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Comment by hkchad | Hacker News Reader

Tourist Cave diver here, kicking up a little dirt happens on almost every dive, we train to deal with complete blackout scenarios, while sharing air, in restrictions but that rarely happens. Typical incidents relate to people doing a dive over their experience level or getting lost and running out of gas. Some cave systems are truly huge in scale and navigation can be difficult if you do a huge dive in one go. Personally i will only make 1 new navigation decision per dive so i can always visualize the cave. This goes out the window for those doing exploration type dives, then anything can happen.

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Honest question, why do it? What’s the attraction of cave diving? Are underwater caves exciting enough that it’s worth the risk? Or is the risk itself the main thrill? Or is your perception that it’s not that risky?

I can understand the attraction of e.g. wingsuits, because the idea of flying like a bird is compelling, even if I would never risk my own life to do it. Although there’s definitely more than a few wingsuit jumpers who are doing it specifically to dice with Death e.g. proximity flying.

Adrenaline is a powerful drug. And there's also a 100% focus (or very close to it), something that's really hard to achieve otherwise. Keeping yourself fit counts as well. I don't cave dive but I do ride MX which is also considered a risky sport. I'd say you'll hear similar answers from everyone dealing with risky sports/activities.

Surprisingly there are skilled but unfit cave divers. You are neutrally buoyant most of the time with little need for major physical exertion. I was a technical driver for over 6 years. The more efficient you become the less energy and air you use. I like to parachute and motorcycle too. I am a certified rope technician (SPRAT) and that takes the most physical exertion of the bunch for me, but that gets better with skill too. Gravity, the plane and the moto do most of the work for the others. That's why I go to a boxing gym for fitness among other activities.

It's not an adrenaline thing. Cave dives last for hours, not a few seconds like BASE jumping. If anything cave explorers do everything they can to minimize adrenaline production in order to hold their breathing rates down.

Personally I do it because it's the closest I will ever get to feeling like a space explorer. You are neutrally buoyant (weightless) completely relying on your equipment for survival and able to see places IN the earth very few people will ever experience, plus I love a challenge. When most people think of cave diving they imagine really small holes and limited visibility. Sure, that can be it if you want or you can visit places like this,

https://youtu.be/TTICP6m-FyY?t=594

^ THAT is why I do it. Also I spent about 2 years in initial training and continue to train every time I dive. Our goal is to drive the risk to 0 which isn't reality but I feel less safe driving to some of the caves than I do diving them.

I guess you might be saying that, but it's probably not actually true. "I feel less safe driving to some of the caves than I do diving them" see https://www.dg-aviation.de/en/library/safety-comes-first and https://chessintheair.com/the-risk-of-dying-doing-what-we-lo...

So the places we drive to are pretty remote and not in 'safe' spots. So I could sit at the hotel/resort and have no issues or get out on the road to the dive site. Every trip has had a story, not all good ones, but every dive has been worth it.

I am not a cave diver myself, but I do a lot of scuba diving and am friends with cave divers. Cave diving is one of the only remaining ways where an ordinary middle-class person can do original exploration without being part of some bigger organization. They can just get together with a few friends, fly to Mexico or wherever, and potentially go where no human has ever gone before.

I'd hate to see your account suddenly stop posting.

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