If you can't read a book you can look at the pictures
The deterioration of cave diving, I’d describe it with a Gaussian curve. On the y-axis, the skill of the divers; on the x-axis the quality of the equipment. The curve starts from zero, from the very origins of the activity, and as the equipment quality grows, so does the diver’s capability — because better tools demand and enable better skills. Until it reaches its peak, which in historical terms we’ve already left behind. Nowadays, no modern diver builds their own harness, buoyancy compensator, lights, and so on, from scratch. Everything is available in shops and, broadly speaking, for every budget. It’s not necessary anymore to be able to repair a torch at the water’s edge, simply because torches rarely break; just as it’s not necessary anymore to be able to untangle a guideline, because we’ve invented the reel, that doesn’t tangle. And so the Gaussian curve descends: even better equipment, and ever less versatile divers. It will never return to zero, of course — excellence wil...
