Ginnie Springs

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Originally Posted by Jim Wyatt

We used it for training before the grate was put in. Even dived it for fun a few times. Its low and as I recall a lot of clay on the bottom.

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Jim is about correct. We did use Jenny for training. There is a pretty good sized room about 100 feet in, and a short circuit. You could dive the whole place on a single reel. There was never a permanent line in there that I remember. If you went in to the right side, the whole damn place got low, and turned to white clay after about 400 feet in. That is what happened to most of the people that died in there, they went in with no line, bad lights, weren't certified, and had a major siltout.

Doug Clark and I pulled a PADI instructor out, he had no line, a 3 cell flashlight, on a single 80. Doug and I were getting ready to dive when a diver surfaced screaming for his buddy. He was wearing double 72's and they were flat empty. He told us his buddy had a single 80. I remember telling Doug that we should hurry up, Doug said "there's no hurry". There wasn't.

Most of the stories, including the 4 students, are about the same.

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Originally Posted by gschaut

..............making a cavern open and "safe" to open water divers........

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Just in case you have missed every training standard published by every training agency since the beginning of time, there is no "safe" cavern for OW divers, hence the term, "open water".

Even when the grate was being installed, there were several people that tried to point this minor fact out, and believed that the management of Jenny was actually encouraging improperly certified people to enter a cavern zone. Have you ever wondered why a OW diver cannot carry a light at Orange Grove?

Has anybody died at the ballroom since the grate was installed?

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Originally Posted by Slüdge

Has anybody died at the ballroom since the grate was installed?

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Possibly. There was a death from medical causes , but I don't remember is he was inside, or in the headpool.

I was there the day an OW diver pulled a freediver out of the upper room after blacking out... don't know what happened after that, it was probably 10 years ago now.

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Originally Posted by wingman

...Finally would like to get some feedback regarding the costs and benefits from changing the access policy. Bill

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Considering how dangerous it would be for untrained divers, and the high number of them that dive there, I think it would be best to leave well enough alone. GSO has long complained about the insurance costs from deaths in Devil's Eye. If that cost ever went up, it would be more economical just to close all caves on the property.

As pointed out above, they don't make that much money off cave divers.

The first times I dove Ginnie (Jenny as it called back then) it was just a pasture at the end of a long dirt road. We just drove up and parked. I only made one dive beyond where the grate is now (most of the time I was with my better half who was not a cave diver) but don't remember much about that dive other than it was 1971 and we went about 350' in. If I knew then what I know now, I would have offered all my possessions and those of my friends, acquaintances, and strangers to buy that old pasture land. :-(

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Originally Posted by FW

If that cost ever went up, it would be more economical just to close all caves on the property.

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Surely you meant "close access to the state owned caves form their property".

The State doesn't own the caves. The State owns the "Navigable Waterways".

You'd have a tough time arguing that the caves are "navigable".

Brian

GSO doesn't own the cave system either.