Cave diving has always sounded terrifying to me because it combines two human instincts at once: fear of drowning and fear of being trapped. One mistake down there doesn’t leave much room for improvisation.
Don’t forget the fear of being blind. One of the ways they often die is accidentally kicking up silt with their flippers. It fills the surrounding water, making it impossible to see and find their way out, and it doesn’t settle again until long after their oxygen runs out. And the more you panic, the more you kick up.
I did a very tiny small baby cave dive, like… 20–40 feet, straight line. They told us about the silt thing but man… the person in front of me kicked up so much shit, I couldn’t see anything. all I knew was that “forward is out” and kept swimming.
I didn’t really panic, because I knew it was a baby cave, but man if it was a serious cave? Rip.
Honestly I was mostly just annoyed I couldn’t see shit. The most scared I’ve been underwater goes to night diving.
Its so fucking dark. Good God its just pitch black in every direction and all you have for light is this tiny fuck off flashlight.
I was first into the water and man theres something fucking guts wrenching about tipping over backwards into the abyss. It activates a primal part of your brain that does not want you to be in the water at night. I almost chickened out, I was so shaken.
People did chicken out and I don’t blame them.
That being said once youre in the water and everything is “set” it was one of the most incredible experiences in my life. Manta rays in Hawaii attracted to the plankton which are attracted to a giant spotlight in the water (that gets turned on once you swim down to it, making it not so dark.)
That being said emphasis on “scared” because I’m not actually sure it was that dangerous. The baby cave was honestly probably more dangerous, though I think the drift diving I’ve done might top that.
nothing like the instructor telling you “currents are really strong today, normally we wouldn’t take people out, but youre all really experienced divers so if youre comfortable we’ll do it.”
yeah… red flag of a sentence in retrospect. I’m not sure I want to know how fast the currents were back then but I’ve never quite felt anything like being thrown around in the ocean like that. At least that was relatively shallow water so surfacing was easy.
Of course! I love diving so its a fun one to talk about.
If I had my dive log book I could give more details (like the drift current speed) but its at my parents house with all my gear and that’s in another state lol.
I had about 150 dives under my belt before I ever did my first night dive (I was not an advanced diver by any means but definitely quite comfortable in the water).
It was a shore dive where you kicked out about 30m and then just dropped down at a buoy line, couldn’t be easier. I’d done that dive plenty of times in the day, you just follow the rope down to a concrete filled bucket, easy peasy.
Holy shit. As I started to drop and the darkness pooled around me my breathing got REAL quick. Got down to the bottom and I recognized that I was freaking out some so I just chilled for a minute looking around and getting used to my light beam being my entire vision space.
After about two minutes I got thrilled/excited/amazed instead of panicky, and after that it’s never been an issue, but it took a deliberate, conscious effort to stow away my lizard brain and force myself to realize that I was not in existential danger.
I LOVE night diving, I’m a night owl anyways so it’s all the things I love about the peace and quiet of the night, AND the peace and quiet of diving. It’s bliss.
But yeah, that first drop into the blackness… Woo. I’ll always remember it just as vividly as my first open water boat dive.
Cave diving has always sounded terrifying to me because it combines two human instincts at once: fear of drowning and fear of being trapped. One mistake down there doesn’t leave much room for improvisation.
Don’t forget the fear of being blind. One of the ways they often die is accidentally kicking up silt with their flippers. It fills the surrounding water, making it impossible to see and find their way out, and it doesn’t settle again until long after their oxygen runs out. And the more you panic, the more you kick up.
I did a very tiny small baby cave dive, like… 20–40 feet, straight line. They told us about the silt thing but man… the person in front of me kicked up so much shit, I couldn’t see anything. all I knew was that “forward is out” and kept swimming.
I didn’t really panic, because I knew it was a baby cave, but man if it was a serious cave? Rip.
Honestly I was mostly just annoyed I couldn’t see shit. The most scared I’ve been underwater goes to night diving.
What made night diving so bad?
Its so fucking dark. Good God its just pitch black in every direction and all you have for light is this tiny fuck off flashlight.
I was first into the water and man theres something fucking guts wrenching about tipping over backwards into the abyss. It activates a primal part of your brain that does not want you to be in the water at night. I almost chickened out, I was so shaken.
People did chicken out and I don’t blame them.
That being said once youre in the water and everything is “set” it was one of the most incredible experiences in my life. Manta rays in Hawaii attracted to the plankton which are attracted to a giant spotlight in the water (that gets turned on once you swim down to it, making it not so dark.)
That being said emphasis on “scared” because I’m not actually sure it was that dangerous. The baby cave was honestly probably more dangerous, though I think the drift diving I’ve done might top that.
nothing like the instructor telling you “currents are really strong today, normally we wouldn’t take people out, but youre all really experienced divers so if youre comfortable we’ll do it.”
yeah… red flag of a sentence in retrospect. I’m not sure I want to know how fast the currents were back then but I’ve never quite felt anything like being thrown around in the ocean like that. At least that was relatively shallow water so surfacing was easy.
Thanks for the reply, that’s really awesome!
Of course! I love diving so its a fun one to talk about.
If I had my dive log book I could give more details (like the drift current speed) but its at my parents house with all my gear and that’s in another state lol.
I had about 150 dives under my belt before I ever did my first night dive (I was not an advanced diver by any means but definitely quite comfortable in the water).
It was a shore dive where you kicked out about 30m and then just dropped down at a buoy line, couldn’t be easier. I’d done that dive plenty of times in the day, you just follow the rope down to a concrete filled bucket, easy peasy.
Holy shit. As I started to drop and the darkness pooled around me my breathing got REAL quick. Got down to the bottom and I recognized that I was freaking out some so I just chilled for a minute looking around and getting used to my light beam being my entire vision space.
After about two minutes I got thrilled/excited/amazed instead of panicky, and after that it’s never been an issue, but it took a deliberate, conscious effort to stow away my lizard brain and force myself to realize that I was not in existential danger.
I LOVE night diving, I’m a night owl anyways so it’s all the things I love about the peace and quiet of the night, AND the peace and quiet of diving. It’s bliss.
But yeah, that first drop into the blackness… Woo. I’ll always remember it just as vividly as my first open water boat dive.