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Jeff, I thought you would take some flack on this but you are absolutely correct. There is a time and place for solo diving but not nearly as often as many out there belive. Sump exploration in body tubes takes a lot of mental committment and I just don't think I have that anymore (I'll stick to the big stuff). The diving you're doing is so far from "recreational cave diving" that it is virtually a completely different activity. The solo diving everyone is discussing is BS bravado and what you do shouldn't be compared to it. I really think that there is a basic agreement about solo diving out of necessity and safety vs the I-don't-need-no-stinkin'-buddy mindset. The long term people on this list know that I don't slam anyone unless I have personally witnessed their idiocy. With that said, Bill Renaker is a danger to cave diving and needs to give up teaching. C. > Greetings list, > > Obviously a buddy is a good thing for many reasons. They are there to help > with problems. They are there with another nearly complete set of usable > senses thus, added input. Agreeably, they add a lot in the way of safety. > However I believe there are exceptions. > Now before we start yelling hear me out. I'm not condoning solo diving, > I'm not condoning the article that is referenced...I did not even read it. > More than half of my cave diving is done in low visability cold water > sumps. Now when I'm looking at the prospect of pushing a new sump I have to > take many things into consideration. Often when gearing up to push a sump, > I'm laying on my back in a low passage. Perhaps with less than 18" of > ceiling height. This can be near a cave entrance or perhaps thousands of > feet from the entrance. Sometimes there can be several feet of mud to > sludge through before I can actually float. Of course by the time I reach > into the sump, what vis was there has been replaced with the fog. Ok so > here I am in the middle of a silt cloud, reel in hand, probing the cave > walls for a possible lead. I'm looking for what might be there but I have > to rely on touch to find it. Often I have to swim in a zig zag pattern as > direction finding can be difficult. When there is no vis, no line, there is > nothing to follow except the walls. Where is my buddy during all this? He > is standing by at the entrance to the sump. Should I fail to return in a > predetermined time frame, he will then enter the sump to assist(However to > date this has not been necessary). If find the passage goes (yes some sumps > go for thousands of feet)...and begin to have some visbility, I will tie > off and return. Once a line is in place in a secure location either within > or beyond the sump, then solo is no longer required. I always thought of > out of light drills and buddy contact as contingency plans. Drills that we > do to prepare for conditions that go sour after the dive has commenced. I > think when most divers run into the need for buddy contact they are in fact > turning the dive. The dive has been called. There are exceptions and this > is not the case with sump diving. The goal is to push on, to break the sump. > Having been a caver for more than 20 years I have always looked for the > safest way to push caves. So when I began sump diving I tried to take the > same approach within the sumps...Think it out and do it safely. I began my > sump diving solo. It seemed that to have another diver on a push dive in > low tight passages in no vis, would not be doing it safely. Have I always > pushed sumps solo? No, However the times that I had a buddy(on a low tight > sump push) I was more concerned with where he was and what his head was > doing than where I was going. The times there is some vis it seems that two > divers would always make it worse. Not because of poor tecnique, rather due > to the tight silty passage. It was indeed counterproductive. It can take > many hours, even days in the cave to set up a sump dive. I do want them to > be safe as well as productive. One of the more recent times, one of my two > dive buddies that were with me on this particular dive, failed to observe > the hold signal when I was pushing into a low passage, my unknown buddy > followed me in and lost the line. This was more than 1100' from the > entrance. He had the line in his hand one minute then pop!! it was gone. > Since I had no idea that he had followed me into this sump, I had no idea > he was not waiting for me at beginning of the low silty passage. Waiting on > the line that had been laid up to that point (Where he should have been). > So I'm pushing forward the ceiling against my back...My belly plowing > through the silt. Soon it became to tight for me to continue forward. I > turned and began to reel out. After about a hundred feet I kicked something > that felt different than everything else around me. I backed up a little, > reached back and found a diver. I felt around for a hand put it on the > line...pushed the hand toward the way out, made buddy contact and began to > think. Now what if I had returned to the beginning of this push and my > buddy was not there? I could have either thought he had left the cave for > some reason. (This would have been unlikly as buddy no. two did indeed hold > his position and would/could have seen him exit) Or I might have realized > that he followed me into the sump and was lost. I thank God that I did find > him on the way out. I would have had no better than a 50/50 chance making > the correct decision on the way to go search. Other than buddy #2 who did > hold his position and would/could have seen him go torward the exit. > Yes I admit, this was a cluster of a dive and would like to prevent this > from ever happening again, So I remind my buddy (who is still by buddy) > about this from time to time. It was his inexperience ( he was only in his > second year of sump diving)and my poor dive planning combined that allowed > this to occur. But I was responsible, and make no acception for that fact. > Now I'd like to find the "best" way for two sump divers to go through Low, > Tight, Low vis/No vis sumps while deploying line. Is my buddy to be holding > my thigh? His other hand on the line to keep him/us from becoming entangled > as we move forward? In my experience, this make it awkward to make forward > progress and increases the likelihood that we will become entangled. It > also means any vis that is there will be wiped out twice as fast. So if I'm > in a low tight underwater crawl in front of my buddy there is not much I > can do if he squeezes my thigh. I can back up, I can stop, I can move > forward, maybe even pass the long hose. But if he is stuck. I can not turn > around to help him until I make it past the restriction, if there is a past > the restriction. Some tunnels are just small tunnels. > To be honest, My comfort level while pushing no vis tight sumps is far > better when I'm solo, than if I were to have a buddy along. > But as I said above, once the line has been tied off in or beyond the sump, > then passing these restrictions with buddy teams is no problem. > Laying line in teams in big passage with vis is the correct way to push,IMO. > After laying line (with and without buddy) in these conditions, I have to > say that I personally think Solo is safer. For me, solo always goes > smoother than with buddy duing a sump push. > > Approx six months ago I recovered the body of a 19 year old caver. He was > in a very tight restricted passage heading into a downward slope with > inches of airspace and lots of mud. One of his arms was reaching out in > front of him, the other trapped to his side. It took me and several others > working over a period of five hours to move him approx. ten feet. Another > couple of hours to put him in a sked, then still another 30 minutes to > reach an area where there was room enough to load him into a Stokes for the > haul out of the vertical entrance. He basically drowned in mud. His buddies > said he did not seem to struggle very long before they presumed him dead. > They could not free him from his fatal situation. > While this may not be related to cave diving as such..it is more likely the > type restrictions sump divers may encounter in a no mount situation. > Agreed, Judgment has alot to do with push or don't push in these instances. > I personally would not have pushed this tight of downward passage > underwater....But there are those who do. I'd hate to be trapped like that > in a underwater cave....It would be even worse if my buddy was ahead of me > and I was blocking his exit. > > Now I know there may be people who are going to start calling me a stroke, > But I'm not....I want to know a better/safer way of pushing sumps safely > with buddies... In fact I'll always continue to look for better ways to > acheive all my goals in life. So any advice on the proper way to do this > would be most welcomed. I only ask that these opinions come from those who > have actually pushed sumps and are currently in the active mode of doing so > on a regular basis. Even advice on how teams push no vis caves in general > would be useful. > Of course everyones opinion will be of interest to many. > > I know there are many sump divers (probably solo and team players) out > there who I will now ask to step up. Lets hear what methods you guys use. > If you do it solo be honest, Speak up. If you know the best way then tell > me/us. Don't just slam...explain. > Does Oliver Isler still dive solo? If so, has he made his reasoning for > doing so clear? Is he a stroke for doing solo dives? I don't believe so. > How about the dozens of other active Sump divers who have studied these > same questions and also feel that some dives are best done solo. How about > the other active sump divers that push into these type passages as teams. > Share you approach. I have not closed my mind. Lets all help find the best > way to do these type dives, safely. > > "SILT HAPPENS"JD JEFF DISLER > SAFE CAVING NSS 26000 > Chris Elmore Network Administrator University of SC (803) 777-1534 office (803) 348-3055 mobile Chris@sc*.ed*
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