Sheck was able to accomplish so much because of an almost robotic certainty that if he did something correctly he would prevail. That works well until the world dishes up something unexpected such as an accident.
Sometime during the mid 70s my future ex wife Lema and I had gone to Texas for some caving event. I have forgotten exactly when or where, but I think it was either Austin or San Antonio. From there we rode out west to the Devil’s sinkhole with Sheck and Paul Smith, a fellow caver and diver from Florida. After bopping the pit we headed back in Sheck’s VW hippie van, but make no mistake, Sheck was not a Hippie, more like an astronaut. Lema and I rode in the back while sitting on big wooden boxes full of diving and caving gear. As a young testosterone fueled fool I habitually drove like a maniac, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable riding with anyone else, even an apparently careful driver like Sheck, so I kept my eyes open. I was concerned that he paid too much attention to the rules and not enough attention to the road. So it was that somewhere in San Antonio we were passing through an intersection. Sheck had the right of way so he just barreled on through without slowing down or even bothering to look. After all, he had the right of way. Even though I was sitting in the back I could see the Buick Electra bearing down on us in an attempt to beat the light. I didn’t say anything because nobody likes a back seat driver, and Sheck had already sniffed disapproval for our, “Lack of seriousness”, one of the many times I have been accused of not being a real caver because…(fill in the blank). Sheck never even hit the brakes, so we T-boned the Electra at about 50 mph. Sheck and Paul were wearing their seat belts so they miraculously escaped unscathed, but Lema and I were sitting on unsecured boxes filled with hundreds of pounds of equipment. The boxes damn near ripped our legs off. I didn’t realize I was injured until I got out of the van to discover that my left leg now pivoted sideways at the knee. Lema was similarly injured but not so badly. I was medevaced to a Catholic hospital in Jacksonville where Lema and I did a great job of scandalizing the nuns by smoking dope, drinking wine, and screwing in the hospital bed. It was good therapy because after seven months in a cast and a year of skinny leg syndrome I fully recovered! Perhaps it is my anarchistic nature, but this and many other such experiences have long convinced me to distrust those who presume that if you do things the “right” way then everything will work out. (Unless of course a Buick Electra comes flying out of left field!) Sleazeweazel Ps: Unlike so many others on this list my obituary has yet to be reported; nevertheless, it seems that the dark part of my caving career is coming to an end. Excess weenie whacking, machete swinging, axe chopping, chainsaws, rope climbing, mountain biking, paddling, and especially drunken frisbee has utterly destroyed both of my shoulders. The rotator cuff muscles and several others have long since separated from the bones. That means major surgery coming up next week. Presuming everything goes well effective recovery takes six months, followed by surgery on the other shoulder. That means I will be out of action for a full year, a big chunk out of however many years I have left. At 71 there can’t be that many. The good news is that I long ago lost interest in the dark part of caving. The bad news is that I may never again be able to carry a backpack while hacking my way through the jungle to visit the green gooey snake infested entrances that I so love. From: Texascavers <texascavers-boun...@texascavers.com> On Behalf Of Barb Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 10:37 AM To: texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Article (part 1) on Sheck Exley : Hey thanks! It would be great if you keep posting the rest. Barb and Don Coons Sent from my iPhone On Jan 10, 2019, at 8:11 AM, jerryat...@aol.com <mailto:jerryat...@aol.com> wrote: Remembering Suwannee: Tragedy stressed diver safety to Sheck Exley https://www.suwanneedemocrat.com/opinion/remembering-suwannee-tragedy-stressed-diver-safety-to-sheck-exley/article_78ea5b56-128e-11e9-b80e-5b40c764923a.html Jerry Atkinson. Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com <mailto:Texascavers@texascavers.com> | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers ____________________________________________________________ <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3142/5c38b825a87ea38244aeest03duc> Oncologists Are Freaking Out Over True Cause of Cancer pro.healthresponses.org <http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3142/5c38b825a87ea38244aeest03duc> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3142/5c38b825a87ea38244aeest03duc <https://d32oduq093hvot.cloudfront.net/icons/sponsoredlinksby.png>
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