Comment by adriand
2 days ago
I truly don't understand the appeal. What is enjoyable about this experience? I like risky and athletic stuff and have done a bit of climbing (nothing technical) and the appeal there seems quite obvious - in addition to the adrenaline rush, you've got clean air, beautiful vistas and scenery, etc. A pitch-black, dank hole in the ground - ugh. The thought of getting lost, especially getting lost and losing illumination, seems like the ultimate nightmare. On the plus side, those big caverns with various mineral formations do look quite spectacular. But you tell me, what's fun about this?
For me, it was the challenge and allure of doing something relatively difficult and rare. The first time I saw a Stop - Prevent Your Death sign[0] at depth, I knew I wanted the training to go beyond it.
It's also really peaceful underground.
Amusingly enough, I can't handle blue-water or wall dives (vertigo), nor wrecks (those aren't supposed to be there!), but caves are no problem. You've got walls, floor, and ceiling as a frame of reference, and everything is nice and cozy. It's like the Earth is giving you a hug.
[0]: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vortex_Spring_cave...
I've done a few (~5-10?) cavern dives in the Yucatan, kindof on a dare/challenge. I met a man who said "I've always wanted to go cave diving in the Yucatan, it looks so beautiful and peaceful, you should try it!" ...and I did, probably within the year.
For me it was a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal), and I'm glad it kindof helped change or tighten my trajectory. SCUBA training is designed for you to succeed, and supposedly if you make it past your first 10 dives, you're much less likely to have any severe issues. For danger, each dive is equivalent to walking ~100 miles or biking ~50 miles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort#Leisure_and_sport
Some of the caverns are basically exactly like that scene from Star Wars where they land the Millenium Falcon in the mouth of the worm on the asteroid. It's pitch black, only your light is beaming around, there's little tiny flecks of "dust" in the absolutely clear water that you're floating in (seriously! it's like rain-water filtered through 50ft of limestone that's mostly undisturbed for centuries). Safe-ish if you're not dumb with a not-dumb buddy/guide, and focus on minimal impact. Take only memories, leave only bubbles.
There's a bit of a "science" component where you can see fossil remnants, or weird little fishies swimming around, and it is absolutely foreign, alien, and peaceful. I've experienced "halocline" (salt water under rain water, https://www.cenotetours.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/haloc... ) and thermocline (a coherent warm water "stream" flowing through regular water), seen turtles, puffer fish, sharks, urchins, octopus, and starfish (not in caves though!).
It's been years since I've done it, and I'd go through training/refresher again if I wanted to get back into it, and I'd really avoid "cave" diving (stupid tourist cavern routes that have 20-50 people per day are totally fine by me). It's a unique experience that supplements the general one (think: rock climbing / bouldering as an adjunct to hiking... "wow, I can do that too!")
It’s really fun to be good at something.
In sports like skydiving and technical cave/wreck diving people often assume you get an adrenaline rush doing it and that’s what draws people in.
Not the case (for me at least).
Rather, when you get good enough to be competent at these there’s no adrenaline. Adrenaline is when you are operating beyond your skill level. The satisfaction comes from calm, cool, collected execution, with the knowledge and training that allows you to avoid the dangers and do something exceptional with a much lower risk profile than an outsider would assume.
It’s also fun to play with gear (toys).
Cave diving is about the only remaining way for an ordinary middle-class person to do original exploration. There is still a lot of virgin cave in some areas so it's possible to go places where literally no human has ever been before. Sheck Exley, one of the most accomplished cave explorers, was a high school math teacher in Florida. As one other explorer put it, literally more people have been to the Moon than have reached the end of the line in the Wakulla Springs underwater cave system.
Open water diving around coral reefs and shipwrecks is simply beautiful. (Maybe sadly now less-so than it used to be.) Divers love to spend time down there in a weightless state.
I think what happens next, if you get deep enough into the sport, is that you become good at it and you are looking for stronger challenges to overcome yourself again and again. That's how you become a cave diver.
Still there are some special places down in the caves as well. And I think what makes them even more specials for the divers is the feeling of exclusivity that most people would never get to go there.