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Meng_Tze:
All the waivers in the world will not take away public perception of liability....let alone the guilt trip...... At least for me.

They may not work with public perception or guilt but they have proven to work with legal matters.
 
Dive-aholic:
Interesting. Well, I've had an issue with the whole hand rail thing there since I learned about it. I've been to the gate, and it is definitely at minimum intro level.

Meng, intro allows diving to 1/6s, no restrictions, minimum beginning visibility of 30', no jumps/gaps.

Max depth 100 ft. and no decompression (within NDL only) also from what I understand.

Going to the grate could violate the 100 ft depth rule since it's 110 ft. depth sometimes depending upon the water table that day.
 
cmufieldhockey8:
I can't believe any owner would make the cave sound so appealing and inviting to the untrained diver..... You can't stop anybody from going in, but why describe it like that and spark peoples' curiosities?


$$$$$
 
Question, As I understand it, a certified cave diver wants to dive Vortex. They go to the office, get the key, dive down to the grate, and go in. They don't lock the gate closed behind them....do they? If not, how do they keep unauthorized divers out?
 
MNawman:
Question, As I understand it, a certified cave diver wants to dive Vortex. They go to the office, get the key, dive down to the grate, and go in. They don't lock the gate closed behind them....do they? If not, how do they keep unauthorized divers out?

When I've dived it what we did was to first talk with any other divers who were diving there. The team furthest into the cave was in possession of the key. When we would go in, we shut the gate behind us and made it look locked...you need the key to lock it as well as unlock it.

during the week when no one was around, we left the gate wide open and just stashed the key in our room.

When you get down to it, it's up to trained divers to restrain themselves from diving beyond their training and experience...not a property manager or a gate.

We didn't have trouble with non cave trained divers going past the gate but we did have trouble with people messing with our decompression bottles. After the first couple of times, Connie started getting on the intercom a few times a day to warn people to keep their hands off.

I'll tell you whaty, you see some things at that place especialy on a weekend in the "winter" (do they call it winter in florida)? LOL talk about the worst side of the dive industry...holly catfish Batman!
 
Yeah... it would really suck to learn that those divers who were "furhest in the cave" had already come out and forgot to lock it and one of them swam back down and locked it while you were in.

I wouldn't trust it being locked by anyone with me inside. (just my opinion).

It would suck to be stuck on the other side of the gate as you slowly watched your pressure gauge approach zero psi.
 
mike_s:
Yeah... it would really suck to learn that those divers who were "furhest in the cave" had already come out and forgot to lock it and one of them swam back down and locked it while you were in.

I wouldn't trust it being locked by anyone with me inside. (just my opinion).

It would suck to be stuck on the other side of the gate as you slowly watched your pressure gauge approach zero psi.

I can't say that it isn't a concern but it's pretty hard (hopefully impossible) for one team to pass another in there without knowing. The exiting team just handed off the key to the entering team so whoever was in the cave had the key. Like I said, during the week we just left the gate wide open with the key put away in our room. I think I only dived the cave there on one trip that I wasn't "working" and that was one year that just about everything was flooded. It's an ok cave but it isn't so great of a dive that you'd go out of your way...Not with JB just down the road.

Don't get me wrong, if it were up to me, I'd tear out every gate that's in a cave but it isn't.
 
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