Accident at Vortex Springs 8-20-10

[vintagediver]

Is anyone else, other than me, speculating that he might never have made this dive?

 

[Sludge]

Another diver was telling us that to really make our trip to Morrison worth going on, we had to go on into the second room and go down to the bottom. In both cases, this would have put us far beyond our penetration and depth limits, out of the light zone with only two functioning lights per diver, etc. "I've seen you two in the water, you guys can dive, for you it is no problem," he said to me.

I applaud your caution, but the bottom of Morrison is only 90', and still in the daylight zone.

 

[sabbath999]

I applaud your caution, but the bottom of Morrison is only 90', and still in the daylight zone.

Which is still outside the limits of the Cavern certification, both in total penetration and in depth.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Is anyone else, other than me, speculating that he might never have made this dive?

Its been brought up, but reports posted have told you they have evidence that he is in there.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Which is still outside the limits of the Cavern certification, both in total penetration and in depth.

Morrison is not outside of cavern limits. Per TDI, 200 linear ft and 130$t depth with 40ft viz. So in fact you were not told to dive outside of your cert, at least at morrisons.

 

[sabbath999]

We were trained to the NSS standards using the NSS Cavern Diving Manual, which states that the limit is 130 linear feet and 70 feet in depth.

I don't know what other training agencies say, but that's what we were trained to.

 

[Meister481]

Its been brought up, but reports posted have told you they have evidence that he is in there.

That cave isn't dived all that often. You usually have to dig out a bit of sand to get the gate open. It takes quite a bit of effort to get back to where the marks are and the rest of the cave has been searched, as per previous posts and CDF.

 

[dl348]

Which is still outside the limits of the Cavern certification, both in total penetration and in depth.

It would depend on which agency you were certified through, two of the limitations for NSS-CDS Cavern Divers are 100 ft. max depth and 200 ft. max. distance from the surface.

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

That cave isn't dived all that often. You usually have to dig out a bit of sand to get the gate open. It takes quite a bit of effort to get back to where the marks are and the rest of the cave has been searched, as per previous posts and CDF.

Yes I know this. I have quite a few dives there. Never had to dig the gate open. Once again, they have spotted physical evidencethat he is in there. Its actually easy to get to most of that, its only the last 300ft that's hard.

 

[sabbath999]

Fair enough, thanks for the info.

All I know about it is the agency I was trained for, using the materials presented in the class. I can't speak (obviously) about what other classes train having not taken them.

They were advising me to go outside the limits of MY training. Whether my training was in agreement with theirs or their limits, I can't speak to that.

I have no problem being conservative though, although I would have liked to check out the next level of Morrison. There's always the next trip

There's no question that "seeing grate at Vortex" or leaving the light zone at the Devil's Ear were WAY beyond our training though...