Comments by "" (@ronjon7942) on "Cave Exploring Gone WRONG | The Shaft Cave Disaster" video.

  1. That is a brilliant analogy.
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  2. Nope. Not me. I went cave diving once in Mexico and was exhilarated, just amazing. Then I watched the movie Sanctum, and that killed off that exploratory desire. Being caught on something on the bottom of a shallow Lake Superior dive, and being a few seconds away from drowning when my tank went dry probably didn't help either. My view thru my mask was vignetted as the lack of oxygen was starting to make me pass out. Plus, I'm afraid of sharks and undersea monsters below me I can't see. Also, I've an irrational fear of water so deep I can't see the bottom or any lateral references; the 'infiniteness' messes with my mind so badly, I'm like 1 volt away from a panic attack. Now I live in the Arizona desert.
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  3. Sometimes the passion just pulls you in. It is so otherworldly and so beautiful, and that urge to explore something so unknown and extreme is hardwired into our biology. Some of us may have more wires than others, and act upon those instincts. Further, 'we will not go to the Moon because it is easy, we go to the Moon because it is hard.' Some have devoted their entire lives to developing revolutionary new technologies to descend so deeply for much longer periods of time, and have sacrificed much for this need of theirs...family even, and lives. What keeps divers alive is the confidence one has in their equipment, abilities, planning and execution, and their comrades - similar to other passions of people, such as rock climbing, skiing to the North and South Poles, being an astronaut or a test pilot, walking a tightrope or slacklining. A competent diver never gambles, though, and thinking we're an exception because we somehow won something really isn't how we think. The vast majority of cave dives are successful and great care and planning go into every project or expedition with great emphasis placed on safety. It only takes a few seconds to drown so mistakes can be deadly really fast. What is really difficult and disturbing to cope with is a death of a human so far removed from the surface, floating in the blackest of darkness, alone. It reaches to visceral fears that are within everyone's psyche, a terror deeply embedded in our genes, a primal instinct. Reading or viewing something about a person dying in an underwater cavern is indeed scary stuff; you may forget the details, but never the impact it has on your mind.
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  4. Yup. It's way too easy for me to get so caught up in the beauty...
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