Zel:

Who said the photographer was the guy in all the photos? If it was actually him, what's to say he didn't have a tripod and a shutter delay or remote?

Wasn't this in the TaunTaun?


Now we know what they eat.

reimanr06:

I live in Florida, so if you want to do the hardcore diving its cave diving in the springs or wrecks. Wrecks are pretty cool, but carrying around two tanks plus a backup, a rebreather, several spools and lights, and strategically placing deco tanks to crawl through some cracks in the limestone just doesn't do it for me. A friend of the family has a story that when he was young and stupid, he went cave exploring with some buddies without a lot of the safety equipment, got lost and was running out of air. He found a fissure in the cave ceiling, crawled out of it, and found himself in the middle of the Crystal River, several miles from the spring he had started his dive in.


There is more to it than that. Cave Dive

But I understand. It's not for everyone. (and cripilingly expensive)

FreeBeerClickHere:
Most of the deeper "technical" diving in Michigan is wreck diving. Some of the best ones are deeper and well worth the added risk.

Same in the Northeast. The only rock piles we see are some unexplored sites that had promising looking Loran numbers.

Still we have found several unknown wrecks that way and identified several of them.

reimanr06: FreeBeerClickHere: reimanr06: FreeBeerClickHere: I don't know how anyone could say whether this is or is not extreme diving since that would depend on the dive plan, surface conditions, overhead environment (full or partially open), rope tending, equipment etc..

/I used to do a lot of Michigan diving when I was younger (worked at a dive store). Mostly Caribbean diving now(my wife likes warm water)
//Technical diving experiences so far... some decompression diving, ice diving, Trimix, Argon w/drysuit diving, wreck diving. Cave diving is still on the list...
///leaving for a diving holiday in Turks & Caicos over Christmas.

I'm not particularly interested in a lot of technical diving, as it seems like a ton of work and danger to freeze your ass off and look at some rocks.

/most 'extreme' diving experience was chasing a grouper into a wreck through a roughly 3'x3' porthole, getting turned around while reloading, and finding my face 12 inches from a scorpion fish. Yikes!

Most of the deeper "technical" diving in Michigan is wreck diving. Some of the best ones are deeper and well worth the added risk.

/really not all that risky if you plan and are trained.
//the coldest I ever felt was in 40 feet of water with a group of students (6.5 mm wetsuit FJ, hood, and gloves). Drysuits are pretty comfortable if you have good insulation (you can even wear a dry hood and full face mask if you are particularly bothered by "face freeze")

I live in Florida, so if you want to do the hardcore diving its cave diving in the springs or wrecks. Wrecks are pretty cool, but carrying around two tanks plus a backup, a rebreather, several spools and lights, and strategically placing deco tanks to crawl through some cracks in the limestone just doesn't do it for me. A friend of the family has a story that when he was young and stupid, he went cave exploring with some buddies without a lot of the safety equipment, got lost and was running out of air. He found a fissure in the cave ceiling, crawled out of it, and found himself in the middle of the Crystal River, several miles from the spring he had started his dive in.

I have some friends that are really into cave diving. I'd like to try some very light cave diving some day but no taking the BC off to crawl through a crack though ;)

T.M.S.: reimanr06:

I live in Florida, so if you want to do the hardcore diving its cave diving in the springs or wrecks. Wrecks are pretty cool, but carrying around two tanks plus a backup, a rebreather, several spools and lights, and strategically placing deco tanks to crawl through some cracks in the limestone just doesn't do it for me. A friend of the family has a story that when he was young and stupid, he went cave exploring with some buddies without a lot of the safety equipment, got lost and was running out of air. He found a fissure in the cave ceiling, crawled out of it, and found himself in the middle of the Crystal River, several miles from the spring he had started his dive in.


There is more to it than that. Cave Dive

But I understand. It's not for everyone. (and cripilingly expensive)

FreeBeerClickHere:
Most of the deeper "technical" diving in Michigan is wreck diving. Some of the best ones are deeper and well worth the added risk.

Same in the Northeast. The only rock piles we see are some unexplored sites that had promising looking Loran numbers.

Still we have found several unknown wrecks that way and identified several of them.

I had some friends that were really into searching for wrecks in the great lakes. A few of them worked through MSU (documented the Three Brothers wreck that was re-discovered about 20 yrs ago). They would also would take video other newly discovered wrecks for positive ID.

T.M.S.: reimanr06:

I live in Florida, so if you want to do the hardcore diving its cave diving in the springs or wrecks. Wrecks are pretty cool, but carrying around two tanks plus a backup, a rebreather, several spools and lights, and strategically placing deco tanks to crawl through some cracks in the limestone just doesn't do it for me. A friend of the family has a story that when he was young and stupid, he went cave exploring with some buddies without a lot of the safety equipment, got lost and was running out of air. He found a fissure in the cave ceiling, crawled out of it, and found himself in the middle of the Crystal River, several miles from the spring he had started his dive in.


There is more to it than that. Cave Dive

But I understand. It's not for everyone. (and cripilingly expensive)

FreeBeerClickHere:
Most of the deeper "technical" diving in Michigan is wreck diving. Some of the best ones are deeper and well worth the added risk.

Same in the Northeast. The only rock piles we see are some unexplored sites that had promising looking Loran numbers.

Still we have found several unknown wrecks that way and identified several of them.

I just moved to the Boston area and have yet to explore anything out this way.

Russ1642: Broom: fizzix_is_fun: Snakeophelia:
wouldn't a dry suit do? Thermal insulation isn't that hard.

You're forgetting the thermal conductivity of water. Thermal insulation is easy on land. TFA suggests 90 minutes is the limit for diving at those temps, before I FEEL WARM AND SLEEPY! sets in.

That has to be a typo. I'll bet he meant 90 seconds, meaning without the gear you'd be dead pretty damn fast. 90 minutes to me means that with proper gear there is hardly any danger from freezing. I can't see many divers wanting to spend more than that in those conditions anyways.

In class we teach that drysuits don't keep you warm. They just allow you to get cold slower.

Unless you have a heated undergarment eventually you would be too cold to continue the dive. But in almost all cases with the proper gear the dive would not be limited by the cold anyway. Those divers in the photos are not equiped for long or deep dives. They are smart enough to carry just enough gear to get the job done and get out.

As to being in the water with no protective gear at all? The only time I ever did that was in Alaska when I jumped off the boat bare-assed into freezing water. I doubt I would have lasted more than 90 seconds.

FreeBeerClickHere:

I just moved to the Boston area and have yet to explore anything out this way.


Start here

T.M.S.: FreeBeerClickHere:

I just moved to the Boston area and have yet to explore anything out this way.


Start here

NICE...thanks!

FreeBeerClickHere: reimanr06: FreeBeerClickHere: reimanr06: FreeBeerClickHere: I don't know how anyone could say whether this is or is not extreme diving since that would depend on the dive plan, surface conditions, overhead environment (full or partially open), rope tending, equipment etc..

/I used to do a lot of Michigan diving when I was younger (worked at a dive store). Mostly Caribbean diving now(my wife likes warm water)
//Technical diving experiences so far... some decompression diving, ice diving, Trimix, Argon w/drysuit diving, wreck diving. Cave diving is still on the list...
///leaving for a diving holiday in Turks & Caicos over Christmas.

I'm not particularly interested in a lot of technical diving, as it seems like a ton of work and danger to freeze your ass off and look at some rocks.

/most 'extreme' diving experience was chasing a grouper into a wreck through a roughly 3'x3' porthole, getting turned around while reloading, and finding my face 12 inches from a scorpion fish. Yikes!

Most of the deeper "technical" diving in Michigan is wreck diving. Some of the best ones are deeper and well worth the added risk.

/really not all that risky if you plan and are trained.
//the coldest I ever felt was in 40 feet of water with a group of students (6.5 mm wetsuit FJ, hood, and gloves). Drysuits are pretty comfortable if you have good insulation (you can even wear a dry hood and full face mask if you are particularly bothered by "face freeze")

I live in Florida, so if you want to do the hardcore diving its cave diving in the springs or wrecks. Wrecks are pretty cool, but carrying around two tanks plus a backup, a rebreather, several spools and lights, and strategically placing deco tanks to crawl through some cracks in the limestone just doesn't do it for me. A friend of the family has a story that when he was young and stupid, he went cave exploring with some buddies without a lot of the safety equipment, got lost and was running out of air. He found a fissure in the cave ceiling, crawled out of it, and found himself in the middle of the Crystal River, several miles from the spring he had started his dive in.

I have some friends that are really into cave diving. I'd like to try some very light cave diving some day but no taking the BC off to crawl through a crack though ;)

I'd like to get cave-certified, and then never cave dive again. I think it would be an incredibly valuable skill set to have, and surviving that training would no doubt give me a better sense of self-reliance, but cave diving seems like so much work that it would cease to be fun. Maybe I'm wrong and I'd get hooked, but it looks to me like the work:fun ratio is less than one.

NORBERT?!?!?!?!

carlb:
I'd like to get cave-certified, and then never cave dive again. I think it would be an incredibly valuable skill set to have, and surviving that training would no doubt give me a better sense of self-reliance, but cave diving seems like so much work that it would cease to be fun. Maybe I'm wrong and I'd get hooked, but it looks to me like the work:fun ratio is less than one.

Take DIR F It will give you the skills you desire without the hassle of all the Cave Diving crap. Just expect to fail the first time or two you take the course. They do that to everyone.

/not DIR