Does anyone know the conditions of the caves?
Welcome to the Cave Diver's Forum.
Does anyone know the conditions of the caves?
I'd be curious to know also. The area was supposed to get some rain over the weekend. Last I heard it wasn't nearly the predicted amount.Originally Posted by scubainchicago
Call the diveshop (www.moscuba.com/) in Waynesville, for Roubidoux, and Y-Kiki (www.y-kiki.com) in St Louis for Canonball.
Holy cow, what a weekend!
The workshop was a success and all the speakers were incredible. This year we had Josh and Michael Thornton (Subgravity) fly in from Utah; Kelly Jessop (NFSA) fly in from GA; Lamar and Jared Hires drive up from FL; Terry Hall drive up from Mobile AL; Peter Buzzacott (DAN) drive from North Carolina; and finally, Forrest Wilson from Atlanta Georgia. Pretty interesting that all of the speakers came from out of state and spent a significant amount of time to get to St. Louis for the workshop. With that being said, we greatly appreciated their time spent getting to the workshop and their time standing up in front of 50+ people to talk about something they're passionate about. All the speakers had really great topics and everyone seemed to enjoy hearing them.
In addition to the speakers, we had some INCREDIBLE PRIZES. Shearwater donated the Perdix we raffled off lastly. Dive Rite donated their incredible LX20 primary light. XDEEP donated their new Stealth 2.0 TEC rig. Scuba Force donated a pair of dry gloves (great idea for the MO cave diving). PMI donated 2 300' pit ropes. Big Blue donated 2 TL3100 primary lights. Chris Romine donated a custom cave diving wood carving that Biz was pretty excited to win (the art piece was phenomenal). Highline Ropes donated a 200' rope also! We had tons of prizes and lots of support for this workshop. It is incredible to see the willingness to help from all of these dive shops and dive companies. Additionally we had some "dry caving" companies help also (PMI, Highline Ropes, Inner Mountain Outfitters, On Rope 1). We had tons of other sponsors and lots from the FL area. To all the sponsors we really really appreciate all your support and thank you for the donations for the workshop.
Thanks to Dive Right In Scuba and Y-KiKi divers, everyone got a free shirt for attending the workshop. Charlie Vetters of Organic Robot designed this years workshop shirt and did an incredible job with printing them and getting them ready a week before so we could keep registration open for as long as possible. Also, KISS Rebreathers covered everyone's lunch this year which was extremely generous of them. Additionally, Mike Young and his awesome wife came out to Roubidoux and did a rebreather DEMO for all those interested in their rebreathers. Namely, the new "Sidewinder" was of great interest to many.
There was also some great diving. Many of us headed to Boiling Springs on the Big Piney for some sidemount diving on Thursday which was super cool. Although a short cave, it was beautiful and unique. Squeezing through the 2nd entrance was also a lot of fun! On Friday, we packed the spring at Roubidoux where divers were vast and parking was few. There were plenty of rebreathers, scooters, sidemount, backmount, stages, deco bottles littered everywhere. But we all managed to wiggle around and have some incredible dives. Viz was about 20-25ft but at least the flow was down. I was told some years you can't eve get into the spring. On Sunday, many of us (~12 or so) headed to Cannonball Spring about 2 hours south of St. Louis. Viz was 25-30ft here. We were lucky enough to have Mike Young place the diver flag so none of us had any trouble finding the cave. Additionally we were joined by Jared and Lamar, Michael and Josh Thronton, Peter Buzzacott, Terry Hall and many other post-workshop attendees. Also had a sherpa named Kaleb that helped tote tanks down and back up the hill. Everyone had some great dives and a good time before heading back home.
This was a great event and a huge success for the NSS-CDS. We had a great turnout and tons of support from the caving and cave diving community for this workshop. We also had some incredible volunteers that made everything go smoothly. Thanks to Bill and Peggy Harrison for running registration, Kyle for selling tickets, Forrest for setting up the projector and sound equipment, and CJ Muggs staff for the excellent food and service. Lastly, I need to think Bjorn Loftis for all the help. Many did not see everything he was doing behind the scene but he played a crucial role in the success of this workshop. We tag teamed this event which made everything much easier.
Finally, I need to thank all of the attendees who came out to support this event and hear from some of the guys that have made cave diving what it is today, as well as others who are pioneers in establishing a future for the sport. You guys made everything worthwhile and made this a blast to be a part of.
We are looking forward to next years workshop and hoping to do even better! We are taking a team approach again in an effort to get things done in the most effective manner possible. If you're interested in helping out, give us a shout! If you have some input on how we can make things better, let us know! We really appreciate all the support and all the time spent from everyone driving to and from this event. We are grateful to have an organization that holds events like this and supports the sport that we all love. Thanks to our sponsors, our speakers, and our attendees for everything! See you guys next year!
Last edited by Kelly Jessop; 09-20-2016 at 04:41 AM.
More photos:
And a HUGE thanks to all of our sponsors! You guys made this an excellent event for everyone!
Great job, Joshua Shouse! Many of us helped, but until you agreed to take the reigns the show was a no go. You did a fantastic job of making sure it happened. Thank you.
WJH
Great job Josh. I can't wait until next year.
Great event.
"Not all change is improvement...but all improvement is change" Donald Berwick
Great job and thanks Josh and Bjorn, Bill and Peggy, and others that helped out. Thanks to all the sponsors!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks