Why is cave diving so dangerous? Answers from Reddit
You know cave diving is underwater diving in water filled caves without direct vertical access to the surface, open air or light. So, it’s dangerous without any doubt. But, why is cave diving so dangerous? To the point people with 20+ years of diving experience refuse to do so. Recently a Redditor asked this question in public.
Here is what the Reddit community thought about it.
The Problem?
Here the user who asked the above problem has upvoted than 8500 within 12 hours of asking the above question.
Here are the top most upvoted and successful answers.
it’ll be a lot longer before you can surface
In a cave you would have to find your way back out, meaning it’ll be a lot longer before you could surface even if you knew exactly how to get out.
Certified cave diver
This Redditor is a certified cave diver. He has clearly described why cave diving is so dangerous. He has five reasons for this question
Certified cave diver here. Caves are hazardous for several major reasons, but this list isn’t everything:
(1) It’s a hard overhead environment. Unlike open water, you cannot swim up to safety. You have to solve your problem in place or be prepared to swim out, which can be several hundred yards or more.
(2) Orientation is more challenging. There are no sources of natural light. There may be little or no water current to help you establish direction. You need to be extraordinarily competent with mental mapping and setting/following navigation lines and markers without getting tangled.
(3) Cave dives are often significantly deeper and longer than a regular dive. We incur decompression obligations and have to manage our ascent/exit carefully so that we do not get the bends. We’re typically using more than one gas mixture (blends of air, oxygen, and helium) and we have to use them properly. The wrong gas at the wrong depth can kill you in less than a minute.
(4) Caves often have silty floors or muddy water. We have to move carefully and maintain impeccable technique to ensure that we don’t cause a “silt out” (dust cloud) that obscures everything.
(5) Our equipment is more complex. I carry a minimum of 2 of everything I need and 3 of anything that will save my life. My equipment for a cave dive weighs more than I do!
Reddit User: PM_YOUR_MANATEES
A Redditor has accepted the above answer as a very detailed answer. And also, he wanted to add one more thing.
Professional cave diving teacher
OOne of the Redditors is teaching cave diving full time for a living. He thought people incorrectly determine the risk in what they are doing or about to do. So unknown cave diving unknowns kill.
So, to sum it up
According to Reddit users, there are many reasons why is cave diving so dangerous. Hard overhead environment, Orientation is more challenging, equipment is more complex and so many reasons to danger cave diving as of their experience.
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