Rocky Horror Has Rules for a Reason!

[wetb4igetinthewater]

At least for Rocky Horror in Madison Blue its not hard to check with other divers in the parking lot about who is going where. But it possible for someone to have started diving before you arrive. The clipboard at rocky horror is made to address this exact situation. You can see it at 10 seconds in this video (and the general character of rocky horror tunnel for the next 1:30 mins)


If there's a team in the cave for 3hours (not unusual) by the time they exit, the park might be too close to closing to even splash. FL state parks are closed after sunset. Driving to another site because there are divers in the cave already is not practical at all.

Yeah, that's a tight little cave. Looks awesome though. So the black clip on the bottom of the board indicates either IN / team ahead (right side) or OUT / no one in cave (left side). Correct? Probably a stupid question, but as Mr. Mackey said....

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, that's a tight little cave. Looks awesome though. So the black clip on the bottom of the board indicates either IN / team ahead (right side) or OUT / no one in cave (left side). Correct? Probably a stupid question, but as Mr. Mackey said....

The giant clothesline clip on the bottom goes on "IN" or "OUT" yes. As in "Divers are IN this passage" vs divers are out of the passage.

To non-cave divers this might seem tight but its not really that small. "Scuba sam" who entered when he shouldn't have was in a backmounted CCR with sidemounted lp85s of BO and was pretty big guy too. That's a fairly big package and he fit. In parts of it there are places where two small divers probably could pass each other. Parts are definitely way too tight to pass especially for someone of scuba sam's size and configuration. Those parts are also twisty so its hard to reverse. Obviously they figured out a way in this case as unpleasant and dangerous as it was. Everyone needs to carry enough reserves to address getting though before turning around. If you had a failure partway through you are way better off continuing to the courtyard then turning around to exit.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

To non-cave divers this might seem tight but its not really that small. "Scuba sam" who entered when he shouldn't have was in a backmounted CCR with sidemounted lp85s of BO and was pretty big guy too. That's a fairly big package and he fit. In parts of it there are places where two small divers probably could pass each other. Parts are definitely way too tight to pass especially for someone of scuba sam's size and configuration. Those parts are also twisty so its hard to reverse. Obviously they figured out a way in this case as unpleasant and dangerous as it was. Everyone needs to carry enough reserves to address getting though before turning around. If you had a failure partway through you are way better off continuing to the courtyard then turning around to exit.

Yeah, I just figured while possible, it wouldn't be fun to pass someone else. I can imagine people going out would be irate.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, I just figured while possible, it wouldn't be fun to pass someone else. I can imagine people going out would be irate.

This is the only cave with an IN/OUT slate like this. There are plenty of systems where having more than one group in that section/area would be less fun or just sketchy. But those systems tend to be less crowded in the first place and have better etiquette. Bozell's, Church, and Gator come to mind as "not good for groups" in FL.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, I just figured while possible, it wouldn't be fun to pass someone else. I can imagine people going out would be irate.

Exiting divers always have the right of way, but often are (maybe 20%? of the time) not given it or getting entering diver lights in their eyes or they don't pull over etc.

 

[_Ralph]

At least for Rocky Horror in Madison Blue its not hard to check with other divers in the parking lot about who is going where. But it possible for someone to have started diving before you arrive. The clipboard at rocky horror is made to address this exact situation. You can see it at 10 seconds in this video (and the general character of rocky horror tunnel for the next 1:30 mins)


If there's a team in the cave for 3hours (not unusual) by the time they exit, the park might be too close to closing to even splash. FL state parks are closed after sunset. Driving to another site because there are divers in the cave already is not practical at all.

Well, this might have just made me want to finish my full cave and ccr .... Huge fan of madison ..

_R

 

[karstdvr]

This is the only cave with an IN/OUT slate like this. There are plenty of systems where having more than one group in that section/area would be less fun or just sketchy. But those systems tend to be less crowded in the first place and have better etiquette. Bozell's, Church, and Gator come to mind as "not good for groups" in FL.

Having in/out slates , snap n gaps are great,but so often I have seen poor compliance, and dependency on these things as a function of safety is not a good idea. Before there was a slate, I did encounter a diver entering Rocky Horror when I was exiting, and it was a difficult situation, as well as causing team separation and inability to respond to an emergency if either needed help. I have done Rocky Horror with the slate in place, and so often it would indicate someone in there, when we were the only team in the park, as well as passing an extended snap n gap at Martz. We basically quit trusting this and would put in another means to indicate we were there, and that was with a wet note page clothes pinned to the line with date and time.

 

[rjack321]

Having in/out slates , snap n gaps are great,but so often I have seen poor compliance, and dependency on these things as a function of safety is not a good idea. Before there was a slate, I did encounter a diver entering Rocky Horror when I was exiting, and it was a difficult situation, as well as causing team separation and inability to respond to an emergency if either needed help. I have done Rocky Horror with the slate in place, and so often it would indicate someone in there, when we were the only team in the park, as well as passing an extended snap n gap at Martz. We basically quit trusting this and would put in another means to indicate we were there, and that was with a wet note page clothes pinned to the line with date and time.

Perhaps stories like this will improve compliance, but I'm not counting on it either

 

[Dsix36]

I like the idea of a gate that you can lock behind you to keep others out. Right up until the time you realize that you lost the key.

 

[Caveeagle]

Exiting divers always have the right of way, but often are (maybe 20%? of the time) not given it or getting entering diver lights in their eyes or they don't pull over etc.

Yes, exiting divers have the right of way, and all too often divers entering places like Ginnie are not very careful with light placement. I would add that we see a lot of newer cave divers, and some that struggle with high flow caves. In places like the Ginnie Gallery, or Lips, it is super easy for an exiting diver to tuck up or out of the way and allow an entering diver a courtesy when it would clearly be harder for them to stop or change paths. I am in the habit of mostly covering my primary light at this point, so I am not in full stalker mode, but doing my best to stay out of the way, and out of line of sight.