I've done cave diving twice. It would have only been once if I hadn't lost a bet. Diving in caves is absolutely no fun and it can be terrifying even for an experienced diver. I can't imagine having to cave dive in those conditions for a continuous 5 hour stretch... and when I think about these guys attempting it as their 1st ever dive (and that they are weakened and can't even swim) I know that the chances of disaster are basically 100%.
The whole situation has been making me crazy with sadness and anger. I almost can't bring myself to read the next news clip on this every time a new one comes out because of how hopeless it is.
Right there with you. My wife and I have been divers for years. She won’t even consider going into a cave. I have a couple times but the water was clear and I had a kick ass time for the 50 yards or so as I watched my air collect on the ceiling looking like a mirror.
A few areas I’ve been through were so small I had to gather up my gauges and deflate my vest so I could skinny through. It was kind of a rush.
But holy shit! Thinking of doing it in murky waters would scare the shit out of me. At some point I think I would just have the threat of dying kick in and get through it but how do you really know?
If the water level only dropped by a foot, how were those parts of the cave that are walkable now not walkable before? I'm clearly not a diving expert, but swimming through a foot of water while in scuba gear seems impractical.
Even if the water dropped from 5 feet to 4 feet, so the kids can now walk those parts, a cheap scuba mask could have fixed that problem.
Yeah - getting that all done and expecting the kids to hold their breaths through the shallows in complete darkness would not end well.
I don't know but a couple of the stories I read said that it helped big time that the level dropped.
Anything that helps is great.
Plus less time under the surface in murky water and walking where flashlights can illuminate everything around them has to go a long way to ease the stress..........even just a little.
We had almost zero visibility during our certification dive due to inexperienced divers and ridiculous silt. I can tell you that just doing a mask flood and clear under water with no visibility sucks even knowing you are only four feet from a clear shot to the surface. What these kids did is fucking amazing and I can only hope it makes them stronger.
I did actually. About 20 feet. Landed in a sitting position and F'd up my tail bone and my lower back has never been the same. Pine trees was my thing back in the day. Shoulda bought a chainsaw and got paid.
I used the HAHA button for your last line. But thought about the ouch button for the rest. Tail bones suck when you injur them.
Yesterday the news feed I was watching said that they took the weakest/sicklyest boys out 1st. Today I read that it was actually the other way around... the weakest boys are the last ones they are going to try and get out. This includes the coach because he was giving the boys his food in the beginning of all of this and is apparently in bad shape as a result.
The plus side is that the rescue divers have gone through the process multiple times now and are apparently better prepared because of it.
Yeah - they wanted to get it down and have a greater chance of success. And actually demonstrate success to the others. Makes sense.
I thought they would want to get the weakest out first. Good thing wiser people than me are running the operation.
They said they were getting the strongest kids out first because they wanted to practice with the strongest healthiest kids.
By the time they get to the weaker kids (who probably/hopefully aren't that weak) the divers will have had more experience at retrieving the kids.
The whole plan is ballsy and well-thought-out and intelligently planned and executed.
Bravo!
Yep and yep.
