WEBVTT - Selects: Cave Diving: Totally Nuts 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.160 Hey everyone, it's Josh and for this week's select, I've 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:07.200 chosen our two thousand nineteen episode Cave Diving Totally Nuts, 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.280 one of the most apt titles for any of our episodes. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.440 Cave diving is indeed nuts, and you need nerves of 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.639 steel or to be utterly careless, because it's one of 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.479 the most dangerous activities a person on Earth today could pursue. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.560 But both cave diving and the things that cave divers 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.599 do and see are both immensely interesting. So I hope 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.080 you enjoy listening to this classic episode as much as 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:36.479 I did. Again, Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:45.840 production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.920 I'm Josh Clark, Nurse Charles W. Danger is his middle name, 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.920 even though it begins with W. Bryant. And there's Jerry 0:00:55.120 --> 0:01:01.400 Jerome Rolling. We're gonna stick with Jerome, Okay, it's a 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.119 good cave diver's name. Yeah, I have just my regular 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.319 name because I would never in a million years cave dive, 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.319 but I never even scuba dived, I have. Yeah, I 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:17.280 believe that open water stuff. I got really um like, 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.400 I guess seasick. Right afterward two and I was convinced 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.319 that it had to do with the arrows breathing. I 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.360 was like, I'm done, which stinks, because it was really cool. 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.280 Breathing underwater is one of the neatest experiences you will 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.959 ever have. It's really cool, but not not snorkel Like 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.160 you're totally you're underwater and you're breathing. Even if it's pool, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.639 it doesn't matter. Just take like a scuba lesson once 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:43.959 and you'll you'll there, you go, You're done. I have 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.960 dreams where I can breathe underwater a lot. But it's 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.800 not like, hey, I'm aquaman and I'm just breathing like 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.480 a fish or something. It's that I figured out how 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:00.760 to very slowly draw in air, very carefully from the 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:04.280 water around me. It's it's really a strange dream, but 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.080 I have it a lot. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.960 not sure what it means. I don't either. I can't 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.240 even begin to guess. But what's more boring than talking 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.240 about someone's dreams? They say that nothing is more boring 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.800 than that. Yeah, I thought that was a pretty interesting 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.839 one though. Thanks. If you're going to talk about your dream, 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.280 that's a good one to go with. Um, we're not 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:25.839 talking about your dreams today though, Chuck. Now we're talking 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.600 about cave diving, right, which is not a dream. Again, 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.800 I'm with you. I don't think it's not for me. 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.280 Like I I couldn't even go like regular cavings, which 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.000 I did the one time. I can't remember. Did you 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.440 enjoy it? I did? It was a butt kicker physically, 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:47.560 very hard work. But I remember describing the pancake thing 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.480 that I went through where the you know, I was 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.760 laying on my back squirming through in the in the 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.760 rock face was three inches above my body and face 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.720 and you could you're getting nervous now. I don't even 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.320 like hearing about it. Yeah, that was a little weird. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.600 And I'm not even a claustrophobic guy, but I was like, 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.639 this is you know, you could die in here. I've 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.680 read about a poor guy, maybe the poorest of all time, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.320 well one of them, who was caving with his family, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.880 friends and family and got stuck and ended up dying 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.399 his his like they could get to him, they could 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.760 move his foot, they could touch his leg legs, but 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.560 he was just so stuck that they just couldn't do 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.880 anything for him. And so they decided to go home. 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.840 He died. No, they were there the whole time, but 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.360 he over like I think the course of twenty four hours. 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.720 He he just died. The slow she's terrifying death. So 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.880 they couldn't They could reach his foot, but not his mouth, clearly, yes, 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.560 to give him, you know, nutrients. They tried to give 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.320 him stuff through an ivy. I think they tried to 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.800 give him a sedative and it kept falling out of 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.000 his leg, so they couldn't even do that. Oh gosh, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.119 it was bad. It's hard to even here about, I know. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.400 In but this is cave diving, which is even more 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.840 dangerous than caving. Yeah, And there's a couple of a 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.360 few types of diving. There's the open water diving that 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.960 you were talking about, there's cavern diving, and open water 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.719 diving just means, if you know, if you get in trouble, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.560 go up and you'll reach the surface exactly. You're not 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.720 gonna get hit in the head by a cave ceiling 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.919 right or pinned down through crevasse. No. Cavern diving is 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.760 a little different in that you're in a cavern, but 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.520 you should be able to see sunlight above you, and 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:35.520 if you go up, you can get your head out 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.480 eventually you're from what I saw, the definition is you're 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.480 no more than seventy ft deep, okay, and you're within 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.359 a hundred and thirty linear feet of the cave mouth 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.239 or more specifically, your surroundings are illuminated by daylight. That's 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.640 that's really what separates cavern diving from cave diving. It's 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.039 kind of like remember a bio speleology episode, So this 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.880 would be the twilight zone between the dark zone and 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:03.960 the light zone. That that would be kind of cavern 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.560 diving diving in the twilight zone. Right. Then you get 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.480 to cave diving, and that is serious business. This is 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:17.159 not uh what's considered recreational diving. Uh, this is going 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.880 deep and dark. Yeah with David re Going deep with 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.240 David Reese, I haven't spoken to recent a while. I 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.120 love that guy. Oh he's a great guy. Yeah, So 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.880 this is a technical diving. Can give another definition of 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.400 on that Reese joke going deep wasn't good enough. Cave 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:45.240 diving is diving with an overhead environment, so that separates 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.960 it from open water environment. Like if if he goes 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:50.720 and panic and swim straight up, you're gonna bonk your head. Yeah, 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.599 you might have gone to the under foot um there 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.360 and you have no direct vertical access to open air 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.920 surface or light. Yeah, this is extremely important. Basically a 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.200 horror movie, a nightmare, a living nightmare that you're doing 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:09.120 on purpose that you've paid it a lot of money 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.039 to equip yourself for. Um. The light thing is a 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.880 really big one too. Like, here's the thing. It's really 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.640 easy because you're thinking that this is cave diving and 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:20.680 the word caves in there and we're talking about caves, 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.799 but it's scuba diving really, but it's scuba diving inside 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.640 a cave. This is a really important thing to not 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.640 lose sight of. It's a cave. It's deep in the 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.760 bowels of the earth, filled with water. Yes there are 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.400 there's no light. There's only light is the light that 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.680 you have and you're moving through it underwater. This is 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.440 cave diving. I'm in awe of people who do this 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.400 and I could watch videos of it all day long. Yeah, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.839 it's very cool to see. Um, it's like scuba plus 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.960 as far as the creep factor goes. A read one 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:58.120 article about a guy who is a cave diving researcher 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.120 and as we'll see. You know, there's scientific discoveries that 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.479 have been made in these caves because just like the 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.800 the deep dry caves, the things that live in there 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.080 are remarkable. Um. And this guy was sixty nine years 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.880 old and still going strong and said his family, you know, 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.000 always worries about him, but he super experience, knows what 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.760 he's doing. But it's still fraught with danger. I do 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:25.720 have a few death stats if you want. I read 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.000 a scientific presentation called thirty years of American cave Diving 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:34.560 Fatalities two thousand fifteen. You got the same one. Huh. 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.120 This is by the Divers Alert Network. A hundred and 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.480 sixty one divers had died over that. Uh what how 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:45.400 long was that two thirty year period? Uh? Sixty seven 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.480 of them were trained, eighty seven were untrained, which is crazy, Like, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:50.880 I don't know what they're doing down there. To begin 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.040 with a fool, yeah if you just take up cave 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.640 diving for the first time, but like, yeah, exactly, because 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.600 sixty seven trained cave divers pair wished Yeah, and how chuck? 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.320 How what was the vast majority? Most common cause was 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.880 aphixia due to drowning preceded by running out of breathing gas, 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.800 usually after getting lost because of a loss of visibility 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.640 caused by suspended silt. And that's where most of these 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.440 are in Florida. And that's where I learned about the 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.200 silt out. Also from the article you sent about the 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.040 UM the cave rescue in Thailand in Thailand, which was 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.600 apparently very silty. And a silt out is when so 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.200 much silt gets kicked up that it just blacks out 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.320 even with your light source. Yeah, the guy that was 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.479 in that I think it was an article in Atlantic 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.800 UM with the guy knew his name, Robert Layard. I 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.200 think he's a cave diving expert, and he said, you 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.280 can put your light up to your mask and you 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.880 can kind of see your light, but that's it. And 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.880 you're in a cave, so you don't know where to go. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.679 Even feeling your way around is not going to help you. UM. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.200 And the problem with the silt out is they can 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.200 last for so along in a bad a bad case 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.840 of a silt out that you will run out of 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.840 air before the silt settles enough for you to see through. 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.360 So it's a bad jam. Well, and then this that 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.000 you probably read the same interviews, but there's a panic 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.720 is what this guy said is what usually happens, even 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.599 with an experienced diver, because there's no escape, there's no 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.720 quick way out, and things tend to have a domino effect. 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.040 So if you're in a silt out, like you said, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.480 it's you try and stay as still as possible, and 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:35.360 it's still maybe not gonna work. You're getting nervous, just 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.680 kind of fidgety, now that you've pointed out it's panic 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.360 inducing just to think about it, Like you have to 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.600 remain perfectly still in the total darkness, and that might 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.360 not even be good enough to let that silt stuttle settle. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.360 I I saw um and even a bigger estimate of 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:58.040 the number of deaths from cave diving from the National 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:03.040 Speleological Societies Cave Diving Section. They estimated more than four 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.480 hundred deaths in the history of cave diving. But they 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:12.120 said in the world was it just America? Okay? They 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.360 placed a lot of them towards the beginning of cave diving, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.240 which took which started in the fifties or sixties. Hey, 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.600 I wonder what's in their stage, which is crazy, because 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.880 scuba diving started in about the fifties, so within a 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.040 little while of somebody inventing scuba diving. Some people were like, oh, 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.440 let's go into caves with this stuff. And they started dying, 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.400 and so they pointed out like these people didn't give 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.120 their lives in vain. Each death was a lesson learned 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.000 for everyone else who who um, you know, was yet 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.600 to come. But a lot of people died early on, 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.679 and it's gotten much. They are far fewer deaths from 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.160 cave diving. But it's like you said, they're they're typically 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.400 are cave diving experts who are dying because they're pushing 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:57.400 themselves further and further. If you have you know, no 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.920 one's cave dive before. Every cave you dive into is 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.000 a new exploration, and this is a huge driver for 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.400 people who cave dive. This is why they do it. 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.960 They're seeing something that no other human on Earth in 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.840 most cases, has ever seen in the history of humanity. 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:15.559 They're the first human to be in this place. Um, 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.760 there's lots of stuff to discover for when humans were there, 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.400 but now it's flooded. Um, there's there's just a lot 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.319 of discovery. But as it's been going on for decades now, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.040 every time somebody discovers a new thing. That's one thing 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.480 that that is not left to be discovered by everybody else. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.720 So they're pushing themselves further and further. When you cave dive, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.800 you might be a hundred feet under sea level, but 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.640 you might be scuba diving for miles down through a 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:51.120 cave system. Not downward necessarily, but horizontal miles um. You know, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.360 round trip for this this cave dive, which is nuts, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.719 but that's that's what they do. I can't remember where 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:00.800 I was going with that. I started to get panicked again. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.040 Have you seen Once upon the Time in Hollywood? Yeah, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:05.760 you know the scene with Brad Pitt on the boat 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.000 in his in that sixty scuba gear. Yeah, it's just 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.199 so cool looking. Before we say this, I come from 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.640 the future to warn us in the past that we 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.080 should add spoiler alert here. That was that. Uh it's 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.200 like when they used to call him skin divers. Yes, 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.920 what do you think he killed his wife? Uh? Well, 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.680 I think that's what you were led to believe. Whether 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:28.880 I felt like it was up in the air well 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.560 a little bit. Uh. Also could have been an accident 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.800 because he was clearly had that spear gun resting on 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.319 his knee pointing at her right. Um. Yeah, the question 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.440 is did his neurons fire and make his finger move? Right? Okay, 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.120 So we took care of the spoiler that was like 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.160 five minutes ago, I know. And now we're back to 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:54.800 cave diving and we should talk a little bit about equipment. Uh. 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:56.880 This A lot of this came from one of our 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:00.640 old House Stuff Works colleagues from the website orld, Buddy 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.360 John Fuller, who looks like mc es like. He's been 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.880 mentioned twice that he's the tie that binds the Estre 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.640 episode and the cave diving episode. Yeah, and some of 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.560 this equipment thing isn't the most exciting stuff in the world, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.320 but we should talk about it anyway. I found it 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.839 frankly arousing. You got your mask, uh, and this is 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.000 something I didn't now. Um. They use sort of simple 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:27.120 black masks because it absorbs light. Yeah, um, which makes sense. Yeah, 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.400 because you're using your own light source, so it can 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:36.640 get pretty bright. I saw a flashlight from underwater kinetics. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:43.200 Maybe it's like fifteen thousand lumens some ridiculous amount of lumens. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.440 Lots of lumens, a lot of lumens um And yeah, 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.600 if you have that stuff bouncing all over the place. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.400 You don't want your light, your your you know, gold glitter, 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.400 diamond dusted mask like reflecting it in your eyes and 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.080 cuts down in visibility. But I take issue with Fuller 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.120 saying that they favorite simple masks, because these guys do 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.920 like the full face like, yeah, be a mask. Yeah, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:11.439 not the bread pitt skin diver sixties mask, which I loved. Yeah, 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.439 I think I think some of them might, but I 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.600 also saw plenty of them. Yeah, have like you know, 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:18.520 I'm trying to think of what they call it, but 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.120 just a really cool full face mask. Yeah. It looks 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:25.040 like something that you could dive in a cave in 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.920 or go to outer space in. Basically. Yeah. So then 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:33.200 you've got your fins again, black rubber fins. But the 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.400 difference here and uh that I gather from this in 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.600 open water because you don't want those super long, super 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.520 bindy fins because you're trying to not kick up silt, 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:46.360 so you want those shorter, stiffer fins. Uh. And when 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.120 you're down there swimming around, you're using little, short controlled kicks. Yeah, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:54.760 no big sweeping leg movements. No, it's a huge, huge 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.400 difference between cave diving and open water diving. The water diving, 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.000 your legs are extended out behind and you're fluttering those 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.120 um those fins up and down, and you're propelling yourself forward. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.600 In a in cave diving, your bent your legs are 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.920 bent at the knees, so your feet are up slightly 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:16.640 above you, and mostly you're making frog kicks, which are 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.200 all in the ankle, and you're just kind of waddling 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:23.240 yourself along with these little kicks. You see what I'm saying. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.120 For twelve years, you've been doing little physical gestures of 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.080 me like anyone else in the world could see them. Well, 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.000 who am I talking to you? But you know that's 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.880 the whole point. So the frog look chuck like, this 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.160 is what they do, little frog kicks. But in doing 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.640 that that you cut down on the potential of um 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.320 coming in contact with the rest of the Cave's a 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.320 couple of reasons why you want to do that. One, 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.800 you want to preserve the cave. If you break off 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:53.440 a stalactite stalactite coming from the ceiling um, that's a 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.880 that's nature's work that you just messed with. You don't 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.000 want to do that, bro. And then secondly, a lot 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.680 of caves pretty much all of them have that silt 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.720 sediment on the bottom. That's your enemy. If you kick 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.160 it up, you've got a silt out. So you you 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.080 want to really be careful what kind of um movement 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.120 you're making with your fins, and then just how big 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.560 your fins are and how flexible they are, and then 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.000 one other thing about that too. You also want to 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:25.080 maintain basically perfect buoyancy where you're completely neutrally buoyant relative 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.840 to the top and the bottom of the cave. Yeah. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.840 What do they call the movement? Dragon float? Pulling glide? 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:37.560 Pulling glide float? Yeah, thing you do when you recover 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:41.160 a body. Well, a lot of this is body recovery, 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.200 very sadly, um, well, not a lot of it, but 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.960 part of search and rescue can very much involve going 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:51.800 deep and getting very swollen, water logged bodies. But yeah, 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:53.800 you pull yourself along with your hand, like in a 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.000 little groove by the rock and then just let yourself glide. 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.640 It seems very relaxing considering you're doing the most horrifying 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.720 thing on the planet. Yeah, so you might do that 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.800 even instead of kicking, depending on where the space is, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:07.560 how tight it is that kind of thing. Also, it 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:13.480 depends on how um uh solid the surroundings are, like 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.640 you or anything like that. Um. And then also apparently 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.960 you only do that when you have a current. There's 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.160 one thing we should say, there's two kinds of cave diving, 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:28.360 spring diving and sump diving. And in spring diving that's 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.760 where you see like the pictures in like National Geographic 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.679 magazine where it's just this beautiful cave and there's just 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.399 two people in scuba gear floating in the middle of it. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.760 That's a spring fed cave where you've got water moving 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.520 through it keeping it very clear because there's no way 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.359 for sediment to settle because the currents moving to to 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.200 um quickly and you use that current to pull and glide. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.399 That looks like something has a little bit more appeal, Yeah, 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.560 but I mean it's just as dangerous as anything else. 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.040 Like you said, most of the people who die cave 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.199 diving die in Florida, and that's what they're doing, is 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.960 diving in those springs. That is true, uh. And the 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.840 other time the sump kind those are a little more 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:12.520 scary to me. That's a cave system where if you 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.520 imagine like kind of like a zigzag like Charlie Brown's shirt. Say, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.879 that's the cave system. Inside of the cave, half of 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.919 the bottom half is covered with water that you have 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.040 to scuba through, but you also have to climb over 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.840 through dry parts in air and then get down to 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.199 the to the water again. That's the sump kind of 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.639 that's super sentiment and you really got to know what 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.480 you're doing there. That's the most dangerous kind by far. Uh. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.280 You have your suit that you're wearing, and you can 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.960 wear a wet suit, standard wet suit or a dry suit. 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.000 These are not cheap. They cost, you know, several thousand 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.320 dollars for a good one. All this equipment is not cheap. Uh. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:53.800 So it's not the kind of thing that you just 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.119 sort of decided to try out, right, So you have 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.159 to be wealthy and totally out of your mind to 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.639 cave die. Uh. Dry suits are sealed off, so you know, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.000 if you've ever put on a wet suit, part of 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.879 the process is getting in that cold water and letting 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.440 it fill up your wet suit, which will warm it up. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:15.120 That's the idea is that water warms. But that process 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:16.920 isn't fun getting in and out of a wet suit 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.840 isn't fun neither, to be honest, and it's not that 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:25.040 flouttering nous. You know. We had to wear them when 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.600 we Scooba dip with the whales, the whale sharks. It 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.320 seems like a hundred years ago. It was easily a 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.440 hundred years ago. The dry suits seal off that water, 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.440 so you are dry. That's why they call it a 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.840 dry suit. Your body doesn't get wet um. And the 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.760 cool thing here is that you can layer up some clothing, uh, 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:45.879 and then put on this suit because you can stay warmer. 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.840 It's much more pleasant imagining silkies or something. Yeah, I 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.480 love the silkies. Uh. And then John makes a good point. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.560 You want to you want to have like extras of 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.439 just about everything. Like you don't go down there with 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:03.280 a flashlight. I'd have eight flashlights strapped to every single 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.159 limb on my body. Like I'm sure they carry like 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.679 an extra I would have a bunch of extra light. Yeah, 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.280 you get your little knife if you get snagged, you 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.560 cut things. I would have nine knives, eight flashlights. Well, 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:20.000 you do want a redundant amount of stuff, like you 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.560 were saying, like you just because if something goes wrong 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:27.959 down there, you are toast unless you can slowly and 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.160 deliberately get yourself back to the surface of the ocean. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.000 That's right, that's so yeah. But the other thing you 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.280 want to do too is you're in very cramp quarters here, 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.679 so everything has to be strapped down pretty closely to 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:44.359 your body or in like a pocket, because you can't 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:46.800 have any stuff hanging down because you'll get tangled up. 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:48.920 I don't want to get tangled up down there. I 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.200 know this is kind of amateur hour stuff because we're 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.520 not a good breaking point, but we should probably take 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:55.240 an ab break right here. No, I think it's a 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.920 great time, and we'll talk about how you breathe down 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:21.800 there right after this. I sk asle sk as. You shouldn't. Sorry, everyone, 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:26.240 I'm so sorry. So you need to breathe down there. 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.399 Everyone has seen a scuba tank, um, but it's a 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.359 little bit different. It's quite a bit different in fact 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.679 than open water diving. UM. You're going to need uh 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.360 different things to go that deep, different kinds of air mixtures, uh. 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.480 And there are a few different kinds that you can use. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.560 But we should probably talk a little bit about the 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.040 bins and what happens to your body. I know we 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.679 covered the bens in uh the which one was it? 0:21:55.800 --> 0:22:00.520 The what was the old time diving suit called diving bell? 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:02.359 Was a diving bell? I think we cover the bends. 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:04.920 We must have, probably so, yeah, because we've never done 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.600 a scuba episode. So John from his original houseof Works 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.600 article makes a very great point about pressure and talks 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:15.639 about soda bottles and obviously if you shake up a 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:17.879 soda bottle and then open it really quick, is going 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.640 to go everywhere. Or if you're Josh and you've never 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:25.159 in your life apparently opened a tonic bottle soda, I 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:27.760 thought it was tonic, was probably both? Really Yeah, you 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:29.800 got to open those very very slowly every time, no 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.400 matter if it's shaken or not. I don't think any 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.359 of those are my fault. But um like every backstage 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:38.840 we've ever been to has tonic and soda on the floor, 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:42.439 it would there. I'm cursed with that. But if you 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.840 do shake up a soda bottle in the difference between 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.960 opening it quickly and very very slowly is can be 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.679 related to how the human body reacts under the pressure 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.040 of that water. Yeah, so in this case, when you're 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:59.520 scuba diving, opening the cap is analogous to slowly making 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.840