In the fall of 2000, the largest moving object on the planet began its journey through the Ross Sea of Antarctica. Dubbed Godzilla, the B-15 iceberg represented a world that was beginning to grapple with global climate change. Crossing the roughest water in the world a small team of rebreather divers decided to do the…
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Keep Your Powder Dry, Rebreather Divers
Originally posted by John Clarke here: http://johnclarkeonline.com/2013/08/15/keep-your-powder-dry-rebreather-divers/ Compared to decompression computers, digital oxygen control, and fuel cell oxygen sensors, carbon dioxide absorbent is low tech and not at all sexy. Perhaps because it is low in diver interest, it is poorly understood. In rebreather diving, a lack of knowledge is dangerous. The U.S. Navy Experimental Diving…
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MOLNÁR JÁNOS – Exploring Budapest’s Underground Caves
Budapest is known for its spas. Their water originates from the volcanic earth. One of the most well-known springs is Malom Lake. It is a doorway to a spectacular cave system called Molnár János. Only a part of it has been explored so far. Nobody knows how far or how deep below the city the…
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Mars: The Discovery of the Century
Richard Lundgren will deliver a presentation on the recently discovered shipwreck Mars that was lost in battle in 1564 almost 450 years ago! Mars was a Swedish unrated Warship of three deck levels and was discovered in 75m of water in the Baltic Sea between the Swedish islands of Oland and Gotland. Experts regards Mars as…
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Searching for and Exploring the U-550
Steve Gatto, Joe Mazraani, Tom Packer, Brad Sheard, Eric Takakjian and Anthony Tedeschi all share a long-running and deep passion for the ocean and its historical treasures. This group collectively possesses decades of deep offshore wreck search and exploration experience that resulted in finding many shipwrecks off the New England, New York and New Jersey…
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Blue holes of the Bahamas – Exploration, Research and Conservation of a Unique Bahamian Resource
For the last 20 years, The Bahamas Caves Research Foundation has been working with Bahamian governmental agencies and NGOs in bringing to light the amazing underwater/underground world that few in the Bahamas have ever seen. Brian Kakuk, Director of the Bahamas Caves Research Foundation (BCRF) , will present exploration, research and conservation efforts which have…
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It’s Hit the Fan… now what?
Forget the minor distinctions between tech and sport diving, the first question the dive community needs to ask itself is: Does the average agency-sanctioned training program teach divers self and buddy rescue skills that really stand up in the real world? A quick look around at what’s going on in the recreational dive community would…
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The story behind Phantom Cave, the Deepest Underwater Cave in the USA
Deep in the west Texas desert lies Phantom Springs Cave. Exploration divers there hit a record depth of 462 ffw / 140.8 m, making it the deepest underwater cave system in the United States! The team also set up sediment traps, collected water quality data, surveyed over 8,000 feet of the cave, and shot hours…
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Filming in Extremes: Behind the Scenes
Over the years Becky & Dave Schott have filmed television shows in in the arctic to the tropics and many exciting places in-between. Each environment had its set of challenges to overcome both topside and underwater in order to get the shots. Challenges include rappelling into caves at night during a rainstorm, filming under ice…
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Rescue of an unconscious diver from depth: the new UHMS Diving Committee guidelines
Aspects of the correct course of action on finding an unconscious diver underwater have been debated on internet forums. Should you try to replace the regulator?; should you wait until a seizure is finished before ascending?; what procedures should be used for a rebreather diver?; should you try to complete some decompression on a decompression…
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Dual Sensor Failure at Lake Mead National Recreation Area- Lessons Learned
On November 4, 2012 during a routine training dive to 120 ft (36m) NPS Underwater Archaeologist Dave Conlin experienced a dual sensor failure that resulted in a CNS O2 toxicity hit with seizure and loss of consciousness approximately 30 minutes into the dive. Due to the quick reactions of Conlin's dive partner and the rest…
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Antikythera – The island, the wreck and the legendary mechanism
Phil was lucky enough to be the CCR Dive operations manager for a joint Greek Ephorate of Antiquities and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute project to re find the site of the Antikythera Mechanism discovery in 1901 by Greek sponge divers and revisited by Cousteau in the 70's. The team were able to survey the 36…
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Diver Beware: Troubling New Issues with Diving Equipment Revealed During Navy Accident Investigations
NEDU’s investigation of the triple fatalities at Aberdeen Proving Ground Bad maintenance can turn a good regulator into a killer Use of non-US Navy approved cold water regulators is risky Differences between EN-250 and U.S. Navy testing Physics of free flow on ascent Antarctic regulator testing - diving experiences and ORM Navy SEAL Divers encountering…
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Deepest Karst Springs
The story of the Blue Lake Project in Russia, diving in one of the largest and deepest karst springs in the world. Diving deeper than 200m this is the gripping story, soon to be a book, Martin tells the story behind the expedition to explore one of the largest and deepest Karst springs in the…
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Is Helium Your Friend?
With increasing depth, the nitrogen in air (or nitrox) becomes increasingly narcotic and increasingly dense and difficult to breathe. Therefore, helium-oxygen or helium-nitrogen-oxygen breathing mixtures are used for deep dives, because helium is not narcotic and less dense than nitrogen. Aside from these clear benefits of helium, other differences are less well understood. It is…
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