Fact: regardless of your agreement or disagreement of any of my comments, the owners allow ow divers into their locations (as does Ginnie into the "ball room" which also is cavern and cave by definition). If you are unhappy about that, perhaps you need to direct your efforts toward them.
A friend of mine has a wonderful motto, "Always dive within your training" I think if I could communicate only one thing to FishDiver it would be to "dive within your training"
The problem there lies in that many OW or non- cave/ cavern divers "think" that those caverns
are within their training. They're open to & "safe" for OW divers, right? It "should" be within my level training, because I'm a Dive Master & because it is open & safe for OW divers, right? I am neither condemning nor condoning the operators of such sites, but pointing out what can go on inside a diver's mind & how quickly things can go wrong to prove that a diver is beyond their training.
I thought exactly the same thing at Vortex a couple of years ago. I was down there to assist a couple of instructors as a Dive Con with some OW check- out dives. One of the instructors asked if I might like to explore the cavern/ cave there, up to the grate. I was curious,.... "SURE! I'd love to see what's there". We went in after supper at dusk. Long story short, we went down to the grate & started heading back. While down there it became dark outside. Note: there is NO cavern at night (no natural daylight zone). Yes,.... we were cave diving, not cavern diving.
Going beyond one's training can happen that easily & quickly. On the way back because of the dark, even though we were actually in open water, we didn't know it. The sheer sides of the depression looked like the sides of the cave & the black sky (no stars, moon, or any kind of light shone that night) looked like the ceiling of the cave. We thought we had gone the wrong way somehow. We went back & forth into & out of the cave trying to figure out where we were. My buddy was getting rather freaked at that point. He figured it out & left me when I had my back turned. Left me,... I puttered back & forth for several minutes more before I covered my light & could barely make out his light above me, leaving the water. Of course, I followed him. My air was low at that time. I could have VERY easily become another cave diving death statistic that day. Shook me up good. When I got home, my instructor (also a cave & technical instructor) gave me a good butt chewing. Let's face it, I deserved it. I was an open water diver with no cavern/cave training & I was doing a cave dive. Even though I had a close shave with the grim reaper, he patiently explained to me how close a shave I actually had. I had no idea. I have since gone on to receive the proper training. I am currently a Intro- to- cave diver & nearly finished with my full cave diver certification. You can bet your buns that I remain very much within my intro level training limitations,now, unless I am with & under the direct supervision of my instructor & he has given me permission to go beyond those limits. Did I do the wrong thing that day? Did I make a poor decision? YES! to both. Did I learn from my close call? Certainly!
If relaying what happened to me, in the face of potentially being ridiculed for my poor judgment, will stop another diver from making the same mistake & having to learn the same lesson the hard way or worse, I will recite it all day long.