Jason B.(Offline)

In another thread someone mentioned that GUE says you are not allowed to take a deco bottle below its MOD in a cave. I asked but got no reply so I figured I'd post in here and see if I could get an answer.

Reason I ask is that in Ginnie Springs, if entering the Devils Ear, and you have to leave your O2 at 6m, then you are leaving it in OW where OW divers and drunk rednecks tubing the river have been know to steal deco cylinders (happens all the time there). Typically we clip our deco bottles of on our reel line once in the cavern zone at 18m.

For those of you that have dove Ginnie, where do you clip your O2 off at?

PBrown (Online)

Only done it with a deco cylinder via the eye, dropped the cylinders in a little hole on the left hand side as you go in. Not had any problems to date, but not been there for a year or so now. Sigh.

cheers,
Paul

JGrogan(Offline)

Clip off? You've got to be nuts to clip them off anywhere. Find a cubbyhole out of the flow near the entrance and jam the bottle in there!

John.

sasdasdaf(Offline)

Is the question a general one, i.e. are you supposed to carry a bottle past its MOD in a cave? The answer is no, but of course practical issues must be considered. Ginnie is one such example, where most people take their oxygen bottles to around the grim reaper sign to discourage theft/molestation of their bottles.

Jason B.(Offline)

My cave training was through another organization and clipping to the line (and looping it in to lock it) is what I was taught. Never seen the flow move a bottle an inch like this. It would seem that having it secured to a line would be more appealing that having it just sit in a corner somewhere.
Thanks for the responses guys. I have a buddy that is cave 2, I'll find out what 'cubby' he uses to stash his bottle in.

sasdasdaf, wasn't a general question but more of a site specific question (I leave mine by the sign as you mentioned for the reasons you mentioned.)

Again, thanks guys.

BigJohn(Offline)

When we did our Cave 2 we always clipped it on the line at around the 20 foot mark. This was in Mexico, Ginny may be an exception, but it was never brought up during the course.

Anders Knudsen (Online)

Hello,

I wrote the post you referred to – I have never been diving serious caves anywhere but Mexico.
There is very little flow, and no one is going to steal your o2 bottle while you are diving.
We clipped both stages and o2 bottles to the line and looping it in to lock, just as you did, either at MOD or at half + 20bar for stages. We did never take the bottle past its MOD, and I will never if I can avoid it, but if I need to, then I just have to figure out a safe way to do that.

Best regards

Anders Knudsen

__________________
If someone standing on dry land tells you they're safe diving deep on air, give them a wide berth. If they're that stupid at 1 ATA, you know they won't get any smarter at depth

canucksubmariner(Offline)

No offense but where does common sense overtake the desire to be seen as DIR?

It makes sense to clip your O2 off at the line by the sign, if you were exiting in an emergency do you really want to have to leave the line to get your bottle out of whatever crack you stuffed it in?

Jason B.(Offline)

I'm not trying to be "seen" as DIR. I never said I was going to stuff my bottle in a crack off the line, I said I was going to talk to a friend and see what he did with his. Doesn't mean I'm going to throw what I currently do out the window without some serious thought. That said, I have found several DIR approaches to cave diving that are superior to what I was taught.

Owen Petchey(Offline)

I assume you're referring to Anders' post in the 'what do you regard as wrong' thread. There he does not state that "GUE says you are not allowed to take a deco bottle below its MOD". He says it is just his 5 psi. In addition, his profile suggests that he has no GUE cave training.

Please consider correcting the relevant text in your first post in this thread.

Owen