Buford Sink

[Sevenrider860]

Dived Buford on Thursday. Conditions were perfect and my buddy and I had the place to ourselves!

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

I've been fortunate to dive Buford several times over the years and twice in the last couple months. It is an absolutely beautiful spring with an enormous cavern. My second dive at Buford, probably eight or nine years ago, I dived it in double lp85s, which was a big mistake. Not only was it a long walk, but back then there was no boardwalk. On this particular trip I ended up sinking up to my hips in mud and had to crawl on my hands and knees to get to the spring. Back then, the difficulty of access kept a ton of people out due to the difficulty getting to the spring.

While the new boardwalk is certainly nice and convenient, it has lead to a HUGE increase in usage at this spring along with many divers that are clearly newer open water divers and not remotely cavern trained. I swear I have even seen open water and advanced classes being taught at Buford. Someone even brought PVC squares this past Sunday for what I assume was some sort of buoyancy training class. For those that don't know, this cavern is very large and drops down to a maximum depth of around 165ft. The lack of overhead training for the majority of divers diving this site I think is a huge issue!

Recently, I heard a report of two divers with 10 open water dives each diving at Buford. They decided to go down to 165 ft, they turned the dive at some point and one ran out of gas at around 100ft in the cavern, the two divers then shared air together, and then they both ran out of air near the entrance to the cavern. They were able to ascend rapidly and didn't drown, but both were bent and needed multiple chamber rides.

I'm convinced that at some point there will be a death at this site! I wonder what we can do as a community to dissuade divers from diving this site unless they are trained for overhead diving. Can signs be posted at the start of the trail to the spring? A grim reeper sign at the start of the cavern perhaps? Other ideas? Who can we get into contact with to get signs? NSS-CDS? Chassahowtizka Wildlife Mgmt Area? I fear if nothing is done, someone will die and we will likely lose access to this beautiful spring/cavern.

 

[ElBurritoExtreme]

It absolutely blows my mind that people can take risks such as this with such carelessness. Healthy respect for things that can/will kill is NEVER a bad thing.

 

[rddvet]

I've been fortunate to dive Buford several times over the years and twice in the last couple months. It is an absolutely beautiful spring with an enormous cavern. My second dive at Buford, probably eight or nine years ago, I dived it in double lp85s, which was a big mistake. Not only was it a long walk, but back then there was no boardwalk. On this particular trip I ended up sinking up to my hips in mud and had to crawl on my hands and knees to get to the spring. Back then, the difficulty of access kept a ton of people out due to the difficulty getting to the spring.

While the new boardwalk is certainly nice and convenient, it has lead to a HUGE increase in usage at this spring along with many divers that are clearly newer open water divers and not remotely cavern trained. I swear I have even seen open water and advanced classes being taught at Buford. Someone even brought PVC squares this past Sunday for what I assume was some sort of buoyancy training class. For those that don't know, this cavern is very large and drops down to a maximum depth of around 165ft. The lack of overhead training for the majority of divers diving this site I think is a huge issue!

Recently, I heard a report of two divers with 10 open water dives each diving at Buford. They decided to go down to 165 ft, they turned the dive at some point and one ran out of gas at around 100ft in the cavern, the two divers then shared air together, and then they both ran out of air near the entrance to the cavern. They were able to ascend rapidly and didn't drown, but both were bent and needed multiple chamber rides.

I'm convinced that at some point there will be a death at this site! I wonder what we can do as a community to dissuade divers from diving this site unless they are trained for overhead diving. Can signs be posted at the start of the trail to the spring? A grim reeper sign at the start of the cavern perhaps? Other ideas? Who can we get into contact with to get signs? NSS-CDS? Chassahowtizka Wildlife Mgmt Area? I fear if nothing is done, someone will die and we will likely lose access to this beautiful spring/cavern.

I've been saying for months the boardwalk was a bad idea, mainly due to impact on a beautiful spring. But I also suspected tons of untrained divers would go. Like you, I"ve been diving there for years and sunk into the mud a few times as well. It's a rite of passage. Since the boardwalk was installed the graffiti in the cavern has gotten insane. I have heard secondhand of some of the antics happening there, but haven't seen it since sadly I'm now avoiding Buford. I wish there was something we could do to curtail the stupidity, but the concern is complaints could lead to Eagle's Nest closures too if we're not careful.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

I've been saying for months the boardwalk was a bad idea, mainly due to impact on a beautiful spring. But I also suspected tons of untrained divers would go. Like you, I"ve been diving there for years and sunk into the mud a few times as well. It's a rite of passage. Since the boardwalk was installed the graffiti in the cavern has gotten insane. I have heard secondhand of some of the antics happening there, but haven't seen it since sadly I'm now avoiding Buford. I wish there was something we could do to curtail the stupidity, but the concern is complaints could lead to Eagle's Nest closures too if we're not careful.

If there's a death at Buford though, both sites have a chance to be closed. Is doing nothing better than at least doing something such as signs, etc.?

 

[Manatee Diver]

I'm convinced that at some point there will be a death at this site! I wonder what we can do as a community to dissuade divers from diving this site unless they are trained for overhead diving. Can signs be posted at the start of the trail to the spring? A grim reeper sign at the start of the cavern perhaps? Other ideas? Who can we get into contact with to get signs? NSS-CDS? Chassahowtizka Wildlife Mgmt Area? I fear if nothing is done, someone will die and we will likely lose access to this beautiful spring/cavern.

NSS-CDS Board of Directors and Staff - NSS CDS

I can talk to Renee the next time I see her, I seem to run into her often. Though that will be at least 2-3 weeks from now. @kensuf and @Capt Jim Wyatt probably will run into her sooner.

 

[rddvet]

If there's a death at Buford though, both sites have a chance to be closed. Is doing nothing better than at least doing something such as signs, etc.?

I 100% agree with you. I just don’t know the right answer. I think something should be done but I don’t know what and I don’t want unwanted repercussions. But if something bad happens at Buford the whole Chaz will get shut down to divers. My wife works in groundwater conservation. She said she’s going to reach out to some colleagues that work with state agencies and see if they have any insight. Unfortunately when it comes to governmental oversight of things like this, sometimes too much attention on a problem can lead to unwanted decisions. Eagles nest is the more notorious site. So regardless of what causes a shut down of Buford, EN would probably go with it.

 

[Caveeagle]

I think adding signs would be a good idea. I know a few people worked real hard to establish the current permit and “recommendations” policy.

Clearly we have divers that are ignoring the “recommendations”. And is suspect they are diving there without the required permit.

does anyone know if anyone is even checking for permits there?

seems like we have a classic catch 22.. we fuss to much, and risk loosing access.. if we ignore what’s going on, and a likely accident could cause a closure as well.

without mentioning any names. .. there are a couple dive clubs, FB dive groups, and even some local shops that could really be more proactive about discouraging the bad behavior.

I know first hand, that speaking up in these groups can bring on the wrath of the social media overlords. They seem to care only about the # of followers and likes they get. . Then when we have the next fatality, they will be the first to talk 5h1t and never own up to having anything to do with the current state of things.

 

[rjack321]

without mentioning any names. .. there are a couple dive clubs, FB dive groups, and even some local shops that could really be more proactive about discouraging the bad behavior.

Oh we have that right here on SB too
O2 Bottle for Cavern, Cave or Deep OW | ScubaBoard

Cavern with AN/DP anyone?

 

[rddvet]

I think adding signs would be a good idea. I know a few people worked real hard to establish the current permit and “recommendations” policy.

Clearly we have divers that are ignoring the “recommendations”. And is suspect they are diving there without the required permit.

does anyone know if anyone is even checking for permits there?

seems like we have a classic catch 22.. we fuss to much, and risk loosing access.. if we ignore what’s going on, and a likely accident could cause a closure as well.

without mentioning any names. .. there are a couple dive clubs, FB dive groups, and even some local shops that could really be more proactive about discouraging the bad behavior.

I know first hand, that speaking up in these groups can bring on the wrath of the social media overlords. They seem to care only about the # of followers and likes they get. . Then when we have the next fatality, they will be the first to talk 5h1t and never own up to having anything to do with the current state of things.

I have yet to see some one checking permits.
I will name them: next level dive club. They’re members are constantly doing stupid stuff and posting it on fb where they egg each other on. There’s rarely a member trying to explain to people doing stupid stuff why they shouldn’t. The majority of people I’ve met from this club are people I would never dive with due to their mentality.
I have no problem naming names because Years ago EZ scuba in tampa was notorious for taking improperly trained divers into eagles nest and Buford. They even had directions to both on their website and encouraged students to dive there. I made a comment on Cdf about it being inappropriate for a “technical” shop to be promoting these locations on their website and brought up them bringing untrained people there. The owner saw it and pulled the info off their site.