Extending the gold line at JB

[nakatomi]

This poll is for all of you who know and love Jackson Blue.

As you will be aware of, the beginning of the gold line is currently located about 110' from the entrance.
From my observations, a lot of the more experienced divers choose not to run a line in JB.
While conditions are generally close to perfect, there can be situations when the visibility will drop to a level that may not allow a safe exit from the cavern under all circumstances.
Just imagine you run into trouble further back in the cave and are in a bad silt out, the last issue you want to run into is having a hard time finding your way from the end of the gold line to the exit.

Adding to the risk, people drop their O2 tanks just about anywhere. At the grim reaper sign, along the sand path coming in the rock garden, or hide it in the deco room under a rock ledge.
Imagine the search for your O2 in very low visibility and the unnecessary stress.

On the other hand, on a busy day there will be a spiderweb of lines running down the deco room into the rock garden, with line just about everywhere.
It can get really nasty at times, especially when the flow is up and scooters are used.

So after talking to a few people our thoughts were, why is the gold line not extended to the end of the rock garden and tied off at the bottom of the rocks?
Many other caves start much closer - Twin, Peacock, Devil's, Little River, and Madison to name a few.

Seen from the entrance, the gold line could start right after entering the rock garden from the deco room, on the right side.
Since this is a rocky area, the end of the line could even include a number of loops, say 4-5, to attach O2 cylinders to.

Both the start of the gold line, plus the O2 tanks, would not be in view of swimmers peeking into the cavern area.
On the other hand it would be pretty much a no-brainer to exit from there. It would be easy to use the flow to get into the deco room and just keep on going straight ahead.

What is your opinion?

[reiterman]

This should be interesting.

[patpicos]

considering the amount of training that goes on at JB, it would make it less useful as a training site for running primary. I mean the instructor could still mandate to run past the sign..

when i dove JB for a week, we had a primary for the group that we left for the week...so i didnt have to bother. my personal vote is to extend out cuz im lazy

i surprisingly still run a primary in P1, maybe cuz it takes so little time despite the uselessness.

[Jack Hammer]

If its for overall safety and less of a mess then I like it. However, If an adult cave diver chooses to not run a line then they made a choice they'll have to deal with in reduced viz. I do like the loop idea for deco bottles.

Sent via

[Dark Eternal]

My understanding that the line was purposely set further back there due the fact that non cave divers can dive the mill pond. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

[bamafan]

My understanding that the line was purposely set further back there due the fact that non cave divers can dive the mill pond. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

That may have been said but what about Twin. It is what 6" from open water? If that was the reason wouldn't it apply to all the caves on the pond?

[BigTex1836]

My understanding that the line was purposely set further back there due the fact that non cave divers can dive the mill pond. Anyone know if there is any truth to this?

Not sure about a park rule, but I have seen them there. On one trip I was down there last fall with Edd, a cave diver came out of JB and started asking where his OW trained buddy was that he left in the cavern. We hadn't seen him on our way out. Edd started to go back in to the cavern area to find the lost buddy. He happened to pop out as soon as Edd started to enter the cavern. Was he allowed to be there, I don't know. Was he there, yes. Not sure if the placement of the gold line would make any difference in this scenario.

[midway]

That may have been said but what about Twin. It is what 6" from open water? If that was the reason wouldn't it apply to all the caves on the pond?

JB is directly beneath a diving board. Twin Cave is less directly accessible.

As to extending the gold line, it seems fine as is. If some folks don't want to run a line, that's their choice.

[Kelly Jessop]

That may have been said but what about Twin. It is what 6" from open water? If that was the reason wouldn't it apply to all the caves on the pond?

Twin used to be about 75' feet into the cave, 6" from OW is very tempting due to the number of OW divers that are starting to dive the Mill Pond. I know we nearly had an accident in Twin that involved OW divers, and can't speak for where the line started at that time, or even if it was a factor.

There are two sides to the argument, having lines closer to open water will tempt non-cave divers,but also people contend that it gives them a chance to make it out. I think most arguments have leaned toward if they see a line then they are tempted to go further knowing that they have a means to make it out. Personally I think lines approaching open water needs to be analyzed for the risk of the site due to OW diver access versus what is convenient to cave divers due to flow, deco bottles, scooters, traffic etc etc.

Here is another consideration. I was marveling at a picture of the "E" rock formation in HITW. Very unique formation. The line is wrapped around that formation now (where best recollection a number of years ago is it wasn't). A diver pulling on the line or an entangled scooter could cause damage to that formation. Should this be a line that should be moved?

[FW]

Why would you need loops for deco tanks? There is plenty of flat space at 20', and even more once you get into the cavern.