Diving Little River at Intro/Basic Level

So I'm going to be in town again next weekend and will only get a chance to dive the caves on friday and was considering doing a dive at Little River in the morning. Is this a good Idea for an Intro/Basic level diver? I know it gets deep quick and has a good amount of flow so I'm not sure if I would get that far before having to turn due to hitting 1/6 or before having to do some deco. Any thoughts on this?

sealsix14:

So I'm going to be in town again next weekend and will only get a chance to dive the caves on friday and was considering doing a dive at Little River in the morning. Is this a good Idea for an Intro/Basic level diver? I know it gets deep quick and has a good amount of flow so I'm not sure if I would get that far before having to turn due to hitting 1/6 or before having to do some deco. Any thoughts on this?

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It's fine for a intro dive, especially these days now that the flow isn't what it once was. Frankly I've found Little River so beat up and ugly that after 1/6th I'm bored anyways.

James sounds a little jaded, and he is probably bored by most "tourist" caves. i suspect he may have also forgotten what it's like to be Intro level, or is at least neglecting to put himself in your shoes and recall that stage of his development as a cave diver.

I still recall Little River as being very cool when I first started cave diving and it was one of the caves I took my Cavern and Intro training in. My perception of it has admittedly changed over the years, especially the last 3 years post full cave, but I still enjoy diving Little River, I just enjoy it further back and differently.

With the flow down you should be able to reach the large line arrow on the gold line at the start of the merry go round and serpentine tunnels if you have a decent SAC. That's a navigational decision so it's as far as you can go at intro anyway. You probably won't be in deco on a first dive, but you could be pushing it on a second dive.

Little River is used for training at Intro level and it is sees fairly heavy traffic, so the front part does get that used look. Once you are full cave and start staging or scootering the dive, you can get off the main line and get back where it's still a brunette and it becomes a lot more interesting.

Little River is like many higher flow caves in N FL - it is fairly low silt in the mainline/high flow areas, but can be very silty out of the flow and off the mainline. There are a couple smaller, almost sidemount, tunnels just past the cavern and you *might* be tempted to run your primary there to tie off to them. Don't. unlike the mainline they can get snug and they can quickly go zero viz if you are not very careful, and doing it cleanly takes some skill in side mount and is almost impossible to do cleanly in back mount. LR had a reputation as a killer cave in the 60's and 70's and those tunnels were part of the reason it got that reputation. Leave them alone until you are at lot further along in your development.

Hmm, Thanks for the input. I'll only get to do one dive so I won't have to worry about getting into accidental deco. And I would just stay on mainline so no worries about those tempting sidemount tunnels, wouldn't even want to try in my BM 130's...

i did lr may times as an intro diver, and *loved* it. still do now, and i'd definitely recommend it to you. 'flying' out in the flow the first time was so thrilling! we go to the surface and i said 'let's recalculate and go again! now now now!'

Good place to learn to deal with flow. Just go slow and enjoy it I think its worth the trip to see it, especially since you've never been before. Some people say LR is one of their favorite caves.

BabyDuck:

i did lr may times as an intro diver, and *loved* it. still do now, and i'd definitely recommend it to you. 'flying' out in the flow the first time was so thrilling! we go to the surface and i said 'let's recalculate and go again! now now now!'

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Marci isn't kidding. If the flow is up, we'll scooter back and then just drift out. And more often than not, we'll do two scooter dives, then do a third shorter swimming dive on recalculated thirds in the shallower front part of the cave (that's where we'll do the lines under the cavern).

It sounds like the flow is kicking again, so getting to table rock may be an accomplishment on thirds with a single tank, or sixths with doubles, but it will still be fun.

And the cavern is a great cavern to learn to put in and remove line cleanly in flow - with the added bonus that the tree in the sink is now in the cavern, so you've got lots of tie off options.

Now I really can't wait to get out there, I do need to work on my tie offs in high flow, I had some trouble in the ear at ginnie so It will be nice to get back into some flow...now I just need a buddy. I feel bad since I'll only get to do one dive in the morning about dragging a buddy out there to do only one dive. seems kind of selfish but Solo diving isn't really allowed so o well.

well, it might work to see if a team wants to go - then they can do another dive after you have to leave if they want. teams of three are good fun.

The low flow conditions at Little River are over. As of last week the flow is screaming. Even guys with scooters are having to use scooters on higher powers to get down past the Chimney.

I might pick another cave.

Jeff

ucfdiver:

It's fine for a intro dive, especially these days now that the flow isn't what it once was. Frankly I've found Little River so beat up and ugly that after 1/6th I'm bored anyways.

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