Near Drowning at Ginnie Springs

[The Chairman]

It wasn't the reg's fault. I love my Micras, and the diaphragm should never have been put back on that reg. It was so deformed that I could not stretch it back in place. The diaphragm is designed to just lay in place and should not need to be "finagled" to fit. This is why I service my own regs and won't let others touch them.

 

[DivemasterSteve]

It wasn't the reg's fault. I love my Micras, and the diaphragm should never have been put back on that reg. This is why I service my own regs and won't let others touch them.

did you kick the persons ***** for putting it back on? if you didnt, you should have.

steve

 

[The Chairman]

You know... they never even apologised. A year and a half later they called to ask why I had not spent any more money with them... go figure. They still didn't apologise for their indiscretion with this.

 

[Michael Schlink]

Ginnie cavern is a cavern and if your not cavern trained you shouldn't be there, period. What is a safe cavern? What is an OW cavern?? And there are several places where you can't see daylight. Ginnie posts their own set of rules regarding diving in the cavern, but they do not supercede divers without training entering an overhead environment, she's extremely lucky, stupid, but lucky. For those of you reading this. If your not trained for overhead's don't go in them ever, no matter what, that includes wrecks too. As good as you think you are, your not. Stay alive -don't go in caves OR caverns without proper training dive Safe-M

 

[The Chairman]

Do we know what her certs were??? I had not seen that posted (or I missed it).

 

[fishguts]

Does anyone know where she was from, My LDS is down there this weekend.

 

[DivemasterSteve]

You know... they never even apologised. A year and a half later they called to ask why I had not spent any more money with them... go figure. They still didn't apologise for their indiscretion with this.

good grief, sounds to me like they should have been giving you money instead of asking you why you havent spent more with them and i bet if they would have at least apologised, you would have still been spending some with them. there are stupid people all over the place.

steve

 

[hantzu701]

Just some background info for those who haven't been to Ginnie Springs.

The opening to the cavern is about 8-10ft below the surface. The cavern winds down to another narrow opening that is sealed off with a metal grate. The grate is about 51-52ft below the surface. Even at the grate, you can see the light for the exit. Because of the high water flow, there is little to no silt. If you hang on to the grate, you can sail in the current.

For someone who has never cavern dived before, it can be an exciting or terrifying experience. If you're unprepared to deal with the high flow at the grate, I think it's possible to accidently swallow or choke on some water. When I was there, an eager OW diver bumped my primary near the grate and I started coughing. I managed to keep the reg in my mouth and exited normally with my group.

I also would be very curious to hear the full report. Not to be insensitive, but I can easily see someone bolting for the surface. Keep in mind that if you follow the cavern roof to the right - you go to the dead end branchoff. The exit rope is pretty obvious, but it might not be to someone who isn't looking for it.

 

[coberry7]

Nobody said she wasn't cavern certified. Relax with the supposition!! Wait until we hear from those who were there.

There is no need to suppose or assume anything here. Does no good for anyone.

 

[gj62]

On the surface it became obvious that the diapragm had come loose within the housing allowing water to come in with the air. The diapragm was distorted like it was cleaned with the wrong fluid... it should have been replaced before they gave me those regs back.

A long time ago, I used to dive with a guy we nicknamed "Silicone". He would have the brightest gear - always polished, all hoses, etc fresh with silicone spray. He would service his own regs (not mine). Diving with a SP 109 2nd that he'd just serviced, he signaled OOA about 10 mins into the dive. Octos weren't all that common then, but we BBd just fine. I knew he had air - we geared up together. Anyhow, we get to surface to find that the diaphram had pulled out from the housing - I don't know if it was the silicone spray, but the darn thing was so slick you couldn't hold on to it! I think he just didn't seat correctly - but I told him it was from too much sillycone...

Off topic, and I don't mean to make light of a serious situation, but aside from an exhaust valve failure, this was the only time I've seen someone get water when they thought they were going to get air...