Line in Little River?

[MDiver429]

Had two divers come in today who come in every weekend who said the line had been cut back to the chimney and rerouted so that the jump is up high to go to mud tunnel.

[Jim Wyatt]

Once again someone has made a unilateral decision to change the line configuration in one of our popular caves. Consensus has been to not change line configurations without the broader cave diving community being informed of what configuration changes are being considered and then leaving it open for discussion before changes are made.

While I may seem to be preaching to the choir here it should be realized that lots of thought has gone into how lines are configured to balance out safety and convenience. The Little River line configuration seemed just fine to me and most everyone else, apparently except for one person.

What we will see now is a team go back in Little River and re-establish the agreed upon line configuration.

The North Florida Springs Alliance line committee has agreed to be stewards of that line because LR is a state owned property administered by Suwanee County.

If you know who cut the line back (or if *you* did it) please ask them to justify that decision to the cave diving community. The cave diving community as a whole has done a pretty good job of assisting line committees maintaining properly configured lines in the caves here in North Florida.

A few years ago several of us added new distance markers to LR and within a few weeks most had been removed. The person who removed the markers informed us that the markers were removed because cave divers should not need distance markers and that they detracted from the dive having to see them.

Jim
NSS-CDS Safety Officer
NFSA Line Committee Chair

[MDiver429]

thanks Jim! I know it definitely made the dive much more stressful for these guys going in not knowing where the line had gone. So I think having standards set like this is important and we should all definitely follow these guidelines.

[Slüdge]

The person who removed the markers informed us that the markers were removed because cave divers should not need distance markers and that they detracted from the dive having to see them.

I can only hope that one day I'll think I'm as important as this person thinks he is.

[DA Aquamaster]

Great idea... The potential spider webbing on a busy day at LR was bad enough with the line where it was. Moving it to the chimney just extends the spider web effect through a fairly small passage (with a couple of jump lines coming off that passage as well).

If we find this idiot can we cut up his/her C-Cards?

[Diverlee]

Had two divers come in today who come in every weekend who said the line had been cut back to the chimney and rerouted so that the jump is up high to go to mud tunnel.

I was there this past Monday and it wasn't changed. Just to give a time frame.

[Jax]

Does this sort of "I know better than anyone else" mentality happen often, or are we just hearing about it more often?

[Kelly Jessop]

Does this sort of "I know better than anyone else" mentality happen often, or are we just hearing about it more often?

Not often fortunately,but it occured once when a team was in the water. To say they were pissed off because they no longer had a continuous line was an understatement. I am sure the individual who made the line change had their rationale,but if a fatality occured because of it,you got to wonder if they would be considered implicit.

[FW]

I was there this past Monday and it wasn't changed. Just to give a time frame.

It all seemed fine Thanksgiving morning too.

[floridakid]

Does this sort of "I know better than anyone else" mentality happen often, or are we just hearing about it more often?

Anytime you have a bunch of type A people that for whatever reason have to play in the same sandbox, that kind of attitude will eventually rear its ugly head. It is unfortunately inevitable.