Low Vis & Bad Experience at Florida Spring

[av8er23]

I decided to write about an experience that happened to me last fall at “Morrison Spring”. Morrison Spring is located just south of I-10 near Ponce de Leon, Florida. Please read the document attached. It’s very short!:no

Check out the links for more information on the spring.

http://www.tfn.net/Springs/Morrison.htm

http://www.floridacaves.com/morrison.htm

 

[covediver]

Wow, a very interesting narrative. Thank you for sharing it with us.

As I read the story I experienced a familiar uneasiness. I have been to Morrison Springs under similar conditions. We were part of a multiple day cavern/cave diving training and had all the prerequisite training and equipment (lines, reels, extra lights, a well reviewed dive plan) and it was still a very uncomfortable experience.

When the river is clear the diving is great, when it is really tannic, go to nearby Vortex was my rule of thumb.

It sounds like what you experienced was the tyranny of events where a series of seemingly small decisions led to a near catostrophic conclusion. That seems to be a factor in most accidents. I have come to the conclusion after many years that if I am really uncomfortable about the conditions early on, I should abort because they seldom get better. This is especially true when I am in a new site that I am not familiar with.

 

[TSandM]

In an overhead, low or no viz, and no guideline has got to be one of the most frightening things that can happen to a diver. I guess this is why there are clear limits on viz requirements for cave training courses.

We routinely dive in visibility that low, but we train in it and we're used to it. This is one of the reasons so many of us PNWers have high wattage HID lights, so that we can keep track of one another in the murk. And the people who do any kind of penetration in our viz run guidelines and are very practiced in following them in no viz. It's not easy, as I learned during the wreck workshop I took in November.

Glad everything ended up ok. That could have been a really bad outcome.

 

[rongoodman]

There's a story on one of the wreck diving forums about a pair who were swimming alongside a large wreck in poor viz and found themselves suddenly inside the thing. They had been swimming along next to a large hole in the hull and veered inside without realizing it, until they found themselves at the end of a corridor. Scary stuff.

 

[loosebits]

Very good story. I'm glad you found your way out. I know there have been several hundred cases in Florida's springs when an OW diver didn't.

One thing I read that raised a red flag:

[FONT=&quot]I feel comfortable going in a small cavern as long as I can see the exit the entire time[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]

You should never be entering a cavern regardless of viz as viz can change. I've never dived Morrison but I've been in many caves with a very nasty little cavern where vizibility can go from unlimited to zero with a bad fin kick. The only way to ensure you'll be coming out is to have a continuous guideline to OW. If you want to continue going into caverns, please take a class.
[/FONT]

 

[av8er23]

You should never be entering a cavern regardless of viz as viz can change. I've never dived Morrison but I've been in many caves with a very nasty little cavern where vizibility can go from unlimited to zero with a bad fin kick. The only way to ensure you'll be coming out is to have a continuous guideline to OW. If you want to continue going into caverns, please take a class.

You do have a point about the visibility getting bad quick with a fin stroke. I do have plans of taking a cavern course in the future.

 

[ClayJar]

I've never dived Morrison but I've been in many caves with a very nasty little cavern where vizibility can go from unlimited to zero with a bad fin kick.

The upper cavern at Morrison can lose visibility quite quickly with a couple fins to the floor. It looks like a little inviting straight-in-straight-out few feet, but it can be dangerous.

The lower cavern, while deeper, larger, and significantly less open to the outside, is also much less silt-prone (it's mostly covered in large granular sandy material instead of the Morrison black silt balls). I would *hardly* say the lower cavern is "safer", but it's an interesting note that you're more likely to get lost due to low vis in the "easy" upper cavern.

 

[loosebits]

No one says it better than the NSS-CDS: http://www.nsscds.org/training_new/aboutcavediving.htm

 

[FIXXERVI6]

You do have a point about the visibility getting bad quick with a fin stroke. I do have plans of taking a cavern course in the future.

Loosebits and I have some video of a day when conditions were awsome all around and in a matter of seconds it was zero, I kept filming the entire time and there are a few shots where the camera was floating around and there is a glimps of my hand on the line, funny thing there was a light ON the camera so the camera could see a couple inches, my light was on my hand so I couldn't see my SPG if I pressed it against my mask so the video actually shows better vis than what your eyes would see.

What had happened is on the way in the line got caught on one of loosebits arrows, he stopped to fix that but had drifted under a rock ledge inside the cavern (easy to do, a couple of feet to the left and your there) which put him in a spot where you can not do much of anything, back against rock belly against silt, of course I also went right up into the same spot and we blew it to nothing getting out, for those that have dove twin you'll know what I"m talking about, you go in and to the left there is a low spot that you can get through on side mount but back mount your against rock and stilt, perfect situation where even proper kicking skills etc will resault in a blow out if you go through the wrong spot, and it did, of course we got out of the silt cloud tied off did the dive etc and things were fine, but we ran line according to protocol etc.

We were litterally 5 feet from the entrance but that didn't matter, we have debated on destroying the footage as well we had a boo boo and we can't let anyone see that cause you gotta be perfect for the videos but I think maybe it would be a great educational video of look people, ideal conditions, and now, 0, when it happened I was like well ok here we go, on the line I went etc, the first thing that shot through my mind was an OW diver on a single tank swimming in there, being a couple of feet from the exit and never able to find it.

It happened again when another diver joined us, he is not on this board, doesn't even lurk, but it was his first time in there, he was in the middle I was in rear, he stopped and his fins dropped a few inches, poof, nadda vis.

Moral of the story, ideal conditions don't mean danger is not around, having training, following protocol and doing anti silting kicks etc will not ensure you don't have a blow out, and the last one, no matter how good YOU are you will always have a boo boo and what about someone thats in there with you? They could rototill up the bottom on you and there you are.

After loosebits gets the vid transfered I'll get it chopped up and upload it for people to look at.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

Also let me add, thanks for sharing