This reminds me of the one thing I am afraid of in cave diving: other people ... The above is a good example, but also stories keep popping up about reels being taken, or folks freediving to steal deco stages. Is there anything you guys do to prepare or deal with this?
Rocky Horror Has Rules for a Reason!
- Thread starter tbone1004
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Jack Hammer
Contributor
+ know the cave and what FL yahoos are capable of doing
ie stash your deco gas way deeper than 20ft sometimes. know the cave well enough that the reel isn't mandatory
Caveeagle
Contributor
We have multiple teams diving in caves all the time. There are a few places (Like Rocky Horror) that are small enough where “one team, one way traffic” is really this important.
Perhaps the worm hole and the “Lips” bypass are others, but they are all sections of a larger cave system.
makes sense. I should have said "this cave" instead of "a cave". If a cave is generally wide open all the way, no reason for anyone to wait.
Caveeagle
Contributor
There are lots of places where a “Minor Restricton” prevents divers from passing, or moving through in something other than single file. The difference is, in most cases, you get some warning from watching oncoming lights, to hold back and let the exiting divers have the right of way. Or for some party to back up and slide out of the way.
Rocky Horror is just a small section of a larger cave system. (Think hamster “habitrail” tube). Nobody would think trice about multiple teams in the system as a whole.
I will point out that on at least one dove there, a pair of divers approached us pre splash to ask where we were going. They let us know of there plans to take RH to the courtyard. I wasn’t planning to go there anyway, But it was nice to clear this up at the surface vs what Matt had to deal with.
Of course. Loss of deco gas should be covered in gas planning (do you plan for losing everyones deco gas in a team of three...?j. But my worst nightmare is a scuba Steve pulling my jump spool by accident ...
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.
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