Your 3 most stressful cave stories

[FW]

1. Dove and came out alive

2. Dove and came out alive

3. Dove and came out alive

So this means ALL your cave dives are stressful, and you only listed the top three?

[Germie]

I have been in a cave during an earthquake. It was not a stressfull dive, just really really strange one. It was during my cave class in Kao Sok NP. I was in front, using the reel to connect it from ow to the mainline. Then suddenly there was a strange current, really heavy. I grabbed a bit stalagtite to hold myself. My buddies where gone. Then the current went in a couple of seconds to the other side and the buddies came back. Debris falling from ceiling. The instructor showed where the line was and then we did our dive. No current, nothing.
After the dive the boatsman was in panic and shouted big wave, big wave. We where just thinking is is getting mad or something. On the way back there is a 'telephone signal spot' and the instructor was called by his wife if he was alive. Yes, what is wrong. There was an earthquake in Phang Nga, and that caused a big wave (tsunami) over the lake in kao sok. Several boats sunk. Ahhh, that was what happened when we where in the cave. As we didn't know what happened, there was no panic.
Sadly Kao sok is closed for diving since 2 divers died in caves there.

Further I have been stucked in a cave, and been lost in a wreck where I counted how many minutes I had to live if I could not find the exit of the wreck, I have been thinking if I would share air if my buddy runs out of gas and still been lost in a wreck. I have made there the most wrong decision if you follow the rules: if you just can save yourself, do it and do not try to save your buddy, better 1 diver alive than 2 dead. But I did, I shared gas in the wreck and happely we found in time the exit. So it was the best choice afterwards. I always use this example while teaching. We did not run a line over/in the wreck due to group pressure. It was not needed was said.

[ARY]

Oh Jumala Kristus... I guess my wife is right about cave diving - if cave and buddies won`t kill you the drunk driver on I-95 will.. I will add for a person who would keep ID private.

When there was no yet "paved parkin" at Friedman my buddy had to have an emergency exit up that sinkhole due to severe diarrhea call. At the time doubles were dropped in a mud and zipper was defeated his inner pressure already reached the burst disk limit. Acting quickly he found a raccoon hole and unloaded the black water tank into it. Unfortunately the hole was also a home for a healthy family of yellowjackets. He found out in a few minutes that it is not only freaking painful but he is also allergic to the bites. I had a cross country run in 98F weather to the main parking lot wearing unzipped drysuit before we finally evacuated.

[FW]

Oh Jumala Kristus... I guess my wife is right about cave diving - if cave and buddies won`t kill you the drunk driver on I-95 will.. I will add for a person who would keep ID private.

When there was no yet "paved parkin" at Friedman my buddy had to have an emergency exit up that sinkhole due to severe diarrhea call. At the time doubles were dropped in a mud and zipper was defeated his inner pressure already reached the burst disk limit. Acting quickly he found a raccoon hole and unloaded the black water tank into it. Unfortunately the hole was also a home for a healthy family of yellowjackets. He found out in a few minutes that it is not only freaking painful but he is also allergic to the bites. I had a cross country run in 98F weather to the main parking lot wearing unzipped drysuit before we finally evacuated.

Yes, that would be stressful!

[shellmoundal]

So this means ALL your cave dives are stressful, and you only listed the top three?

I guess so Forrest. LOL I did get a bolt of lighting while diving in Catfish 3 years ago.

[FW]

... I did get a bolt of lighting while diving in Catfish 3 years ago.

Now that would be stressful!

[Northernone]

Here's 3. In hindsight 1 real stressful situation and 2 minor inconveniences.

1. Prior to training I ventured into some great 'swim through' areas with a flashlight and no line.... about 20 minutes after leaving the light zone I tried covering my light to see how dark it was.... resulted in my most stressful cave dive to date exiting the silted up labyrinth while praying my light didn't fail me and I didn't forget a turn.
2. SM stuck in a crack when my primary light failed.
3. (Apologies to my instructor) but during full cave when my instructor did his disappearing act mid dive as part of training and I immediately concluded it wasn't a drill and age had given way to valor and he was dead somewhere and I'd lost a living legend and was left to find and bring him out.

[PfcAJ]

I'll share a story from like 8 years ago. Details are as best as I remember them.

I was helping some friends of mine explore a tidally influenced spring right on the gulf a few years ago. The flow howls almost always, but we had a window where the flow was down during high tide.

We started off the day by putting in deco gas at 20, 70, and 120 which is just inside the cave maybe a hundred feet. There was a flow meter too, and that was just barely in the cave. Maybe the flow meter was at 100'? Anyways, the walls were covered in oyster shells so we wore leather work gloves to protect our hands when we pulled ourselves in against the flow. I'd say it was ginnie-ish flow, but pretty bad vis. 15ft or so.

This took us a few short dives to accomplish, but nothing crazy. 120 was nearly an open water dive. Other than the flow and oysters (and I had two left hand gloves. Thanks, Obama) it was a fairly benign setup.

So the two friends start their dive a bit before high tide when the flow is lowest, but one can't clear his ears past 70' and surfaces. His buddy waits down at 120 for a minute then sheds a few stages and a scooter and comes back up. They scrap the dive and hop out of the water. This leaves tanks down there and a scoot that we really don't want to leave in that place for maybe years. My buddy and I put our tanks back on and get ready to do a quick cleanup.

So we're down at 120 clipping on all the stuff and I'm noticing that we're being pulled into the cave! Not wild but it's clearly time to go. As we're heading out (and it's not far) the flow is getting stronger and stronger. I drop the scooter and stage and focus on making progress. Damn oyster shells are breaking off over and over and over and there's nothing else to pull on. The flow is now surpassing what we experienced earlier in the day but backwards. I could hear the flow. We're making terrible time. How far in are we? The line HAS to go up soon. Right? Finally we get to the flow meter and a loop of tubing snags my tanks. Stuck. Can't seem to shake it. I catch a glimpse of my buddy's SPG. Like 200psi. He's giving me the double thumbs and as much as I want to, I can't go anywhere. He can't see what I'm dealin with as the bay water is super dirty. One last shimmy and I'm free. We're both beatin' feet making way to the surface. No time for stops on the way up.

One of the exploration team put two and two together and realized we were way behind schedule. He threw his gear back on and was rocketing down to meet us. We passed him at 60' in open water. One track mind for us - get to the surface. We were both pulling the last breaths through the regs right as we broke the surface.

We just paused. Took a moment. Realized what almost happened. My buddy was white as a sheet and I'm sure I wasn't too different. Regs could be spun off without shutting off the valve. Out. Of. Gas. We walked on the razors edge that day and came out on the winning side. Literally any additional delay would have been the end of the road.

After some surface oxygen (precautionary) I took a picture of the spring from the dock. Trash was circling the vent like a slow whirlpool. It was unbelievable.

So here are my takeaways:

Don't start a dive with tanks that aren't full. Especially at new place. Bring extra sets or use stages leaving the main supply full.

Think of all the gear in the water as resources. The gas in the water wasn't "mine" so I didn't have the mindset to count it as an option. Obviously in hindsight we should have kept the gas with us and used it immediately.

Ask others for info on new sites. Someone has probably been there before. Ask! It turns out that a good handful of people knew of this caves tendency to reverse. It they assumed we all knew about it since it was such common knowledge. If this had happened when the exploration team was underway (at 240ft plus) the dive almost certainly would not have ended positively.

That's my most stressful dive. Hopefully it's a helpful story and gets gears turning about planning, resource management, and setup/ support procedures. Nothing else in my diving career has happened thats worth writing about.

[Kelly Jessop]

So here are my takeaways:

Don't start a dive with tanks that aren't full. Especially at new place. Bring extra sets or use stages leaving the main supply full.

Think of all the gear in the water as resources. The gas in the water wasn't "mine" so I didn't have the mindset to count it as an option. Obviously in hindsight we should have kept the gas with us and used it immediately.

Ask others for info on new sites. Someone has probably been there before. Ask! It turns out that a good handful of people knew of this caves tendency to reverse. It they assumed we all knew about it since it was such common knowledge. If this had happened when the exploration team was underway (at 240ft plus) the dive almost certainly would not have ended positively.

That's my most stressful dive. Hopefully it's a helpful story and gets gears turning about planning, resource management, and setup/ support procedures. Nothing else in my diving career has happened thats worth writing about.

Great advice related to your story!

[FW]

..So the two friends start their dive a bit before high tide when the flow is lowest...
...So we're down at 120 clipping on all the stuff and I'm noticing that we're being pulled into the cave! ...

Something doesn't rhyme here. Unless the first team went in well before high tide, the second team should have been pushed OUT, not IN ???