General Vortex Incident Discussion

[LiteHedded]

Like I said - put him on your ignore list - no amount of bantering or ranting or slandering on this thread is going to change him. Most folks pass him off as eccentric anyway.

what about the guy that doesn't and ends up dead in a cave?
ignoring this guy is about the worst idea I could think of

 

[Hetland]

You better be real, real careful doing that around Denise and Carolyn during Vortoberfest. Don't say I didn't warn you.

You mean there is a way to make them WORSE?

 

[vshearer]

On another note, as far as the cave conservation goes is Ginnie Ballroom any different with the scores of OW divers in there? And there are other examples. My problem is with OW divers in general being in an overhead. A lot of newly minted OW divers get their first experience with a "Get out of Dodge" incident such as OOA, flooded mask, water in regulator, etc. in shallow water and bolt to the surface. I did. They should learn from the experience and are OK, some of course get an embolism, but the point is in a cave the result will most definitely be a death.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Ginnie's Ballroom has pretty much been obliterated from its natural state. That cave should be quite dark/black, and nowhere near so rounded...

 

[shoredivr]

From the videos it looks like there's a right angle on the way to the Piano Room. Can you see daylight from in there, making it a cavern zone? Or as it appears from the videos, is the Piano Room in the cave zone?

At Ginnie, you can see the ballroom from the entrance, making it a cavern zone.

Though your point is taken, vshearer. It's still an overhead.

 

[Rick Murchison]

... Nik is promoting unsafe cave diving practices. I don't think that pointing that out is wrong...

While I don't think he's "promoting" his own style of doing anything, I do agree that he's doing things that can easily be misconstrued... which is why I brief my students that he'll be around, up and down and zipping about, but he ain't even seeing any fish or formations, he's chasing his very own rabbits - and - his isn't the diving style we're training for or striving for.
My defense of Nik is in the area of all the comments that he's an accident waiting for a place to happen. That just isn't so.
Rick

 

[Rick Murchison]

From the videos it looks like there's a right angle on the way to the Piano Room. Can you see daylight from in there, making it a cavern zone? Or as it appears from the videos, is the Piano Room in the cave zone?

The Piano room is some 300 feet from the entrance to the cave, and you cannot see daylight from there, even in the very best conditions. And at it's deepest it's 110'.
So it's a cave by distance, by light, and by depth.
However... even the most egregious rototiller can't silt it out to the point that you can't see your way to the pipeline, and the pipeline going uphill goes out. The main passage isn't exactly straight, but it's straight enough that you couldn't confuse it with a side passage (did I mention the pipe?). So while I object to OW divers going to the piano room, and I don't allow any of mine to do it, thousands do go there every year... thousands, and without mishap.
So, like I say, as caves go, Vortex to the piano room is probably the safest cave on the planet.
Rick

 

[vshearer]

These are addicting.

 

[LiteHedded]

I'll say this for the guy. he looks like he's having a friggin blast

 

[shoredivr]

While I don't think he's "promoting" his own style of doing anything, I do agree that he's doing things that can easily be misconstrued...

We'll just have to disagree on the promotion part, to me having one's own youtube channel is a kind of promotion.....

Thanks for the Piano Room clarification.