X in cow

[Rich]

Be careful, the instructors might see this as another specialty they can charge for -- tube diving.

I could see that being a fun specialty Walter, just think of the possibilities.....tube diving at Ginnie over Labor day weekend......

Safe diving,

Rich

[jj1987]

...tube diving at Ginnie over Labor day weekend......

Is that code speak for muff diving?

[DA Aquamaster]

It is still overhead diving. The trick to being a good tube diver is timing the exhalations perfectly as the bikinis in the tubes go precisely overhead.

[Unregistered User]

We didnt see it on the 20th... however, we may have missed it. We may have chalked it up to "did you see where the fixed the clay bank?" or something similar. I remember commenting on saying that they did a really good job of repairing the damage (which we never physically saw), so if the "X" is pronounced as you say it is, then perhaps it wasn't there. BTW... we were the last team in on the 20th.

I was with KG on that dive. The woman at Dive Outpost told us that there was only one team the day before we dove and we were the only team in on the 20th. We returned back to Dive Outpost late (around 6pm). I did notice the repair work that had been made and could tell that there had been a repair even though this was my first dive there in 10 years. I have been in that cave +50-70 dives and I ALWAYS marvel at the clay bank on the way in; not so much on the way out as Cow spits you out like a fire hydrant. But I certainly noticed 'smudging' over a wide area, but did not see an "X".

[DA Aquamaster]

Cool. That gives us a firmly identifyable start date in the not too distant past.

[Unregistered User]

Please be mindful that we did not actively look for vandalism, only that it is my recollection that an "x" was not seen by us going upstream. I spent more of my focus on sliding the rubber tubes back over all the rub points on the wall and the concrete block in that area of the ski rope (most all of them had slid away from where they should be), and we never left the ski rope. So what we saw from 15' away from the clay banks was limited, and depending on where the "x" is, it may not have even been visible to us. Having spent so long away from Cow, I do remember wanting to see the result of the repair work, but having never seen the inital damage that prompted it, I cannot give a description in a "before/after" format. I just don't want anyone who logged a dive there with Dive Outpost after us to be falsely accused of vandalism that may or may not have existed when we dove on the 20th.

[DA Aquamaster]

I think it's a given that not noticing it is not 100% proof it was not there, but it does give a starting point to start talking to people to narrow it down a bit further. Given that I was at P1 on the 26th and was at least in the area engaged in cave diving, I am sensitive to the postion divers may be in when their presence in the area during a certain time frame makes them a possible suspect. Asking people where they went, what they saw, who they saw, etc is not the same as accusing them of doing something wrong and needs to be approached that way. But if a larger body of information can be collected, we can start to draw some conclusiosn on what information is consistent, what information is not and who can be included or excluded from the pool of possible suspects.

[Walter Pickel]

It is still overhead diving. The trick to being a good tube diver is timing the exhalations perfectly as the bikinis in the tubes go precisely overhead.

It gets more fun with rebreathers...

[aquadog196]

I was on a team of two on 8-30-10 and we noticed nothing other than evidence of divers making what we believed to be unintentional markings... mostly on the cave floor - fin strokes, tanks? . Unfortunately Cow is not as pristine as it used to be and as we would all love it to be today. Went back on a team of three on 9-2-10 wanting to see just what we missed on 8-30-10. Again, more of the same ...what to us appeared to be non-deliberate markings of passing divers. There are plenty of these. Mostly on the floor. Is it upsetting? YES ...Do I believe its deliberate ...NO.