Cave Diving

[dirkterrell]

Dean and I got going on a diving tangent in the motorcycle fatalities thread, so I thought I'd start a new thread. I am a full cave certified cave diver (NACD and NSS-CDS), a hobby that many outsiders see as dangerous (like riding motorcycles). As Dean pointed out in the other thread, the danger level is greatly reduced with proper training. I found some videos of places I've dive and thought I'd chare. Here is one of my favorite places, the Peanut Tunnel at Peacock Springs. Everything I went through here, it reminded me of the scenes in the Alien movies when the aliens were moving through the air shafts. :)

http://www.cavediver.net/pictures/PeacockPeanut.mpg

Dirk

[puckstr]

Looks like it was secreted....

Yeah, but secreted from what?

[Kim-n-Dean]

Tooooo sweeeet!!! I love that stuff!!!! My buddy just finished his Dive Master cert. I'm dying to get into cave diving!! Kim could never do it, though. She's extremely claustrophobic.

When ever we dive, she gets in and goes under a couple feet. She then has to immediately surface, for literally, a second and then she submerges and is good to go. Doing negative entry on a drift dive can be tricky. She has to go through that process pretty quickly or we drift over the dive and miss it.

We were so desperate to dive one day that we went to Aurora res. and dove on the Cessna twin they have out there. It sucked and was a total waste of time!! Only 20 some feet deep and a lot of surfacing, my computer didn't know what the hell to do.

[~Barn~]

When I'm down in Mexico, I'm going to be in an area surrounded by cenotes. I'm not SCUBA'fied, but I'm definitely going to do some swimming. That would be awesome though, to do some proper diving! :up:

http://imagesoftheworld.org/mexico/cenote-cancun-mx.jpg

[Tipys]

I am almost open-water cretifed myself

[Big-J]

I want to get certified, I wanna do some diving, and would be cool to do it in those Cenotes Barn mentioned!

[~Barn~]

We're going to play underwater tummy-sticks, Big-J.

[puckstr]

When I'm down in Mexico, I'm going to be in an area surrounded by cenotes. I'm not SCUBA'fied, but I'm definitely going to do some swimming. That would be awesome though, to do some proper diving! :up:



Dawn and I went swimming in some cenotes in Playa Del Carmen (Mexico).
Way cold. Way cool. Knida creepy, but a good time.

[dirkterrell]

Here is some pretty good video of Little River Spring. At about 9:35 you see the line split and to the left is the Serpentine Tunnel and to the right, the main tunnel. At about 13:05 you can see them coming back though the Serpentine tunnel.

http://www.strimoo.com/video/12568959/SCUBA-Locker-Cave-Diving-Episode-Vimeo.html

Dirk

[*GSXR~SNAIL*]

Dirk-

That is some scary stuff....I saw a documentary on this elaborate set of caves attached to each other, miles apart, in Florida. I'm not sure if this is one of the those they mentioned in the documentary. Heard of it before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkrnSwNSSpY&fmt=18

http://revver.com/video/1342457/cave-diving-eagle-nest/

[dirkterrell]

Dirk-

That is some scary stuff....I saw a documentary on this elaborate set of caves attached to each other, miles apart, in Florida. I'm not sure if this is one of the those they mentioned in the documentary. Heard of it before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkrnSwNSSpY&fmt=18

Yep, Eagle's Nest is a very technical cave dive.

Dirk

[Big-J]

We're going to play underwater tummy-sticks, Big-J.
:spit:


Dawn and I went swimming in some cenotes in Playa Del Carmen (Mexico).
Way cold. Way cool. Knida creepy, but a good time.

Its hot and humid, the cold water is going to feel nice, real nice! :siesta:

[willb003]

Yeah so I gots a cert. and I was actually about to start a thread and see if anyone was up to showing me some places around here to dive since I just moved here in Jan.

[~Barn~]

Its hot and humid, the cold water is going to feel nice, real nice! :siesta:

Big-J is psychiing himself up for this cold ass water, already.

;)

[jimwallace]

Im currently going through my DM class right now....i didnt realize this many people on the forum were divers. I am a bit of a sicko about it, give me a mudpuddle and my ass will jump in. I have not gotten to do any cave diving (cavern is not the same) yet but want to soon. We will definitely have to set up a group dive some time. heck maybe even a ride/dive. someone hauls all the gear in a vehicle and we make a group ride to the diving location.

[Kim-n-Dean]

Im currently going through my DM class right now....i didnt realize this many people on the forum were divers. I am a bit of a sicko about it, give me a mudpuddle and my ass will jump in. I have not gotten to do any cave diving (cavern is not the same) yet but want to soon. We will definitely have to set up a group dive some time. heck maybe even a ride/dive. someone hauls all the gear in a vehicle and we make a group ride to the diving location.
I'm down. Where can we go that doesn't require jumping on a plane, besides the Blue Hole and The Crater? Ya mud duck! :-) I would like to start collecting cave experience!!

[jimwallace]

hell, ive dove aurora res., pueblo res, twin lakes, turquoise lake, blue mesa, actually i think blue mesa was a lot of fun, we rented pontoon boats camped and dove. I am however always up to trying something new too. and yes i am an unhealthy mud duck, nastiest i have been in i could only see a 2 sq ft area bout 3 feet above the bottom with my c8 divelight..........muuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkkkkkY!

But yes lets start plannin!

[Kim-n-Dean]

Aurora res. was pretty bad. Couple feet visibility.

I've wondered about Blue mesa. Is there anything to see?

When we're doing 'real' diving, I prefer the ship wrecks. Kim likes the plants and fish, but it doesn't do anything for me. The wrecks are where it's at!!

[jimwallace]

see....thats what i mean by "im unhealthy".....i dont care if i cant see anything at all.......its fun fun fun....anyway, all i found at blue mesa was a submerged forest, but blue mesa is HUGE so who knows what there might be. I have had 30'vis at aurora before. I will talk to the guys at my dive shop and see what else there is in the tristate region that would be worth hitting up, so maybe we can start plannin something....... p.s. Check my myspace, got lots of diving pics.

[Kim-n-Dean]

see....thats what i mean by "im unhealthy".....i dont care if i cant see anything at all.......its fun fun fun....anyway, all i found at blue mesa was a submerged forest, but blue mesa is HUGE so who knows what there might be. I have had 30'vis at aurora before. I will talk to the guys at my dive shop and see what else there is in the tristate region that would be worth hitting up, so maybe we can start plannin something.......I admire your drive!! You crack me up!! Hell, I've got two creeks in my back yard.:lol:

Because of the Aurora res. dive, I now know I'm bored shitless unless I'm cruisin' around/in a wreck. At $4/tank, though, what the hell... Either way, I'm down!!

What dive shop do you deal with? We usually hit A1.

I wanna get Dirk out and start some cave cruisin'!!

[jimwallace]

I use Divers Reef in colorado springs, The guys there are just awesome, they know their shit, and they are cool as hell. Well i have to admit, there is a bit of a rush doing a free decent in 100+ ft water that you cant see beyond youre arm in......I always worry im gonna end up with a tree up my arse cause i couldnt see what im droppin on, but you never know what you'll find either.

[MetaLord 9]

Sounds like an assload of fun...and another REALLY good way to part with a lot of money. :(

[jimwallace]

actually diving really isnt that expensive. I have all my gear including the new compumask, a dui drysuit ect. and i only have about 4k into it including my certifications. ........lot cheaper than my motorcycle hobby.

[Kim-n-Dean]

Sounds like an assload of fun...and another REALLY good way to part with a lot of money. :(Shit!! You should try R/C planes and helicopters!! Or rock climbing. The cool thing about diving and climbing is, if you fuck up, you die!! It puts a little extra incentive on paying attention!!

Here's some climbing shots.

Me hittin' up a top rope on some lava rock in Taos, NM.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Etk4480/CSC/taos.jpg

Me, again, leadin' a bolted route at North Table above Coors Brewery.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Etk4480/CSC/ntable.jpg

[Terid]

"Aurora res. was pretty bad. Couple feet visibility."

Boy you must have hit it on a good day!

I'm an instructor up in Boulder, and we HATE Aurora....muck diving. If I have to pick local, I prefer Chatfield. A few fish, crayfish, toilet, shopping cart, boat and trailer. Can even get about 20' vis before the bloom. But it's not muddy at the dive beach - it's graveled in.

I haven't pursued caves yet (only caverns in mexico - loved it swimming through the brackish layer!). If something comes up for diving count me in (I'm usually on MRA, but I'll have to check this more often....diving YEAH, just one more expensive hobby :hump:).

Teri
MRA 801