Post: #126

Reuters is reporting 4 of the boys have been brought out
Reuters

Quote:Four Thai boys rescued from cave; dive operation to resume Monday
Panu Wongcha-um, Panarat Thepgumpanat
5 MIN READ

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) - Four of 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave on Sunday as divers launched a daring and dangerous mission to free the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks, officials said.

Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit guided the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.

As night fell, the operation to rescue the remaining eight boys - some as young as 11 and weak swimmers - and their coach was called off until Monday morning.


“Today we managed to rescue and send back four children to Chiang Rai Prachanukrua Hospital safely,” the head of the rescue operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, said at a news conference.

The rescue teams needed about 10 hours to prepare for their next operation, involving about 90 divers in total, 50 of them from foreign countries, he said.

A helicopter flew the four boys to the nearby city of Chiang Rai, where they were taken by ambulance to hospital.

Their ordeal has drawn huge media attention in Thailand and abroad, and getting the boys out safely could be a boost for Thailand’s junta ahead of a general election next year.

“Today is D-Day,” Narongsak had earlier told reporters.

Bursts of heavy monsoon rain soaked the Tham Luang Cave area in northern Chiang Rai province on Sunday and storms were expected in the coming weeks, increasing the risks in what has been called a “war with water and time” to save the team.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, went missing with their 25-year-old coach after soccer practice on June 23, setting out on an adventure to explore the cave complex near the border with Myanmar and celebrate a boy’s birthday.

The rescue teams had rehearsed the plan for several days, Narongsak said, and had managed to drain the water level in the cave considerably, but needed to move fast.

Post: #127

It's clear to me that the people in this thread wailing "think of the children" have never spent any serious time in SEA.

If they had they would realise that in the grand scheme of the lunacy (to Westerners) one can witness every single day, this is really small beer.

There is life outside of the West.

The people there, on balance, seem pretty happy with their approach to life and its risks.

Post: #128

Odds of Hollywood making a SJW themed message about this ordeal?

Post: #129

I really hope everything works out and everyone comes out alive and well, the kids and the rescue team. The thought of crawling in little narrow tunnels under the surface of the earth is terrifying to me, add water to it and is torture nightmare material. Reading this thread, these kids experience, the american guy who got trapped upside down, Papaya's experience and HCE's Croatia story made me feel queasy. Respect to the rescue team, I wouldn't be able to do it.

Post: #130

(07-08-2018 10:43 AM)Saweeep Wrote:  It's clear to me that the people in this thread wailing "think of the children" have never spent any serious time in SEA.

If they had they would realise that in the grand scheme of the lunacy (to Westerners) one can witness every single day, this is really small beer.

There is life outside of the West.

The people there, on balance, seem pretty happy with their approach to life and its risks.

While I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, we're definitely too coddled in the West, particularly in the US where where it reaches ridiculous levels, and that the world is a big place with different cultures, peoples and ways of doing things that are different from our own, and certainly some of those things are better than how we do them I also have to agree with this:

(07-08-2018 10:16 AM)questor70 Wrote:  There's a difference between the helicopter parenting going on in the US which is paranoid about kids getting even a scuffed shin and taking Darwin-Award-style risks.

Despite all the stupidity the west is still the best (or least worst).

Post: #131

https://i.imgur.com/waVBj0X.gifv

Little gif for anyone who was thinking about taking up cave diving ^^^

Post: #132

(07-08-2018 12:21 PM)Architekt Wrote:  https://i.imgur.com/waVBj0X.gifv

Little gif for anyone who was thinking about taking up cave diving ^^^

The hell with that noise.

Post: #133

Look at the courageness and downright selflessness of all the divers putting their lives on the line to get these kids to safety. I'm truly humbled.

This is what men look like.

Post: #134

(07-08-2018 12:42 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  Look at the courageness and downright selflessness of all the divers putting their lives on the line to get these kids to safety. I'm truly humbled.

This is what men look like.

The Hollywood version will have a fictional strong independent female diver though.

Post: #135

(07-08-2018 12:21 PM)Architekt Wrote:  https://i.imgur.com/waVBj0X.gifv

Little gif for anyone who was thinking about taking up cave diving ^^^

I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach and grasping for air while watching these 19 seconds, and I'm sitting comfortably in front of my laptop in my living room, I can't fathom actually doing that and for hours, these guys are on another level.

Post: #136

(07-08-2018 12:42 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  Look at the courageness and downright selflessness of all the divers putting their lives on the line to get these kids to safety. I'm truly humbled.

This is what men look like.

That video is insane. The good news though is it seems there must be a decent current preventing sediment from kicking up and allowing for good visibility. The bad news is they risk getting their giant balls lodged in there.

Edit: Footage not from Thailand.

Post: #137

Ok, the gif is not footage from the thai rescue but from a cave diving in Wisconsin, but the principle still stands, cave diving is terrifying.

Post: #138

From the comments on that little vid, it seems that clip was actually taken from some other random cave somewhere

I imagine the conditions wouldn't be too different, though, from all reports I've read

Edit: Got beaten to it^^

Post: #139

(07-08-2018 01:02 PM)Architekt Wrote:  From the comments on that little vid, it seems that clip was actually taken from some other random cave somewhere

I imagine the conditions wouldn't be too different, though

Well, one crucial difference is that by all accounts the water is about as clear as espresso.

Post: #140

(07-08-2018 12:21 PM)Architekt Wrote:  https://i.imgur.com/waVBj0X.gifv

Little gif for anyone who was thinking about taking up cave diving ^^^

How does anyone pass there even when it's not underwater?

Post: #141

Post: #142

Rip to the seal. God bless him for going in for the rescue mission of a lifetime. If those guys are some of the best and drown proofed well so I'm willing to bet this turns out bad unfortunately.

I do heavy drown proofing for fun and surf survival but cave diving is to sketch. I might freedive some caves one day but scuba diving them thats such a heavy extreme sport. Id rather take my chances with sharks and salt water waves than a random cave collapsing.

Post: #143

Look at this map and the distance from the entrance to where they are now....it's insane how deep they allegedly went into this cave. More than 3 or 4 kilometers (almost 2 miles) from the entrance.





It still makes no sense to me how they managed to get a whole 3 to 4 kilometers (almost 2 miles) deep into the cave, even if there was zero water when they entered.

These up and down turns in the water that these divers have to take right now, would still have been small, narrow, totally dark, and very steep up and down passageways even if the cave was 100% dry when they went in.

12 kids and 1 adult 3km deep into a pitch black narrow cave network with no equipment, no flashlights and no shoes ?
That's some crazy shit.

Post: #144

Looking at that diagram, it seems clear to me that "go deeper into the cave" is never a valid escape plan. Good pro life tip.

Post: #145

Even as a kid, when we reached that choke point to crawl over, at that point I'd say "fuck this" and turn around.

Post: #146

Last year, I went to the Peruvian Amazon. We took a bus ride from Iquitos for about an hour. Then we took boat ride for another hour. By the time we got on the boat, we were already out of cell phone range. We took some shortcuts on the river, which was kind of risky. If the boat had become disabled, how long would it have taken for someone to find us? Of course, people at the other end of the trip were expecting us. So, if we hadn't arrived, they would have went looking for us.

Ultimately, the questions to ask are: What is your plan if you get into trouble? How easy or hard will it to be get help if you need it? It seems obvious that the coach never considered these questions.

It seems more and more that the coach and the kids had little or no experience in caving. Why would you go this far into a cave when you have little or no experience? Did they even tell anybody what they were doing?

Perhaps the best result is that this will make the boys a lot more skeptical of authority figures. When I swam, one coach wore a shirt which said: "Rule #1: The coach is always right. Rule #2: If the coach is wrong, see Rule #1."

How many times did the adults tell these boys to "do what the coach says" and "he's the boss"? They probably heard this dozens of times.

Post: #147

If I read the map well, it is all happening a mere few hundred meters from... Pattaya beach? As in, seedy Pattaya? And it's a group of young Thai boys, mysteriously led into a cave by a weird individual? Something smells ugly here.

Post: #148

Wonder what the Fisa courts are up to while everyone focuses on this nothing burger

Post: #149

(07-08-2018 01:48 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(07-08-2018 12:21 PM)Architekt Wrote:  https://i.imgur.com/waVBj0X.gifv

Little gif for anyone who was thinking about taking up cave diving ^^^

How does anyone pass there even when it's not underwater?

It's probably impossible to go there when there is no water to help you navigate the upwards slopes, or slide like a... creepy eel . It does not make sense.

They probably entered through another, secret, catacomb-like entrance, situated in some back-alley in Pattaya (for what ugly purpose, one wonders?). Then the secret entrance collapsed, or the path to it has been lost by the "guide". And the military has no knowledge of where the secret catacomb entrance might be.

Post: #150

(07-08-2018 06:07 PM)Going strong Wrote:  If I read the map well, it is all happening a mere few hundred meters from... Pattaya beach? As in, seedy Pattaya? And it's a group of young Thai boys, mysteriously led into a cave by a weird individual? Something smells ugly here.

Well if you used to google "Thai boys" you came up with some interesting stuff. Or so my friends tell me.

Can't the USA send some frackers over there to drill into the mountain and just lift the little dudes out?

This whole scenario makes no sense to me. But at least we got this guy in on it:

If anybody can fix this he can.

Aloha!