I was diving with two of my buddies, let's name them Tweedledee (T1) and Tweedledum (T2). We were diving a cave that all of us have dove before, although T2 hadn't penetrated as far as myself and T1. The dive order was: myself leading, T2 in the middle and T1 in the back. We sandwiched T2 in between, since he hadn't been where we were going before. The dive went as planned for the penetration. We got to our turning point, a final T in the line where one end terminates on the wall a few feet away and the other disappears into a sidemount only hole. The last 200 feet of this penetration is in a low bedding plane with a sandy bottom, which opens up into a fairly decent sized room with the final T and sidemount passage beyond.

After everybody got a good look around I signaled "up" and all others confirmed. So we began our exit. T1 was now in the lead, with T2 behind him and me behind T2. Visibility was still excellent (100 ft plus), but I could see cloudy water ahead. The room pinches back down into a low bedding plane and there's enough of a flow to just glide back out, keeping a close watch on where the line is and making sure you don't get washed into a tight spot. This is one of those exits where, especially in zero viz, you want to relax and gently glide/swim through the low stuff.

Well, I saw T1 disappear into the cloud of sandy silt (more sand than silt, thank goodness) and then T2 disappeared. The cave, after pinching down to a height where you have to belly rub in the sand for some spots while your doubles are real close to the ceiling, takes a gentle right turn on the exit at this point. I entered the cloud and decided that visibility was bad enough that I had better OK the line and get into touch contact with T2.

I coasted gently, not wanting to make the viz worse since the current would just make it follow us, the cloud "pig penning" around us during the exit. Within a few seconds I found T2, who had properly stopped and waited for my touch contact confirmation. I gave him a gentle reassuring nudge and we proceeded to navigate slowly through the sand cloud and low ceiling.

Things were going OK until a few seconds later T2 suddenly swam quickly ahead (I actually caught a brief image of a fin flutter kicking in my face before he disappeared!). Oh, doo-doo, I thought. T2 told me later that he had to act fast, as T1 was unknowningly caught on the line and he was putting stress on the line.

In hindsight T2 made the right call, as I would have rather him leave me temporarily to rescue the line than to take the time to stop me on the line and tell me to wait. Well, T2 JUST managed to get the line unwrapped from T1's SPG.

The line at this point in the cave is standard reel size, not the heavy kermantle that can take more abuse and it has been laid around some of the tighter areas with rebar poles stuck in the ground to lessen the probability of a line trap in zero viz.

Well, unfortunately for T2, T1 THEN deadended into a line trap. He was following the line on the right side, when memory should have told him that after the right turn you want to flop over to the left side, since the right side pinches into a definite line trap. By this time I had caught back up with T2 and re-established touch contact. I thought at the time that he was the one having difficulties navigating and was probably getting scared.

I gave him a reassuring OK via touch contact and then a firm "let's go" push forward. He started again, but then after a few seconds he lunged forward a second time, leaving me on the line! This time he had to go and free T1, who had forgotten to move to the left side of the line and was busily trying as hard as possible to swim through limestone.

T2, showing incredible presence of mind, grabbed T1 and pulled him out. He then, in zero viz, aimed T1 on the other side of the line, to the only place in the passage where a backmount diver could make it. T1, like a salmon hell-bent on going upstream, just took off.

Meanwhile I'm in the back, slowly moving forward on the line and wondering where the hell my two buddies were! Finally I caught up with T2 and we got out of the zero viz low ceiling section into a small dome room.

In the distance I could barely make out T1's light disappearing around the corner of the next passageway and this was the first time I had any inkling of what really happened during the dive. We looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to exit. Some 50 feet later T1 finally had the presence of mind to stop and wait for us.

We all reformed into a team and exited with no further incidents. Later on, we all talked about what happened and T2 confided to me privately later that he wasn't sure he ever wanted to dive with T1 again, given his total breakdown of buddy skills in an actual zero vis situation.

First off, T1 never bothered to wait for T2 to get into touch contact when the zero viz hit. Second, T1 never felt the ever-increasing tug on his SPG when he caught the line and started to pull it. Thirdly, T1 blindly (mentally as well as physically) tried to swim out of a line trap without ever taking the time to stop and think. Finally, T1 just hauled ass once he saw clear water and it wasn't until some 50 feet and one minute later he thought to THEN wait for this buddies.

I commiserated with T2 on this situation and pointed out that he truly was tested that day by having to handle all of T1's screwups, during which he never lost his cool. He said that one of the reasons he was able to hang on was because we didn't forget our training and in between the cluster events at least the two of us re-established touch contact.

I admit it was reassuring to me as well . The most disturbing thing was the denial of wrong doing that T1 initially had; it took us a while to passionately convince him he screwed up royally.

Here is the narrative from T2's perspective, as told to the primary diver:

The visibility was low, when we entered the low bedding plane(or that tight area). I grabbed the main line and I was thinking I could do this; I practiced before in my Intro and Apprentice training. I first felt the tension on the line, then T1 dragging the line (wrapped around his SPG). I immediately swam towards him and unwrapped the line before he realized. At that moment I was uncomfortable, because T1 was very stressed (You could have seen that easily). Fortunately, you were right behind me. I did not have to go back to reestablish touch contact, or explain why I took off etc. Right after we resumed swimming ahead, the visibility dropped to zero. I saw T1. He was stuck on the right side of the cave breathing and kicking hard (flutter kick).

I stopped for a moment and I was thinking “this is not good, this can’t be happening” then you grabbed my ankle and pushed it forward. I was relieved that you were behind me. I grabbed your wrist back. You understood the signal and stopped. I was feeling the stress but I was calm.

I was thinking “Control your breathing, calm down…. thank God, you are behind me without any problem”. You were calm, you did not put pressure on me (or rush me) to understand what was going on. I did not even worry about you for one second. I did not even think that you might have had a problem. And also I knew that if I had failed to help T1, you could have helped me fix the problem. Anyway, I helped T1, then he took off.

I waited for a moment. I knew that you were behind me. We exited the cave without having any problem. All my training paid off at that moment. However, I must admit that your presence helped me cope with the problem as well as the cave training.