DiePolder II

[Puttzer]

Would someone please tell me what to expect at the "restriction" at Dipolar II?

In a couple of weeks I'm diving there for the first time. I heard there's a sometimes zero viz area and tight about 60' down.

Thanks

[phreaticus]

It's DiePolder II, btw.....
Who is your guide...he would be the logical one to ask this question of....but...
As an ex-guide (1980's), I can describe it.
The fracture begins around 30 ft. or so, but gets to be about 2 1/2 to 3 feet across at 60' or so (depending on the water table level). The fracture is about 60-80 feet across, longitudinally, but the area where the line is is the widest (see above)...take a look around during deco, if it's not too silty. If there has been a lot of traffic the silt will be blown off the walls and down into the cave to a degree. If not, it can get pretty nasty...we always had the newbie go first, as they could at least then see going down (this was adopted after my first dive there in 1978, when I got off the line (by a few feet), got stuck in the crack (doubles were wedged) in the TOTAL siltout, and had to get help extricating myself (used the Rimbach technique without even knowing what it was...lol!).
I would suggest going down with one wall "dorsal" to you (in other words, on the surface atop your tanks, and the other on your belly (ventral) surface...make th fracture more like a "vertical bedding plane" per se'. This makes it a pretty easy descent down to about 155-160' or so, where the fracture goes slightly (sloping) horizontal for a body lenth and a half or so (lots of silt there, get neutral before you get there), the line is on the floor going across this part, then it drops on a steep angle to the "keyhole" at the bottom of the fracture at 175' or so....you want to go through the bottom of the keyhole, where the line is (also a very silty area)...it's a bit of a shoulder/elbow rub,but only for 4-5 feet or so...then you pop out into the entry chamber to the cave proper, at 175-180' or so. Get neutral in the keyhole or you will plunge into eons-deep silt as you kick out into the room. To the right is upstream, to the left is downstream, both circuits can be done in :22-:27 minutes, depending on pace and deco-tolerance.
Look for the fw mussels and sponges (south side of the fracture) during deco, growing on the exposed rock in various areas between 60-20'...if there is enough pressure in the aquifer (doubtfull, long drought in this part of the State) to keep the slight flow out of the shallow fracture going...it syphons down into the cave during "normal" aquifer levels.
One of the top five cave dives in the State, IMHO....

[Luxrok]

(used the Rimbach technique without even knowing what it was...lol!).


What is the Rimbach technique?

Hans

[battles2a5]

I was about to ask the same thing?

[amphipod06]

Make me three...


Dive safe,

Celia

[RN]

Rimbach technique is touch contact communication. Not sure how it applies here, though.

[amphipod06]

Rimbach technique is touch contact communication. Not sure how it applies here, though.

Thanks for the explanation, wonder how it applies?

C

[FW]

Rimbach technique is touch contact communication. Not sure how it applies here, though.
Well, they were in a siltout. I assume once the buddies found each other, they both held the line with one hand, and pushed or pulled the other, until they were in clear water.

FWIW, the Rimbach method was required learning in any of Sheck Exley's classes. It is in the Blueprint for survival.

[amphipod06]

Well, they were in a siltout. I assume once the buddies found each other, they both held the line with one hand, and pushed or pulled the other, until they were in clear water.

FWIW, the Rimbach method was required learning in any of Sheck Exley's classes. It is in the Blueprint for survival.


Thanks for the reference Forrest, I was going nuts looking it up on my old NSS Cave Diving Manual...

Dive safe,

Celia

PS Rimbach System, described on page 34 of Exley's Basic Cave Diving -a blueprint for survival- 5th ed.

[phreaticus]

The actual episode went like this....
The guide went first down the crack, I followed as closely as possible, but as the cave had only been dove for a couple years it was VERY silty in the crack...I got off the line by a few feet and got wedged in an area of the crack that was tighter than the normal route.
While wiggling and shoving, trying to get my doubles "unstuck", Bob, the guide, returned as he did not find me at the bottom, as planned.
Since it was the first dive he and I had ever done there together (after maybe 3-4 other dives together) he was concerned, and rightly so, that he may have a paniced, stuck diver to deal with. I, on the other hand, was trying to think of a way to let him know I was OK, just stuck (lots of gas, full 104's, at around 140' or so).....I saw his 50 watt halogen light,barely, within a foot of my face, so I reached out and gave a light squeeze to his wrist, then let my grasp stay there, lightly. I figured he would sense that I was NOT panicky, as I didn't give him the "struggling death grip" you would expect. Turns out, after we unstuck me (he had to grab the manifold and yank a few times, when we surfaced, he said that he knew I was OK because of the light squeeze on his wrist.
Turns out, when I read Blueprint for Survival a couple weeks later, that I had engaged the Rimbach touch method of silt-out communication, without even knowing what it was!

It was named after a Missouri diver named Don Rimbach, IIRC, who used it in the limited viz caves he was exploring in the Midwest.
For those of you without a copy of Sheck's book...if in a siltout, OK the line, establish touch communication with buddy, determine exit direction...push forward on buddies leg/arm to go forward, squeeze same to stop, pull back to back up.......repeat as necessary until success is acheived!
I actually had to use it again...coincidently, with Will Walters, who discovered the DiePolder caves, maybe 10 years ago or so, in a small, silty river cave on the Withlacoochee....worked like a champ....helps to know you've got a calm buddy, btw!

[phreaticus]

Google "Rimbach Communication+diving" for info. on Don Rimbach.

[Jay]

Don't tell me they don't teach that anymore. :mad:

[icestac]

Don't tell me they don't teach that anymore. :mad:

I was taught everything but the name... so I guess that wasn't everything... I wonder what else was left out

Paranoid-ly,
~Jeff

[MedCop]

I was taught everything but the name... so I guess that wasn't everything... I wonder what else was left out

Paranoid-ly,
~Jeff

Was also taught that, but didn't get a name for it until now, was just told it was touch communication.

[JDostal]

Interesting. I'd never heard the name before. Here's a nice memorial page -

http://members.socket.net/~joschaper/rimbach.html

[Jay]

Thanks for the link to the page. Never saw that before. Quite the dude!!!

[Scubastud16]

I was just taught "touch contact." Interesting to hear there's a name for it. I must have missed it while reading the Blue book.

[amphipod06]

I think we called it "bump and go" which is way more descriptive of the actual sequence.
It is interesting to know where it comes from, though.

Even the medical community is getting away from using eponyms due to confusion....

Dive safe,

Celia

[swadiver]

Head down, vertical drop most of the way down, tight, silty, got stuck once, on another dive, got off the line in zero vis, but found it no problem. awesome experience. Enjoy!