Boys in the cave
 

Rescuers are amazing. This story has gripped me more than the world cup. All my worst nightmares. But they are getting there.

Hats off to all involved. Amazing. Go for it boys .last 8. You are proper heroes:clap:

Presumably they squeezed through that 40cm gap to get in there to start with

Was talking with somebody about this yesterday. We wondered if they sedate them before bringing them out otherwise if they panic it would be pretty much fatal?

I've got over 800 dives and am a certified SCUBA Instructor Trainer. I've done some cavern diving (without squeezes) in Mexico. Its an amazing experience, but its not for the faint hearted and definitely not recommended for inexperienced divers. Full on cave diving is another league altogether and not something I would even contemplate trying.

I have full respect for any cave diver. Not only do they have phenomenal diving skills, they also have an amazing degree of psychological control. When you add on the job of rescuing a bunch of kids who can barely swim, never mind dive, over a 5 hour dive through tight squeezes where you need to remove your tanks to get through - just wow!


Even the kids themselves, to do that with no real training, they're pretty cool!


As for the idiot who took them in there in the rainy season :cuckoo:

Unlikely! The effect of any drug is usually intensified due to the water pressure and also the increased breathing air pressure when diving. The effect of a sedative could lead to unconsciousness during the dive. Also with a 5 hour dive (probably longer with the kids), its unlikely that a safe dose would be effective for the duration of the dive.


Far more likely, they will be diving with a NITROX gas mix with a higher oxygen content than normal air (21% oxygen). Depending on the diving depths involved, this could be quite a high oxygen content (the higher the oxygen content the shallower the allowed diving depth, 100% oxygen can be used to a max depth of 4-6m). The increased oxygen content will have a calming effect and also reduce fatigue and lower the risk of panic, although the risk would remain extremely high!

Thought you didnt require mixed air up to 30m ?

You can dive with normal air (21%O2, 78%N2) down to about 55-60m.

Below that depth, you have to reduce the Oxygen content to avoid oxygen poisoning. Helium is usually added to the mix to reduce both the O2 and N2 content. These gas mixes are known as Tri-Mix (N2+He+O2) or HELIOX (He+O2). Nitrogen (N2) can cause Nitrogen Narcosis (Tiefenrausch) below about 30m, so is also desirable to be reduced.


NITROX is an Nitrogen / Oxygen mix with a higher oxygen content than normal air. This can only be used in shallower depths (due to oxygen poisoning). The higher the oxygen content the shallower the Maximum Operating Depth (MOD). On deep dives, this gas mix is used during the ascent to reduce the decompression stops that are needed. It is also used in recreational diving to increase the dive time without needing decompression stops.


Given the length of time needed for the cave dive in Thailand (>5 hours), it would be advantageous to use NITROX mixes to reduce the risk of decompression sickness, but its use is dependent on the depth of the dive in question. Often cave dives are quite shallow, so NITROX can be used without problem, but if you have a particularly deep chamber or passage way, then it may not be possible to use it. I would expect them to be using various different NITROX mixes throughout the dive.


A single tank will likely only last about 1 hour for an inexperienced diver in shallow (<5m) depths, so there will anyway be multiple tank changes during the dive. They are then likely to plan appropriate gas mixes for each section of the dive with as higher oxygen content as possible for each section. The so called 'stage tanks' will be taken to appropriate locations within the cave in advance and secured for later use. At each point, the diver with have a tank that they need to reach the next tank store and a bailout stage in case the main tank fails (in effect, they always start with at least double the amount of air they need for a section).

Got my advanced diver years ago

But for thrill seeking cave diving would be the very last item on my tick list !

rains came unexpectedly early didnt they?

Even before their little adventure , as far I could tell ?!

Never understood the appeal of cave-diving, pot-holing, or whatever it is they call it. All you ever hear about is ([poor/stupid] - delete as appropriate) fe**ers getting stuck down there and having to be rescued. Is there really so little to do of any interest above ground?

Depends on the region, but generally May/June, so rather late than early!

I'm sure they'll love it! Where are you going?

Saw this yesterday and thought it was a fake news story, really impressive if Elon Musk's engineers have put this together over a couple of days. Allegedly it's on its way to Thailand should it be needed in the cave rescue operation.

https://www.cnet.com/news/watch-elon...ine-in-action/

Not sure I'd want to be stuck in that thing for 5 hours in total darkness! :O

Cape Verde.

being report all out including coach

Lucky you! I've dived in the Azores and should be quite similar underwater! I l love the underwater topography of volcanic islands, for me its way more interesting than diving coral reefs!:cool:

Great news! A phenomenal rescue, just a shame one of the Thai Navy divers lost his life. Cave diving is not really in the remit of a Navy diver, so they were being asked to do something that is out of their normal comfort zone, so pretty amazing what they have achieved!

It's an utterly incredible rescue but for the sad loss of the former navy seal. The British cave divers who reached the boys first are unbelievably level headed to be able to navigate what they did not know where they were going or just how bad it would be. To be the first ones going down there and having to remove their tanks to get through tiny spaces would scare the life out of most people. I was amazed at the first footage when they popped their heads out the water to say hello to those trapped, that must have made them jump :lol1: What a relief it must have been for all involved at that point knowing they had found them and those stuck knowing they had been found.

They are already lining up a Holywood movie about the story.

An amazing story with an even better ending , amazing so many different nationalities can come together and get the result they did , just a real shame the navy guy doesn't get to see it.

My ex brother in law was one of the divers chosen to dive down to the Kursk , it's a shame Russia didn't take on the help offered immediately after the accident then as some people might have been saved.
Was great watching him on the programme they made about it
Cheers Ian

All the divers and medic are out now too so well done to them they should all get some well deserved rest and time off work after completing this rescue.

I've done lots of snorkeling in Greece and Croatia and the latter wins hands down on underwater beauty alone. The water was generally clearer as well. I'm quite comfortable breathing with my head underwater, so I might go on a ad-hoc day whilst my young'un is doing his course. I'm not bothered about getting a card/ticket anymore, but I think it's a good thing for the lad to have. It's the PADI Open Water course that he's doing.

Spent a couple of the days in the Azores at Horta, including Peter's Cafe Sport if you know it :)

I didn't visit Faial island, so don't know it.


I'd recommend anybody to at least try diving. Its not for everyone, but you can never know if its for you until you try it. I spend many years saying its not for me, then my ex forced me to do a dive course with her and I was blown away - Now I teach diving instructors :lol1:


These days it doesn't really matter which organisation (PADI/CMAS etc) you learn to dive with; they all now teach to the same ISO standards. Although the French can sometimes still be a bit snotty about non CMAS cards. The Open Water (OWD) course is the standard starter level. :thumb:

He could always try the windsurfing if doesn't like the diving , few places in the world as good as cape verde-ex champions live there .
Just a lot more expensive to get there than the canaries :(

I have tried it once but was only in the Med and so just lots of kelp and drab fish but the one thing I really struggled with was the pressure on my head. Only went down 15m and I thought if this is what it is like this shallow there's no way I could go deeper. I enjoyed it as an experience but never tried since due to the pressure problem.

You say that but.....

Our lass was looking for a holiday in all the usual places and I said it might be worth thinking out the norm a little bit. So for a joke more than anything I put the same dates in for places in the Caribbean and they came up pretty much the same price as it was for going to the Canaries. Sri Lanka, Thailand etc. were all about the same, and then Cape Verde popped up as an option. It ended up being ~£2-300 cheaper to go to CV than any of the mainstream destinations.

So as bizarre as it is, we fly over the Canaries to get a cheaper holiday.

The med varies quite a lot depending where you go. Sadly its pretty over fished, particularly in the Western med, but the underwater landscape can be quite interesting.


Pressure in your head (ears, sinuses, in the mask) needs to be equalised by squeezing your nose and pushing air into your sinuses and inner ear and breathing out a little through the nose into the dive mask. Close to the surface (first 5m or so) this has to be done very regularly, as you get deeper, you can do it less often. If you don't equalise often enough, then the pressure diffence can become to great to equalise, in this case you have to ascend a bit and try again. My general rule, is if you can feel the pressure, its already too late! If you equalise properly, then pressure is not a problem!


Sadly, there are quite a few dive centers, particularly in really touristy areas, that are only really interested in taking your money without really doing the work. Often 'Discover SCUBA' or 'Trail Dives' are carried out by Divemasters and not fully trained instructors and very little or no real instruction is given. 15m is also way too deep for a trail dive in my opinion. At our dive center, our standard trail dive is only in the pool with max 1.4m and is effectively done the same as the first pool dive of a full course. As an option, we offer a pool/lake combo with the first trial in the pool in the morning and a second trial in the lake in the afternoon with a max depth of 3-5m. In most cases at our school, people cancel the afternoon trial in favour of doing the full course, with the pool trail then counting as the first pool dive. The pool is by far the best place to trail dive first, you can get used to breathing underwater and discover the basics of buoyancy control in a safe environment and alleviate any prior fears or anxieties that people naturally have before SCUBA diving.

This was years ago and one of these beginners classes they do at the hotels so as you say not done properly at all. So no didn't do any equalising of pressure etc just swam about going down to the sea floor to look among the kelp. Did have the swimming pool lesson first but I suspect it was way too brief. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it didn't feel like my head was going to explode lol :rolleyes: