Safety
THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF CAVE DIVING ACCIDENTS IS A VIOLATION OF THE MOST
BASIC CAVE DIVING SAFETY GUIDELINE:
LACK OF CAVE DIVING TRAINING.
Our mission is to prevent accidents and promote safety and education amongst divers, the diving community and the general public. We have installed cave warning signs in all DR caves and we have been promoting education programs to inform people of the dangers of cave diving and the need for proper formal training for overhead diving. There is a major problem in the DR, untrained cave diving.
Some dive centers and instructors are leading guided dives with unsuspecting open water clients to caves in several different regions in the country, they have been exceeding recognized and well established recreational and cavern dive limits and have been unnecessarily putting unsuspecting peoples lives at risk.
Diving past the day light zone or 40 meters from the exit, with no formal Cave Diving training and Cave Diving equipment is extremely dangerous and it is only a matter of time before someone dies!!! please understand that.
Our purpose is not to assign blame. Rather, case some light on and provide information about the dangers of Cave Diving without proper training and equipment.
There have been over 600 deaths in caves, almost all of which were untrained divers and many Open Water instructors in caves exactly like the caves here in the Dominican Republic.
We have installed cave warning signs like the one below in the popular Bayahibe and Santo Domingo area caves and will be installing signs in all the DR caves. These signs are placed at the cavern limit and should be taken seriously, please do not risk your life and go past these signs unless full cave trained.
NO AMOUNT OF PREVIOUS OPEN WATER
DIVING EXPERIENCE OR TRAINING CAN
ADEQUATELY PREPARE YOU FOR CAVE DIVING!!!!!
LINE MAINTENANCE
There is one aspect of safety that needs attention, line maintenance. Tie offs will occasional come loose and lines will sometimes break due to abrasion, a collapse or diver trafic. We will periodically make line inspection dives and make sure all lines are maintained and in good condition.