I was not talking about cave diving fatalities in my post, but about the safety of swimming underwater in the twilight zone of springs where you can immediately surface if there is a problem.
In the case of Robert Jones ( who happened to also be a base-jumper ), his major error seemed to be that he was alone and in a remote area. Apparently, he had been free diving before. For those of you who don't know what I mean, here is a link to some free-diving info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-diving It is its own unique sport and although Mr. Jones was technically in a cavern, that does not appear to be the cause of his death. Apparently there was a current, as they indicated he was "10 feet under the boil." News media exaggerates everything, so he might have been 10 inches under the surface, but he was not in a cave passage as most cave-diving fatalities are. Also, until the facts are in, you can't conclude he was really alone or that he intentionally entered the spring. The cave diver forum agrees that this was not a cave diving fatality. They also mentioned they have seen someone free-diving at this cave at 90 feet down before. One diver wrote: "So if a man attends the Daytona 500, he's parked on race track property and goes to his privately owned car and dies of a heart attack, will it listed as a NASCAR fatality, since it was on the grounds of the race course during a race? I think this free diver death is wrongly attributed as a cave dive." David Locklear caver in Fort Bend County --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
