What’s it like to go cave diving?

Three days ago, all 12 members of a boy’s football team and their coach were rescued, after being trapped in a cave in Thailand for 18 days. The Thai navy Seals, who have been running the operation, confirmed that all 13 were out. “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science or what”, the Seals said on their Facebook page.  

According to Wikipedia, cave diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. It may be done as an extreme sport, a way of exploring flooded caves for scientific investigation, or for the search for and recovery of divers lost while diving for one of these reasons. 

The equipment used varies depending on the circumstances, and ranges from breath hold to surface supplied, but almost all cave diving is done using scuba equipment, often in specialised configurations. Recreational cave diving is generally considered to be a type of technical diving due to the lack of a free surface during large parts of the dive, and often involves decompression."  "Picture yourself underwater, deprived of the ability to hear or see, bracing against a frigid current, and trying to fit through a hole so small you must push the air tank that’s keeping you alive in front of you. 

To understand what the cave rescue in Thailand was like, imagine the scenario above but you are a young man, starving and weak with fatigue. You’ve been separated from the surface and your family for two weeks. Your only way out is through the unknown murky depths that have sequestered you. You have no cave dive training but now must learn to do it if you are going to live," thus writes Kera Rolsen, a qualified and experienced cave diver, at www.businessinsider.com.au.