O2 bottles in Vortex Spring . .

I was thinking of doing a dive in Vortex sometime soon, but was a little nervous about leaving my O2 bottle at 20 ft. Actually, I'm a bit nervous about leaving it before the gate at 115 ft.

This question may have been asked in the past, but I can't remember the answer though. Anyone ever have any problems with theft/tampering? I wouldn't think it would be as much a problem like it might be at Devil's Ear since Vortex has certified divers rather than swimmers. But I wanted to ask. Better to be safe and prepared than sorry.

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by aw

I was thinking of doing a dive in Vortex sometime soon, but was a little nervous about leaving my O2 bottle at 20 ft. Actually, I'm a bit nervous about leaving it before the gate at 115 ft.

This question may have been asked in the past, but I can't remember the answer though. Anyone ever have any problems with theft/tampering? I wouldn't think it would be as much a problem like it might be at Devil's Ear since Vortex has certified divers rather than swimmers. But I wanted to ask. Better to be safe and prepared than sorry.

Thanks.

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I have not experienced any problems myself in the past

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aw

I was thinking of doing a dive in Vortex sometime soon, but was a little nervous about leaving my O2 bottle at 20 ft. Actually, I'm a bit nervous about leaving it before the gate at 115 ft.

This question may have been asked in the past, but I can't remember the answer though. Anyone ever have any problems with theft/tampering? I wouldn't think it would be as much a problem like it might be at Devil's Ear since Vortex has certified divers rather than swimmers. But I wanted to ask. Better to be safe and prepared than sorry.

Thanks.

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I have never had a problem there either and i probably did over a hundred dives there the year i had a pass.

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Originally Posted by wingman

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aw

I was thinking of doing a dive in Vortex sometime soon, but was a little nervous about leaving my O2 bottle at 20 ft. Actually, I'm a bit nervous about leaving it before the gate at 115 ft.

This question may have been asked in the past, but I can't remember the answer though. Anyone ever have any problems with theft/tampering? I wouldn't think it would be as much a problem like it might be at Devil's Ear since Vortex has certified divers rather than swimmers. But I wanted to ask. Better to be safe and prepared than sorry.

Thanks.

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I have never had a problem there either and i probably did over a hundred dives there the year i had a pass.

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Vortex is much safer than Ginnie when it comes to such as that. This time of year it will be more so. Don't really see a need for O2 there though unles you're planning to SM beyond the gate and spend some time in the tight stuff.

I have NEVER had a problem with leaving O2 deco bottles in the four years that I have been leaving bottles there. The best way to do it is to clip them off on the line that drops to the cavern at 30 ft., make the switch, and then swim to the bottom of the upper air box, which sits at just under 20 ft. Danny or David will also refill them to 2400 psi w/100%. You will need deco if you want to play around after the gate (109 ft and 290 ft penetration) in sidemount. Would recommend that you DO NOT try to enter the third restriction (approx 700 ft penetration, 165 ft) unless you first chat with someone who has done it. With the exception of a very few, they, of couse will all tell you that they were crazy to try! Good Luck!
:-D

Never had a problem dropping bottles there, but I usually do it in the cave - yeah, not ideal as you can't breathe it there, but it DOES keep it away from an OW diver.

I'd be somewhat concerned about the possibility of an OW guy grabbing it, going into the cavern, and taking a "few hits" off it. That could be really not-good if it was full of 100%.

Other than for practice purposes though I don't typically take a deco bottle there. Its just not far enough to make it worth it - even if I do rack up a bit of an obligation, there's plenty to swim around in the OW area to burn it off on backgas. Its not like JB where you can go 1500+' back on a backgas swim and have a 20 minute obligation when you come back out.

I've never had any trouble at Vortex... Used to leave mine around the top of the "rim" of the cavern somewhere - now I usually carry the O2 to just inside the cave and leave it there - after seeing and hearing about all the incidents at Ginnie... The newbie divers at Vortex usually seem to be a bit more supervised than those at Ginnie (especially the eye/ear) - so this might have something to do with it..

JB