Holy shit.
I did a NAUI Deep Diver course for fun in Blue Grotto near Ocala. It was a karst formation and I did not stray far from the down line. Pretty damn cold for fresh water, I had a skin, and a full Darlex jumper, and my 1/4 farmer John top, and a Darlex hood and gloves and was STILL cold.
These days, my rule is, if it ain’t above 80, I ain’t divin’.
Haymarket, blegh! You mean the lake that doesn't actually have a bottom in the center, the silt just got increasingly viscous? Fuck, I hated that lake. I did some dives there for my TDI Deco/Adv Nitrox course, but I tried to do most of my training dives in Lake Rawlings. It had its purpose for low-vis training, but Haymarket just felt like diving in sewage, as opposed to Rawlings which was pretty enjoyable except for the hills-have-eyes eccentric owner.
Two things: 1) Dry Suit, 2) Dry-gloves. The dry suit makes a huge difference to begin with, but adding dry gloves on top of it made a tremendous difference. 70 min bottom times in 43* water were totally within reason and comfortable. I didn't use the dry gloves in caving because they would've just gotten destroyed, but 72* water is mighty cold after 3 hours in a cave. A lot of my buddies started using heated vests under their dry suits for these long cave dives, fed via a battery pack the same as our primary lights. I even wore the drysuit when doing shorter dives off North Carolina in the summer......it just felt a lot better being relatively clean instead of crusted in salt water and craving a shower on the 2 hour boat ride back to shore.
As for the Olympus, yeah I dove with them too. I became a regular customer a 6-pack captain though, and would go to Olympus for my gas fills and eat pizza around the corner while waiting. The 6-pack captain had a double-wide trailer next to the docks that I'd bunk at for minimal cost.....sometimes I'd just live on a boat for a few days at a time though, I did that many times with the Miss Lindsey out of Virginia Beach.
I miss that adventurous part of my life. Just way too time consuming, as well as a commitment of mental effort, skill and maintenance upkeep, etc. I got real nostalgic when I took a vacation to the Dominican Republic a couple years ago and got to go swimming in two karst windows.
Last edited by TGS; 07-02-2018 at 09:03 PM.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Hats off to you divers, but I don't have enough of a deathwish to spend that kind of time in an environment otherwise not permissible for human life. I see the appeal but, frankly, my commute feels like enough of an existential threat as-is. Bottom of the ocean after having seen at least 3 of the Jaws movies? Big old pile of nope right there.
I'm putting this thread on "ignore" because just reading this crap is giving me attacks of claustrophobia.
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
I've yet to see any news articles mention the feasibility of drilling down to the group. The Chilean miners that were trapped back in 2010 were 2,300 feet underground.
I'm sure there would be significant difficulties getting equipment in place and operating on that terrain, but that's still got to be a better option than trying to teach those kids how to cave dive in situ.
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
That is not a bad description of Haymarket lol. I had to do my Divemaster Cert there and one of my projects was mapping the quarry and pretty much every item in it. I got very very familiar with it.
Dry Suit: I did two dives to get a cert in a rental suit, it was definitely interesting and I could see owning one if I ever got back into cold or cool water diving. Not being able to warm up the suit via the usual method sucked, but it did have a relief zip if I recall correctly.
So the second dive was at what I think was the outfall of the Quarry, near the hexagonal fish tank I think it was? Anyway, I recall looking at my thermometer on my console and seeing 42F. Holy crap. I mean, 42F no wonder I felt cold. Still, the Dry Suit did it's thing with the interior garment I was given to wear with it (some kind of fuzzy suit).
And how about this: My wife did her training open water exercises over a couple weekends at a lake here in Central FL (I forget where. South of Orlando somewhere, Lake Denton maybe?) Anyway, I went along as a safety diver and almost had my fingers taken off by a damn snapping turtle. And, the best part: This place was full of you know, actual sewage. What a crappy experience () I used a lot of Dawn in the scrub tub that weekend lol.
On the other hand, I have had some magical experiences I would not trade for anything.
One dive trip in particular I made was to spend a week off Ras Muhammed in the Red Sea. One day we spent the better part of a day and the night at the Thistlegorm:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thistlegorm
This wreck was simply spectacular. I recall descending into the open cargo hold at near 90', peering into the recesses with my King Pelican light. Harley Davidson Motorcycles, Jeeps, Bedford trucks, you name it, all laid out in crystal clear blue water, encrusted jewel like by strands of coral, with schools of colorful fish darting about as I hovered. I made five day dives and a night dive that day, and still did not see everything.
Another evening dive we all knelt on the sandy bottom at 40' or so...and lay all our Dive Lights in a circle in front of the group. In about 10 minutes, the lights attracted swams of krill who came to see the light...followed magically by a 15' Manta Ray who spent the better part of 30 minutes feasting on the krill...swooping literally inches from me and my dive group. It was simply spectacular.
In the Caribbean, I've seen cannon from 18th century wrecks, octopi, many Pelagics, and a Grouper the size of a Volkswagen. His name was Elvis as I recall lol.
Scuba opens up such a world of sensations and experiences that are hard to describe. I urge anyone to give it a shot.
I never thought about diving until I went on a "try a dive" on the beach at Grand Cayman on a Cruise. I love it.
Last edited by RJ; 07-03-2018 at 11:05 AM.