5 Part Article - Is Cave Diving Dangerous?
Part 1 - Is Cave Diving Dangerous? Intro
Cave diving has been called, on more than one occasion, the most dangerous sport in the world. Go to Forbes Article to see how the media sensationalizes and lumps this sport in with many others as nothing but adrenaline seeking. But how accurate is this and how much of this is actually fueled by people's own fears? Well, that would be hard to measure, but there are some things you should consider before making your judgement.
I believe ultra-hazardous would be a better adjective to use. A game of semantics? I don't think so. As one cave diving instructor so eloquently put it, "It's dangerous for an untrained diver to enter a cave, but only hazardous for a trained cave diver." This sounds right to me. When something is considered dangerous, it is implied that the risks outweigh any good that can come from it and that there is nothing you can do to bring that level of risk down to a manageable/acceptable level. Of course, each person's risk-acceptance level is different, but; for the purpose of this article, let's assume they are all the same. Calling something ultra-hazardous instead suggests that there are predictable (and even preventable) hazards that you may face. Subsequently, you can deduce that there are things you can do/know/take with you which could possibly bring that risk down to an acceptable level. Et voila, there you have it - the essence of cave diver training.
