I went to college in northern Georgia. The Tennessee/Alabama/Georgia border area is an area with a great many caves because the underlying rock/geological structures are limestone, which is prone to water erosion more than most other types of rocks. Limestone rocks plus the rain/water in the area means there are a lot of caves in the area.

I went caving a lot in college. A friend started a caving club in college and spent about 1 weekend a month crawling/climbing/hiking around underground. But I learned from friends who had years of experience, including someone who worked for the Hamilton County, Tennessee, cave rescue squad (at the time one of the best cave rescue squads in the world given the number of caves around the area. They also are on record for having performed the deepest cave rescue in the US). And I had appropriate gear, including helmet, light, gloves, rope, climbing/descending gear, etc. Wandering around in a cave with a group of pre-teen boys without sufficient training and equipment strikes me as a supremely bad idea.

And 'spelunking' is a term used by those who don't go caving. Those who do it call it 'caving'.

Talk about a crash course in diving. Wow, I wish them the best and I hope they get some more SpecOps guys (the country doesn't matter) in there to help with the training and to be there for support.

God bless the people who found these kids, diving in water that's not clear freaks-out many so there's some work to be done to keep the kids calm because I've heard it's not going to be a short dive. Attached are pics from last weekend's not-to-clear dive trip with the son... He's getting more comfortable less than clear water diving and the techniques used to deal with the environment.

I think it was brilliant . They're all famous now.

Given the circumstances, I hope they relax the rules a bit and let the kids use their hands.

I read its a challenging 3 hour trip even for the pros, that seems an awful lot to ask of these kids after just a few crash courses... drilling down to them might take longer, but seems like a much safer bet

After giving this thought I'm thinking the coach planned on plowing Their Uranus.

What the hell is that 3rd picture?

A statue (a bust), with a baseball hat on top of it. It's one of the objects they've placed along the guided (lined) course they have at Beaver lake (map below). We ran across them as we were headed in and out. We also used some of the objects (the sailboat, trimaran, and houseboat) as destinations for compass practice.

It's not shown in this pic, but you get the idea. We weren't really doing the course, this trip was to practice navigation (so I didn't want him to have the lines to help him), to deal with a 6mm Farmer John wet suit on a 95 degree day, for him to gain more appreciation of thermoclines (and what they do to your buoyancy and regulators), and to feel (again) some rather chilly water (50 degrees at 60 feet) when the surface waster is 82, and the air temp was in the 90s. There's a lot to teach these new divers about the sport and the art behind it. And I'm giddy to pass it all along.

http://www.divebuddy.com/members/1/pic_29785_83690.jpg

Call it what you want, its not a very wise hobby to have IMO

Perv

Navy SEAL dies while rescuing Thai schoolboys trapped in cave

AS FRANTIC efforts to rescue 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand continue, one of the divers in the mission has died and two of the boys who are sick could be left behind.

https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/f...73f8907f0a4eea

Caving and cave diving are two very different things. I never went cave diving. Didn’t get the training. Had no desire.

Caving could be dangerous or fairly safe, depending upon your skill, the cave and your equipment.

I remember caves you could walk to, walk into, and were fairly easy to navigate. But I remember caves that required extensive climbing and rappelling gear to get into and out of. It depends on your tolerance for risk, your equipment and your skill level.

Thai Navy SEAL just to clarify. NOT American..</br></br>This moron should never be allowed to work with children again. I'm not sure where to begin trying to figure out WTF led up to this? How the hell did they get 2.5 miles in with no equipment for starters.

What a damn mess, I just dont see how this ends well at all.

I was curious about that. I presumed that the USA was the only country that had a group called Navy SEALs. Are other countries stealing our branding?