History of cavediving

[mrpolar]

Hey
i am a college student and i have to write a term paper for my technical writing course. I wanted to write about the history of caving diving and evolution of cave diving gear. If any one knows of any links it would be appreciated.

thanks

[flyczek]

You could go visit the Cave Diving Museam in FL. Or try Sheck Exley's Caverns Measureless to Man and The Cave Divers by Robert Burgess. I don't think any particular link is going to provide enough info for a paper. Good luck.

[tanto]

Or: The Darkness Beckons by Martyn Farr.
Very nice, well-written book.

[Bill Rotella]

You can also go to www.nsscds.com web site. We just had our workshop with the theme, "The History of Cave Diving," and I am sure that any contact will be able to assist you. I personally recommend Forrest Wilson.

Bill

[stairman]

The National Speleological Society was founded in 1941. In 1947 they published the first info in the U.S on the subject of cave diving. Abe Davis, a black man, before the civil war would swim under the natural bridge at Little River to thrill locals. The first cave dive using scuba was by Graham Balcombe U.K on Nov.22, 1936. The first known cave dive was made in Jugg hole, in 1952 ,by an unknown member of the NSS. In the late 50s, Wally Jenkins and Gary Salsman led divers from FSU 700ft back at Wakulla Spring. Bill Royal, in 1959, explored 147ft of low, silty passage in Warm Mineral Spring, and at Morrison Spring, Jack Faver penetrated a major restriction at 100ft, to reach a depth of 240ft. Cavern zone (coined by Bill Koehler in 1970) denotes an overhead still in the daylight zone. John Harper had discovered 20,000 ft of passages with his team by the end of the 60s. He, along with Joe Fuller, penetrated 1000ft upstream from Hornsby Spring. The first Traverse was from Manatee Spring to Catfish Hotel in 1961. By the end of 1969 the world record for penetration was 1829ft. at Madison Blue by John Harper and Randy Hylton. Florida's deepest cave dive was 292ft by Sheck Exley at Eagle's Nest on May11, 1969. Randy Hylton, Hal Watts, Frank Martz, Tom Mount and Jim Lockwood came very close to this the previous year. In the late 1960s Hal Watts, added a second hose and second stage to the Scubapro Mark 5 reg, created the first octopus. In 1968, Frank Martz borrowed the idea from John Harper to manufacture the first bright dependable lights and guideline reels. In 1968, Sheck Exley proposed the modern thirds rule. In 1969 Dave Desautels and Larry Briel founded the NACD.I n 1973, theNSS-CDS was born with Sheck Exley, Jim Storey Glenn Thompson, Rick Rigg and Stephen Maegerlin. Sheck Exley was the most active dive instructor and the first to log 1000 cave dives,on Jan.21,1973. Bob Friedman used twin steel tanks 2 weeks prior to Exley in 1971.T om Mount's group in 1971 refined the dual valve manifold into a hardpipe design, and Sheck Exley had designers add the modern center valve in 1973 (isolator). Frank Martz and Ike Ikehara made the first reg-conected bc inflators in1971. Reels were improved by Dana Turner's 1973 design of the L-shaped handle, and Bob Goodman created the hand-held handle which bears his name. Exley was the first to do tank staging at Little River Spring on May 18, 1970. Exley started accurate underwater cave surveying at Blue Springs [Madison County] in 1970. Exley was the first to consistently install measured line in caves. In 1975, Court Smith and Lewis Holtzendorff made the first U.S cave dive using a helium mixture, both affected by oxygen toxicity, in which Holtzendorff died. Sheck Exley set a new world record of 340ft on air,o n July 22, 1977, in Boiling Hole, Andros, Bahamas. The 80s saw many of the early explorors inactive, though Paul Deloach, Wes Skiles, Bill Main, Mary
Ellen Eckhoff, John Zumrick, Clark Pitcairn, Paul Heinerth and Exley continued their efforts, joined in the early 80s by Woody Jasper, Lamar Hires, Bill Gavin, Tom Morris, Mark Leonard, Paul Smith and Lamar English. The latter half of the decade brought Bill Stone, Tara Tanaka, Parker Lewis, Jill Heinerth and Larry Green. At the end of the decade, the record stood at 10,444ft. set at Chips Hole, Florida, on a 14-hour swimming dive by Exley. The present record was set by Exley on Dec. 16,1990, with 10,939 ft of linear penetration of Cathedral Canyon in Florida. Exley used 16 stage bottles and staged scooters on the dive, with an average depth of 165ft. By the end of the decade, Exley set the present depth record to 867-881ft.at Mante,Mexico. Any current world records I'm not aware of.

Info was found in the NSS Cave Diving Manual[an overview], chapter 19, by the late, great Sheck Exley!!!R.I.P

[D1V3R]

excellent information! lol

The Darkness Beckons is a must read for extending your knowledge of the more obscure facts (such as the freediving history in caves, and the use of surface-supplied hard hat divers)

[MichaelAngelo]

theres also a book called The Cave Divers by Burgess I believe which gives an excellent overview.

Any current world records I'm not aware of.

David Shaw set the deepest Closed Circuit Rebreather cave dive on October 28th, 2004. He went to 270m at Boesmansgat (Bushman’s Cave), South Africa.
http://www.deepcave.com/pages/1/index.htm

Jim Bowden set the deepest civilian open circuit dive in April 1994 at Zacaton. His record depth was 925 feet.
http://www.mexicoprofundo.org/projec...ctzacaton.html

Hal Watts set the deep air record in 1967. His dive was to 119 meters (390 feet).
http://www.mrscuba.com/history.htm

[Kelly Jessop]

Hey
i am a college student and i have to write a term paper for my technical writing course. I wanted to write about the history of caving diving and evolution of cave diving gear. If any one knows of any links it would be appreciated.

thanks

PM sent

Hey
i am a college student and i have to write a term paper for my technical writing course. I wanted to write about the history of caving diving and evolution of cave diving gear. If any one knows of any links it would be appreciated.

thanks

See History at the following link:
http://www.cavediver.net/archives/index.html