cave diving etiquette

[MikeH]

Lately I have noticed more divers exiting high on the wall opposite the line. (Where divers usually enter) I do not know what trend that represents but that may explain why people entering with scooters are encountering the divers, normally they would not be anywhere near each other in the gallery.

If so, it's probably a case of divers not knowing how to read the flow in the cave, and putting yourself in the most advantageous position. Not suprising these days. When I scooter at Ginnie, I go straight down the gallery, in the middle, down low...unless there's somebody else in that position. That generally gives the swimming divers a good track for ingress and egress for optimal flow conditions. It's always nice when you find a team of 3 or 4 in a vertical position all over the place effectively blocking the entire gallery...

Mike

[CaptainSpeleo]

I stand corrected. You have to be Advanced Openwater certified before taking the Cavern/Intro Cave/Full Cave courses.

I got Advanced Openwater certified in December 1986, Cavern/Intro Cave certified in October 1987, and Full Cave certified in September 1989. The time spread between courses gave me the opportunity to get plenty of dives and plenty of experience before going on to the next course.

[ScubaBlue]

So what is the etiquette?

Is it okay for entering team to continue in if there is room for both teams to pass each other?

If there is room to pass, is it rude for the exiting team to occupy all of it forcing the entering team to halt?

What would constitute sufficient room for two teams to pass each other?

[CaptainSpeleo]

That would be determined by the size and configuration of the passage you're in.

If the passage is small(such as in the shallow section of the Peanut tunnel), the entering team should move to one side and come to a complete stop until the exiting team has passed.

[Jason B.]

So what is the etiquette?

Exiting team is supposed to be given the 'right of way.'
They could be low on gas, have a freaked out diver, who knows what may be up. There is no way for the entering team to know the circumstance of their exit, hence the 'right of way to the exiting team.'

[John L.]

Another cave diving etiquette thing is not peeing on people in the parking lot thru your pee valve, and putting condom catheters on car antenna!

Oh....that was YOUR truck???

Mike

Yeah, dammit!

[JDostal]

I had an interesting experience @ Ginnie earlier this year. We were exiting the cave and coming back past the park bench and making our way to the keyhole... i was in full view of the keyhole, and here come two scooters. I didn't stop, as I assumed they would. Next thing you know, they blow right through the keyhole just about running me over, as well as my girlfriend and her dad who were behind me. I was pissed - it's like, I've spent all this time training, practicing and reviewing rules & etiquette to be a good cave diver and here these guys just about run us over and ignore a rule I had drilled into me during my training...very aggravating.

Anyway... we cruise out of the cave and get to our primary line tie off, to find that someone had tied off OVER our primary tie off. The only way I got my reel off was to CUT my line out of the mess they had made...grrrrrrr.

I'm only an intro to cave diver (hopefully not much longer, heading to missouri wednesday to take my full cave), but even I know that what those divers did on those incidents were wrong.

It was aggravating, but oh well... I deal with plenty of idiot divers on my beloved shipwrecks and other diving spots up here in Wisconsin, I can deal with 'em in caves.

[wingman]

It seems a lot of dpv diver bashing is going on here...well a month or so ago when i was scootering solo at ginnie i passed a team of 5 swimmers in the gallery being sure to give them a lot of room as i stayed in the flow and low. I did a wide swing to the left approaching the lips and got there as the lead diver of the group was starting to pull around the rock on the way in to the lips. I got off the trigger to make sure he saw me before entering, he looked at me and then proceeded through the lips. I sat there as all five of them went through. Got to the keyhole and they were still on there way through so i did a little sightseeing there and then entered the kehole and as i dropped down to the cornflakes there was a diver's fins...there was a backup as everyone was waiting for the lead diver to put in the jump line from the park bench to the bone room line. When they finally cleared i proceeded down the mainline trying to regain my patience...i glanced at my computer and i was 17 minutes into my dive. When getting my dpv training it was emphasized that swimmers have the right of way unless it's an emergency and i always give way...in this instance though, i had the right of way at the lips but wanted to be sure the other diver saw me, expecting him to let me through...which he did not. Courtesy flows both ways...if i had been the lead swimmer i would have let the dpv through. I don't see a story here about the courteous dpv diver who let the team of 5 by him at the lips??? Bill

[JDostal]

I'm definitely not bashing DPV divers. It just happened that the inconsiderate divers in my stories were on DPV's...nothing against DPV divers at all!

[John L.]

I'm definitely not bashing DPV divers. It just happened that the inconsiderate divers in my stories were on DPV's...nothing against DPV divers at all!

For the most part, the DPV divers are usually very courteous. But this weekend at Ginnie, I was buzzed twice very closely by two differernt ones. I made up my mind, if some ####### does that again, I am going to grab whatever I can when they go by, and we are gonna scrap.