Any thoughts on the Thailand cave rescue ? I was wondering with your rescue background if you'd looked at this and what ideas you may have.
I can’t speak for Mr Randall, but I’ve got a long history of not dying so far in caves and I think that makes me somewhat of a subject matter expert. My opinion is don’t go into caves. Ever. Under any circumstance. It’s like the old saying: “I don’t need to know WHEN I’m going to die, I just need to know WHERE, and I’ll make sure I never go there” People die in caves. Don’t go there and you’ll be 100% successful avoiding being a cave casualty.
That's exactly how I feel about the desert and swamps. If I never go there, I do not need to possess the skills to survive there...
People say that shark attacks are rare. But they always factor in the total population...that is on land. So, yeah, they would be rare if you include 6 billion people into the equation that are impossible for sharks to get to. Life's full of risks, but you ought to get something out of the risks or they're pointless. That's why I avoid things like caves, airplanes, and redheads, and stick with the safer stuff like motorcycles, guns, and latinas.
I wouldn't be qualified to comment since I have zero experience in cave diving nor do I have any insight on the cave they're in, conditions, etc. All I know is it seems like a pretty tough challenge from what I've seen on the news. Hope everything works out ok with the kids as well as the rescuers.
I am a PADI certified cave diver, and I will echo what @Expat said. Caves are dangerous, require a specific gear set with multiple back ups and back ups for those. The last cave I dove was a rescue, the guys wife and kid were on the surface. She said he had been down there for hours. We know it was a recovery mission then. He got turned around in the cave and died about 20 feet from the exit. I haven’t dove in a cave since.
One rescuer has died already. Ex Thai Seal. Appears that it is a 11 hour trip one way. God Bless the kids and the rescuers.
I gotta agree with Expat on this one. No caves. I'd even avoid the closet if my wife didn't keep putting my clothes in there.
There is a cave here called Nutty Putty Cave. Me and my friend went up there to check it out. His leg was hurting him so he couldn’t go in with me. The opening is L shaped. You climb down this hole and then lie down and crawl thru the narrow opening. I went in on my back and the top was rubbing against my chest. It really freaked me out. Once that’s over it opens up a little more. I didn’t go any farther because I was nervous being alone if something happened to me so I got out. There was another kid that went in years later that got stuck far in the cave and he ended up dying in it. The rescuers tried to pull him out but couldn’t so they ended up leaving him in there and sealing up the cave so no one else could go in. It was really sad :-(
