Lucky near miss free diving in the UK

[Squirrel Girl]

Someone let me know about an interesting near miss on Sunday in the UK. A guy thought he was free diving a 2 m (6 ft) sump, but was confused and free dove a 30 m (100 ft) sump instead!!!!!! He managed to make it to the far side and then was found by folks using a bypass crawl

Here's the link:

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,4538.0.html

[Jay]

WOW! Good info, seems very similar to the issues we have with OW divers going into caves.

[Squirrel Girl]

Well, apparently, in Europe, free diving short sumps is SOP. They rig the short ones with heavy line for pulling on. And the guy who dove in should have recognized that he was diving in a sump with guideline, not haul line.

[Arnold Mesiser]

There are still some "old" cavers around here that free dive sumps.We take the newly minted divers aside and set them straight after they have been taught this foolishness.Holding your breath does not belong in caves IMHO.

The parties involved certainly kept their composure!

Thanks for posting that Barbara.

[Webmaster]

I agree, I think the practice crosses the line from risky to simply foolish. It's kind of like saying we got away with it, so it must be a good idea to continue doing it just because of that.

[Squirrel Girl]

I argued with my European friend that free diving is not a good idea.

(I argued with him a long time ago--so when this event happened, it made me think of me, so he forwarded me the posting of this event).

My friend's argument was that diving is to gear intensive and can lead to danger from that.

Huh??????? My response was, "Do you jump down pits because vertical gear is too gear intensive?"

Anyway, I could almost be pursuaded that it's OK to free dive a 1 meter sump, but beyond that, I think it's a really bad idea.

In this particular case, I think you also have to consider the people-are-stoopid factor. You can have rules about how thick the line is (eg. 4 vs 10 mm) as to whether it's a free diving sump or a scuba diving sump, but there comes a time when it goes beyond good/bad practice to you can't help all people.

I mean it's sort of like the grim reaper sign. We argue about it drawing the wrong sort into caves. What are ya gonna do?

I think this particular event is is less an example of a how bad free diving is, but an anomally. Nonetheless, I don't condone free diving.

[FW]

Another problem with free diving sumps is bad air. There was a case in GB a few years back where there was a series of short sumps. They would free dive one, breath for awhile, then dive the next one. Eventually they used up all the O2 in the air spaces, and some cavers died.

[Squirrel Girl]

I guess the other question is, if you're going to a sleazy UK cave (I mean this in a non judgemental way, but in the small, tight, no-viz, extremely muddy, and cold way), and you've got a couple short sumps, I'm assuming it's not like you need to go loaded for bear like you would to go on a 10,000' dive in FL. You probably wouldn't need a BC, fins, etc., etc. You'd probably have two 13 cu ft ponies (in whatever the metric equivalent is). So how much gear would you need? Regs and a mask? Though I suppose free divers are off the hook for any training. How's that for a good idea?

[Duncan Price]

Free-diving short sumps has a long history in Europe and is not limited to the UK. In fact, during exploration many sumps will have been investigated by free-diving. Sump 1 in Swildon's Hole is routinely free dived by cavers not even wearing wetsuits. For longer sumps a full wetsuit, hood and mask are advised and the free diver will also add weights (left by the sump for others to use). Sump 9 in Swildon's Hole is easily reached by free-divng though you only have to dive 4 sumps (6 ft, 25 ft, 35 ft and 15 ft) to get there. Free divable sumps generally have a thick haul line of climbing rope through them as opposed to "thinner" cave line (though this is a lot thicker than used in Fl).

There have been a few instances of people free-diving the wrong sump. None were fatal.