Cave Diving: The most dangerous sport in the world.

Definition: 

cave |ˈkāv|

noun

a large underground chamber, typically of natural origin, in a hillside or cliff.

verb |keɪv| [ intrans. ]

1 explore caves as a sport.

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French, from Latin cava, from cavus ‘hollow’ (compare with cavern ). The usage cave in may be from the synonymous dialect expression calve in, influenced by obsolete cave [excavate, hollow out.]

diving |ˈdīvi ng | |daɪvɪŋ|

noun

1 the sport or activity of swimming or exploring under water.

ORIGIN Old English dūfan [dive, sink] and dȳfan [immerse,] of Germanic origin; related todeep and dip .

COMMON MISCONCEPTION:  most dangerous sport in the world.   

This perception is arguable because the vast majority of divers who have lost their lives in caves have either not undergone specialized training or have had inadequate equipment for the environment. Many cave divers have suggested that cave diving is in fact statistically much safer than recreational diving due to the much larger barriers imposed by experience, training, and equipment cost.

Cave diving for sport and exploration is the main reason Gary and I moved to the Akumal area.  It was not for the beaches, or because we wanted to give up our day jobs in the US.  Our mission in moving to Mexico was to explore underwater caves.  

At the time there were a handful of people who explored caves.  These people included: Jim Coke  who also is the head of the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (a great friend who lived in Akumal for many years and still is in the area about 4-6 months a year caving), Chuck Stevens of Canada who still lives on the beach in Xpu Ha, Mike Madden now back in the US, Buddy Quattlebaum now owner of Hidden Worlds, Dan Lins now withDiveRite in Florida and Steve Gerrard.  There were others that came and went but in the day, we were the primary explorers of what is the Mecca of cave diving.

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

While there is great potential for cave diving in the continental karst throughout Mexico, the vast majority of cave diving in Mexico occurs in the Yucatan Peninsula. While there are thousands of deep pit cenotes throughout the Yucatan Peninsula including in the states of Yucatan and Campeche, the extensive sub-horizontal flooded cave networks for which the peninsula is known are essentially limited to a 10 km wide strip of the Caribbean coastline in the state of Quintana Roo extending south from Cancun to the area of Tulum and the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, although some short segments of underwater cave have been explored on the north-west coast (Yucatan State).

In the Yucatan Peninsula, any surface openings where groundwater can be reached is called cenote, which is a Spanish form of the Maya word d'zonot. The cave systems formed as normal caves underwater, but upper sections drained becoming air filled during past low sea levels. During this vadose, or air filled state, abundant speleothem deposits formed. The caves and the vadose speleothem were subsequently reflooded and became hydraulically reactivated as rising sea levels also raised the water table.

The Quintana Roo caves are extremely complex with anastomotic interconnected passages. When cave diving through the caves, the pathways then appear to have many offshoots and junctions, requiring careful navigation with permanent tees or the implementation of jumps in the guideline.

The beginning of the 1980s brought the first cave divers from the U.S. to the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo (Q.Roo) to explore cenotes such as Carwash, Naharon and Maya Blue, but also to central Mexico where resurgence rivers such as Rio Mante, sinkholes such as Zacaton were documented.   Gary in the '80's had the opportunity to dive Mante and Zacaton which he and Jim Bowden discovered.  On that team was also my good friend Ann Kristovich of Austin, Karen Hohle of Austin and John Orlowski (Loco Juan)  of Florida.  

Side note:  Ann and I both were some of the first women initiated in the Women's Divers Hall of Fame.

In the Yucatan, the 1980s ended with the discoveries of the Dos Ojos and Nohoch Nah Chich cave systems which lead into a long ongoing competition of which exploration team had the longest underwater cave system in the world at the time, with both teams vying for first place.  Jim Coke and Lori Conlin were the first to discover Dos Ojos, while Mike Madden and his team worked on Nochoch.  Gary and I participated in Mike's Explorer's Club Project in the continuing exploration of Nohoch in 1993.  After that project we went to the under dog cave in the cave race to Dos Ojos.  More about our diving in other caves and exploits to come.