Good Addition

[Line Squirrel]

This should be a good addition to the CDF.

I would urge a little discretion though about giving out locations of some of the more fragile, out of the way sidemount caves.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen new divers with a set of 95's on their back insist they can "make it in there" only to beat the crap out of the front part of a system. Already I have two teams of back mounters that want to know how to get to Ruth. I won't tell them, but someone will. They wouldn't have even known to ask if it weren't posted.

Used to be, divers managed to find out about new systems as their experience increased, talking to more experienced divers, invitations to tag along.

Anymore, seems that some of these newer sidemount divers happens to learn about a location and just can't wait to post about it.

Example, I'm a bit concerned at how much attention Ruth has gotten over the last week or two. Do we really need to be posting about these places on a public forum? Anybody that is qualified to dive a system like this, probably already knows about it.

[amphipod06]

Used to be that you as a cave diver had common sense and good judgement (instructors used to look at these points when they trained you) but now, it seems t's not needed, as long as you have bankroll....

Dive safe,

Celia

PS Don't get me wrong, I don't want the dive police either, but maybe peers and mentors can handle this.

[Serota]

I'm glad to see a SM Forum on the CDF and I strongly agree that it should not be a place that "advertises" sites such as Ruth. In addition to damaging a very fragile cave, it would be REALLY EASY for an inexperienced SM diver or a BM diver (if they somehow got in there) to NOT come back out.

Personally, I would like to see this part of the forum focus more on technique, gear configurations and that sort of thing than discussions of particular dive sites or at least the fragile/difficult ones.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Ruth is hardly a big secret... I've got it refferenced in several spring inventory websites, most of which aren't dive specific, but some that are.

Anyone who wants to find it will, unless they are just that lazy.

[Line Squirrel]

Ruth is hardly a big secret... I've got it refferenced in several spring inventory websites, most of which aren't dive specific, but some that are.

Anyone who wants to find it will, unless they are just that lazy.

Ruth is pretty easy to find, that's true. My point was/is that people that shouldn't be there wouldn't know to go looking for it in the first place if it weren't brought up.

Plus I was using it as an example...since the cat is out of the bag.

I guarantee more people know it exists now than did on 2/27.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I'll definately agree with that.

If they haven't seen it refferenced previously, they are likely too lazy to go on a search finding the location themselves without someone telling them straight up. :)

You can't be too vague when posting a report on a site like that when it comes to location - and that seems to keep it off the radar for the great majority who aren't willing to do any of their own footwork. They'll have a name and have no clue what to do with it, otherwise they would have likely came across it previously. Even better are sites you must access by boat - LOL - that kills it for SO many.

I'm also finding more and more sites that have diver-given alias's, while publicly(among locals and non-divers) known as an entirely different name. Kinda dirty(LOL) and frustrating if you are looking for info, but it keeps traffic down. I'm guilty of perpetuating a false identity on a site as well...

[FW]

Personally, I would like to see this part of the forum focus more on technique, gear configurations and that sort of thing than discussions of particular dive sites or at least the fragile/difficult ones.
We are working to get a good gear configuratin thread over here. It is currently in a closed forum, and needs to be "cloned" :-)

There have been several sidemount threads on the open formu. If anyone has time to search for them, please link them in this forum.

[cavediver256]

Man I am glad to see this forum open up !!! Great idea guys !!!

[aainslie]

Great addition. I look forward to hearing some peoples' stories of fixes, changes and additions to their configs. Thanks for adding this to the site!