Jochen Hasenmayer today...

[crawford]

Anyone know what Jochen is up to today? Reading about his Blautopf explorations now, and was re-reading about his sneak dives in Vaucluse the other night and curious what he's up to. I know he was disabled by a deco accident, but you would thing his career would make a great documentary if someone could get him to agree.

[NEON]

What book are you reading?

[crawford]

The Darkness Beckons by Martyn Farr. Only a few paragraphs on the German caves, but a bit more on Vaucluse......

[steve2281]

A Google search for his name produces some interesting reading.

[amphipod06]

Can you read German?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jochen_Hasenmayer

I did not have time to translate it.... Essentially he became paralyzed in 1989 in Wolfgangsee, currently dives but in a small submersible built by a friend. Main thing is his theory about warm water (subterranean) in the Alps, scientists are very skeptical...

Dive safe,

Celia

[crawford]

Google has a translate feature which I used on the Wiki article but the translation seemed awkward.

Jochen was at once a competitor and collaborator with Exley, would love to hear his memories of those discussions/encounters. Also be interesting to hear what he WOULD be going after if he was still physically able, which systems seem most interesting, most potential, etc.

[FW]

I ran into a cavediver in MX, in 1998, with a very similar name. He knew Jochen, and asked me if we carried wire cutters on all our dives. I said "no" but asked why anyone would need wire cutters. He said that Jochen used stainless steel wire for guideline. It was because the seasonal high current in some German caves would shred nylon line. The only problem was, the attachment points had come loose over the years, and there were loose coils of stainless steel wire still in some German caves. It you got tangled in them, a z-knife wouldn't do much good.

[Arnold Mesiser]

Fascinating man and way ahead of most in his explorations.It is shame he was injured as I am sure he would still be doing huge pushes now.I ran across a webpage (translated) that mentioned some recent stuff he was involved with (the late 90's/early 00's) I will see if I can run across it again.


I wish Martyn or someone would write an updated version of The Darkness Beckons(not an insert)...sooo much fascinating information.One book you can re-read many many times and still be mesmerized.

[crawford]

I ran into a cavediver in MX, in 1998, with a very similar name. He knew Jochen, and asked me if we carried wire cutters on all our dives. I said "no" but asked why anyone would need wire cutters. He said that Jochen used stainless steel wire for guideline. It was because the seasonal high current in some German caves would shred nylon line. The only problem was, the attachment points had come loose over the years, and there were loose coils of stainless steel wire still in some German caves. It you got tangled in them, a z-knife wouldn't do much good.

There's a cave diving nightmare for ya.....and yet another reason to consult locals when diving in their back yard! I had heard of telephone wire, etc. being used in European caves but hadn't heard of stainless steel wire.

[wingman]

I ran into a cavediver in MX, in 1998, with a very similar name. He knew Jochen, and asked me if we carried wire cutters on all our dives. I said "no" but asked why anyone would need wire cutters. He said that Jochen used stainless steel wire for guideline. It was because the seasonal high current in some German caves would shred nylon line. The only problem was, the attachment points had come loose over the years, and there were loose coils of stainless steel wire still in some German caves. It you got tangled in them, a z-knife wouldn't do much good.

I had a german cave diving friend here a few years back who knew Jochen. FW met him (my friend) when i gave him a ride after a party at wes skyles place. I went to germany a year later and got to see blautopf from the bridge around it and drank some coffee in the restaraunt overlooking it...no diving there then. That trip i got to go a few sumps back into the wolfbach resurgence...very interesting and way different then what we do here in Fl. I recently was with my german friend in a california cave and we hope to dive it next season....maybe he can work with Jochen and the last i heard he was in a sub as well. He was in competition with Exley for a while or so i was led to believe. Bill