After completing a 500-foot cave dive by himself, in low vis, Dr. Mike -- a fairly accomplished cave diver -- was doing his deco stop in 9 feet of water when he suddenly found himself in a dangerous predicament. According to Mike, the conditions were:
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No wing inflation.
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Almost no dilutant.
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No O2 (it was maybe 10 bar left in a 2L)!
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No bailout (I had staged it as I was decoing on O2).
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Only one fin.
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Lost inside a cave with no line and no idea which direction to take.
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8 hours on scrubber so no idea if its going to run out any moment.
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Zero visibility
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This was not good.
What an understatement. Oddly, Dr. Mike has several stories posted under the umbrella heading "Screw-up Stories." Maybe it's time for a new hobby.
[Via Scuba Geek]
1. Interesting...this was being discussed on the GavinScooter list, Scubageek must be a reader. To Dr Mike's defense, he lives in a area where finding a qualified cave diving buddy is limited to about 5 people and it's basically dive solo or don't dive at all.
But this is the reason why you never live the guideline until you reach the surface.
Posted at 11:51PM on Aug 19th 2006 by Bill Reals