Cave diving

[1] Equipment, procedures, and the requisite skills have been developed to reduce the risk of becoming lost in a flooded cave, and consequently drowning when the breathing gas supply runs out.

[citation needed] As most cave-diving is done in an environment where there is no free surface with breathable air allowing an above-water exit, it is critically important to be able to find the way out before the breathing gas runs out.

This is ensured by the use of a continuous guideline between the dive team and a point outside of the flooded part of the cave, and diligent planning and monitoring of gas supplies.

[9][18] This rule mostly applies to diving in overhead environments, such as caves and wrecks, where a direct ascent to the surface is impossible and the divers must return the way they came.

This means that the turn point to exit is earlier, or that the diver with the lower breathing rate carries a larger volume of gas than he alone requires.

Where the depth or other constraints prevent divers from exploring in person, tethered and untethered remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs) have been used effectively, using sonar technology to scan and map the surroundings, and video to record the appearance.

The underwater navigation through the cave system may be difficult and exit routes may be at a considerable distance, requiring the diver to have sufficient breathing gas to make the journey.

On rare occasions equipment failure is unrecoverable, or a diver becomes inextricably trapped, seriously injured, incapacitated by using an unsuitable gas for the depth, or swept away by strong flow.

[citation needed] As response to the increase in fatalities during the years 2010 onwards, the International Diving Research and Exploration Organization (IDREO) was created in order to "bring awareness of the current safety situation of Cave Diving" by listing current worldwide accidents by year and promoting a community discussion and analysis of accidents through a "Cave Diver Safety Meeting" held annually.

[41] Equipment used by cave divers ranges from fairly standard recreational scuba configurations, to more complex arrangements which allow more freedom of movement in confined spaces, extended range in terms of depth and time, allowing greater distances to be covered in acceptable safety, and equipment which helps with navigation, in what are usually dark, and often silty and convoluted spaces.

Bill Stone designed and used epoxy composite tanks for exploration of the San Agustín and Sistema Huautla caves in Mexico to decrease the weight for dry sections and vertical passages.

[citation needed] A simple plastic helmet, such as those used in water sports like whitewater kayaking, is good protection in case of accidental contact with the cave ceiling or stalactites.

[citation needed] On January 6, 2024, Xavier Méniscus broke the cave diving record by reaching a depth of 312 metres in the Font Estramar chasm, in Salses-le-Château, France.

The difficulty of access to the sump in Swildon's prompted operations to move to the resurgence, and the larger cave there allowed use of standard diving dress which was secured from the Siebe Gorman company.

In UK cave-diving, the term "Sherpa" was used without irony for the people who carry the diver's gear although this has gone out of fashion; support is now more normally used, and before the development of SCUBA equipment such undertakings could be monumental operations.

[citation needed] The number of sites where standard diving dress could be used is clearly limited and there was little further progress before the outbreak of World War II reduced the caving community considerably.

This was the normal diving equipment and methods until approximately 1960 when new techniques using wetsuits (which provide both insulation and buoyancy ), twin open-circuit SCUBA air systems the development of side mounting cylinders, helmet-mounted lights and free-swimming with fins.

[citation needed] Four divers using scuba dived from the Right Imperial Cave in the Jenolan system in the Blue Mountains to an upstream chamber on 30 October 1954.

For example: In 1953, the scouts of the La Verna Clan of Lyon (Letrone, Eppely and Ballandraux) explored the Lamina Zilua spring in Sainte Engrace (Sola), passing through three siphons and stopping at the very narrow entry to the fourth.

[64] In 1973, the cave divers Barroumés and Larribau crossed the Erberua siphon (Labort), and discovered a gallery on the other side with an important archaeological site.

[65] In 1973, the cave diver R. Jean (Fontaine la Tronche Group) crossed the first siphon of the Gouffre des Bourrugues (Larra), at a depth of 305 m below the surface.

In 1987, members of the same club passed the 5th and 6th siphons, subsequently exploring a wide gallery 650 meters long, and reaching the level of -1408 m, at the time the second deepest known chasm.

Its formation occurred after a series of diving fatalities in water-filled caves and sinkholes in the Mount Gambier region between 1969 and 1973 and in parallel to a South Australian Government inquiry into these deaths.

The CDAA's major achievement has been the dramatic reduction of fatalities via the introduction of a site rating scheme and an associated testing system which was brought in during the mid-1970s.

While its major area of operation is in the Limestone Coast region of SA, it administrates and supports cave diving activity in other parts of Australia including the Nullarbor Plain and Wellington, New South Wales.

The NACD provides training standards to define their technical and philosophical principles of cave and cavern diving, but allows the instructors discretion and freedom use their own knowledge, experience, and teaching style, and acknowledges that many aspects of cave and cavern diving practice, procedure, and equipment configuration remain open to interpretation by equally qualified experts and that it is in the best interest of the student to be presented with differing views.

This course emphasizes planning, procedures, environment, propulsion techniques, buoyancy skills, problem solving, equipment modification and the specialized needs of the cavern diver.

[36] The full Cave Diver course covers is equipment configuration, decompression problem solving, jumps, circuits, traverses, and surveying.

[36] The National Speleological Society (NSS) is an organization formed in 1941 to advance the exploration, conservation, study, and understanding of caves in the United States.

[76] The survey principally acts as a data repository for explored sites within the state of Quintana Roo and distributes summary statistical tables through its webpage, which as of February, 2011 included 208 underwater cave systems with a total surveyed length of 910.4 kilometers (565.7 mi), and 50 caves above the water table with a total length of 41.8 kilometers (26.0 mi).