TampaDiving.com RSS feed http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/ An RSS feed for TampaDiving.com EN <![CDATA[NSS-CDS Has Stopped Printing Underwater Speleology ]]>
Current NSS-CDS BOD members have already made up their minds to stop printing the UWS. They have sent out statements, written vague UWS articles, posted witty comments on the NSS-CDS web site -- "No need to run to your mailbox.", and even created a misleading poll on the NSS-CDS website.  All of these will provide them what they need to defend their decision to stop printing UWS.

Why would they stop printing UWS? Is it the massive costs of printing? Actually, it kind of is. They need that money for other things. They need that money to create a "state of the art training" facility at Cow Springs replete with a changing room and steps. This is what they have to have so their customers can have a "better" experience.

I have noticed more and more pictures and conversations online of outings to this new "private" training facility. Check out a PADI TecRec blog entry, you will see one of the NSS-CDS BOD members (Harry Averill) and 3 other people getting ready for a dive at Cow Springs. Only 1 of the other 3 divers is listed as an NSS-CDS member (Grant Graves). Don't you have to be a member of the NSS-CDS to dive Cow Springs? Not really, NSS-CDS instructors may use Cow Springs as a training site. So was our BOD member teaching the PADI TecRec folks or just plain breaking the rules? Maybe they are all NSS-CDS members and just aren't listed in the member database.

TAKE ACTION! Let the BOD members know that you reject their attempts to decimate the organization and create their own private training and guided diving agency complete with customized marketing list and "left wanting" new website with stylized new NSS-CDS logo. To me, it really seems like they are pushing certifications and trying to fill their pockets vs. actually doing something for the membership (is anyone else tired of socials, socials, socials?). An example of this ramped up effort would be me getting a NSS-CDS e-mail at my work e-mail address. To my knowledge, I have never given the NSS-CDS that e-mail address. It looks like they are are loading up their databases so the members of the NSS-CDS BOD can market to as many people as they can -- they need more money and the BOD is a perfect platform from which to accomplish that goal. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Not all the BOD members are performing their duties as a benefit to the organization (altruism); they are simply trying to benefit themselves (greed). Some will immediately ask why I don't / haven't run for the NSS-CDS BOD. Quite frankly, I do not have the time to perform that duty as it should be; I understand that and am not afraid of that as a decision.

Do you really want the printed version of UWS to go away? If you do, no worries, keep doing nothing like everyone else. The 40 or so responses of those wanting to keep the printed UWS pale in comparison to the rest of the membership that wants it to go away (written tongue-in-cheek). It's hard to believe so many NSS-CDS members want the printed version of the UWS to go away. At the NACD conference Saturday an informal poll (raising of hands) was taken. Only 4 people raised their hands when the membership was asked if they wanted the NACD to stop publishing the NACD Journal. I like the approach the NACD took -- actually asking the membership. If the current NSS-CDS BOD decides to no longer print the UWS I will cease being a member. I currently pay for a 3 year membership and that expires this year. I will now be going year-to-year until this issue is resolved.

For NSS-CDS members, I implore you to DO SOMETHING! SPEAK UP! If you are not satisfied with the BOD's decisions, vote with your wallet -- I WILL!]]> 11/24/2009 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=125 125 <![CDATA[Cave Diving : Old Caves, New Species]]> years archaeologists and paleontologists have worked in caves to better understand species that have long been extinct. We are now entering a period of time where cave divers and scientists can work together for the better of science. This has long been a goal of the ADM Exploration Foundation and we are happy to oblige our new friends in academia. The picture to the left was taken by Curt Bowen in a cave called Padre Nuestro in the Dominican Republic.  Keep your eye out for issue 32 of  Advanced Diver Magazine, in it is an editorial about our trip to the Dominican Republic as well as some of Curt's amazing photography.

There are some great things coming up in the diving community; DEMA for one. DEMA is back in Orlando this year and I am looking forward to looking at all the exciting things I can do to my new KISS Classic Rebreather (thank you Kim and Curt for making this a reality) I know many of my friends will quickly point out that I have never been a fan of rebreathers but I am looking at it as just another tool in the bag.  I intend on using this new tool during my next expedition with Advanced Diver Magazine in January.  We will be headed to some very remote parts of the the Yucatan and managing 30 or so SCUBA tanks for open circuit just won't cut it. Therefore, this trip will be rebreather only for the sake of logistics. Hence, my having to learn the rebreather -- learn it or don't go.

Here in Florida, we are looking forward to the NACD's 41st Annual World Seminar. This great event will be held in the Gainesville, Florida area starting November 21st. The 3rd Annual Rebreather Summit will be held in conjunction with the NACD Seminar at Camp Kulaqua on November 22nd. The NACD is always busy working for their members, I heard great things about the Survey Workshop Mike Poucher held last month for the NACD; I wish I could have attended. Mike is an amazing cave cartographer and has already forgotten more than I will ever know about cave survey.

My new cave atlas is coming along. When I launch it, I hope to have over a 1,000 systems in quite a few different countries. Stay tuned for that. I am hoping I have some spare time soon to work on this. Until then, please continue to post condition reports for the caves you are visiting. Many other readers have come to depend on the condition reports for planning their cave diving trips. I am happy to see quite a few people have decided to follow CaveConditions on Twitter. Personally, I enjoy getting text messages letting me know how others are enjoying the caves when I am not.

Thanks again for those of you that read my blog and use the site. I hope the new site will be even easier to use. Take a look at the Cave & Cavern List. I have added quite a few new systems in Florida as well as other countries. Drop me a note if you would like to see other features added to the site or you just have something you would like to say.  I also wanted to mention some GREAT news! If you are looking for a new dive light or need yours repaired, Joel & Corey are back! They have have opened up a new business called Light Monkey.  Check them out for more information.]]> 10/28/2009 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=124 124 <![CDATA[Cave Diving Updates]]>
The NSS-CDS had elections and there are new board members. Jeff Loflin is now the CDS Chairman and has posted a nice letter on the CDS site. I wish him well and hope the agency can move forward from a somewhat stalled state. It seems that the agencies have only pushed membership and teaching, unfortunately leaving exploration, education and conservation on the back burner.  The CDS conference, held in May, was very informative.  As an aside, I am part of a group that has worked on getting School Sink (Wayne's World) reopened through the creation of a guide program, a new website dedicated solely to School Sink and an online reservation system. The NSS-CDS recognized our accomplishments by presenting the Guide Team with the NSS-CDS Safety Award during the NSS-CDS Conference. If you are interested in diving School Sink please visit the School Sink Diving website or just simply let me know.

On the NACD side of things, they too have a new director; Jacki Clark was installed as the newest board member and I couldn't be happier. I am confident she will be beneficial to the success of the organization. I really appreciate that the NACD is hosting a survey workshop in October.  I feel this is a good step in providing for the membership versus simply collecting memberships and certifying students. Mike Poucher is leading the survey workshop so it will definitely be worthwhile. Mike is astonishingly good at cave survey and his efforts speak for themselves! Mike was my survey mentor a few years ago and without his help in the field and on the computer I would have failed miserably.

Enough politics (although I have really left them out -- so much unneeded BS in cave country) and on to diving. As I mentioned earlier, I am blessed! I have been given so many opportunities to dive new caves and simply explore this magnificent blue marble we call Earth.  I am always amazed.

I am blessed to be part of the ongoing Weeki Wachee Spring exploration. This year's exploration ended in June with the window shutting almost as fast as it opened. Although, we did not push the cave this year, we positioned ourselves as a team that can perform scientific functions as well as explore. The jewel of this year's exploration is the video shot by Liquid Productions. There are some screen grabs, as well as a week-by-week journal of this year's exploration, on the Karst Underwater Research Blog. The pictures alone are well worth the visit!

Walter & Brett looking for caveAnother big project I was blessed to be a part of was in the Dominican Republic. We spent a week in the Dominican with Advanced Diver Magazine and the ADM Foundation to help Gri Gri Divers look for new caves their clients could dive. Unfortunately, we found more that they shouldn't or can't dive than ones that they can. Our team of four cave explorers joined a sponsored team near the Dominican village of Bayahibe, located on the southeastern shore. A week of brush beating, dry cave searching, and tight cave exploring resulted in the discovery of several underwater caves, never before seen dry cave passages, and finding the remains of exotic mega fauna. Long story short, there is cave in the Dominican and it is gorgeous! Brett found the most beautiful virgin dry cave (beyond a few hundred foot sump). We were amazed by the two foot long bacon and four foot long soda straws. It is simply incredible to be the first person to ever see some of the hidden treasures in our world. There will be an article in the upcoming issue of Advanced Diver Magazine highlighting our trip -- keep your eye out for it. If you just can't wait and would like to see some "raw" video of our trip take a look at this video. Many thanks to everyone at Gri Gri Divers, Uwe, Mark, Alexi and everyone else for having us and putting up with our constant singing!

As always, I appreciate everyone's support of the site and welcome any suggestions for features. Lately I have been playing with Twitter. I have actually found a good use for it (in my opinion). By "following" CaveConditions on Twitter, you can have the latest cave condition reports sent to your cell phone. You can also follow me on Twitter. Sometimes I have something interesting to say.]]> 7/31/2009 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=123 123 <![CDATA[Cave Diving in Full Force!]]> I made it back from another incredible trip to Mexico with Connie and Bert. I was happy that we were able to dive a few places (Tres Estrellas, the Mayan Alter at Dos Ojos, and more) that were new to me and go back to others that I could go back to again and again (Caracol, Kolimba, etc.). Personally, I cannot recommend Connie's trips enough and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask me. The picture to the right was taken in a cave called Temple of Doom. The photographer (Don Currie) did an exceptional job capturing me progressing through a halocline. Don is an amazing photographer and a great cave diver. I am happy he will be joining us this year at Weeki Wachee.

Speaking of Weeki Wachee, my return has found me knee deep in Karst Underwater Research's return to Weeki Wachee for our 2009 Exploration season. Already, we have conducted numerous familiarization dives for new team members and built staging ares inside the cave to allow divers to start decompression earlier in the cave and also to get rid of some of their gear earlier. If you are following the explorations at Weeki Wachee, I will be writing a weekly blog describing each week's diving that can be read here and for those that are really into technology, I am also twittering about this year's exploration progress.  Click here to check out what we are doing in a little more real time.

I have added a new feature to the cave system pages, it is now possible to subscribe to an RSS for each system that will let you know when a new condition report has been posted as well as showing historical condition reports. Look for the RSS icon - - on the right of each system page.

For those of you that let me know that you read and follow this blog, MANY THANKS!  Let me know what else you would like to see on the site.]]> 4/3/2009 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=121 121 <![CDATA[My World of Caving and Cave Diving]]> So much has happened since I last decided to create a blog entry.  I apologize each time but I am not this time.  Personally, I think I am the only one who reads theses (if I am wrong send me an e-mail and tell me differently).

On the caving side of our lives, we had a great trip to TAG with Robert, Tom and Mike.  I loved frogging Stephen's Gap (I will NEVER do that again).  Tumbling Rock was a incredible!  I never expected to climb a 400' mountain 4 hours back in a cave but by the same token I never realized the largest waterfall in Alabama (300') is also in this cave -- King's Shower.

One the diving front, we were able to do some great dives at Twin Dees this year but we lost it as soon as we got it.  The ability to dive Twin Dees is controlled by Weeki Wachee.  If the flow is too low at Weeki Wachee, Twin Dees is a cesspool.  If the flow at Weeki Wachee is high then the flow at Twin Dees will be too great to navigate the solution tube entry.

I also have some notable cave diving topics.  I (and many others) assisted Marc Singer and Brett Hemphill in their dive to survey the end of the lines at Manatee Springs.  They went to the end of both the siphon and spring tunnels and performed survey work for Mike Poucher (check out Mike's new map of Manatee Springs on his site -- it is incredible!).  I actually did some work on this project as well; I was part of a team that did water sampling in the Milk Tunnel.  The picture to the right is Eric entering the water for our water sampling dive.

Last, but not least, I was privileged to be a member of the support and setup team that help Jerry Murphy and Jill Heinerth push the upstream side of McCormick Sink.  They  actually make the connection to Rose Creek Sink downstream.  Congratulations to both Jerry and Jill for an exceptional dive -- I was honored to be part of the team.  Now Joel, Eric and I will take on the task of surveying McCormick but for now I am off to Mexico with Connie LoRe, Bert and Tampa Adventure Sports -- it has been far too long since I visited the pristine and awe inspiring caves of the Rivera Maya!]]> 3/4/2009 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=120 120 <![CDATA[My Apologizes]]> So for sometime I have had issues with my sites staying up (x64, x86, SQLServer, ADO, MDAC, yadda yadda). It has frustrated me to the point of finally doing something about it. I have finally embraced virtualization for my personal systems  and now have new servers running for my sites (caves.tampadiving.com, www.karstunderwaterresearch.org). You should not experience the downtime you have seen in the past. My apologizes if you were looking for conditions or using the maps and they were unavailable.

Other Updates
  • Changed method of displaying system overview pictures
  • Changed method of posting condition reports
  • Fixed Firefox 3.x bug experienced when attempting to add a condition report
  • Added TOPO maps to all map views
  • Resources tab for system pages (maps, pictures, videos, etc.)
  • Always new systems being added
If you have any comments or questions please let me know. Also, I am always looking for new features to add to my site.]]> 8/29/2008 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=119 119 <![CDATA[Caving...Just Like Cave Diving But With More Pain!]]> From time to time I have to travel for work and ultimately I leave on Sunday.  This usually leaves me in the position of not being able to dive on Saturdays.  Lucky for me we have some great friends at USF Karst (Jason, Grant and others) as well as Tom and Robert (TRUE Karst Hounds) that don't mind taking us to see some great dry caves.  We enjoy it almost as much much as Daisy does.  Daisy is our beautiful Walker Treeing Coonhound seen at the bottom of the picture.  She is trying very hard to be a good karst hound!

Robert has taken us under his wing and has been teaching us the finer arts of belly crawling and rope work.  In return, we have tried to show Robert some interesting wet caves and help him in the fine art of pulling and gliding.  It really is a great partnership!  To make it even better, we are trying to get Tom to take Cavern and Intro with Jim Wyatt.

Tom is simply an unbelievable source of information from caves to karst to flora and fauna.  Click here to take a look at some of his pictures of the Florida underground.  Also, take a look at the some of the amazing formations that have been unearthed by mining operations.  It is truly amazing, while at the same time horrifying, to see clear calcite formations littered on the ground.

The North Florida caves are starting to show some improvement.  The common systems (Peacock, Little River, Cow, etc.) are improving but are still not diveable.  However, if you need to get wet, Ginnie is still pumping clear water and Madison has started to improve.  Central Florida caves such as Wayne's World, Eagle's Nest, etc are also diveable.  Those North Florida systems should be opening up within a month or so.

Systems up in the Panhandle seem to be doing well and lets hope that is the case.  We are taking a trip up to Marianna next weekend so we will get see for ourselves.  Although I have been really looking forward to that trip, I would rather be in Weeki Wachee.  I have had my fingers crossed all spring that the flow at Weeki Wachee would drop like a rock so we can get back in there; only time will tell.  As of today the flow is 117 cfs which is still too high for safe diving operations.

If you haven't already, sign up for the 2008 NSS CDS Annual Workshop.  You can find more information by clicking here.]]> 4/7/2008 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=118 118 <![CDATA[Protect Florida Springs]]> Great news everyone! The Protect Florida Springs specialty license plate is now available at most DMV offices throughout the state.  I actually got mine a few weeks ago -- the first day they were available.

Getting this plate approved was a very long process and a lot of work was done by many people.  I greatly appreciate Wildlife Trust and Wildlife Foundation of Florida making this plate a reality.  Do your part to protect Florida springs and get one of these plates.  The registration fee is only $25 and is distributed to Wildlife Foundation of Florida.]]> 3/20/2008 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=117 117 <![CDATA[Weeki Wachee Spring Exploration 2008 Begins]]> We had almost the entire Weeki Wachee Spring Exploration team out on Sunday.  It was great to see everyone (new and old team members) and to have everyone's help putting in the habitat.  I think I could go on for hours talking about the habitat and our attempts at getting it installed but it all boils down to what we had planned didn't work out.  However, we are very confident that our new plans for the installation of the habitat will.  Here is a picture of Eric and I doing some synchronized wrenching (thanks to Steve Straatsma for the picture).

We are still unsure as to when exploration diving will begin again at Weeki Wachee Spring.  The current flow is at 118cfs and has been pretty steady since December.  Hopefully, we will be able to start diving before May.

Lucky for everyone in Florida there has been quite a bit of rain lately.  The Suwannee River is flooded as are portions of the Sante Fe and the Withlacoochee.  Bad news for cave divers but good news for the environment.  Last time we had this type of flooding the caves cleared up pretty quick.  However, I would not expect that to be the case this time as the aquifer is not charged.

Volunteers are needed by the NSS-CDS to finish the steps at Cathedral Sink.  The work day will be on March 29th and will start at 9AM.  There will be a social following the work day.  This project is almost completed so any and all volunteers would be greatly appreciated.  Click here for more information about the work that needs to be accomplished as well as the social.]]> 3/11/2008 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=116 116 <![CDATA[How I Spent My Summer Vacation]]> Weeki Wachee Spring

What a great summer it was. I was able to do far more diving than I ever expected and was able to hit some new systems (Weeki Wachee Springs, Alachua Sink, etc) and spent time in more familiar systems. The most important of all these dives were the ones at Weeki Wachee.

This year I was honored to be a part of the Weeki Wachee Springs 2007 Exploration managed by Karst Underwater Research. I won't go into too much of it here as the link to the exploration says it all. That page lists the 4 major exploration dives that were done as well as numerous links to media coverage that this exploration has garnered. However, it doesn't go into the grueling 30 or so other dives that were made to stage gear, survey, video, or simply familiarize team members with the violent entry and exit procedures. Eventually, toll was taken on everyone's gear but for me, my dry suit and my wet suit got excessively beaten up. However, Steve Gamble was able to work his magic on both.

I was happy to get my "dry" suit back and get back to not shivering after 100 minutes or so. However, I learned some valuable lessons about overheating, nutrition, hydration and cramping.  Given that I sweat like no human should (I have been told it is either because I am 1) in shape or 2) out of shape -- we won't ponder those choices) I have learned that water alone is not what I need to keep my body functioning. I need sodium as well (hmmm...I guess there is something to sports drinks). So now I am taking sodium tablets while out diving.

Now on to my beloved calf cramps that seemingly only occur while swimming out of siphons...We all know potassium is what we need to help us from cramping. So I got some potassium supplements and wondered why they only give me 3% of my daily allowance and I can only take one a day. Well, unlike things like vitamin C, potassium is fat soluble vs. water soluble. Apparently that makes a huge difference if your body can squirrel away things and eventually cause you to overdose on them.

OK, back to diving. The Florida Caves & Cavern List continues to grow with more systems and more information and maps for existing systems. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here are some events that are coming up in the caving community:

]]> 9/15/2007 http://www.tampadiving.com/blog/?view=plink&id=114 114