Have you ever participated in potholing or cave diving?

Putonahappyface

Putonahappyface

Member
I find potholing and cave diving strangely fascinating yet terrifying at the same time. Watching the below videos of people squeezing themselves through the smallest of gaps induce panic attacks, but I can't help myself. Has anyone here ever partaken in either potholing or cave diving and would like to share their experiences?



 
While I enjoy watching video's and seeing some of the amazing pictures taken in and around caves, there is no way i could do anything even close to what is in those videos.
Its so dangerous, get stuck in a narrow passage, lights run out of power, a passage starts to flood, and your pretty much done. (or if some one in your group get hurt... ) wild stuff.
 
The person/people that map out all these caves for the first time, that require contortionist levels of mobility have testicles the size of water melons!

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Went potholing a few times back when I was a Scout. Don't think I'd fancy it nowadays. I never minded the being under a zillion tons of rock part, but fuck those parts where you feel like you could get stuck without room to move your arms or anything.

Watching the divers makes me anxious because it looks so easy to get all of that equipment snagged on something
 
I remember a story about some guy making a wrong turn in one of these super cramped caves and it lead to a dead end, and because of the angle they couldn't get him out either, I believe his body is still in there.

a-diagram-of-how-john-jones-was-stuck-for-27-hours-in-a-v0-jqr1kwfn483c1.jpeg

In 2009, John Jones and his family went to the Nutty Putty cave during thanksgiving. Jones accidentally became trapped in a horrifically small squeeze. The opening measured 10 inches across and 18 inches high, around the size of a clothes dryer. After many rescue efforts from both his family and a huge rescue team, John passed away after 27 hours of excruciating pain, discomfort, and panic.
Click to expand...
 
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I dove a cave once...nope, never again. ANY sense of direction, 'where you came from', or the like is just GONE. Had it not been for the cable leading out I would still be there and I didn't even go far it. The disorientation brought on by being underwater, breathing gas, and floating just destroys any internal head map of the map. I can EASILY see why folk die doing it.

Just open air cave exploring.....eh it's alright. Those guys that squeeze through head sized gaps with NO IDEA what's in there, those guys are just psychopaths that like murdering cave systems instead of high school girls :P
 
You could not pay me a million dollars to do something like that. If you did I'll just laugh at you and walk away. I hate being in cramp or tight space it freak me out. Too many deaths have happened trying to explore these unknown caves, and I can find other reasons to have fun then doing cave diving or pot holing.
 
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Reizo Ryuu said:
I remember a story about some guy making a wrong turn in one of these super cramped caves and it lead to a dead end, and because of the angle they couldn't get him out either, I believe his body is still in there.

a-diagram-of-how-john-jones-was-stuck-for-27-hours-in-a-v0-jqr1kwfn483c1.jpeg
Click to expand...

Yeah. Fuck. That.

This, drowning or burning to death are my only fears.

Being trapped (not necesarily in a pot hole) and not being able to move...

Also, imagine if you got an itch on your arse or even worse, your shoulder blade.
 
Ive done pot holing a couple of times when younger. Its fun and scary, but if you turn off all the headlamps you realize you are literally a bulb failure from death if you don't have a backup.
 
Certain types of people just have brains that are wired differently, IMO.

It's my only explanation as to why they would put themselves in such life threatening scenarios on a voluntary basis.
 
EerieArcade said:
Combine the two and watch some videos on cave diving. Christ. I remember watching a video which detailed a diver getting lost in a cave system and running out of air. Found him with a knife in his heart because he was that terrified of drowning.
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Oh my word. I cannot begin to imagine.

Its like the poor bastards that jumped from World Trader Center - what the hell was going through their minds at that time.

Given me the shivers.
 
EerieArcade said:
Combine the two and watch some videos on cave diving. Christ. I remember watching a video which detailed a diver getting lost in a cave system and running out of air. Found him with a knife in his heart because he was that terrified of drowning.
Click to expand...
Knife in the heart 'cause HE was afraid of drowning, huh? That what his dive partner said happened????
 
The Wikipedia article on spelunking/cave exploring deaths is surprisingly small.

Category:Caving incidents and rescues - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The most famous case of all may be that of Floyd Collins who got trapped for days in a narrow crawlway. During an attempt to rescue him a rock collapse completely sealed off the passage, stranding Collins inside for ten more days after which he died. The media circus around his rescue mission was so enormous that it inspired the movie "Ace in the Hole" (1951), filmed 26 years after Floyd Collins' death. (Great movie too, with Billy Wilder directing his own script and Kirk Douglas as an unscrupulous reporter).

3oBi9k9iUQzTspeg9nyJiO6UF2bPLA_large.jpg


That movie was referenced forty years later in the Simpsons episode "Radio Bart" where Bart starts a media circus when he fools everybody in Springfield there's a boy trapped in a well.

 
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Yeah, no thanks. I got into cave videos about a year ago and could not even imagine risking my life for something like that.
025ec9af54d7c82383ecc6b5cc2ff5aebebbd744.gifv


Windle Poons said:
Yeah. Fuck. That.

This, drowning or burning to death are my only fears.

Being trapped (not necesarily in a pot hole) and not being able to move...

Also, imagine if you got an itch on your arse or even worse, your shoulder blade.
Click to expand...
You do not even have to go into an underwater cave to drown in one:
 
EerieArcade said:
Combine the two and watch some videos on cave diving. Christ. I remember watching a video which detailed a diver getting lost in a cave system and running out of air. Found him with a knife in his heart because he was that terrified of drowning.
Click to expand...
I think the absolute worst ones are either getting sucked through a small hole (When drilling for oil) , or instant depressurization

Or both..



They say its not meant to hurt, I don't buy it :unsure:
 
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