Rbd 08-17-09

[SLIM]

It all started out as a great day until I was on the road and heard from the local radiostaion a line of storms in KS and OK area that would hit us later in the day. I had figured that they might hit RBD area about 2 or 3 or maybe later.

Got about a block away from the CS and got txt form Adam where I was and pulled in and met the gang I was to be diving with. The main plan was to get MAG trained or start traiing him on a GEM. With the designer, manufacture, and awsome thinker I let him do most of the discussion and to hang with him more.

It was decided that since Adam was on OC that he would have a dive plan and turn when he wanted to. I went on in after geting MAG all set and his gear ready to be GEMinzed and Mike would stay with him as I would work on the line repair that is about 550 feet in.

I headed in and noticed the habitat is still up, Good going guys. Dropped my deco gasses in place and headed on in the lower tunnle and started to pull out the reel with line to repair but noticed all the other line that was still on it. Did a search and found the other end, spent some time tying all the lines in so that it would be good and secured. It should last until the OCDA get in and change out all the line that they plan to do now that the Habitat is up.

Once finsihed with that I went on out to the 1000' arrow and decided to work on heading back up since I was already in for 30 min. I hit a max depth of 152 and had a total dive time of 51 min. Boy that GEM sure cuts down on deco in the cool water. On my way out as I did a gas change at 70' I saw that MAG and Mike were heading on down. Once I did a 5 min stop at 70 ad headed on out, I had only 2 min of manditory deco at 20 foot but switched over to O2 and just hung out for a bit.

I exited the system and say Adam on shore (his P-valve leaked) so he justhung on top. It started to rain hard for a few moments after MAG and Mike got out but since it did stop and was still a good day we hung out and did a second dive.

This dive Adam and I went in and went to the lower tunnle until he decided he had enough deco racked up wiht the leak. I was on my GEM and him in OC. We made it to thhe location I had done the repair and then he turned the dive. On the way out I had NO deco and he had 10 min on his OC. When we got out and got all un geared it started to storm again and with all the run off it was hard to find the tanks in the spring pool so we did the ssearch with our legs untiol we hit somthing that we might think was a tank.

Vis on both dives was about 15-20 and I did pop in the habitat and it looks like it will be nice to deco in when needed.

Good luck OCDA at getting the line redone.

With me and allmy gear put away I decided to get sigened out, I was going to go and eat with them all but got a call from home of the nasty storm that went through and wanted to get back to check on damage since the neighboors had some limbs and trees down but I was lucky and did not have but 1 small limb down.

SLIM

[MichaelAngelo]

08-17-09 Roubidoux Springs
After our second Sunday show of Mary Poppins, My wife and I drove 2 hours to the Midwest cave diver old standby the Star motel in Waynesville Mo. It is here I will meet up with Mike Young, Adam McDowell and Slim (Mark Leonard) to dive Roubidoux Spring. It’s been about 5 years since I last dove here. It is a great system. Its multi color limestone and domite formations are among the most beautiful anywhere. The cavern zone is large and rivals Ginnie Springs in size and scope. I, however am excited today for another reason. Mike Young is the designer and manufacturer of the GEM Semi-closed rebreather and he is bringing along a side mount version which should fit my Nomad perfectly. A stainless steel bracket fits on the back of the Nomad in the same manner as a single tank adaptor. In this bracket fits the scrubber with the counter lungs going over the shoulders. My side mounted 95s provide both the gas for the unit and full open circuit bailout. Mike prefers calling the GEM a gas extender rather then a rebreather. A low pressure hose from your open circuit regulator quick connects to the counter lungs. If at any time you need to bail out you need only close the Gems regulator and put your open circuit regulator in your mouth. Since you’re carrying full open circuit and standard decompression computers (in my case using Diverite Dou and Trio) bail out is safe and easy.
After setting up the unit and some training on the surface the four of us enter the spring. Vis today is only 15 feet so the HD video is out. The cave has an eerie quality to it. The cave seems almost misty today. I drop my O2 bottle at the sign and head down the main passage. Not being used to rebreathers I find the breathing harder then open circuit. My buoyancy and trim is better then I expected. At 50 feet down we reach the top of the staircase. This is the drop to the lower tunnel at 150 ft. Before dropping down I decide try practicing switching to open circuit. The switch itself was easy but my trim and buoyancy went right down the tubes. I allowed myself to float to the ceiling with a wide eyed Mike Young right with me. After signaling an OK I got myself in order and went back to the rebreather. Settling back on the staircase I took a few minutes to just get used to breathing the unit. The gas switch from 32% to 23% was as easy as undoing one quick connect and connecting the proper tank. Down the stair case at 150 feet the unit breathing was as easy as my open circuit regulators. We swam along the lower tunnel to about the 1600 foot marker. We turned the dive. I felt great; I practiced switching to open circuit twice more with no incidents. Because of the low visibility and using a new unit I have to admit to not looking around much, a slight case of tunnel vision. At the bottom of the staircase Mike signaled me to switch to open circuit to practice exiting under bail out. At 20 feet I had the choice of using my O2 as open circuit or quick connecting it to the unit. Since I was already on bailout I kept the O2 as open circuit. Back on the surface we talked about the dive and what happened at the staircase. I really like this unit. After a 60 minute dive to 150 feet with doing the return lag on open circuit, I used 1500 psi on just one bottle about 54 cu foot. My second 95 went unused.
For our second dive I went fully open circuit with my Diverite regulators. The swim to the staircase went easy. Sitting at the top of the staircase was a 3 in long Ozark blind cave fish. In the lower tunnel the formations had the wonderful color contrasts I remembered. The golden brown and white limestone walls with black dolomite shelves attached. The floor had pockets of rocks tumbled and polished to a gem like quality. At 1900 feet I turned the dive. We did a slow swim out stopping to do deep stops. If you’re ever in Missouri make sure to dive this cave.

[scubadam67]

Yeah you gotta love RBD glad we got the dives in that day i'm not too sure it would have been diveable on tues. with all the storms that have rolled through.Michael did great on the GEM nice to hear from everyone that uses it how simple it is to dive and how easy it breaths. Even with only a semi-dry dive it was a great day diving with good friends.

[deepairmike]

Yea, good people make for a good day. Thanks guys for the great day!!!!

[FW]

.... i'm not too sure it would have been diveable on tues. with all the storms that have rolled through.....

Yea, it figures. It *was* great, but now that I am planning to come up next month, it rains

[scubadam67]

FW are you planning on diving RBD before the workshop? if so i would like to come up and dive too if you don't mind. I can't make the workshop because of work but if your doing it during the week i can. I have one more favor with the cave diving weather gods if it helps i'll save it for that trip

[FW]

FW are you planning on diving RBD before the workshop? if so i would like to come up and dive too if you don't mind. I can't make the workshop because of work but if your doing it during the week i can. I have one more favor with the cave diving weather gods if it helps i'll save it for that trip

That would be great. My plan is for Friday, the 18th. I will also be on a RB, but I don't want to rack up a lot of deco, so whenever you turn will be fine with me.

[skip]

I'd like to join the Friday rbd dive if you don't mind. I'm real good at turning early too!

-skip

[SLIM]

Lets make a plan to do RBD Friday the 18th then gang.

It was a great dive, and I will be on a RB kind of also, LOL

Next month is a long way off and the rains might be gone and it open back up, will know more at the weekend first of next week. I am to do a class Tuesday if I can.

SLIM

[deepairmike]

I'm in also...the side mount guys could go over to boiling also???