Let's talk, for a moment, about cave diving! : ^D My father was a master dive instructor for 20+ years, and wouldn't go five kicks into a cave for a million dollars. New divers are shown a video illustrating the dozens of ways that attempting a cave dive without proper certification will kill you. They need special techniques for visibility, orientation, decompression, and a hundred other things. It only takes ONE ERROR (say, forgetting which tunnel) to doom you to suffocation as you crawl even farther from the surface.

You can die if you: kick up too much silt, lose your orientation line, don't have double redundancy on your specialty lights/regulators, don't allow enough air for the trip out, et cetera. Divers tell grisly stories of goodbye messages hastily scratched with knives, and buddies who killed their partner to get the last of his air.

That being said: cut to December 26th. Two bodies are recovered from Eagles Nest, in the Weeki Wachee area of Florida. But how did they meet this tragic end? Were they part of a team of experienced cavers, whose many failsafe procedures coincidentally went wrong?

Were they newly certified cavers who got separated from their guide, unready to tackle this, the reputed "Mount Everest of cave dives? " This is, after all, a location for which many do not feel ready, even after years of practice. It figures highly in many "top ten risky cave dive sites" for the nation, and indeed the world. Were they the victims of a streak of bad luck?

No. No, they weren't. They may not have been certified cave drivers, but they sure were certified idiots.

They were Darrin Spivey, 35, an amateur diver certified for open water (NOT CAVES), and his 15 year old son Dillon Sanchez, who was NOT CERTIFIED AT ALL.

For a bit of perspective, let's equate this to people who decide to go parachuting by themselves because they've seen it in a movie.

Here were the factors that led them to conclude this was a fun and safe way to spend the afternoon:

- No specialty training, though it's readily available nearby - No specialty gear - No back up specialty gear - Untested combination of gear, given to them the previous day - No buddies on standby - Large warning sign up top stating Cave Divers Only. - Second warning sign at cave entrance, explicitly stating why this is too advanced for amateurs - Second warning sign has picture of *GRIM REAPER* - Son not certified in REGULAR scuba - Son aged fifteen, too young for ANY "overhead" (ice/wreck/cave) training

Happy ending for our species' gene pool: both of them died a horrible and 100% preventable death.

Amazing kicker: Darrin's family stated they think the site should be closed off to everyone, because it's so dangerous.

We'll get back to you on that.

Submitted on 12/28/2013

Submitted by: Space Captain Jeeves
Reference: Dec. 26th 2013: ALL Tampa Bay Area media outlets and several national / international

Copyright © 2013 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
Thanks, but we've already received this story a few times.

James said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
As Bruce said!

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