's journal and other publications.

If anyone has been following this issue, a separate set of letters were sent to the LDS's that were running "trips" to Eagle's Nest and Buford.

I'm interested in who/what shops these were.

Drew

Drew, Check out the tds discussion on this...the shop names are there, see the diving eagles nest thread in the cave diving lounge. Bill

The NACD letter is an excellent warning. Unfortunately, some instructors do open water and cavern training dives at Eagles Nest. This, in my opinion, encourages the students to go back and maybe become a statistic.

[Gibby]

I just had a friend who is taking a advanced nitrox class tell me he is doing his checkout at EN. Is this what you are referring to? I think even they should be sticking to Hudson grotto or something along these lines.