So who left fresh sliced cave loaf in the roller coaster?

[Kaneo]

scooters are too noisy?? pleeease waaaaaaaa

[Daedalus]

I think what people need to take away from this thread is that when you take a DPV into a cave you are accepting a greater level of scrutiny and accountability for your actions. You are acting as an ambassador to the non-motorized public and need to conduct yourself responsibly and set a good example at all times. That means not scootering in places where you are going to damage the cave, behaving in a courteous manner to other divers, and demonstrating the cave diving skills people expect of you.

[saturation]

Maybe cave societies need to think about putting up signs to remind folks of cave conservation just as there are signs to keep non-cavedivers out of the caves. It may or may not work, but a few signs can't hurt. This would apply to scooter and swimmers alike.

[ARY]

Keep going folks :-( This thread will serve well when they will write diving policies for the new coming state parks such as LR and possibly Telford both with long penetrations availability. It reads "scooters most probably will cause damage and even cave divers themselve don't want them".

So to outwheight the impression i say: potentially DPV doesn't do more damage than any other swimming diver to the cave however scooter does add a lot safety on a long distance dives. Safety should be considered first to reduce risks in park operations.

Offtopic but did you read recent Florida Trend? There was a little phrase mentioning that Lafayette's Chamber of Commerce head is nobody but one of the tech scooters manufacturing company's owner.
Hurray, more scooters of different kind, quality built, low-priced and reliable!

[Gary]

Safety is an element of a dive plan and divers not pushing their limits.

Avoiding cave damage is a matter of diver awareness and care.

"Learning mode" is not an excuse for dragging thru the cave. If a diver has no ability to control themselves and their equipment they should be turning the dive at the entrance - or better yet taking their equipment to an OW site until they have learned to use it.

Do these guys know any better? Are they intentionally ignoring the damage they are doing or did their instructors never teach them any better?

What instructor's name is on their cave cards? I'll bet it is the same instructor for all three of them. What agency is backing this instructor and these students damaging the cave?

[akcaver]

I agree with Bob on this. When you scooter you have more responsibility, for youreself and for the cave. When we scooter we must be more aware and concious of where we are, because as stated before you can do alot of damage in a little bit of time.

Gary, it sounds like youre outright accusing people (whoever they are) of purposefully running their scooters into the bottom. I agree with you about more caution needs to be taken, especially in smaller tunnels, but you cant straight out accuse them like that unless you know the details of what happened. If a situation occurred, thats one point. If they were being careless, well thats another, and commence the public shaming.

[rlc5925]

I think what people need to take away from this thread is that when you take a DPV into a cave you are accepting a greater level of scrutiny and accountability for your actions. You are acting as an ambassador to the non-motorized public and need to conduct yourself responsibly and set a good example at all times. That means not scootering in places where you are going to damage the cave, behaving in a courteous manner to other divers, and demonstrating the cave diving skills people expect of you.

Well said

[Walter Pickel]

If you really want to see something special head to Jackson Blue and cruise out to about 3,500'. That is the worst scooter inflected cave damage I have ever seen!

[JE]

"Learning mode" is not an excuse for dragging thru the cave. If a diver has no ability to control themselves and their equipment they should be turning the dive at the entrance - or better yet taking their equipment to an OW site until they have learned to use it." {Gary}
Most of you are well beyond my own personal levels, but I learned awhile back that there are places to be swam & there are places for dpv's. Both require training & practice-! Gary is right on: If we are not up to skills, practice in OW first, then take it to a large enough tunnel to practice in, without endangering your partners or others inside the system. Not all instructors are cognizent of students needs or training to be worked on.
Cheers

je

[Jim Wyatt]

"Learning mode" is not an excuse for dragging thru the cave. {Gary}

No one has said it was an excuse.