Wayne's World

[BgDadddy]

Is it open yet? I need to get back into the water...



Here is a crappy little video I took in there shortly before the fatality. Keep in mind this my first video attempt ever and it was done with a regular digital camera set to video mode and a regular HID dive light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MqDD2BWIZ8

[Tegg]

In progress.

The details had to be worked out. I figure it will be open "officially" soon (like maybe next week) provided the BOD approves of the plan.

[BgDadddy]

Very good. Thanks Joe.

[fno]

To add to Joes coments. A revised management plan was presented to the BOD in January and approved at the Hart Springs BOD meeting. The logistics of waivers, locks, and guide credentials still need to be worked out. I would like to see this done as soon as possible and then the pool will be considered "open"

[Benthic]

To add to Joes coments. A revised management plan was presented to the BOD in January and approved at the Hart Springs BOD meeting. The logistics of waivers, locks, and guide credentials still need to be worked out. I would like to see this done as soon as possible and then the pool will be considered "open"

Guides? Is Wayne's World about to become a guided system?

Brian

[FW]

Guides? Is Wayne's World about to become a guided system?

Brian

Yes. The previous system wasn't working out very well

[Benthic]

Yes. The previous system wasn't working out very well

So let me get this straight... Because two guys without cave training, broke the access rules, broke what we all know as commonly accepted safe practice with regard to training, and paid the ultimate price for it, the solution that the CDS has come up with is to make it harder for people who have cave training and have met the access requirements to dive there?

As a diver who has cave training, trimix training and the requisite 100 cave dives, I'm offended. Basically what the CDS has just told me is that even though I've completed all of the training through nationally recognized agencies and gathered all of the required experience, they still don't trust me to dive that system without having my hand held. This makes me wonder all sorts of things, like if the CDS lacks faith in the training program of their own agency, or of other agencies. But that's probably not a topic to be discussed here.

I understand that there is concern as a result of the incident at Wayne's World, but putting a guide system in place is NOT the answer. The divers who died defeated the access system. The answer here is to keep the untrained out, not to tighten the access for everyone across the board. At the very least, I would encourage the CDS to put a system in place like the one at Bonnet or at Friedman's...the first time you have to go with someone who has been there before. Heck, make that 'someone' a 'guide' if you want to. Just don't require me to take a 'guide' along on every dive I want to make there.

The very existence of 'guided' cave systems calls the quality of ALL cave training into question. We should be working to reduce the number of guided systems, not raise it.

Brian

[Gene Powell]

So are we gonna bring George Irvine in to supervise all these guided sites?
"Knowledge speaks, Wisdom listens"

[Walter Pickel]

Utimately, Wayne's World has been mismanaged. It needed to become better managed. People weren't filling out liabilities (CDS owns the land). Therefore the CDS cannot properly account for usage, etc.

The Guide program is intended to walk divers through the management requirements, do a few dives with the diver and then the diver can dive at will. Personally, I am not aware of more than a couple dozen people that would go BACK to Wayne's World after their initial dives. I would have had a very bad experience in Wayne's World had I not been "guided" the first time I went there. Not only is there important system information (how tides affect you in the system -- 2,500' down Main Street is scary when the tides reverse and you realize you are no swimming home against a siphon, where is Golden Brick Road, why I wouldn't want to go into the Bat Tunnel more than once, etc.) but you also MUST fill out the waivers.

I look forward to the BOD finalizing this plan.

[Benthic]

Utimately, Wayne's World has been mismanaged. It needed to become better managed. People weren't filling out liabilities (CDS owns the land). Therefore the CDS cannot properly account for usage, etc.

The Guide program is intended to walk divers through the management requirements, do a few dives with the diver and then the diver can dive at will. Personally, I am not aware of more than a couple dozen people that would go BACK to Wayne's World after their initial dives. I would have had a very bad experience in Wayne's World had I not been "guided" the first time I went there. Not only is there important system information (how tides affect you in the system -- 2,500' down Main Street is scary when the tides reverse and you realize you are no swimming home against a siphon, where is Golden Brick Road, why I wouldn't want to go into the Bat Tunnel more than once, etc.) but you also MUST fill out the waivers.

I look forward to the BOD finalizing this plan.

Ah...that makes more sense (to me at least) and it's not what I had envisioned upon hearing the word 'guide.' Thanks for the clarification Walter. If this is to be the policy at Wayne's World then I hope it will go well, and I hope that a similar policy will be adopted at other sites.

Brian