Opening up the Woodsville Karst plain?

[Rich]

A few years ago when Johnny Richards was a board member of the NACD and for a short time was interim training director of the CDS he was heavily involved in opening up Emerald and Cheryl for us to dive.

Why is that now we are not still working to get other sites in the area open for diving such as Sally Ward, Sullivan and Wakulla?

It seems like we've just given up, what's up with that? I've dove Emerald many times and it's a wonderful site! Now, I wouldn't be willing to pay $300/day to dive a system up in the Woodsville Karst Plain, but I would be willing to help out in at least trying to get these other systems open on a trial basis to qualified divers.......

I just wanted to throw this out there for some discussion. We've just had an election and we have some new Board members and I for one think this would be a really worthwhile venture. Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

Safe diving,

Rich

[SLIM]

That sounds like a great idea.

I got one, how about work on a site down there, then the Board can work on the springs in MO on State and Federal land. Or for that matter an system in other places.

Cave Diving for tourist $ is new up here and not a big market but I think we can work on it for a goal and in the next 5 years or so, (with so many that live out of state of FL) we can show that even up here we can have safe and enjoyable caves to dive and help some with the local economy.

SLIM

[FW]

Why is that now we are not still working to get other sites in the area open for diving such as Sally Ward, Sullivan and Wakulla?

You should have gone to the NSS-CDS workshop it Tallahassee. I dove Emerald (thanks to many people involved in getting that open), and also Promise-Go Between-Cream, plus a couple more sinks...almost to Trench.

I also ran into the guy that laid the original line in most of those sinks, Tex Chalkley.

If anyone is serious about helping out, contact the Wakulla County Dive Club.

http://wakullacountydiveclub.com/forum/

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Thanks for the link FW.

The Wakulla County Dive Club is always in the process of opening up and improving dive site access in the area. We have access to several sites already, and closer access to other sites that are already open to the public. Not all the sites in the area are closed, or even restricted. We've done cleanups, built picnic tables and put them at the entries to some sites, built steps and installed them at other sites, we've put goldline and signs in a few systems now and have lots more to add(thanks to the NSS CDS for line and signs as well as the NACD for donating signs).

Wakulla Springs and Sally Ward are hard to get access to... Wakulla Springs State Park has a tight hold on their property, but several other sites in the area are on Forestry property and on private property which are much more approachable from an access standpoint(legally at that!).

If you are serious about wanting more access to the systems down there, http://www.wakullacountydiveclub.com and hit the "join us" button.

Feel free to come to one of our meetings to check us out first! We meet in Crawfordville on the first Saturday of every month(read as this weekend). Larry Green is giving a presentation this weekend. We've in the past had Gene Melton come out a few times, Kelly Jessop has graced us with a presentation, Donn Kearns gave us a great presentation on the history of cave diving, etc. Thats just to name a few, we've had alot going on for a club thats been around for only around 2 years. You don't have to just talk about it online, you can actually participate.

[Rich]

I think the Wakulla County dive club has done a wonderful job in getting more sites open and they should be applauded for their efforts. What they've accomplished over the past couple of years is awe inspiring!

However, if I remember correctly board members from five or six different diving agencies (eg some people with clout!) had to get involved to get Emerald open, so maybe we could do the same thing for the other well known caves I mentioned earlier.

I mean we've proved we can dive them safely and I was under the impression that Emerald was going to lead to bigger and better (and deeper!) caves eventually being opened.....

Safe diving,

Rich

[Rich]

If you are serious about wanting more access to the systems down there, http://www.wakullacountydiveclub.com and hit the "join us" button.

Cool, I just did, so where do we go from here?

Safe diving,

Rich

[FW]

.... so where do we go from here?

You go diving!

[Kelly Jessop]

I mean we've proved we can dive them safely and I was under the impression that Emerald was going to lead to bigger and better (and deeper!) caves eventually being opened.....

It can be,but it takes a lot of hard work. Anybody who has been involved with opening a system can tell you that there is a lot of phone calls,emails,meetings etc to open a site. It requires patience,and understanding when things don't go entirely the way you want. We are used to the easy way...ready made gas mixes, drive up access to caves with picnic tables etc,that we forget that cave diving is a privledge,and each site we dive was at the expense of somebody else's hard work,and time. There is one important rule when trying to open a site-don't tell anybody. Once you tell people they think it will be open in days or weeks,not months to years. They will get upset it isn't open yet,and call the landowner which screws up everything you've done (this is the voice of experience talking). Actually there was a discussion a couple years ago on The Deco Stop about opening a system,and a majority of the people complaining it wasn't opened yet. I challanged some of the members to open a site which I think can be opened with a little work and time. Three people stepped forward,said they'd do it,and the process stopped there. I guess those drive up sites with picnic tables are just too cozy to pass up,besides meeting with landowners means missing diving opportunities.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Cool, I just did, so where do we go from here?

Safe diving,

Rich

I can set you up with an account at the forum there, happy with your current username? PM me a valid email and I can create an account for you.

After that, its just a matter of what you want to do Shoot me a PM if you're interested in diving the area and I'll letcha know what we have access to.

[bgillespie82]

I can set you up with an account at the forum there, happy with your current username? PM me a valid email and I can create an account for you.

After that, its just a matter of what you want to do Shoot me a PM if you're interested in diving the area and I'll letcha know what we have access to.

You can PM me also to find out more about the WCDC