yeah, you won't ever hear me complain about the flooding. i just said it wasn't anything to be jealous of. i grew up on this river. my water ski team is located about 2 miles down river from my house, and i have been skiing with them for 25 years, so I knew exactly what to expect when i bought the house. floods just fuck things up though...they're messy. everything stinks when the water recedes.
as far as certifications....padi OW, AOW, deep, boat, wreck, night, rescue, search and recovery, and probably a few others i'm forgetting at the moment. done some cavern diving in florida...shits creepy. don't know that i really ever want to do much cave diving to be honest. it's very unsettling knowing that if it gets mucked up, and you were to lose you line, you can't just shoot to the surface. not scared of too many things, but that shit honestly spooks me.
and no, i wouldn't say it's similar to cave diving at all. you're diving in black water....which means that you can't see a single fucking thing and are diving by feel. you turn on a light and it just reflects off of all of the sediment in the water. it would be akin to diving in a cave and having someone kick up the bottom, and then trying to navigate. you've probably never dove in black water...aka 2 inches of visibility...but basically you drop to the bottom and crab crawl your way around as your hand are your eyes. and obviously you can't really do this in a subway with the wires, etc. basically, it's an invitation to die. i mean, i'd do the dive job as a rescue if required, but certainly wouldn't consider it fun by any stretch of the imagination.
