Exploration and Innovation

[Arctic Mike]

This post by aainslie got me thinking about those who are driven to explore and innovate.

"One last point (sorry to pick on you Steve!) - recently there was a thread where people were strongly advocating staying within the limits of your training. Steve Bogaerts was one of them. Are you kidding me???!!! Steve continually and brilliantly innovates... and by innovating, steps outside of his training. It's a classic example of very experienced people thinking that everyone should stick to the rules... except them, of course.

FW, let me ask you - that weird assed comtraption that you call a rebreather. Whose rules does that adhere to? Which training agency trained you on its usage? Which manufacturing company got agencies to certify that it was safe? Yours, none, none, buddy! And good on you for inventing it. But don't talk to me about "sticking to the rules" when you refuse to do so yourself.

Thank God for the Bogaerts, the Hemphills, the Wilsons and all the otehrs that break the rules all the time... and improve our diving for it. But I really get pissed when the same group tell me that what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander.

(This isn't aimed at Brett btw. I don't think he even knows who I am He's just a really clever "rule breaker")
__________________
Andrew Ainslie"

I have a friend who has developed his own rebreather (there are 6 in the field being tested right now). He has no safety certifications for it although he is pursuing them. He is a real innovator and it took some "thinking outside the box" to develop what he has. I admire that.

Where would this great sport of ours be without the forward thinkers who have developed the technology we use today to be able go where we do?

How would most of the "gold liners" see the amazing things we see if it hadn't been for the real explorers who ventured into these systems for the first time?

For myself, I would love to hear from today's forward thinkers. What new equipment is on the white boards today that will help us go further and deeper more safely tomorrow? What new systems are being explored? What new finds are being made in known systems?

Explorers, Innovators, Anyone?

[sea2summit]

A LOT of explorers and Innovators in underwater caves took their last breaths there. You choose to do it you've got to live or die by it. My $0.02.

Someday maybe I'll get the chance to explore or even support an exploration but it would have to be very select conditions, I've got three children and a huge "bucket list".

[BillBowden]

I'll admit it. I'm a recreational cave diver. I don't explore. (OK, there was that little room in Mexico...) You find the pretty caves, put a gold line in, and I'll come play.

If you're going to innovate and explore, good on you. My advice is gradually push your limits. As you push, your limits will expand. Have fun.

And yes- thankyou, thankyou, thankyou... to all the innovators who make it safe and easy to buy reels, lights, regulators, scooters etc etc that are up to what I want to do in the water.

[rchrds]

Uh- I don't recreationally cave dive, unless I can help it. If it isn't exploration, or survey (leads to more exploration) then it is a prep or practice dive for an exploration dive, and I don't really enjoy those, though they need to be done. I'm fine with that. And I'm fine with you guys who want to cruise the gold line and enjoy the view. As for upcoming technologies- they are coming slowly- in the 90s I was sure that rebreathers where the direction deep and long cave diving was going to have to go- nobody really agreed with me then, but not a year or two later the Halycon fridge showed up in Wakulla, and look where we are now. This will continue to evolve, hopefully becoming smaller and more integrated to the point where you don't have to constantly worry about your machine- and when that comes around, I think you will see a huge shift in the general cave diving population from open circuit to closed circuit. We're not there yet, but we are coming along quickly. Integration with decompression computers will make huge differences, and look at the progression in dive computers- not 10 years ago you had to look hard to find a computer that could deal with more than 3 gasses, or helium, and now almost all of the "tech" computers do both- and the best will control or report for your rebreather as well. Lights are steadily improving- keeping pace with technology- HID is going by the wayside as too fragile for our uses as LEDs become more powerful- Already we have LED lights that are as bright as the 50W halogen I started cave diving with, with 3x or more the burntime! I can't wait to see the LED that is as bright as the 21W HID. It is coming, I am sure of it. Battery technology continues to improve- The new Li-Ion packs are a third the size of a Lead Acid pack with the same power output- and look what that has done for scooter burntime. My personal corner of technology, survey- is making leaps and bounds out of the water- and it is just a matter of time before it comes around in the water. Already there are rangefinders that report azimuth and elevation at the touch of a button- it wont be long before we dont have to peer into an analog compass to survey cave any longer.

If you want to watch for jumps in exploration technology- those are the fields where it will happen- and have been happening rapidly in the last 10 years or so as well.

As for finds in known systems...
For Florida...No Comment.
For Tennessee... 1600 new feet of 30x15' borehole passage up here in Tennessee last weekend- we left the end of the line in more of the same- And there is LOTS left to do.

And Sea2Summit- I can only hope that I die in a cave- doing what I love to do. I most likely wont be that fortunate. But if you want to support exploration- there are PLENTY of those opportunities, and you don't even have to risk diving.
Jason