Information request

[CaptnZ]

Hi guys and Gals,

I'm a new scuba diver and cave diving intrigues me, I'm also a writer and I'm working on a screenplay that involves cave diving. I'd like to pick someone's brain as to their experiences, equipment, emotions involved. Anyone interested? I'm in the Tampabay area and would like to speak to someone with some experience.

If you're interested let me know.

Thanks

[Tegg]

Please do us a favor and don't add ANYTHING to what may be described to you simply because it's not "intresting" enough...

I'm getting kind of tired of the press/writers messing things up when anything about technical diving is involved...

other then that, good luck.

[FreeFloat]

Please do us a favor and don't add ANYTHING to what may be described to you simply because it's not "intresting" enough...


Better yet, have him get a real diver to proofread his copy before it goes to print, just to ensure nothing gets unintentionally embellished or elaborated on when it shouldn't be.

[Gary]

Please understand CaptnZ that bad press for the sport is the status quo and largely undeserved.

Every report of "another killer cave" that is merely the result of some diver untrained in cave diving (or more rarely a trained cave diver not following the teachings) is another blow to the sport and leads to a not unjustified fear that another cave diving site will be lost to the sport and/or that the sport will be viewed and regulated in an ever poorer light.

The general result of attempting to inform the press with true and correct information in the past has largely resulted in the press seizing on whatever fraction of the truth they can bend to their purpose of pondering inaccurate sensationalist crap on their readership.

If you truly wanted good information on the subject the various organizational heads would make excellent and willing resources for your project. Senior instructors in most of the agencies would also make good resources.

Board rules prevent recommending any individual or agency on this board or I'd post a number of recomendations. However, if you wish recommendations can be sent to you via E-mail. If you have an E-mail address others can reach you at they may even contact you themselves if they come across this thread.

I hear that there is a movie in the works called "The Cave" (or somesuch) due out in the not too distant future that may also be interesting to you.

Good luck.

[FW]

This reminds me of an episode of "Wings". A reporter was interviewing the "wild" brother about all his harrowing experiences flying. The "level headed" brother wanted to be interviewed, but he never had a harrowing flight.

The main difference was the pilots attitude about safety. Cave Diving is much the same. If you plan safe cave dives, the risks are minimal. If you have a "devil may care" attitude, *nothing* in life is safe for you.

[Stu]

lol guys, aren't you reading a bit much into this? :)

CapZ *appears* to be simply trying to get some info on feelings and emotions for a fictional work of some sort, not for any sort of press article regarding cave diving. Since most of us here are still alive (apart from MikeH, judging by his picture), then most of us aren't going to have true firsthand experience of an OMG I'M GOING TO DIE scenario underwater. And around that time is the exciting/bad press part of the sport.

As for feelings and emotions while diving, it kind of depends what stage you're at. My guess is the same as you get while openwater diving for the most part - on your first few dives, it's a combination of task overload and WOW at the environment that you're in, then you get comfortable and get this warm, fuzzy and relaxed feeling, but with an edge of "this thing could kill me". Kind of like stroking a rotweiller's nuts - it lowers the blood pressure, but there's still that little voice that says "someday, you're going to push too hard and all that'll be left are bones".

I'd guess that just about every qualified, reasonably experienced and surviving cavediver has experienced and overcome stresses from task loading, loss of vis, loss of bearings (or simply jumping off the main line at the wrong point), and the real fun one of being in the silt and knowing that the only way out is to kick up more. Or maybe that's just me. Cavediving training is probably the most stressful thing I've gone through in a cave - you'll maybe do much trickier things later, but while training you're still trying to get the skills to handle them. All this while in lights-out, air sharing scenarios that won't generally occur in a normal day's cavediving, but that your instructor will throw at you anyway.

[CaptnZ]

Ok guys, I get the point. Ever see the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks? Well I work for that company and the worst thing about the movie was that all the pilots died and the jumpseater lived!!! By the way, we did have a pilot work with the filming crew on that movie and except for a few things they got it pretty close. If this gets bought, I'd love to have some expert input. This is not a movie about people dying because they are out diving for sport. I don't have any intention of having my wife read that because I would like to try it myself sometime too!
Stu, thanks for the input, I'd really like to pick someone's brain on the phone some time. If you're interested, write me.
Thanks guys.

[JR]

I'm a bit curious as to the level of breath and depth cavediving and/or diving will be developed in your screenplay? Will it be only an act like the plane crash in the Survivor? Who is the intended audience, the masses perhaps?
Sincerely, just an interested caver with a perspective differing as much as the next caver.

[Stu]

Looks like someone may have beaten you to it. Have you looked at www.karst com recently? Looks like a fullblown feature film on cavediving. Probably straight to video, but are you really going to tell me you won't buy it just to say "I'd never silt things up like that if a big scary monster was on my arse!" If so, you've never dived with Rich.... :smt019

[DeWayne]

Ok guys, I get the point. Ever see the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks? Well I work for that company and the worst thing about the movie was that all the pilots died and the jumpseater lived!!! By the way, we did have a pilot work with the filming crew on that movie and except for a few things they got it pretty close. If this gets bought, I'd love to have some expert input. This is not a movie about people dying because they are out diving for sport. I don't have any intention of having my wife read that because I would like to try it myself sometime too!
Stu, thanks for the input, I'd really like to pick someone's brain on the phone some time. If you're interested, write me.
Thanks guys.

I talk to inanimate objects all the time, think you can make me a movie star? :twisted:

[Sid]

Hi guys and Gals,

I'm a new scuba diver and cave diving intrigues me, I'm also a writer and I'm working on a screenplay that involves cave diving. I'd like to pick someone's brain as to their experiences, equipment, emotions involved. Anyone interested? I'm in the Tampabay area and would like to speak to someone with some experience.

If you're interested let me know.

Thanks

Read a couple of stories that I wrote, may be helful. They are mine, and are available for reading on this forum for free. They are also my true experiences good and bad. You cannot use them in any form or manner without my permission, but look them over if you want and enjoy or hate them, and if you want to talk we can. I am by no means an expert, or an instructor, or anything else but someone that enjoys cave diving and writes a little bit about it. Start here :

http://cavediver.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=73

latest trip report from FL.

And if you want something a little more out of the ordinary, read the lost diver IRAP here:

http://www.cavediver.net/irap/irap_disp.asp?IRAPID=60

BTW to everyone else, I will not do anything to contribute to the sensationalism, etc. that often occurs in the media when cave diving is covered but I really hate ro read stuff that is rediculously inaccurate, highly fictional shock material that doesn't capture the sport with any degree of realism, so maybe some of us can help make his story worthwhile, just in case.

[Jay]

Hi guys and Gals,

I'm a new scuba diver and cave diving intrigues me, I'm also a writer and I'm working on a screenplay that involves cave diving. I'd like to pick someone's brain as to their experiences, equipment, emotions involved. Anyone interested? I'm in the Tampabay area and would like to speak to someone with some experience.

If you're interested let me know.

Thanks

Z,

If you are going to put the effort into a screenplay involving cave diving then you should take a course.

Nothing anyone tells you second hand will allow you to capture any of the essence of cavediving. If you take a course, dive some caves and experience North Florida from a cave diver's perspective it will probably change your whole outlook on your screenplay. Nothing you will ever write will come close to the real stories and experiences in this community.

Jay

[Maya]

Looks like someone may have beaten you to it. Have you looked at www.karst com recently? Looks like a fullblown feature film on cavediving. Probably straight to video, but are you really going to tell me you won't buy it just to say "I'd never silt things up like that if a big scary monster was on my arse!" If so, you've never dived with Rich.... :smt019

The movie "CAVE" is an adventure/horror film - it is not a film on cave diving. It is fictional, and concerns a group of cave divers who get trapped in a cave in Romania. It does have scenes of cave diving in it, using futuristic looking equipment and stunt doubles who are really cave divers. I hope it doesn't go straight to video!! I'm looking forward to sitting in a theatre and seeing all of Wes' footage on the big screen!

[Tegg]

I think SID should be in this screenplay... but only if Duncan gets called and they cavedive in their g-strings...

:butthead:

[Rich]

"I'd never silt things up like that if a big scary monster was on my arse!" If so, you've never dived with Rich.... :smt019


LOL.....alrighty Stu.....that'll be $10 a day for using my doubles, $5 a day for using my O2 bottle, but I know you're coming out in 2 weeks, so I'll throw in a stage, let you use my computer and stay in my condo. :-D

Oh, and there's this new passage at Devil's I'm just "dying" to show you :twisted:

See ya soon mate :D

Safe diving,

Rich

[MikeH]

By the way, we did have a pilot work with the filming crew on that movie and except for a few things they got it pretty close.

Pretty close? Now, it's been a while since I've seen that movie...but I think my recollection of it is pretty close, and that's what these questions are based on. How often does an MD-11 have such a catastrophic event that pressurization is lost and AT LEAST 2 of the engines are lost(I know an MD-11 will maintain on 2 engines, and will not plunge into the ocean on one - maybe drift down, but not plunge)? What type of catastrophic event would cause that, and the annunciator panels to light up like a Christmas tree?

This is the problem that most people have with non cave divers wanting to do something as you are suggesting....everything will get blown out of proportion. The impossible will become the typical. How many people, aside from pilots, would have known that whole sequence of events was unrealistic? Even UAL232 did not go totally out of control when they lost #2 and all three hydraulic systems and were down to servo tabs. How many people, other than cave divers, would know if you are sensationalizing something in our sport on the big screen?

My point is that to truly understand it, you have to experience it. The general public will believe just about anything they see in a movie unless there is some strong proof from a credible source to contradict it. Since you are a new diver, I recommend you take a Cavern course in the very near future. It's not a full cave course, but it will give you a bit of a taste. If you enjoy that, you can take an Intro Cave course, which will allow you to actually dive the caves themselves rather than just the caverns.

If you have any questions...you can PM me or email me. Aviatrr@aol.com . I'll even tell you which of these guys on here are full of ****, and which ones are just plain lousy cave divers. :-D

Mike

[CaptnZ]

Ok guys, I get the point. Ever see the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks? Well I work for that company and the worst thing about the movie was that all the pilots died and the jumpseater lived!!! By the way, we did have a pilot work with the filming crew on that movie and except for a few things they got it pretty close. If this gets bought, I'd love to have some expert input. This is not a movie about people dying because they are out diving for sport. I don't have any intention of having my wife read that because I would like to try it myself sometime too!
Stu, thanks for the input, I'd really like to pick someone's brain on the phone some time. If you're interested, write me.
Thanks guys.

I talk to inanimate objects all the time, think you can make me a movie star? :twisted: :-D

Actually, you're just one of the guys I'd like to talk to. I have a character who's an ex-seal. Interested?

[DeWayne]

Ok guys, I get the point. Ever see the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks? Well I work for that company and the worst thing about the movie was that all the pilots died and the jumpseater lived!!! By the way, we did have a pilot work with the filming crew on that movie and except for a few things they got it pretty close. If this gets bought, I'd love to have some expert input. This is not a movie about people dying because they are out diving for sport. I don't have any intention of having my wife read that because I would like to try it myself sometime too!
Stu, thanks for the input, I'd really like to pick someone's brain on the phone some time. If you're interested, write me.
Thanks guys.

I talk to inanimate objects all the time, think you can make me a movie star? :twisted: :-D

Actually, you're just one of the guys I'd like to talk to. I have a character who's an ex-seal. Interested?

Shoot me an email.