this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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LoL. I do have a lot of respect for those SCUBA cavers. I had a friend in school who was so disappointed when I didn't say sphygmomanometer, and I love words so much that I try to use the longer/ less used ones when I can get away with it. :-D
You can use the words you want, although in most situations people will understand you better if you say "blood pressure monitor" -- unless you're in the medical field and need to be more specific.
The caving one bothers me because people talk about a sport they don't do or their friends don't do with a word only outsiders use. It shows you don't want any connection to the actual people who do it and who sometimes die in accidents.
I've spoken with the cave divers at Wakulla Springs, in Florida. They've done a bit of serious research there, mapping it back several miles. The opening of the cave is 120 feet below the surface, and goes deeper still (I'm remembering 300 feet) once one gets inside, with the pressure of the water pushing outward. They compress for 6 hours, can be down there for 6 hours, and then decompress for 6 hours on the longer expeditions. AFAIK no one has died in that one, at least not for a very long time. There are mastodon bones at 90-120 feet, that one used to be able to see from the surface.
http://floridacaves.com/wakullaprofile.JPG
Dude that's awesome!! Cave diving sounds like it's come a long way.
You do this whole thing and never once tell us the super secret proper word for spelunking...
Disregard saw your other post...it's called caving...
Sorry if that wasn't clear. I'm honestly curious how "spelunking" got to be such a popular word.
If you want to see some fun caving content, and also the world's first proto-creepypasta, check out Ted's Caving Page. https://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/
I have gone to a couple lava flow caves and went to one in Central Oregon that I had to crawl through a tiny hole for about 5-6 feet not too bad but it opened up to this amazing little geode room thing...out of the ten of us only 4 of us went in there it was terrifying but worth it...turning off your flashlights in caves is something else!!!
Dude that sounds awesome!! I've explored one small cave in NY with some coworkers -- was sort of tricky to get into, you had to go in sideways leading on your back, but it opened up into a big room with a way to climb further down a bit. I have some friends who were way more into it, had the gear, made maps, researched living things they found inside, etc, but I didn't get into it at the time.
That thing about going further when others stay back-- or the feeling of turning off the lights and waiting for your eyes to adjust but still you can't see anything -- pretty cool!
Someday I'd like to go to Mammoth in KY or one of those caves in NZ with the glow worms!
We have these caves here that are from volcanic tuff settling and cracking over time. So they aren't solution caves, and are very dry inside. Of course they stay the same temperature inside. It's super fun to go caving in them. I haven't been in a while, and it's like -15C outside, so they would seem warm. Thanks for the speliological conversation, it's inspiring. Maybe I can find time today or next weekend.