Public annoucement of line changes

[Kelly Jessop]

Posting on the Interwebs is reasonable, but not everyone checks Facebook / Forums etc. What's wrong with a written notice posted at the site? What the change was, who made it and why.

The potential problem would be somewhere like Little River, which would be an invitation by the locals to remove it. Generally most of us go by shops, and some notice there would be good. Nothing will be 100% foolproof,but need to start somewhere.

[jj1987]

Posting on the Interwebs is reasonable, but not everyone checks Facebook / Forums etc. What's wrong with a written notice posted at the site? What the change was, who made it and why.

Then not everyone gets the information, pretty simple, right?

[MORGAN]

With exception of repairing a line, or correcting a safety issue.. I don't think the average joe-cave diver should be messing around with permanent lines in caves. If there is a good reason to make a change, it should be made public.

Agreed.

If you're diving and the line has been changed from what you remember, you should have the skills and equipment to maintain a continuous line and to mark any points of potential confusion. Or if it's making you uncomfortable, turn the dive.

[Nitrogenius]

Something like this would be good for those of us who are not local and only make it over a few times a year. My question is what is the best means of actually getting this information out? On here? A specific page on Facebook people follow?

Actually I would expect the information to be more valuable to the locals than those making it few times a year.
When I get to a cave site after a long period I would NEVER expect the cave to be exactly as I remember it, so why would a change notice be important.
Essentially if I don't dive a cave frequently I will dive it as I am diving it for the first time. In a first time cave it really don't matter how the line is actually routed, does it?


For the locals and frequent visitors complacency is much more likely and an "expectation" that the cave should be as known, there I can see how an unannounced change could actually cause real issues, if the diver did not pay full attention because of a certain "expectation"..

[victorzamora]

Actually I would expect the information to be more valuable to the locals than those making it few times a year.
When I get to a cave site after a long period I would NEVER expect the cave to be exactly as I remember it, so why would a change notice be important.

I think it depends on the change. If I haven't dove a specific area of a cave, or haven't done it in a while, and I'm following instructions - they need to be clear. Like the Godzilla Room example. If there was a T instead of a jump, I'd question if I had found the right room. I wouldn't be able to be certain if I was in the right spot. Locals and/or frequent divers would know something had changed, cookie the T, and wonder why that happened. The local/frequent diver would then proceed about their dive with no ill effects and still get to where they were going.

As for how to get the word out: I think it'd need to be multi-faceted. Not everyone gets online before a dive trip, especially locals. Dive shops might be a better solution. The issue with just posting it in dive shops is not everybody dives the same caves out of the same shops (or any shop, for that matter, for those that self-fill). I've dove Madison with gas fills from at least four different dive shops. Same with Peacock. Same with Little River. Plus, those are just the "common" caves.....would we post about the small/infrequent caves?

Different industry, hobby, and set of rules, but: In flying, changes in rules and/or status of airports/airspaces are sent out in periodically updated books. Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) are available online in a cohesive location. It's FAA-controlled and dictated, so it's something outside of what we as a community are currently doing. Maybe one idea would be to leverage CaveAtlas as a location for our NOTADs.

[Garth]

Lets make cave tourism great again


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[Draker]

Lets make cave tourism great again


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#make2018epic


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[diverdarren]

My habit is to treat every dive site as if things may have changed since I was there last. I've seen that time and time again.

[Herbie]

If it saves one life, if it keeps caves open for cave divers....im for posting it at dive site as well as all social media options, dive shops, etc......that said ....all cave divers should be comfortable encountering the unknown and unexpected in overhead environments. Turn the dive if there is ANY doubts or insecurities whatsoever.

[pink arrows]

Just curious because I don't get on here often... But did whoever made the change to the Godzilla circuit in the last couple of weeks... (2 months)... make an announcement on here? I didn't see anything at the site, and was surprised when we went left at what had become a T and circled around to find that someone had cut 25 ft of line back out. Seemed like a pretty ballsy move and I'm glad our team didn't have an issue and then come up on an end of the line expecting a T. Gotta love cave Gods and their egos.