Recently we had a tragic death of a cave diver at Manatee Springs near Chiefland, Florida. Sadly, a young woman with a group from China were diving the cave there just before Thanksgiving. She somehow became trapped and died. Based upon facts from the news articles and my personal experience from diving there many times I think I have a pretty good idea of what may have happened. However, that is pure conjecture and I would not publicly state my assumptions. I can only offer condolences. Here is one of the articles describing the accident- Ocala Star Banner News Article
Unfortunately, I’m hearing about people who are doing just the opposite. Speculation and assumptions have already begun. The social media posts are following the typical pattern with unproductive and unhelpful behavior.
I ask myself what causes this. The human tragedy is immense. A young woman has lost her life far from home on an adventure that was supposed to be exciting and fulfilling. The news accounts say her husband was with her when the accident happened. There must be terrible grief for him, her family, and her friends. Why do people who don’t even know them feel compelled to speculate and to thrust their personal concerns into this terrible thing?
My belief is that it is the nature of our sport and the type of people who are drawn to it. There are several common factors in the diving community that contribute to the reactions we see to accidents. As divers, and particularly as cave divers, we do many things most people would not dare to try. Often, we are just one mistake away from death. To some that is possibly alluring and, for many, desensitizing. We are accustomed to the danger. Diving is an equipment intensive sport and it attracts many mechanically inclined and analytical types. These are people who want to understand the why and the how of things. Access to many cave diving sites is almost always in peril and there is a concern that accidents will cause sites to be closed. The “Type A” personalities of the sport always strive to be first, have more connections, more information, and more insight. Wrap all this into one package and you have bold, analytical, and desensitized people with inquiring minds who have a small but personal stake in the tragedy and they become motivated to speculate rather than to wait for the facts.
Can we fix this? Probably not, but after writing this I feel better because now I have a better understanding of the dynamics of the behavior.