DiePolder II

[Puttzer]

Would someone please tell me what to expect at the "restriction" at Dipolar II?

In a couple of weeks I'm diving there for the first time. I heard there's a sometimes zero viz area and tight about 60' down.

Thanks

[phreaticus]

It's DiePolder II, btw.....
Who is your guide...he would be the logical one to ask this question of....but...
As an ex-guide (1980's), I can describe it.
The fracture begins around 30 ft. or so, but gets to be about 2 1/2 to 3 feet across at 60' or so (depending on the water table level). The fracture is about 60-80 feet across, longitudinally, but the area where the line is is the widest (see above)...take a look around during deco, if it's not too silty. If there has been a lot of traffic the silt will be blown off the walls and down into the cave to a degree. If not, it can get pretty nasty...we always had the newbie go first, as they could at least then see going down (this was adopted after my first dive there in 1978, when I got off the line (by a few feet), got stuck in the crack (doubles were wedged) in the TOTAL siltout, and had to get help extricating myself (used the Rimbach technique without even knowing what it was...lol!).
I would suggest going down with one wall "dorsal" to you (in other words, on the surface atop your tanks, and the other on your belly (ventral) surface...make th fracture more like a "vertical bedding plane" per se'. This makes it a pretty easy descent down to about 155-160' or so, where the fracture goes slightly (sloping) horizontal for a body lenth and a half or so (lots of silt there, get neutral before you get there), the line is on the floor going across this part, then it drops on a steep angle to the "keyhole" at the bottom of the fracture at 175' or so....you want to go through the bottom of the keyhole, where the line is (also a very silty area)...it's a bit of a shoulder/elbow rub,but only for 4-5 feet or so...then you pop out into the entry chamber to the cave proper, at 175-180' or so. Get neutral in the keyhole or you will plunge into eons-deep silt as you kick out into the room. To the right is upstream, to the left is downstream, both circuits can be done in :22-:27 minutes, depending on pace and deco-tolerance.
Look for the fw mussels and sponges (south side of the fracture) during deco, growing on the exposed rock in various areas between 60-20'...if there is enough pressure in the aquifer (doubtfull, long drought in this part of the State) to keep the slight flow out of the shallow fracture going...it syphons down into the cave during "normal" aquifer levels.
One of the top five cave dives in the State, IMHO....

[Luxrok]

(used the Rimbach technique without even knowing what it was...lol!).

What is the Rimbach technique?

Hans

[battles2a5]

I was about to ask the same thing?

[amphipod06]

Make me three...


Dive safe,

Celia

[RN]

Rimbach technique is touch contact communication. Not sure how it applies here, though.