Sa Gleda - New Rules

[Planeta Ensaimada]

Like Gian says, new rules are implementing at Mallorca's caves. It is buiding now but its for sure that from now you will need a guide to dive in Sa Gleda. Guides list is buiding too, you must contact with FBE previus take a official permision (like before you did) and FBE contact with wides and one of them will go with you to the cave, open it and guide the dive. The dive will change, not like before that you can dive too many areas, from now you only can dive the "turistic circuit", the lines are going to change soon and the recreational dive will be diferent, limited areas. This is the actual situation.

[bent]

For what I understand in the regulation and the answer from Gian: in the regulation it is said that a guide is needed (for everybody) to dive SaGleda; but in practice, no guide list, nor guide accreditation, nor nothing else.

That's what I thought it said.

Well, they just changed it. It would be a little much to ask to have everything ready right away, stuff needs to be worked out and you need some time for that. After all, the people that are involved in organizing that also have a day jobs (that's how I understand it). So far I was lucky and could go and dive caves on private land with nobody asking anything in return and all the locals I met were really nice to me (Gian I count in as a local).
As for what nakatomi ask: I believe that it is a matter of how much you are involved in the local cave community and for the Vallgonera it seems to work quite well... I am sure that's the process.

[nakatomi]

To me these rules look like the locals just want to keep the cave for themselves.
Sa Gleda is a big system, very easy to navigate and to dive, provided people stay in passages that match their skills and experience level.

[bent]

very easy to navigate and to dive, provided people stay in passages that match their skills and experience level.

Hi Olli, I'm surprised that you would say that.
The very few "tourist" caves in Florida I have seen, I'd say those are easy to navigate. Neat, well laid, gold line with marked jumps.
The Sa Gleda has tons of tunnels to check out within 600 ft of the entrace, as in 45k ft maze with a lot of unstable areas and very tight and silty places. If not guided you would for sure end up in one of those sooner or later, I have, it sucked and I dont ever want to go back. The map is not as accurate as the Ginnie or the JB map either.

If Sa Gleda is easy to navigate I would like to see a complicated one. What do you consider not easy?
I think you could compare the Gleda to a cave in Mexico without line maintenance and a bunch of line traps.
One way in, one way out, I would call very easy to navigate, don't you think?

[gianaameri]

The locals are very nice and understanding and tolerant of us foreigners... up to a point.

Part of the problem is also that Spain is inefficient as a country (so is Italy, my country...) and things are a bit f-up at times way too much.

[nakatomi]

Hi Olli, I'm surprised that you would say that.
The very few "tourist" caves in Florida I have seen, I'd say those are easy to navigate. Neat, well laid, gold line with marked jumps.
The Sa Gleda has tons of tunnels to check out within 600 ft of the entrace, as in 45k ft maze with a lot of unstable areas and very tight and silty places. If not guided you would for sure end up in one of those sooner or later, I have, it sucked and I dont ever want to go back. The map is not as accurate as the Ginnie or the JB map either.

If Sa Gleda is easy to navigate I would like to see a complicated one. What do you consider not easy?
I think you could compare the Gleda to a cave in Mexico without line maintenance and a bunch of line traps.
One way in, one way out, I would call very easy to navigate, don't you think?

From what I've seen, I would consider Sa Gleda a very easy cave, provided people stay in passages that match their skills and make sure they mark their way into the cave properly.
There is no flow whatsoever, the water is very clear and it doesn't silt easily, not even for moderately skilled people. And of course the main passages are huge, which does help.
As you know, there is a blue mainline circuit, which is well marked and safe to dive. Some of the blue lines and T's should be improved, but at least everything at or close to the blue lines is marked properly with arrows.
Of course that's talking about the "tourist" part of the cave.
Needless to say, venturing into areas where not all the T's are marked (properly), the line is old, weak and limp, ceilings/walls are soft etc. does pose significant risks. But then those areas are easily identifiable too.
Personally I find the more traveled parts of this cave much safer to dive than some of the areas at Peacock Springs, which could be considered the #1 tourist cave in Florida.
Peacock has several ultra-short gaps/jumps that are very tricky, I would certainly prefer T's instead of those.

The locals are very nice and understanding and tolerant of us foreigners... up to a point.

From what I've seen, cave damage is obvious, but in my opinion requiring a guide is not the way to fix them. The result will be that you are catering to those responsible for damage (offering touristy guided tours in the already damaged front portion) and effectively cutting off access to everyone who knows what he/she is doing.

My personal thank you goes to the German agency offering cave training on the island and misusing their privileges to dive this cave and thus breaking the rules.
Thank you guys for helping shut down access for the rest of us!
BTW, judging from recent photos on FB in late July, they did not care about the full cave requirement in Sa Gleda, not that it seems to matter now anyway.

[gianaameri]

From what I've seen, cave damage is obvious, but in my opinion requiring a guide is not the way to fix them.

I agree, but that is what the President of the FBE wants to do.

Maybe he is right... we will have to wait and see if his model works.

[FredMgt]

I had the opportunity to dive Sa Gleda last spring and I agree with you guys. Classic part is huge and well lined (even sometimes messy). I really understand the locals want to protect thier cave, which is a national treasure, and avoid accident in it. I really hope these new rules will allow to avoid abuse, and with time, FBE will ease some part and allow certain divers with appropriate experience to dive again the other areas of the cave.

[gianaameri]

Sa Gleda is now closed.

See: http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...a-Gleda-CLOSED

The issue has such broad ramification for LIC (locations protected under EU Law) that it deserves a separate thread (I think).