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I am all too curious on how many great writers we have out here. I would love to hear about your best Dive to date. What was it, where was it, did it offer challenges, was it learning, playing, training, what did you feel before the dive, during the dive, after the dive, would you do the dive again???????????
I can't wait to hear these stories.
Anxious Cave Diver
I can't play because, believe it or not, my most amazing dive was in salt water.
(Think thirty minutes of being buzzed by a huge manta ray, and then a sting ray who barbed my buddy's forearm and wouldn't let go for ten minutes.)
Salt water, freshwater, brackish water, overhead, openwater, wreck, deep, doesnt matter. If you have a submarine dive I want to read about it. Sludge your dive sounds awesome. Hows your buddy?
It was my first open water dive after getting my c-card. It was also my first salt water dive. I was in Playa Del Carmen with some friends and one was a diver who convinced me to dive with him and what a great choice it was. We rolled in and just reached the bottom in 40' when a whale shark showed up and swam around us for 20 minutes. Awesome!!
Patrick came back form the first dive in Malaza Manga, I was sick so I had to cancel on that one, Patrick was psyched cause he just laid about 1500 feet in pretty epic looking phreatic cave, similar looking to Florida, except this was in Madagascar.
The plan was to go the next day with a stage and push the eol, Patrick said it looked like the cave was getting bigger and the last tie off was in a good sized room with dark decorations and it appeared the cave kept going, we called this rooms Ryan's chamber.
After a long walk in the Madagascar desert, a vertical rappel, a 1500 foot swim in truly epic looking phreatic tunnels and in 29C water no less I was finally at the eol.
I pulled out my reel that had about 2000ft of line and I was super excited at the possibility of adding a bit more line to this already pretty epic looking cave, what followed next blew my mind.
The plan was I would lay line and Patrick would survey, I tied in and started swimming off, I was in a big room, not super massive but pretty big, so far the cave appeared to be going south so I swam off to the southern end of the room, there I found a tunnel going off straight south, not a big tunnel but super decorated though and at the far end I could only see black, I tied off and started swimming toward what looked like a big room at the end of the tunnel and as I was swimming out into the end of the tunnel all of a sudden the floor drops out below and disappears out of view, I look left and I can’t see anything just darkness, I look right same thing just darkness, I look at my depth 21 meters the I look up and way above me I can make out a massive white ceiling, with big columns and what looks like a massive gas pocket.
At this point I don’t even know what to think, I cannot believe this just happened, a bonafide WTF exploration moment.
I really cannot see anything this place is so big, as I look down I can make out the floor way below, huge boulders the size of houses jumbled on on top of each other disappear out of view, I look at my depth again because at this point I have no other reference point, still 21 meters, cool.
I start swimming off with the intention of making the world’s longest shot, I was actually thinking to empty my entire reel in one shot, about 15 seconds later I know this is an incredibly stupid idea, but as an explorer actually being able to easily make a 1500 foot shot is as close to pure happiness as I will ever get.
At this point I am swimming in massive void with no other reference than my compass and depth gauge, I figure the cave was trending south so if I swim east i must hit a wall at some point, I start swimming east and soon in the distance I start to see a wall, as I get closer I notice it is a super cool weird decorated wall no less. I make a tie off and start following the wall, at this point I figure this is one massive room.
I keep swimming and making 100 foot shots, huge columns and super weird dark decorations flow down the side of this wall.
After about 1000 feet the wall is still going straight south, and I realize this is not a massive room but a full on gigantic tunnel.
I look back and way off in the distance I barely see Patrick’s light as he surveys behind me, I keep swimming as fast as I can along the wall, I can now kind of see the other side of the tunnel as it gets a bit narrower here, there are insane looking decorations everywhere, flowstone at least 20 meters high or more, black stalactites, white stalactites, weird dissolved rocks, and I still have a hard time seeing the floor.
I make a tie off and in front of me at the edge of my light I see black again, I make a tie off on top of a huge boulder and emerge into another massive black void, I look right and see just black, I look right and see just black, I look ahead and see dark, my light feels like a toothpick.
This cave is so big it makes noise, if you know what I mean.
At this point I reach my turn pressure and my reel is empty, so I tie off cut the line, make a loop for Patrick and start swimming out.
A few minutes later I see Patrick and we both celebrate this, screaming we are so stoked this is the epitome of cave exploration for us.
As I swim back and get to the phreatic part I think about how cool it is that to get here you dive through epic phreatic but sometimes really tight sidemount cave, and absolutely nothing leads one to believe this place is so big further in, without warning after a restriction you pop out into a big room that leads to the massive main passages.
After a long deco I surface, change and hang out waiting for Patrick in the huge sinkhole, I don’t even know what to say or think, we had been in Madagascar for 2 weeks, searched all over the place, dove many caves with no real going passages, Patrick found a dead village guy in one cave ceiling, and then this.
After a while Patrick comes out and shows me his empty reel, he tells me it gets even bigger with a super decorated ceiling now at 20 meters, but still no floor and a gigantic dark passage going straight south, south toward the ocean about 10 kilometers away…
Mine was when after a couple months of TX green water lake diving I took my daughter (12 at the time) down to Cozumel for her first ocean dive. When we came to the surface after her first dive (palancar gardens), she turned to me with a huge grin on her face and said "now i see what all the fuss was about. this is awesome!" At that point I knew I had her hooked on something she truly enjoyed and I had a OW buddy for life.
She's now two years in to it and has logged just shy of 100 dives. She's even done some projects in her classes focusing on oceanic concerns (waste, fining, invasive species, etc) as well as scuba topics which turned a few class mates on to exploring it. She's also been asking if I could help her get a part time job at one of our LDS when she gets in high school.
The dive itself could have been any blue water site. The reaction, the passion for scuba, and the passing on of a hobby we can do together is priceless. Summer 2016, I get our son on the same habit. :-)
I have four that are tied for Best Dives in terms of "awe factor"
1) Downstream Indian with great vis
2) Upstream Little Dismal into 6th room
3) DiePolder II Upstream
4) Sally Ward Cube Room
I suspect that wasn't your buddies best dive :roll:Quote:
Originally Posted by Slüdge
My best dive keeps changing, but they all have one thing in common, no line before I got there :-D
Aside from that, there are a few that stand out:
Fangorn Forest, Dan's Cave, Abaco Island
"Frozen Rain", Ralph's Cave Abaco Island
Warbla Cave, Nularbor Plain, Australia (we were there on a scientific permit)
Boiler sea mount Revilligigados (Socorro Island), midday dive calm seas and a dozen plus manta rays looking to have their belly rubbed by both our bubbles and hand. One instance in particular while shooting video over head three mantas swam past and I could sea clouds in the sky above them.
Gabe
Without a doubt, Indian Springs is my favorite dive, and I think it's the best cave dive in Florida. It had been a few years since I've been in there, but this past Sunday the stars aligned and it was finally time to go for an Indian dive!
Brian and I had been upstream a ways in 2010, but this time we wanted to see the Power Room and historic Wakulla Room at 4,500ft. Along with guide-extraordinaire Merideth Tanguay, we elected to do a double stage scooter dive to give us enough gas to get there and look around with plenty of wiggle room. At the same time, Blake Wilson, Ken Browne, and Kirill Egorov were going to setup for a photo shoot at the Bone Narcosis room.
Conditions in the basin were "okay" with 20ft of vis down to Squaw's Restriction at ~120ft. Its impossible to move through Squaw's without thinking of WKPP founding member Parker Turner's tragic death in 1991. Past the restriction we had hazy but wall-to-wall vis through the Mud Tunnel at 150ft. After 500ft or so the cave shallows up a bit into a COLOSSAL upstream/downstream junction room where the vis became unlimited. A quick OK of the T and we hit the trigger on our Suex scooters. Mer was riding the small XJoy37, while Brian and I were on XK1 units. Mer and I were also towing Gavin scooters while Brian somehow finagled an XJoy37 to tow.
The upstream cave is just beyond words. The first room of note is the "Bone Narcosis" room (pictured below). White walls with stunning black geothite jutting out of the walls and littering the floor. We passed Kirill and the gang while they snapped pictures. After that that the cave maintains an average depth of about 140ft with passage wide enough to easily maintain a 3-abreast formation. Huge boulders the size of dump trucks are everywhere, and it looks like the walls are made out of vanilla icecream that some giant has come along and scooped out with a massive spoon.
http://i.imgur.com/IFmqqcUl.jpg
We dropped our 2nd stage bottle just before "Jonah's Gate", two pitch black columns of geothite that go from floor to ceiling in stark contrast with the white cave. Past this point the cave gets smaller with some roller-coaster twists and turns before coming across another T. Following the plan, Brian dropped a cookie on the outbound side and turned left. After another minute or so of scootering at 160ft, the floor dropped away and the walls disappeared. We made it to the Power Room in a little over a half hour.
The Power Room had slightly worse visibility, maybe 70ft, but you could still appreciate the huge size of the room. A quick loop around the room and we headed back toward the T and banked left. Once again, the cave busted open into the slightly smaller but still impressive Wakulla Room. I didn't think it was possible, but the vis actually got better and we could see down into the ongoing passage below us at 280ft. After a few barrel rolls and loopty-loops we turned the show around with a max depth of 187ft.
We cruised out soaking in the pristine cave knowing it might be another few years before we had another chance to dive Indian. At 80mins of bottom time, we were back in the cavern at 70ft switching to 50%. Its tough to beat a dive like that!
http://i.imgur.com/PIuZXOql.jpg
There's no like button, so I can't press "Like" on AJ's post, but Indian's the top of my list too. Beautiful cave.
Try it on a 'breather and really enjoy the cave.Quote:
Originally Posted by PfcAJ
Necrosis.
shaddupQuote:
Originally Posted by LiteHedded
Quote:
Originally Posted by FW
Ditto! Well, except Australia...
My best one? Had a bunch. Most significant was a few weeks ago, dived with a friend who is disabled due to inoperable cancer on his spinal cord. I accompanied him on a wreck dive. He typically dives weekly if not more frequently, but hadn't been in the water in 9 months. He had been getting weaker from his muscles atrophying, so we geared him up on the rear swim platform & he slid into the sea. The look on his face on the line going down was indescribable. When our time underwater was through & we completed our deco obligation (he couldn't resist), he doffed his gear in the water & climbed back on board, then I handed his rig up to the crew. He had been suffering numbness & tingling as a result of his illness, I couldn't resist asking him if he was ok after the dive, and made sure I asked if he had any neuro symptoms. It was a great day to be able to help a friend, that's what made it a great dive.
Nice report Mark, and you are a great guy for doing that!Quote:
Originally Posted by mfascuba
One late night while diving Ginnie, I surfaced after deco in the eye to find a few ladies skinny dipping in the run. They didn't seem to care that I was there.
The only thing that kept me doing this silly crap for 39 years is the hope that my best dive will be my next one. Well, that and the gold. I know its in one of these caves, I just haven't found the right one. But i will...I Will...I WILL......hahahaha.
a few dives stand out for me...mind you every trip provides bigger memories....
first dive in Ginnie Mainland. Went to EOL. It was truly special swimming from the jump to EOL, navigating a few restrictions and dealing with the last restriction at around 4000' with the line on the ceiling and not wanting to swim under the line.
first dive in Madison Courtyard... despite only doing a few 100 feet into the courtyard, that was pretty sweet of a dive. Navigating Rocky Horror was fun.
3rd JB dive and swimming through King's Canyon. Was really looking forward to that dive and it really delivered. Awesome location. Made it to the traffic light swimming.
from an OW perspective, diving on a submarine in Malta was very cool just for the fact of diving a submarine. I topped that dive twice over the next few days diving the Polynesian (french liner) and HMS southwold (british destroyer)
My first dive up the Ginnie mainline, thru the lips. Many more dives may be awesome. But you never forget your first!
^^ I'll always remember my graduation dive for cavern going to the lips as a treat. It was the equivalent of hanging a carrot in front of me. When it got turned, it was such a tease moment, aka no happy ending.
Had to come back. The rest is history
I guess you would call that dive "Intro to Intro" :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by patpicos
One of my favorite dives, and one of my all time favorite reports about the dive from another poster:
http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showt...?highlight=cow
One of my best Cave Dives was at Peacock One as an Intro-Cave Diver it was the weekend of REACT. We were waiting for the gate to open, talked to Rick for a few minutes when he opened. From Peacock One we started up the Olson Line and made it pasted the opposing arrows and hit 1/6th’s around the hole in the wall that the line goes through (it reminds me of a window in Fred Flintstones house). Turned and headed back and spent a little time looking at Pothole. When we arrived back at the entrance we recalculated 1/4th’s (Now don’t anyone get Bent over this but my Instructor in Mexico trained use to make 2 dives with one set of doubles by using 1/6 on dive one and ¼ on dive two. The distance of penetration works out to be the same.) We headed down the Peanut Line for a great Part Two. Only bad part of the dive was when we got back near P1 the Mob had silted it all up. All in All it was a Great Dive.
Like others, the ginnie gallery was awesome and enticed me to continue cave diving. Another good dive was in saltwater at the Molokini Crater just off the coast of Maui...swam to the edge of the abyss and listened to whale song coming from the depths for an hour. My next favorite was penetrating the Chester Poling off Gloucester,MA and finding the brass general alarm in the ON position...I never tire of visiting the "Berman Room." I wrote this after one of my favorites but never posted it anywhere:
A final bubble check and four divers slipped beneath the surface of the murky water filled sink hole. I watched James start towards the log that sloped down into the moss carpeted basin. I love this moment when all effective communication with the outside world is severed and you are alone in the moment with your thoughts. Only the slow hiss of the regulator delivering gas as I inhale and the friendly burbling of exhaust bubbles beginning their ascent to the surface as I exhale. Today I notice the unique difference in sound that the regulator makes when it is delivering a gas mix laced heavily with helium as opposed to the typical enhanced oxygen mixture that is breathed on a “normal” dive, this dive is different. Today we are descending into a truly unique Florida feature. Relatively speaking, few have had the chance to enter this realm and I think quickly about how lucky I am to be one of the few participating in this extreme activity. My thoughts can’t wander long as what we are engaging in is a dangerous and exacting technical adventure. We are descending into an enormous water filled cave. As I slow motion freefall into the system I scan my vicinity and note the location of all the team members. Johnny, our guide for the dive is about ten feet away and watching us all unclip our oxygen deco bottles and reclip them to loops in cave line about 30 feet below the surface attached to the branch of a large tree that had long ago fallen into the sink. James who we selected to lead the dive was descending below me and Vince was not far above. We all located the entrance shaft and continued our descent into the abyss. At about 130 feet and approaching the bottom of the chimney we all clip our second deep decompression gas tank to the line. I notice that the line is all brand new goldline and once rid of our deco bottles we all are left with our backmounted doubles that carry our bottom gas mix that we are using for the dive. Just below where we clipped our second deco bottle to the line the vertical descent line ends in a split and the two segments go off at angles to one another still heading deeper. The thought hits me that the lines are like a 3-d coordinate system and that we can all be plotted as vectors traveling in that space as I turn slightly to watch Vince place a strobe on the line. I focus my thoughts back on the dive and note James descending and following the line to the left. These lines that branch off are actually a large loop that goes around the inside perimeter of a gigantic room. We will end back up at the same spot and are taking a clockwise journey around the room I see the line going under a wall in front of me and follow it down and as I move underneath the wall I am greeted with a spectacular vista. I am just ducking under the ceiling of a huge room, like a basketball arena or ten super walmarts stacked on top of one another. I am carrying two primary lights on this dive a 10w hid mounted on the backside of my left hand and a 21w hid in the other hand. Both lights shoot huge beams of light out into the darkness and provide some small illumination into the dark void. The other diver’s lights also pierce into the darkness creating piercing light sabers that seem to move randomly as we swim along the line descending deeper into the darkness. My lights move identifying the line and shining down they fail to penetrate to the floor of the room and when pointed ahead are not yet able to identify the back of the room; we are suspended in an inky black space. I point the 21w up and scan the ceiling looking for a fossilized whale bone that I have been told is there; I have yet to see it and it remains illusive on this dive as well. We are going ever deeper and I glance at my depth gauge and it reads 220 and I remember back a year ago when I was hiking in death valley standing 220 below sea level and think about where I am at the moment at that same altitude only now suspended in a cold liquid darkness as opposed to the oppressive heat of the sunburned desert. I also think about the andrea doria and this is the depth of that dive as well. We continue our descent to the back of the room. I look to the right and in the distance catch a horizontal linear shape and notice the return line on the other side of the room. We arrive at the back of the room and I hover looking around and notice a small lens shaped alcove and wonder if the cave continues in a new shaft (it doesn’t). I look at my depth gauge and it reads 280 feet, our planned max depth. I reach around and unclip my pressure gauge to check the volume of gas left in my 104s. It reads 2600psi, 200 pounds above “thirds” my turning point. James has already started up the gentle slope of the return line, I locate Vince off to the side and notice him moving towards the line as well, so I start the slow ascent up the other side of the room. The line arrows now point in our direction of travel indicating we are heading towards the exit. On the other side of the room when looking down there is nothing below you. This side of the room contains large slab like boulders that have been fractured and appear to have broken off and tumbled to the floor of the cave. Large is a relative word and for reference most of the boulders are the size of houses. We skim the top of these large outcrops and I notice the layer of grey silt that covers the slabs like a blanket. We continue our ascent and I notice the tiny strobe light blinking in the distance. The dive is close to ending and I light up the wall to the left and notice the layers of whites, off-whites, browns, and yellows. The limestone cross section is beautiful as the lights bring out the delicate colors. I glance at my dive computer and it says I’m at 160 feet and it’s giving me a 2 minute 90 foot deco stop. I continue my slow ascent thinking about the nitrogen and helium off gassing at different rates from my tissues. I pick up my deco bottle with 36% nitrox and clip it to my harness. I’m at 110 feet so I switch from back gas to the 36% and switch the gas I’m breathing on my computer as well. I now have a series of stops at 10 feet intervals all the way to the surface. The entrance shaft visibility has deteriorated and large globs of mossy filamenty green material floats around us suspended in the water. I continue my steady ascent, at 30 feet I pick up my O2 bottle and I hit 20 feet and switch from 36% to 100% O2, I have a 15 minute hang at 20 and a 25 minute hang at 10 feet; a long 40 minutes to ponder. Finally, my computer clears and I follow the slope of the log up to the surface, reluctantly rejoining the world. What a dive!
Nice description of a dive, sounds like diepolder3.
Gabe
The very first dive, first one of my intro class, at Jackson Blue. My instructor was a friend, we had been doing some dives together and he would stay at my house when visiting Pompano to do some tech dives, so we knew each other and he wasn't about selling me any classes and there was no need to sugar coat anything, we drove up together and had a chance to talk about this wet rock activity quite a bit, he said it several times, "it's not for everyone, not everyone likes it, and it's fine", being that I grew up freediving spearfishing and ocean diving since 7, I think he wasn't sure I would like it, and I kinda sensed he was worried about it, not from a safety perspective, he knew I had the skills for it, so it was only a matter of seeing enjoyment in it, he loved it so much and just wished I'd get the same enjoyment as he does, a true case of sharing passion.
Being a diver from the salty stuff, we do appreciate some clear water, and I think that's what draws me to caves the most, that super clear water, and that day, we lucked out, there was very little flow in JB, almost none, and the vis was unbelievable, idk, 150', 200', it was as far as I could see, like floating on air, beautiful blue water. And the cave, well, it was the only one I had ever seen, no other to compare, but I didn't need it either, it only took me one glance at it to be able to appreciate it's beauty, now a full cave diver and seen others, it is still my favorite, and sadly, I'm yet to be back since then.
Back at the cavern, sitting motionless at 20' doing our deco, quietly just watching all the fish there, my mind was still inside the cave, wandering through it and having thoughts of when are we going back in, I broke the "silence" and reached into my pocket and pulled out my wet notes, I see my instructor is now attentively watching me, I open it up, pull out my pencil and start writing, I can see in the corner of my eye he is anxiously waiting to see whats up, he is ready to aid me and assist in my concerns, I finish writing and turn it to him...
http://i.imgur.com/pxHFXDe.jpg
He bursts out laughing and screaming through his reg, yelling all kinds of god-knows-WTH-he-is-saying, it's underwater, I can't understand, he just plain and simple goes disco on the cavern and starts celebrating, he knew I was hooked!
Guess my best dive was doing the circuit at Madison. We - Jeff Hewlett & me - spent over 22 hours setting up/proofing the up-stream and down-stream sides. We had put together what we thought was the "Aquaduct" map, which proved to be spot on.
When we finally did the circuit I missed my buddy acknowledging we had made it to our upstream proof cookie, so was getting a little shaky on our gas reserves (we were diving OC then). Can you imagine how good it felt seeing our stage bottles waiting downstream at the Crossover tunnel jump? It made my heart start pounding. We exited with no issues, kinda of a let down after all of that preparation, but still we made the circuit. Put in a couple of "Ts" on the way down. One of those days you probably will never forget. I know it was a big dive for me.
I'm not sure I can pick the best of the best, but my top five are (including a couple of spectacular open water dives).
1. A site call E6 (old time photo processing) in Fiji. A crazy cavern we dove a near high noon with the light streaming down like a cathedral.
http://www.myseadreams.com/gallery/d...small+copy.jpg
http://www.myseadreams.com/gallery/d...0073+small.jpg
2. A spectacular drift dive (stern to bow) on the Wreck of the Duane at night. Orange cup coral on the hull and superstructure and great friends on the boat - Bailey's on ice on the ride back into Tavernier.
http://www.myseadreams.com/gallery/d..._2450+copy.jpg
An image of the Duane from a another dive.
3. My first dive at Madison going thru Rocky Horror and into the Courtyard led my Forrest (thanks so much).
4. A spectacular dive at Chan Hol near Tulum
5. And a mesmerizing dive at Tux Kupaxa (Nai Tucha) that seemed to change around every turn and jump.
Best dives are dives that exist in my memory, and probably never replicated due to Florida's changing environment. Air clear water at Little River where the only way you could tell if someone was in water was from their bubbles. Eagles Nest with tremendous viz that even our old 50 halogen lights would illuminate the passage. Diving Devil's system with pristine black walls, passages with untouched floors,seeing the cornflakes,and 4-5 inch deep carpet of bacteria in the Insulation room. To me the iconic year of cave diving was 1998. Had a major flood that even covered the main highway to Peacock,but the aquifer was well charged. Every place was good that year. Remember dives in a springing P3 that had cobalt blue water with 100+ viz. Lastly I remember diving Cathedral when there was approx. 70 ft of viz, and the walls weren't covered with algae-what an awesome place.
I haven't finished my cavern/intro class yet, but my two favorite dives thus far have been the Peanut Tunnel at Peacock and going down the main line at Ginnie via the Eye.
I've been diving at Ginnie for the last year and a half and finally being able to go into the cave itself was awesome. :D
Huh? You're diving down the peanut tunnel without even having completed a cavern course?
Send me a PM, if training is a money issue I'll be willing to help so you don't kill yourself.
i think maybe he means he did those in his class. i hopeQuote:
Originally Posted by kensuf
Read it again, especially the underlined part :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Six Feet Under
K. I read it wrong.
I can't narrow it down to one, but my top dives would be
- Power / Wakulla Rooms in Indian Springs
- Sea Lion dive off Channel Islands National Park, CA
- Jailhouse Saltwater Passage in Mexico
- Manta Ray Night dives in Hawaii