Almost peed my pants....not my drysuit this time

I was going through some more photos that I took this past weekend at Ginnie. While we were exiting the Eye we noticed something funny, but I didn't take any photos of it.....or so I thought.

Here's Brian as we are exiting the Eye at our 30 ft stop.

http://inkmantpa.smugmug.com/photos/...34_tN6vR-L.jpg

Now look very carefully in the upper right hand corner of the photo. Maybe this blown up crop of that corner will help...

http://inkmantpa.smugmug.com/photos/...54_mwyFC-L.jpg

These two open water divers were climbing down into the Eye with no lights and......NO FINS!! We thought it was hysterical, and I was bummed that I didn't get a photo. Now I'm thrilled that I got them "posing" in the background!!!

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Originally Posted by inkdiver

http://inkmantpa.smugmug.com/photos/...54_mwyFC-L.jpg

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At least they were good models, I don't see any bubbles :clapper

Safe Diving

What's your camera setup ?

How did they I go and miss the ones without the fins, were they not with that club?

This is the stuff that makes me mad because those two go in the cave and die and all the newspapers say are "two divers die in evil cave system!":smt013

I think you mean upper right hand corner....


I feel like an idiot for spending so much time in the upper left hand corner though looking for the divers....I kept thinking "there is no way he blew them up THAT much....where are they?"

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Originally Posted by JahJahwarrior

I think you mean upper right hand corner....


I feel like an idiot for spending so much time in the upper left hand corner though looking for the divers....I kept thinking "there is no way he blew them up THAT much....where are they?"

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I am glad I am not the only one !!!! :yawinkle:

Don't be too quick to judge. I believe these folks may be with the new Tech training agency:

Institute
Defying the
Immediate need for
Overhead
Training

I've heard the only problem with I.D.I.O.T. is that for every two new members they are losing one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tenninstr

Don't be too quick to judge. I believe these folks may be with the new Tech training agency:

Institute
Defying the
Immediate need for
Overhead
Training

I've heard the only problem with I.D.I.O.T. is that for every two new members they are losing one.

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Is that original? Because I'm going to quote that a whole bunch in the future.... :D

Yep, slow night at work and I'm feeling creative.

That was HILARIOUS!!! Great catch!!

I almost spewed diet coke through my nostrils (but that is another picture...)

So what happened to the erstwhile explorers?

Dive safe,

Celia

Yep, sorry, I meant the upper right hand corner. Edited that.

Chimie, I've got a Nikon D200, with a 10mm lens with an Ikelite housing, 6" dome port and a DS-125 strobe. (I've also got a 60mm macro lens with a flat port that I need to play around with). I need to get a second strobe, and then some slaves, but there always seems to be something else as well, new dry suit, deco bottles, regs, stages, etc. Eventually, I'll grow the camera setup a bit. I've got more underwater photos along with a ton of above water stuff at http://www.doncurriephotos.com

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Originally Posted by amphipod06

That was HILARIOUS!!! Great catch!!

I almost spewed diet coke through my nostrils (but that is another picture...)

So what happened to the erstwhile explorers?

Dive safe,

Celia

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Celia, they hung around us at twenty feet for a while and then WALKED out of the Eye and surfaced. We saw them later at a picnic bench. Apparently the guy was an instructor, as he had a host of those training slates hanging from his BC.

They took their bright yellow and fluorescent green fins off because they thought it would make them look silly and the tech divers would spot them immediately. :smt081

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Originally Posted by Wizard

They took their bright yellow and fluorescent green fins off because they thought it would make them look silly and the tech divers would spot them immediately. :smt081

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AHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHA, now I truly have diet coke up my turbinates....clears the congestion...

That was funny!!

Instructor eh? Scary thought....

Dive safe,

Celia

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Originally Posted by Wizard

What happens to light when it gets trapped in a box?

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You'd have to ask Schroedinger's cat.....;-)

Dive safe,

Celia

I made a finless cave dive once. A friend of a friend wanted to bottle water from a spring on their property, so I was asked to shoot some video in the cave. It was absolutely the siltiest place I've ever seen. I was told I was the first person ever in the cave, and I believe it. Even the walls were covered, so no matter what kick I used, no matter how slight the movement, vis went to zilch. I exited, we ate lunch, and I went back in, but still no vis.

I tried again the next day. I went in without fins and made as little movement as possible, pulling on the walls for propulsion. I shot enough clean video that they were able to convince their dad the project was doable.

http://www.callawayblue.com/

If they are going to pump the water at least they could suck the silt out and bottle that too, for proof that it is authentic spring water not just filtered tap water.

that was friggin hilarious!!!
i thought you didn't get any shots of them!

If you know what agency this guy is an instructor for, it would be nice to send them the picture. Perhaps he would be inline for some type of "award", especially if that was a student with him!

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Originally Posted by Wizard

They took their bright yellow and fluorescent green fins off because they thought it would make them look silly and the tech divers would spot them immediately. :smt081

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Of course it's stupidier than hell but funnier than hell too! LOFLMAO. Those guys are making it look easy too. Hahahahahaha!

I actually was at the tie-off log at the entrance when your team was exiting...

I had just exited from working with my reel in the cavern, and was hanging at the entrance waiting for my brother and his team to exit from their penetration through the eye... when these two came 'crabbing' past me. It appeared to be a middle-aged father and his +- 15 year old daughter... she was doing a pretty good crab imitation scooting along the bottom, while he looked more like "scooby-doo" trying to dog-paddle his way in. Neither of them had fins!! WEIGHT BELTS STRAPPED ON, but no fins... She didn't want to enter, but he pulled out his slate (which you can see in the pic) and wrote her a rather lengthy note, and obviously talked her in to it, because they both then crawled past me, over the ledge, underneath the sign and into the cavern down to the start of the 'temporary' permanent line. I had my HID pointed down toward the constriction as they passed me (waiting from my brothers team to exit), and I put my light up on the stop sign. They glanced at the sign and crawled feet first down the rock face into the cavern. At that point, I began to pull my light out and away from the cavern to darken it and 'encourage' them to back out.

At that point your team turned the corner and started moving up through the cavern, so I backed away from the entrance and suspended up about five feet off the floor, as you exited and finished deco below me. The two were crawling around as you guys moved through, went back down into the cavern as all of you exited, and I think we were all surprised to see them exit finally... as they began dog-paddling again through the middle of your team trying to ascend.

It was absolutely entertaining watching them trying to swim, but was also absolutely nauseating watching this guy not only put his daughter in such a ridiculously dangerous, deadly situation, but that he actually worked at it to talk her in to it, and she unfortunately followed him in. What if this bonehead had led her down and it turned out to be a siphon...

You guys happen to get a glance of the manatees??? What a day...

Ted

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Originally Posted by MentallyTapered

You guys happen to get a glance of the manatees??? What a day...

Ted

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We didn't. They weren't around when we went in through the Ear, or if they were we couldn't see them. As we were packing up, I heard someone yell that there were two manatees down there, but I was packing up the camera which is a chore, and so I didn't bother to walk over. I figured with all the tubers, they would not have ventured too close to the run.

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Originally Posted by MentallyTapered

You guys happen to get a glance of the manatees??? What a day...

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I saw one while I was coming out of the Eye Friday night. Probably 9 pm or so.

I've also noticed some rather interesting, albeit alternative, methods of propulsion used by OW divers in north Florida springs. For example, last July, while doing a drysuit leak check in Troy, I noticed 3 divers proceed single file towards the deepest part of the basin. Only one was wearing fins. One was hovering cross-legged ('indian-style') in a sitting position and swam by sculling his hands. Perhaps he's a zen diver and was meditating? The other appeared to be carrying a large rock and simply walked up-right, like a hard-hat diver, along the bottom. Since he was bare-footed, he proceeded gingerly, carefully placing each step. An obvious tenderfoot who has yet to master the skill? They stayed less than 10 mins, but blew the vis such that we called the dive.

BTW, I didn't find any leaks in my suit, though I now make sure my wetsuit diving buddy understands that my zipper needs to be COMPLETELY closed...

Dave

You know, looking at those pictures, I began to wonder if it was really manatees that Mike saw a while back....

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Originally Posted by loquat149

One was hovering cross-legged ('indian-style') in a sitting position and swam by sculling his hands. Perhaps he's a zen diver and was meditating?
Dave

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ah, the indian style....that's freakin hilarious. :smt081

i live 15 minutes from a "cave" called blue springs in orange city, fl. i say "cave" because its just a tube that ends at 120', but i love when the OW divers follow me past the sign at 60' they know they aren't suppose to pass to around 80-100 feet, and i just cup my HID...PITCH BLACK. they freak out and dart back to there ledge at 60'....good stuff :-D

Give those guys a break! The first "official" way to dive in a cave was finless. About the first 10 years of cave diving was done finless, and "well weighted for bottom walking" (from the CDG manual). They didn't start using fins until after WW2, about the same time they started using demand regulators. They had the U.S. beat by nearly 20 years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by inkdiver

I heard someone yell that there were two manatees down there, but I was packing up the camera which is a chore, and so I didn't bother to walk over. I figured with all the tubers, they would not have ventured too close to the run.

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They actually did.... they were coming in 30 or 40 feet past the Ear, just short of the steps in front of the Eye and doing a U turn. They were getting pretty severly mauled by the kids swimming down and poking/pulling on them, but they pretty much ignored them and were like 700 lb Shop-Vacs sucking up the grass.

___________________________________

I gotta get me one of those big 'ol rocks....:smt104

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cave83

ah, the indian style....that's freakin hilarious. :smt081

i live 15 minutes from a "cave" called blue springs in orange city, fl. i say "cave" because its just a tube that ends at 120', but i love when the OW divers follow me past the sign at 60' they know they aren't suppose to pass to around 80-100 feet, and i just cup my HID...PITCH BLACK. they freak out and dart back to there ledge at 60'....good stuff :-D

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It always happens! My worst experience there was as an OW diver about a year ago when 4 OW divers took lights down to the bottom and knelt on the bottom after killing their lights and see who would leave first...

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Originally Posted by Scubastud16

It always happens! My worst experience there was as an OW diver about a year ago when 4 OW divers took lights down to the bottom and knelt on the bottom after killing their lights and see who would leave first...

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I remember that day well.