2005 Florida Cave Cavort

[Bill Oigarden]

Hi all,

Back years ago when I taught cave diving I would take my Full Cave diving students to a dry cave as part of the course. We most often went to Bat Cave near Newbury.
If you are interested in caving you might join us the weekend of March 4-6, at the annual Cave Cavort which will be held near Gainesville. Hosted this year by the FSS, there will be:
Caving
Guided Cave Trips
Single Rope Technique (SRT) instruction
Camping (Friday & Saturday night, Break camp by noon Sunday)
Hot Showers
Band (Saturday night)
Barbecue Dinner (Saturday night)
Bonfire (Saturday night, burn ban permitting)
Guidebook (Featuring some of the caves you know and some you don’t!)
More info and directions at:
http://www.caves.com/fss/index.html

After all, diving in caves is only a mode of transportation through a cave. Is it not?

Bill Oigarden
Those who say it can't be done are always passed by those doing it!

[Cindy]

I'll be there Bill. Stop by, I'm the blonde in the ugly blue van. Cindy Butler

[ARY]

I would love to see Bat Cave or any our local dry caves but i have to work on these days. Is Bat Cave accessible for public? Where do i get directions to FL dry caves?

[curtschu]

What about Brier's is that still accessable? I loved doing the dry cave from time to time. Has anyone done the Climax Ga. Stuff? Great stuff.

[Buford]

Bat Cave is now owned by Santa Fe Comm College. Its grounds have been cleaned up of all the trash that used to be there, and cavers regularly return to the cave to continue cleaning up the remains of zillions of under-age beer parties that were held there over the previous decades.

You may not recognize the place. There is a rather tall chain link fence around the multiple entrances, a covered pavilion with picnic benches within the fence, and each of the cave's entrances has a serious iron bar (not rebar, I might add) grating over it. The main entrance has locked gate and a spiral steel staircase leading down into the cave. And there are boardwalks from the pavilion to the cave entrance and over to several other non-enterable entrances.

Briar Cave (in Ocala) is gated and locked. The landowner will bust trespassers. Bill Birdsall, a dry caver, has a key to the gate, and leads several trips in there annually. He is in the Members Manual.

Buford

[bmwcaves]

Thanks for posting on the Cavort Bill.
Sometimes the old ways are the best.
I wish the training still involved taking potential cave divers into dry caves before starting their cave dive training. I'm always amazed at how many cave divers have never been into a dry cave.
It's the best place to learn about the cave environment, and learn passage types and how to move around, what you can fit through, cave ecology and formations, etc, etc., before trying to learn all this information while trying to maintain your bouancy, check your air supply, stay on the guideline, watch your buddy, etc. etc....

Adding to Bufords post, and answering some questions:

Bat Cave is available through contact with the FSS grotto. Generally only visited on weekends as the college uses it for classes durning the week.

Briar cave visitation only allowed once a month on a Sunday. I think someone will be leading a trip or two in this weekend on Sunday.

Climax Cave (Georgia) is still visited quite often. A release form must be signed and given to the landowner before entry. It's recomended you go with someone thats been there before. No access is allowed on Sundays.

The majority of Florida dry caves are located on private property and are either gated, or have some type of controlled access. Many caves are off limits due to landowner issues. It's best to get with a local grotto and learn what is in your area and what are the access issues.

There are 4 active grottos in Florida and they can be contacted through the NSS web site.

Of course, a Cave Cavort is a great place to meet cavers and visit some local caves.

Brian

[curtschu]

Great news about the caves Brian, I really enjoyed doing Briers Climax and Glory hole as part of Central Florida Cavers Club. I don't suppose Gran Ma is still around? It really was fun having some cookies after seeing that great cave. Are there any old Orlando folks still involved in the dry caving scene? I hope to get up to the cavort. The last big Cave party I went to was the CFCC party at Blue springs Madison.

[bmwcaves]

Grandma Ganious was in a nursing home last time I heard. The Flint River grotto was instrumental in installing a new gate on Glory Hole along with help from cavers from other grottos.

There are still some Central Florida folks out there. They usually show up for the cavorts. Come on out. It's always a good time when cavers party.

Brian

[normblitch]

Sometimes the old ways are the best.
I wish the training still involved taking potential cave divers into dry caves before starting their cave dive training. I'm always amazed at how many cave divers have never been into a dry cave.
It's the best place to learn about the cave environment, and learn passage types and how to move around, what you can fit through, cave ecology and formations, etc, etc., before trying to learn all this information while trying to maintain your bouancy, check your air supply, stay on the guideline, watch your buddy, etc. etc....

Brian

Likewise, being of an age when Cavern class STARTED at Bat Cave (BTW, ever do it when it had a wet-sump push?), I truly feel the omission of dry-caving has diluted the total learning Experience of Overhead Training...learning Spider-man technique was a confidence builder with NO gas issues.

When did training STOP using dry caves? I had it in '80...

Norm

[pdoege]

When did this happen?

How do you dive them?

I'll see if I can drop by. Hard to say, my schedule is all weird.

Thanks for the info!

Peter

[Tegg]

I agree that dry caving should be brought back into the training.

I was a dry caver before I started cavediving. I think it has helped, especially in my sidemounting of small passages.... Along with being aware of the ecology of the cave...

I wish all cavedivers had to dry cave first...

[normblitch]

I agree that dry caving should be brought back into the training.

I was a dry caver before I started cavediving. I think it has helped, especially in my sidemounting of small passages.... Along with being aware of the ecology of the cave...

I wish all cavedivers had to dry cave first...


I was introduced to BOTH at the same time...

Do any greybeards here recall when Dry training STOPPED in mainstream Overhead syllabii?

Norm

[FW]

Do any greybeards here recall when Dry training STOPPED in mainstream Overhead syllabii?

It was never *required*, just optional for instructors. Sheck started it, and a lot of early instructors followed his lead.

Since most of my students were already cavers, I didn't see any need to make them go into Bat Cave, when they had already been to TAG caves.

20/20 hind sight, I wish I had made it part of the requirements :-)

"Old Greybeard"