Experience before Cavern?

[PerroneFord]

Yes, there have been a number of fatalities in Ginnie Cavern. In fact, I think there was one last year.

If you are not cavern trained, Ginnie is a good place to get an understanding. But that is no guarantee of safety. Particularly for those who venture all the way to the grate. I was in there LONG before I should have been.

I would most certainly not recommend going into any of the caverns in the devil's system. Especially Little Devil. Getting out of there in a hurry is not easy and you could REALLY thump your head.

 

[enderjs]

I agree little devil is crazy, but it is really cool to look up when you are in it.

 

[GDI]

Aside from everything else that the other posters have told you about I will add "have patience". The problem (one of) with diving cavern such as Ginnie, Blue Grotto, Devils Den and Paradise is that they can lead a diver into a false sense of security and this is not a good thing and without much warning many divers have found out that this can cause a cavern to become a deceptively easy way to die or to get themselves into serious trouble, get the training

 

[texdiveguy]

Cavern courses are very skill development oriented,,,,,you will need to be comfortable diving with good bouancy skills. It is not a technically a tough course, so relax and have fun.

 

[loosebits]

Cavern courses are very skill development oriented,,,,,you will need to be comfortable diving with good bouancy skills. It is not a technically a tough course, so relax and have fun.

I found it quite challenging, more so than the next three classes in the progression. There are simply more physical skills that need to be learned in cavern then the next three. You are introduced to anti-silting swiming techniques, you must be well aware of your trim and while all this is happening, you're running a reel. For most people taking the class, these are all firsts.

I remember my first cavern dives in Jackson Blue... pulling that reel out of there while trying to vent my wing was a nightmare (it was kicking at the time). Of course now it's no big deal but my first time with a reel, it was quite a big deal.

Intro through full cave is more about awareness, planning, etc but I can't think of any other physical skills besides diving with doubles and handling deco bottles (e.g. smoothly clipping the bottle off on the line you're running) and less I forget, one-fin swimming . Yes, we're dropping cookies and making jumps but those are all about procedures, not really new techniques. Of course there's the 500+' sharing air/lights out exit (on every freaking dive) but nothing new there, we did that in cavern, it was just 50'.

Anyway, you never mentioned getting your cavern card, did you end up doing it in Vortex? How did you end up liking it? Kind of related to what I was saying earlier but if I had just taken cavern and not gone onto intro, I don't know if I would have continued cave diving. It was just too much work, not enough cave. As I recall, we only did JB and the Ballroom for cavern and I enjoyed it at the time despite the flow but I don't think I would have driven the 800 miles to do it again had I not gotten the card that lets me tie into that main line.

 

[NSDiver]

I think I'll go ahead and plan to take the course. It'll be at least towards the end of the year before I can get down there, so by then I should have another 15 dives (for a total of about 60). Trying to get a local shop to teach me rescue also - they won't do the course unless they have at least two people sign up, and I'm the only one so far.

-Nick

 

[karstdvr]

Yes, there have been a number of fatalities in Ginnie Cavern. In fact, I think there was one last year.

.

Unfortunately this is true,there have been several fatalities in open water divers in "safe caverns" like Ginnie. Ginnie has a no light zone way off to the left upon entering,which makes it by definition a cave. Also,it is not uncommon for people to do night dives at the Ginnie basin and then enter the cavern,but all caverns become caves at night,because a cavern diver's primary light source is the sun. Vortex springs used to have a lot of fatalities because the was considered a "safe cave" since there was grate at the end. But total darkness combined with depth caused quite a few fatalities. I agree with GDI that a false sense a security occurs with commercial places like this,but there is no such thing as a "safe cave/cavern",and all should be respected.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Unfortunately this is true,there have been several fatalities in open water divers in "safe caverns" like Ginnie. Ginnie has a no light zone way off to the left upon entering,which makes it by definition a cave. Also,it is not uncommon for people to do night dives at the Ginnie basin and then enter the cavern,but all caverns become caves at night,because a cavern diver's primary light source is the sun. Vortex springs used to have a lot of fatalities because the was considered a "safe cave" since there was grate at the end. But total darkness combined with depth caused quite a few fatalities. I agree with GDI that a false sense a security occurs with commercial places like this,but there is no such thing as a "safe cave/cavern",and all should be respected.

I agree with you and Rick but I have a question. Who are the experts who consider some of these cavers OW diver safe? I haven't met any of them.

They make a plain, easy to understand statement on their web site that's been there for a long time. I disagree that they are OW diver safe but I'm not an expert. I don't know if you guys are experts or not but they should have included the quoted testimony of those supposed experts, their names and their cridentials.