Vortex Springs

[SuPrBuGmAn]

dixiecowgirl once bubbled...
Where??

Guess it wasn't you.

Me and some buddies of mine were out at Vortex on the 4th as well for our first non-pool dive. Some girl from Robertsdale, AL had the picnic table next to us... Too many damned SCUBA girls from AL at Vortex all at once I guess

 

[dixiecowgirl]

We were there the 1st-3rd. There are alot of Alabamians there

 

[MikeFerrara]

Cave Diver once bubbled...
I was there last weekend and while it was a reasonably nice facility there were a few things that bothered me:

• Most of the staff I dealt with was rather surly and uncooperative. When I'm paying $25 bucks a day to dive and $80 bucks a night to sleep, I expect better service, or at least a friendlier attitutude.
• There was a TON of people there in a tiny area generally mucking visibility up.
• There's no sort of restriction to keep OW divers from entering the cavern area
• The tunnel has lights in it, which only further encourages OW divers to enter an Overhead Environment
• The Grate is a couple of hundred feet back. If you really want to keep untrained people from wandering in too far, it should be closer to the entrance.

All in all it was a fairly cool place, I just didnt agree with some of the practices I saw in place there. And it sure as heck beats anywhere we have around here to dive.

Believe it or not, lots of divers have died in that little tunnel. Originally the lights started further in and they didn't advertise it. Now I think it's even mentioned on the web site and lots of divers go in there.

Your right if there are classes going on the place gets undivable in short order. Past the grate is where we do most of our diving although you can only get a few hundred feet backmount. It's still a nice little dive.

 

[dixiecowgirl]

There was a diver on Saturday that died. He was there when my instructor was there but he didnt see him. Cave diving is so dangerous. I want to do it but my teach said that if you are afraid to die even a little bit dont do it. Well I aint afraid of dying but its the thought of KNOWING that I am about to die that scares me. He also said that if you couldnt leave your "buddy" behind if he was dead then you dont need to do it. There is no way I could leave my boyfriend or anyone. I would either lay there with him and die there or die trying to get both of us out. I love him to much to even think about it. Besides if I did leave him I would be a mess and would die anyway.

 

[MikeFerrara]

dixiecowgirl once bubbled...
There was a diver on Saturday that died. He was there when my instructor was there but he didnt see him. Cave diving is so dangerous. I want to do it but my teach said that if you are afraid to die even a little bit dont do it. Well I aint afraid of dying but its the thought of KNOWING that I am about to die that scares me. He also said that if you couldnt leave your "buddy" behind if he was dead then you dont need to do it. There is no way I could leave my boyfriend or anyone. I would either lay there with him and die there or die trying to get both of us out. I love him to much to even think about it. Besides if I did leave him I would be a mess and would die anyway.

Cave diving isn't for every one. However, divers with the right equipment and training have a very good safety record. Divers who enter caves without the training and equipment don't have a good safety record. I have a family and no intention of dying in a cave but cave diving is the diving that I love the most. I suppose that I am affraid to die and simply refuse to do it. LOL

We don't leave a buddy if there is any way to avoid it. It doesn't sound like your instructor has any experience with this. We don't train to prepare ourselves to abandon our buddies. We train to avoid problems and to manage them when they happen.

I would like to hear about the diver who died though. Was it in the cave? Was it a trained cave diver? Was it a diving mishap or a modical issue.

 

[Cave Diver]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Past the grate is where we do most of our diving although you can only get a few hundred feet backmount. It's still a nice little dive.

There is just something about the "take the key, unlock the grate, then lock it back behind you" that I don't like. I think I'll pass on that scenario.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Cave Diver once bubbled...


There is just something about the "take the key, unlock the grate, then lock it back behind you" that I don't like. I think I'll pass on that scenario.

That's NOT the procedure. We pull the gate closed behind us and lock the lock so that nobody can lock us in. We make it look locked but it isn't. If I remember right the key is also required to lock the lock (I dived it in March). It would be pretty hard or impossible for two teams to pass eachother and not know it so if the exiting team passed a team on their way in we hand the key off so the team who is the furthest in always has the key. The gate is never locked with any one inside.

This is the procedure given to us by the management and it works fine. I agree, no cave diver in their right mind would allow themselfe to be locked in a cave.

 

[dixiecowgirl]

My instructor is the TOP CAVE DIVER IN THE WORLD. He is the best at scuba diving. I dont know much about the diver that died. Just that he got seperated from his group. You can not sit there and say that you wouldnt leave a dead body if your life was in danger. Better 1 dead than 2

 

[MikeFerrara]

dixiecowgirl once bubbled...
My instructor is the TOP CAVE DIVER IN THE WORLD. He is the best at scuba diving. I dont know much about the diver that died. Just that he got seperated from his group. You can not sit there and say that you wouldnt leave a dead body if your life was in danger. Better 1 dead than 2

Wow, the top cave diver in the world! Did he tell you that also? LOL

My point was that the decission to cave dive is not based on ones fear (or lack of) of death any more than the decission to do any other type of diving. The decission is based on the desire to do it and ones confidence in their ability to manage risk and avoid death. You/he made it sound like cave diving was for people with a death wish.

cave diving envolves three general hazards, water, dark and an overhead. Water is there on any dive and dark can be a factor in an OW dive if it takes place at night. That leaves the overhead. Redundancy in equipment and additional training addresses that. The statement that cave diving is for those who don't fear death is the most rediculous, artificially macho bunch of bs that I've ever heard. I don't believe the top cave diver in the world would talk that way.

Why can't I say that I wouldn't leave a buddy? You did. Do you think we leave dead team member all over littering the cave or what?

Cave diving is not a reckless, daredevil attempt to cheat death. We approach it with training, knowledge, skill and the right equipment. Cave divers fear of death is no different than any one elses. We intent to survive every dive and we intent to exit the cave with the same team that we entered with.

Did the diver die in the cave or in OW?

 

[LVX]

Hey dixiecowgirl,

Can you give some additional informatin about the death at vortex.

How did you hear about it?

thanks

LVX